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Evaluation of the Historic England Heritage Crime Challenge “Solve It” delivered by Volunteer Police Cadets (VPC) in England
The Heritage Crime “Solve It Challenge” was commissioned by Mark Harrison, Head of Heritage Crime Strategy for Historic England and is funded by Historic England’s National Capacity Building (NCB) ongoing grant funding programme, which has a number of strategic goals/outcomes. The aim of the evaluation of the Heritage Crime Social Action Initiative was to provide an independent assessment of its success. This includes the impact of local youth-led social action, as well as to provide feedback based on evaluation evidence as to what worked well, facilitators and barriers to success and where improvements can be made in future projects. The evaluation involved a mixed method approach
Reconciliation with the Pain Through Embracing the Past : Message of Hope and Resilience Via the Ugaritic Alphabet
After witnessing my home country suffering through a vicious civil war, this inquiry initially intended to represent Syria in a positive light, as a place of civilization, differently to what we have been constantly seeing in the news in recent years. However, the research led me to more meaningful discoveries. With the help of Syrian participants, I discovered not only a way to promote the country as a place of peace and prosperity, but also a way to invite the viewer to reconcile with grief and adversity they have experienced by embracing the word ‘hope’. In this visual essay, I share an invitation to reconcile with one’s self, past and hardship through the Ugaritic alphabet
Volunteer Police Cadets in England – Evaluating the Historic England Heritage Crime Challenge : Briefing Paper
The Heritage Crime “Solve It Challenge” was commissioned by Mark Harrison, Head of Heritage Crime Strategy for Historic England and is funded by Historic England’s National Capacity Building (NCB) ongoing grant funding programme, which has a number of strategic goals/outcomes. The aim of the evaluation of the Heritage Crime Social Action Initiative was to provide an independent assessment of its success. This includes the impact of local youth-led social action, as well as to provide feedback based on evaluation evidence as to what worked well, facilitators and barriers to success and where improvements can be made in future projects. The evaluation involved a mixed method approach
Convolutional Neural Network based algorithm for Early Warning Proactive System security in Software Defined Networks
Software-Defined Networking is an innovative architecture approach in the networking field. This technology allows networks to be centrally and intelligently managed by unified applications such as traffic classification and security management. Traditional networks’ static nature has a minimal capacity to meet organisations business requirements. Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) are the emerging architectures that address a range of networking challenges with new solutions. Nevertheless, these centralised and programmable techniques face various challenges and issues that require contemporary security solutions such as Intrusion Detection Systems. Recently, the majority of this type of security solution has been developed using Machine Learning techniques. Deep Learning algorithms have recently been used to provide more accuracy and efficiency. This paper presents a new detection approach based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The experiments proved that the proposed model could be successfully implemented in a Software-Defined Network controller to detect various attacks with 100% accuracy, achieved a low degradation rate of 2.3% throughput and 1.8% latency when executed in a large-scale network
A Qualitative Exploration of Parents’ Perceptions of Risk in Youth Contact Rugby
The purpose of this study was to explore the understandings and perceptions of risk related to brain trauma amongst parents of children that play contact rugby. A qualitative approach was taken, using semi-structured interviews with 7 mothers and 27 fathers of children that participate in contact rugby. A thematic analysis of data suggests that parents used two primary cognitive strategies to process the risk they consented to with their children’s participation in rugby; (1) minimalizing rugby risk to be equivalent to less injurious sports; and (2) elevating physical and social advantages above what they think other sports are capable of providing. From the findings it is suggested that parents who permit their children to play contact rugby are both aware of the high risks of injury in the sport, but simultaneously utilize two cognitive distortion techniques to rectify the dissonance caused between their choice to have their children play, and the salient number of concussions they observe. These results suggest that it will take properly informed consent, inclusive of concussion rates compared to other sports, in order to reduce cognitive distortion and effectively communicate risks associated with participation in contact rugby
Two Types of Formalism of the Rule of Law
The aims of this article are twofold: (i) to propose an explanatory framework, focusing on law-making acts, for accounting for whether the formal requirements of the rule of law are fulfilled; and (ii) to propose two further models within this framework. One model, which I call ‘rulebook formalism’, pertains to Parliament’s law-making acts; another model, which I call ‘rights formalism’, concerns the courts’ law-making acts. This distinction results from the different modality of law, ie the different natures of law-making acts. Drawing on speech act theory, I give a general account of the formal requirements as the success conditions of law-making acts. Then, applying this framework, I discuss the formal requirements for Parliament’s law-making acts and the courts’ law-making acts respectively
Molecular and In Silico typing of the lipooligosaccharide biosynthesis gene cluster in Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli
The extensive genetic variation in the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) core biosynthesis gene cluster has led to the development of a classification system; with 8 classes (I-VIII) for Campylobacter coli (C. coli) LOS region and with 23 classes (A-W) or four groups (1-4) for Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) LOS region. PCR based LOS locus type identification for C. jejuni clinical isolates from a UK hospital as well as in silico LOS locus analysis for C. jejuni and C. coli genome sequences from GenBank was carried out to determine the frequencies of various LOS genotypes in C. jejuni and C. coli. Analysis of LOS gene content in 60 clinical C. jejuni isolates and 703 C. jejuni genome sequences revealed that class B (Group 1) was the most abundant LOS class in C. jejuni. The hierarchy of C. jejuni LOS group prevalence (group 1 > group 2 > group 3 > group 4) as well as the hierarchy of the frequency of C. jejuni LOS classes present within the group 1 (B > C > A > R > M > V), group 2 (H/P > O > E > W), group 3 (F > K > S) and group 4 (G > L) was identified. In silico analysis of LOS gene content in 564 C. coli genome sequences showed class III as the most abundant LOS locus type in C. coli. In silico analysis of LOS gene content also identified three novel LOS types of C. jejuni and previously unknown LOS biosynthesis genes in C. coli LOS locus types I, II, III, V and VIII. This study provides C. jejuni and C. coli LOS loci class frequencies in a smaller collection of C. jejuni clinical isolates as well as within the larger, worldwide database of C. jejuni and C. coli
Adaptive Interference Tolerant Receivers for Asynchronous Cooperative MIMO Communications
Adaptive single user receivers are demonstrated in this paper for a Cooperative Virtual MIMO network applying Spread Spectrum Sequences. In asynchronous decentralized cooperative systems, it is expected that, for typical wireless environments, user transmissions from adjacent relaying nodes (and other cells) will create interference. Large scale MIMO antenna arrays can mitigate interference with sufficient degrees of freedom but they can be underdetermined in decentralized non orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). In this paper we use Spread Spectrum CDMA sequences when user cooperation and relaying is necessitated and correspondingly apply decentralized single user algorithms utilizing an adaptive multiuser detection approach. The approach does not require Channel State Information (CSI) and operates in a decentralized manner without requiring knowledge of the transmissions from other users (i.e. power, channel gain and phase, and multiuser chips). This yields a low interference cooperative MIMO communication network that is useful for communication in areas with poor coverage or to temporarily increase spectral efficiency to enable a high throughput uplink or downlink channel. The adaptive algorithm utilized in this paper is investigated for both chip-level and symbol-level optimization where it noted that when applying chip-level optimization, a more interference robust receiver can be built when utilizing processing gain (rather than receiver dimensionality) as a metric to combat interference when the number of transmitter antennas used are fixed
The value of museum and other uncollated data in reconstructing the decline of the chequered skipper butterfly Carterocephalus palaemon (Pallas, 1771)
The chequered skipper butterfly Carterocephalus palaemon (Pallas, 1771) was declared extinct in England in 1976 after suffering a precipitous decline in range and abundance during the 20th Century. By searching and collating museum and other records, we show how a deeper understanding of this decline can be achieved, thus furthering conservation objectives. A preexisting Butterflies for the New Millennium (BNM) database of United Kingdom butterfly species records, created by Butterfly Conservation in conjunction with the Biological Records Centre (BRC), contained 266 historic C. palaemon records from England. United Kingdom (UK) museums and natural history societies were contacted for specimen data, and these sources added 2175 new records to the BNM. Owners of private specimen collections were also contacted, and these collections accounted for a further 465 records. Specimens originating from UK museums, other institutions, and private collections represent 2640 (71%) of total new records. Other sources, such as personal accounts held in museums, published and unpublished texts produced an additional 894 records. A further 437 records from museums, private collections, and other sources were considered partial and omitted from the data due to limited or misleading date and/or locality information. In summary, data from UK museums and other sources has infilled English C. palaemon distribution prior to 1976, offering further insight into potential environmental and anthropogenic drivers of decline at key sites. The quality and quantity of data obtained using the method outlined in this study suggests similar work could be carried out for other extinct or declining butterfly species to improve our knowledge of habitat requirements and historical distribution via modelling, identify causes of decline, and provide valuable information for potential reintroductions
Jon Egging Trust Final Report
Jon Egging Trust (JET) believe that every young person should have access to the same quality of opportunities and leave school with the confidence, resilience, and self-belief to succeed and fulfil their potential. With this objective in view, JET offers long-term support to young people from vulnerable backgrounds who are likely to struggle to engage at school. JET delivers outreach programmes named Blue Skies (Level 1,2,3) and Inspirational Outreach (bespoke impact days) to young people to raise their aspirations and empower them. The programmes are delivered with a range of partners, including the RAF (Scampton, Odiham, Wittering, Waddington, Brize, Coningsby, Marham, Valley, Honington, and Cranwell), NATs, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Microsoft, QinetiQ, Boeing, Rolls Royce, and Ascent(see Appendix E for a full list of partners). JET’s provision is unique nationally in the breadth and scope of its work which complements the school curriculum. Indeed, the research team is not aware of another third sector organisation that provides such in-depth support within schools at the secondary education level; this means that JET has a Unique Selling Point through its work to support young people. The evaluation of JET’s Youth Programme has been undertaken by the Institute for Social Innovation and Impact (ISII) at the University of Northampton. This report presents the full evaluation of the JET Youth Programme and includes a literature review; methods; data collection and analysis; limitations; and recommendations sections. The data showcases data collected between April 2021 and January 2022, including qualitative data (semi-structured interviews, and the implementation of Photostories), and quantitative data (the ISII questionnaire and data from JET). Overall, the ISII’s evaluation indicates that JET activities provide students with the feeling of being confident and empowered. Participating in initiatives such as those delivered by JET contributes to young people’s self-esteem and empowerment, as the initiatives build young people’s confidence. It strengthens relationships with the people around them and their organisations and helps young people in their education and personal development