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Evaluating the effectiveness of the ‘eco-cooler’ for passive home cooling
Get PDFConstructed with used plastic bottles, the eco-cooler has been widely adopted in resource-poor communities in Bangladesh and other countries. We tested the eco-cooler under controlled conditions using a scientific wind tunnel in a climatic chamber. In our tests, we used seven eco-cooler designs in 27 climate conditions typical of Bangladesh (temperatures of 40 °C, 35 °C, and 30 °C; humidity levels of 70%, 60%, and 40%; and wind speeds of 4.0 m s−1, 2.0 m s−1, and 0.2 m s−1) in 92 experiments (N = 7686 measurements in 87 short experiments and N = 23,428 measurements in five long experiments). We found no significant temperature reductions with eco-cooler use, except at low wind speeds, where temperature reduced by up to 0.2 °C. In theoretical calculations extending our empirical findings, the greatest temperature drop was 0.85 °C at 4.0 m s−1 with a 40 °C static air inflow temperature. However, this temperature drop did not extend beyond the nozzles of the bottles in the eco-cooler. The eco-cooler did not work effectively as an indoor air cooler
Information avoidance by younger adults with Type 1 diabetes: A preliminary empirical study
Get PDFIntroduction. People with Type 1 diabetes need to collect data to calculate their own insulin doses, and collect information about potential complications. However, information avoidance may be a barrier to such activities.Method. A preliminary study of information avoidance by younger adults with Type 1 diabetes covered data, information and information channels that they avoid, and adolescence’s effects on diabetes information behaviour. Semi-structured interviews with six younger adults with Type 1 diabetes and five healthcare professionals were used to understand their diabetes information behaviours.Analysis. The understandings were gleaned from thematic analysis of interview transcripts.Results. Younger adults with Type 1 diabetes may only collect blood glucose data, disregarding other relevant data and information. They may also take ‘time off’ from collection, and not gather information about potential complications. Some desire more contact with healthcare professionals. Adolescence may involve significant avoidance of data and information.Conclusions. Observed behaviours speak to ‘utility’ and ‘hedonic drives’. Long gaps between healthcare appointments may exacerbate avoidance, as well as limiting healthcare professionals’ opportunities to advise patients. Younger adults with Type 1 diabetes avoid data and information unless they believe these are needed. Frequency of appointments and routes to information could be improved
Audience perceptions of Foley footsteps and 3D realism designed to convey walker characteristics
Get PDFFoley artistry is an essential part of the audio post-production process for film, television, games, and animation. By extension, it is as crucial in emergent media such as virtual, mixed, and augmented reality. Footsteps are a core activity that a Foley artist must undertake and convey information about the characters and environment presented on-screen. This study sought to identify if characteristics of age, gender, weight, health, and confidence could be conveyed, using sounds created by a professional Foley artist, in three different 3D humanoid models, following a single walk cycle. An experiment was conducted with human participants (n=100) and found that Foley manipulations could convey all the intended characteristics with varying degrees of contextual success. It was shown that the abstract 3D models were capable of communicating characteristics of age, gender, and weight. A discussion of the literature and inspection of related audio features with the Foley clips suggest signal parameters of frequency, envelope, and novelty may be a subset of markers of those perceived characteristics. The findings are relevant to researchers and practitioners in linear and interactive media and demonstrate mechanisms by which Foley can contribute useful information and concepts about on-screen characters
Citizen engagement in public sector innovation: exploring the transition between paradigms
Get PDFThis paper explores how the public sector engages citizens for innovation purposes. It connects the related but currently separate debates concerning the transition from the ‘new public management’ to the ‘new public governance’ paradigm and the application of different helix models to public sector innovation. Through a case study of a Danish municipality, the process for changing normativity and the perception of citizens’ roles is illustrated. This includes the application of both new structures and instruments for engaging citizens in collaboration and a pragmatic approach to quadruple helix collaboration, which is context-driven rather than strictly compliant with theoretical models
Quiet Pictures: Women and Silence in Contemporary British and French Cinema
No full textQuiet Pictures approaches the films of Joanna Hogg, Lynne Ramsay, Céline Sciamma, and Lucile Hadžhalilovicthrough the lens of silence as a motif and texture.This book takes up the question of different uses of silence in the work of these directors and how this creates a space for foregrounding innovative practices that establish new ways of looking, staring, and gazing. Sarah Artt discusses how the deliberate deployment of silence creates space for the formation of reciprocal gazes that counteract the typically gendered and binary ways in which women and femme-presenting people tend to be portrayed on screen. Quiet Pictures draws on the political legacy of feminist film theory to explore and conceptualise what it means to not just look back, but to share the gaze.This book discusses several films, including: Unrelated (Hogg, 2007), Archipelago (Hogg, 2010), Exhibition (Hogg, 2013), The Souvenir Part I and II (Hogg, 2019 and 2021), Morvern Callar (Ramsay, 2002), We Need to Talk About Kevin (Ramsay, 2011), Innocence (Hadžhalilovic 2004), Evolution (Hadžhalilovic 2015), Waterlilies/Naissance des Pieuvres (Sciamma, 2007), Tomboy (Sciamma, 2011), Girlhood/Bande des Filles (Sciamma, 2014), Portrait of a Lady on Fire/Portrait d'une jeune fille en feu (Sciamma, 2019), and Petite Maman/Little Mother (Sciamma, 2021)
Influence Government, Platform Power And The Patchwork Profile: Exploring The Appropriation Of Targeted Advertising Infrastructures For Government Behaviour Change Campaigns
No full textThe targeted digital advertising infrastructures on which the business models of the social media platform economy rest have been the subject of significant academic and political interest. In this paper, we explore and theorise the appropriation of these infrastructures — designed for commercial and political advertising — by the state. In the U.K., public sector bodies have begun to repurpose the surveillance and messaging capacities of these social media platforms, along with the influencer economy, to deliver targeted behaviour change campaigns to achieve public policy goals. We explore how frameworks of behavioural government have aligned with Internet platforms’ extensive infrastructures and the commercial ecologies of professionalised strategic marketing. We map the current extent of these practices in the U.K. through case studies and empirical research in Meta’s Ad Library dataset. Although the networks of power and discourse within the ad infrastructure are indeed acting to shape the capacities of the state to engage in online influence, public bodies are mobilising their own substantial material networks of power and data to re-appropriate them to their own ends. Partly as a result of attempts by Meta to restrict the targeting of protected characteristics, we observe state communications campaigns building up what we term patchwork profiles of minute behavioural, demographic, and location-based categories in order to construct and reach particular groups of subjects. However, rather than a clear vision of a ‘cybernetic society’ of reactive information control, we instead find a heterogeneous and piecemeal landscape of different modes of power
A novel medical image data protection scheme for smart healthcare system
Get PDFThe Internet of Multimedia Things (IoMT) refers to a network of interconnected multimedia devices that communicate with each other over the Internet. Recently, smart healthcare has emerged as a significant application of the IoMT, particularly in the context of knowledge‐based learning systems. Smart healthcare systems leverage knowledge‐based learning to become more context‐aware, adaptable, and auditable while maintaining the ability to learn from historical data. In smart healthcare systems, devices capture images, such as X‐rays, Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The security and integrity of these images are crucial for the databases used in knowledge‐based learning systems to foster structured decision‐making and enhance the learning abilities of AI. Moreover, in knowledge‐driven systems, the storage and transmission of HD medical images exert a burden on the limited bandwidth of the communication channel, leading to data transmission delays. To address the security and latency concerns, this paper presents a lightweight medical image encryption scheme utilising bit‐plane decomposition and chaos theory. The results of the experiment yield entropy, energy, and correlation values of 7.999, 0.0156, and 0.0001, respectively. This validates the effectiveness of the encryption system proposed in this paper, which offers high‐quality encryption, a large key space, key sensitivity, and resistance to statistical attacks
The midwife's support during transition to motherhood: A modified Delphi study among care providers and childbearing women
Get PDFObjective: To reach consensus between care providers and childbearing women about the midwife's relevant and appropriate domains and elements to support transition to motherhood. Methods: A modified web‐based Delphi study was conducted in Flanders (Belgium). After performing a systematic literature review, searching the grey literature and an online poll, a set of 79 items was generated. In two rounds, the items were presented to an expert panel of (1) care providers from various disciplines providing services to childbearing women and (2) to pregnant women and postpartum women up to 1‐year postpartum. Consensus was defined when 70% or more of the experts scored ≥6, 5% or less scored ≤3, and a standard deviation of ≤1.1. Findings: In the first Delphi round, 91 experts reached consensus on 24 items. Seventeen round one items that met one or two consensus objectives were included in round two and were scored by 64 panel experts, reaching consensus on three additional items. The final 27 items covered seven domains: attributes, liaison, management of care from a woman‐centred perspective, management of care from the midwife's focus, informational support, relational support, and the midwife's competencies. Conclusion: The shared understanding between childbearing women and care providers shows that the midwife's transitional support is multifaceted. Our findings offer midwives a standard of care, criteria, guidance, and advice on how they can support childbearing women during transition to motherhood, beyond the existing recommendations and current provision of transitional care
Intrinsic and extrinsic variables impacting upper quarter Y-balance test scores in sporting cohorts: A systematic review
Get PDFIntroductionThe upper quarter y-balance test (YBT-UQ) is a functional screening tool used to detect musculoskeletal injury risk, aid rehabilitation, and monitor dynamic function, strength and control, yet little is currently known about intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence reach scores.ObjectivesThis systematic review aimed to determine if age, sex, or interventions influenced reach scores and whether between-limb differences were common in non-injured sporting populations, with a secondary aim to identify if sport impacted YBT-UQ reach.MethodsWeb of Science, PubMed, and SportDiscus were systematically searched from January 2012 to November 16, 2023, revealing twenty-three studies satisfying inclusion criteria of published in English between 2012 and 2023, healthy participants of any age including both males and females, athletic populations, YBT-UQ use to assess upper limb mobility/stability, report normalised reach scores, and peer-reviewed full-texts. Methodological quality was evaluated via National Institutes of Health (NIH) quality assessment tools for controlled interventions, observational cohort and cross-sectional designs, and pre-post with no control group.ResultsAge, sex, sport, and fatigue were influencing factors; greater reach scores were achieved in older athletes (i.e. >18 years), males, and in a well-rested state. Between-limb differences were not common in sporting populations; therefore, asymmetries may be useful for practitioners to aid injury risk identification.ConclusionThis is the first systematic review investigating YBT-UQ influencing factors and thereby provides context for clinicians regarding characteristics that impact reach scores in sporting populations, from which normative values could be determined and further aid clinical decisions or areas to improve regarding injury risk
Evaluation of microwave square ring metamaterial-based resonator for glucose detection
No full textThis study presents a biosensor working at a frequency of 3.5 GHz, which is designed as a square ring metamaterial resonator. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of blood amount on the metamaterial-based resonator sensor’s sensitivity. The structure was constructed using Rogers-RT5880 material, with an overall area of 85.71 mm × 85.71 mm2. The simulation of the design involved modelling the blood samples using Debye 1st-order equations. The empirical results observed a noticeable shift towards a lower frequency range in the response and changes in the magnitude, corresponding to an increase in the blood sample’s glucose concentration and thickness. Following this, the experiment was designed to corroborate the simulated results. The sensor achieved the highest sensitivity of 0.23 dB per 100 mg/dl change in glucose level when the thickness of blood was 0.1 mm. It was concluded from the results that the increase in the volume of blood increases the sensor’s sensitivity. However, a trade-off mark is necessary in which an optimum sensitivity is achieved with blood volume as minimum as possible so that a noninvasive biosensor can be designed
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