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On ‘caring against’: A feminist, political and spatial account of how care builds and sustains resistance
Get PDFAlthough an ethics of care is increasingly recognised as offering an alternative set of values and practices to organizations significantly shaped by neoliberal and patriarchal norms, its proponents have yet to contend with how care can help overcome the hostile contexts within which it usually operates. This study explores the political role of care in catalysing and sustaining resistance to careless organizations. In doing so it theorises the concept of caring against, enriching understanding of how care can be a means and an end, building and enhancing resistance to achieve caring outcomes. We approach this challenge as a tangible and material one – practices of care enacted by and between bodies that build and sustain resistance in work, home, social and transit spaces. Conceptually, we draw on feminist organization studies accounts of care and space, further deepening insight into their embodied dimensions through the theory of Sara Ahmed. Empirically, we build the concept of caring against through a qualitative study of hospitality workers who unionised and organized for strike action, allowing insight into mobilisations with and for care in an industry where patriarchal norms are dominant and abuse of women workers commonplace. We posit the caring against concept as comprising four practices that deploy care to engender and, subsequently, sustain resistance: shaping carelessness, absorbing care, interstitial politicising and fortifying defiance. The study enables future theorisation of care within organization studies as an active, political force which does not merely survive carelessness but holds the capacity for mobilising organizational alternatives that may challenge it
The scientific works of professor Keith Attenborough
Get PDFProf. Attenborough’s distinguished career spans over five decades during which he has made seminal contributions to the field of physical acoustics. His extensive research encompasses acoustic propagation in and above porous media, acoustic penetration into rigid frame and poro-elastic materials, and environmental noise control. This article celebrates his work highlighting its foundational basis, scientific impact, and practical applications
Automated classification of plant water status through morpho-kinematic monitoring of plant movement
Get PDFPlant motion provides valuable indicators of physiological responses to water stress. In this study, we present a structured image-based approach to define and test morpho-kinematic (MK) traits from lettuce plants subjected to varying irrigation regimes under controlled conditions. Four water availability treatments were imposed − Full Control (FC), Stress Control (SC), Mild Stress (SM), and Severe Stress (SS) − varying in timing, frequency, and intensity of irrigation protocols.
Using dense optical flow on time-lapse RGB images, we extracted MK features that link leaf age to motion dynamics. These high-dimensional temporal features were compressed into descriptive and trend-based characteristics for classification. Multi-classification problem was divided into nine sub-tasks, for which feature selection and multiple machine-learning models were tested applying Leave-One-Sample-Out cross-validation. The best models were organised into four explainable hierarchical cascades.
The presented system captures enough information to successfully distinguish among subtle differences in plants’ response to water availability dynamics (best architecture cascade obtained 0.93 out of fold balanced accuracy). The framework associating leaf age with MK features along with feature engineering allowed explainability – e.g., central rosette’s features were selected almost twice the expected frequency (19 out of 58) in tasks involving the stress-adapted control (SC), while features capturing linear trends in motion were generally selected over twice as often as simple descriptive statistics (44 vs. 19), proving essential for distinguishing most stress conditions.
The MK approach proved effective for differentiating water stress levels, positioning it as a powerful tool for digital phenotyping and a solid foundation for developing advanced temporal-aware models
Human-centric security for smart homes: A scoping review
Get PDFSmart home technologies, like cameras, door locks, and speakers, are increasingly used in our everyday lives. However, their continuous data collection and internet connectivity pose various security risks. While research on smart home security has mainly focused on technological aspects, human experience and societal factors also play a crucial role. Various human and social factors, such as user experience with smart home devices, security design processes, and government regulations, are intertwined and influence each other, affecting smart home security. It is therefore important to understand and consider these interconnected factors in technology design to secure homes that contain increasingly connected devices. This scoping review provides an overview of current human-centered studies (N=102) on smart home security, which aims to help researchers and practitioners better navigate this field. We present a conceptual framework that outlines key challenges in ensuring smart home security with a synthesis of insights on contributing human factors. We then summarize general security design principles and map existing user-centred security approaches in smart homes, and highlight research directions for future investigation. Beyond mapping existing studies, the review reveals a growing emphasis on engaging multiple stakeholders, especially smart home users, in shaping human-centered security
SLaVEgents: Digital Prosopography of Enslaved Persons in Western Eurasia and North Africa (1000 BCE–300 CE) 1
No full textSLaVEgents represents the first large-scale digital project to focus on the agency of enslaved persons in antiquity and explore how this group actively shaped the societies in which they lived. To facilitate an in-depth analysis of slave agency, SLaVEgents is building an open-access, interlinked digital prosopography that will provide a single point of entry for the study of all attested ancient slaves, freedpersons and possible slaves found in ancient sources from 1000 BCE to 300 AD. Based on and documenting sources across multiple ancient languages (Assyrian, Babylonian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician, Egyptian, Greek and Latin) alongside relevant archaeological data, SLaVEgents will research the multiple identities of enslaved persons; the networks and communities that they created or participated in; and the ways in which slave agency led to major political, social, economic and cultural changes in antiquity
Points of Interception Thinking – From Higher Education Governance to Pregnancy Care
Get PDFA reflection piece that calls for 'points of interception thinking' as an approach to impact through interventions in systems such as higher education and healthcare to challenge assumptions about where, when, and by whom decisions are made. It introduces the concept of procedural priming at systems level, whereby expectations are shaped in advance of the stage at which decisions are made
Copper-rich fluids arising from sulfide resorption by hydrous arc melts
No full textIncreasing global demand for copper (Cu) related to the energy transition requires that we understand the mechanisms by which Cu is enriched in the upper crust via magmatism. Porphyry Cu deposits (PCDs) are associated with arc volcanic systems and form under rare circumstances by precipitation from Cu-rich magmatic fluids. Here we develop models to delineate the magmatic conditions under which the Cu concentration and flux may be maximised in exsolved hydrous magmatic fluids. We show that ubiquitous sulfide saturation is a critical limitation on the Cu and sulfur load of exsolved magmatic fluids, owing to the strong partitioning of Cu into sulfide. Sulfide saturation in arc magmas may usually only be avoided under the most hydrous or oxidised conditions, which the global volcanic rock record suggests is not commonplace. However, thermally mature arc crust is likely to develop deep crustal cumulate zones in which sulfides may accumulate over time. When sulfide-undersaturated water-rich mafic melts percolate through these zones they may resorb sulfides during reactive flow. On volatile saturation, Cu-rich fluids will be generated that are viable precursors to PCDs
Developing reflective practice in Initial Teacher Education: A collaborative approach to toolkit design
Get PDFThis Praxis Scholarship project explored the pivotal role of critical reflection in shaping the professional development of student teachers throughout their PGCE. A review of literature informed the evaluation of widely used reflection models and methods, alongside the skills, attributes, and barriers that influence effective reflective practice.
Using a mixed methods design the study drew on qualitative and quantitative data gathered from an online survey, during two workshops, student teachers’ written reflections, and during the collaborative process of the creation of two new models and supporting resources.
The findings highlight how the student teacher / teacher educator partnership reveals areas of the PGCE programme that could be refined to strengthen reflective practice. Conversations with others were reported as being significant for student teachers, yet using a combination of approaches is particularly effective. Reflecting on practice is viewed as an opportunity to ‘see what works‘ / ‘to improve’, however, finding time to reflect can be challenging. Key features necessary for reflective models to be effective were identified and informed the co-creation of two new reflective models to be piloted with student teachers.
The project outcomes include a renewed understanding of the purpose of critical reflection, co-constructed reflection models with supportive prompts, and an interactive toolkit to enhance and sustain reflective engagement for all PGCE partners
