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A novel sEMG-based dynamic hand gesture recognition approach via residual attention network
No full textWith the emergence of more and more lightweight, convenient and cheap surface electromyography signal (sEMG) snsors, gesture recognition based on sEMG sensors has attracted much attention of researchers. In this study, combined with the sEMG sensor, a novel dynamic hand gesture recognition approach is proposed for effective and accurate dynamic gesture prediction. Here, a portable sEMG sensor (Myo wristband) is adopted to acquire the multi-channel sEMG signals of dynamic hand gestures and the continuous wavelet transformation (CWT) is proposed for data preprocessing to acquire the time-frequency maps. Due to the success of powerful contextual feature representation capability of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs), a deep residual attention network is proposed for accurate prediction of time-frequency maps. To effectively extract the key spatial and channel features from multi-channel sEMG signals, a residual attention network is proposed to act as the backbone network for effective feature representation. Besides, In the proposed recognition network, a multi-scale feature enhancement (MFE) module and an attention fusion block (AFB) are proposed, which respectively improve the multi-scale expression ability of the network and effectively realize multi-scale feature enhancement, respectively. Experimental results show that the proposed recognition network could achieve a superior detection ability compared with other state-of-the-art recognition models. The source code and dataset are available at https://github.com/lyangucas92/Ges_Net
Disparities in work-integrated learning experiences for students who present as women: an international study of biases, barriers, and challenges
Get PDFPurposeThis study identifies gendered disparities among women students participating in work-integrated learning and explores the effects of the disparities on their perceptions on perceived opportunities, competencies, sense of belonging, and professional identity.Design/methodology/approachA series of semi-structured focus groups were run with 59 participants at six higher education institutions in four countries (Australia, Canada, Sweden, United Kingdom). All focus groups were designed with the same questions and formatting.FindingsThematic analysis of the transcripts revealed two overarching themes, namely perceptions of self and interactions with others in work placements. Theme categories included awareness of self-presentation, sense of autonomy, perceived Allies, emotional labour, barriers to opportunity, sense of belonging, intersections of identity, and validation value.Originality/valueThis study fills an important gap in the international literature about gendered experiences in WIL and highlights inequalities that women experience while on work placements
Sustainability concepts in global high-rise residential buildings: a scientometric and systematic review
Get PDFPurposeSustainability has been the subject of several scientific investigations. Many researchers in the construction industry have also examined a range of sustainability-related studies. However, few studies have thoroughly reviewed implementing sustainability concepts in high-rise residential buildings (HRRBs).Design/methodology/approachBy adopting scientometrics and systematic review (SR), this study seeks to map out recent sustainability trends and concepts in the design, development and operation of HRRBs worldwide and in Hong Kong. With a focus on bibliographic records from the Web of Science (WoS) database, 1,395 journal articles from 2013 to 2022 were analysed. Furthermore, thirteen studies were systematically reviewed.FindingsThe SR indicated that sustainable practices in developing Hong Kong's HRRBs emphasised zero-carbon buildings, reduced energy usage and energy-efficient retrofitting. Likewise, terms such as BIM, urban density, life cycle assessment and system dynamics are strongly connected with clusters that include “residential buildings”, “high-rise buildings” and “high-rise residential buildings”. The study identified significant themes in establishing HRRBs by combining sustainable practices, emphasising urban governance and policy management, building performance and thermal comfort, energy and design optimisation, occupant behaviour and sensitivity analysis. Core sustainability ideas have improved resource management, air quality management and knowledge of user behaviour in HRRBs.Originality/valueThe study allows researchers and practitioners to explore future research directions in the built environment per the application of sustainable concepts in the development of HRRBs from design, construction and post-construction phases
Embodied carbon quantification of luminaires using life cycle assessment and CIBSE TM65 methodologies: A comparison case study
Get PDFThe European legislative landscape on sustainability is steadily growing to meet objectives to reach net zero targets by mid‐century. In this context, companies and manufacturers may soon be legally required to provide quantification of the environmental impact of their products and services. A key challenge is applying a consistent and robust methodology that ensures comparability between assessments made by different companies, as there is still fragmentation among environmental impact reporting methodologies. The objective of this study is to analyze and compare the results of two different methodologies for the calculation of the embodied carbon in lighting products using the cradle‐to‐grave approach. One is the globally known life cycle assessment (LCA) method, and the other is Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers Technical Memorandum 65's (TM65) mid‐level calculation methodology, which has been specifically tailored to building services. The two were applied to six different luminaires to evaluate their differences. Results show that the values of the embodied carbon calculated with TM65 are higher than those calculated with LCA and that the weight of the products plays a crucial role in creating discrepancies between the two methodologies
Engaging police and the public health sector to collaborate for the public good
No full textSubmitted by Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association (GLEPHA)Collaboration between police and public health sectors can improve community well-being.Key aspects of this policy are:Joint Training Programs: Addressing issues like mental health and substance abuse.Community Engagement: Building trust through joint initiatives.Data Sharing: Improving responses to public health threats
Interrogating Racialized “Cultural Authenticity” Discourses Among Language-Learner Tourists in Australia
Get PDFThis study considers cultural adaptation through tourism, focusing on language-travelers: hybrid education-tourism consumers whose voices remain relatively silent in tourism studies. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with students, teachers, and managers in Australian English language schools to understand what language-travelers expect from their Australian experiences and the implications for language schools. The findings propose that sojourners’ experiences are framed by pre-visit imaginaries of object authenticity, wherein the “object” is both Australian culture and the wider Anglophone “West.” Such imaginaries are found to be validated by language schools, which face pressure to balance letting students glimpse the “backstage” and staging out-group imagined “authenticities,” such as by hiring fun, approachable, and above all White teachers. We identify opportunities for language centers to understand their role within tourism as cultural mediators and suggest ways forward in promoting and inculcating critical intercultural competence among language-traveler sojourners
Therapeutic Trust in Complex Trauma: A Unique Person-Centred Understanding
Get PDFWe investigated the lived experience of therapeutic trust and its ruptures in working with clients with complex trauma presentations, a vulnerable and under-researched client group. A total of 13 clinicians and key informants, working in the field of complex trauma, were interviewed. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to identify recurrent themes. The Nature, Function, Components, Process, and Challenges of building and maintaining therapeutic trust were identified. Therapeutic trust was experienced as a mechanism for reducing threat, processing vulnerability, and enabling accurately symbolisation. Focusing on trust and its ruptures seems key in working with clients presenting with complex traumas and potentially other severe and/or complex presentations. The importance of trust-focused person-centred approaches for addressing key psychological challenges, increasing engagement, and addressing experiences of disengagement in complex trauma is stressed. The central role of trust in the therapeutic relationship as a catalyst of change brings person- centred models to the fore of psychotherapy for complex trauma, as well as severe and/or complex presentations. In a traumatogenic world, therapists will be increasingly called to work with more clients presenting with traumas. A person-centred understanding seems to hold a lot of promise. Strategies for actively facilitating trust-focused, practice are proposed
Lessons for Lab Learning
No full text10 guiding principles to help you maximise students’ outcomes from chemistry practical
A computational study of the use of hydrogen peroxide as pilot fuel for a homogeneous mixture of ammonia/hydrogen in a compression ignition engine
Get PDFWe report a computational investigation of a compression ignition (CI) engine (compression ratio: 17.6, displacement volume: 1.3 L) where the main fuel is a homogeneous mixture of ammonia (70-60% vol%) and hydrogen (30-40% vol%), with a global equivalence ratio varying between 0.44 and 0.5, depending on the H2/NH3 ratio. The novelty of this study is that it employs a pilot injection of hydrogen peroxide to initiate ignition, without the use of any air or charge preheating (the temperature/pressure at intake BDC are 330 K/1.4 atm, representing mild boost an defficeint intervooling). Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has the attributes that it can be produced from renewable sources, and it is already widely manufactured, distributed, and stored, with diverse applications (as an aqueous solution of H2O2 with shares up to 30 vol%). The main advantage of using H2O2 as pilot fuel, as opposed to other more conventional ones (e.g., diesel), is that it contains no carbon, and hence produces no CO2 and particulate matter (PM). The computational investigation was conducted with an advanced commercial stochastic engine model that has been previously validated. The investigation was primarily focused on assessing the effects of using hydrogen peroxide in aqueous solution as pilot fuel on engine efficiency, combustion phasing and NOx emissions. These three aspects were investigated over a range of engine speeds (750-1,750 rpm) in view of: (i) the variation of the mass of the directly injected (DI) aqueous solution (0.1-10 mg); (ii) the variation of the H2O2 share (15-50%) in the directly injected (DI) aqueous solution; (iii) the variation of the start of injection (from -20 to -4 CAD aTDC) and injection duration (1-8 CAD). There is a strong effect of the peroxide in advancing combustion timing (CAD50 is advanced by up to 15 CAD) and in decreasing combustion duration (CAD90-CAD10 decreases up to 10 CAD), and peroxide readily enables medium engine loads which are the ones investigated in this work. Indicated thermal efficiencies above 50% were readily achieved at all engine speeds and, with a 30 vol% peroxide share in the solution, the pressure rise rate was always below 30 bar/ms. However, the NOx emissions in all cases exceeded the IMO’s Tier III standard. Possible ways to tackle this would be either the use of exhaust gas recirculation, or optimisation of the injection strategy, or the use of aftertreatment. For most cases, on a volume basis, the required aqueous H2O2 amount is 3% of the main fuel while on an energy basis this translates to 1.1% of the main fuel blend. The results reported in this initial study are promising because it is possible to ignite a premixed charge on the basis of a small pilot volume of commercially available hydrogen peroxide solutions
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