32151 research outputs found
Sort by
Gendering national shame : Xie Bingying and Chinese students in Japan, 1900s–1930s
Get PDFSince the late Qing period, narratives of humiliation have significantly shaped Chinese national identity, embedding sorrow, resentment, and anger into the collective memory of Sino-Japanese conflicts. Chinese students studying in Japan, who directly confronted the self-Other dichotomy, produced writings that vividly illustrate how the emotional regime of nationalism continuously inscribed shame onto the body. Xie Bingying’s two periods of study in Japan reveal how a modern woman negotiated with emotional struggles when experienced collectively or when faced individually with the Other. In the solitude of a Japanese prison, Xie’s shame arose not only from exposing her body to the gaze of Japanese men, but also from the visible traces of her reformist feet. Her physical vulnerability became an embodied site where nationalist discourse – framing women’s bodies as battlegrounds of modern civic education – entangled itself deeply with longstanding cultural norms that sexualised female virtue.Peer reviewe
Reflections on Brady's logic of meaning containment
Get PDFThis paper is a series of reflections on Ross Brady’s favourite substructural logic, the logic MC of meaning containment. In the first section, I describe some of the distinctive features of MC, including depth relevance, and its principled rejection of some concepts that have been found useful in many substructural logics, namely intensional or multiplicative conjunction (sometimes known as ‘fusion’), the Church constants (⊤ and ⊥), and the Ackermann constants (t and f). A further distinctive feature of the axiomatic formulation of MC is its meta-rule, which is a unique feature of MC Hilbert proofs. This meta-rule gives rise to one further special property of MC, in that the logic is distributive in one sense, and non-distributive in another. The distribution of additive conjunction over disjunction (the step from p∧(q∨r) to (p∧q)∨(p∧r)) holds in MC as a rule, but not as a provable conditional, and in this way, MC is distinctive among popular substructural logics. (Anderson and Belnap’s favourite logics R and E are distributive in both senses, while Girard’s linear logic is distributive in neither.) In this paper, I aim to enhance our understanding of each of these distinctive features of MC, giving an account of what it might take for a propositional logic to meet these constraints. I will start with a presentation of Hilbert proofs for MC, and then showing how Brady Lattices (a natural class of algebraic models for MC) can help us understand each of these special features of Brady’s logic of meaning containment.Peer reviewe
How can we make GPS tracking studies more open, reproducible, and collaborative? A vision for the OpenGPS platform
Get PDFThis paper introduces OpenGPS, a platform envisioned for the archiving and processing of human mobility GPS data. The OpenGPS addresses the need for a centralized, privacy-preserving system that securely stores, shares, and analyzes GPS tracking datasets. The platform is envisioned to develop in three phases. Phase I focuses on collecting metadata from existing GPS tracking studies worldwide, providing a foundation for future research. Phase II involves archiving GPS data with standardized formats and robust privacy safeguards, ensuring data is accessible while protecting individual privacy. Phase III integrates advanced analytical tools and workflows directly into the platform, enabling efficient analysis and fostering collaboration among researchers. The OpenGPS aims to overcome the limitations of current human mobility studies by offering a standardized repository that enhances reproducibility and openness in research. By facilitating the sharing of data and methodologies, the OpenGPS will promote new insights and innovations in human mobility research. This platform is poised to become a critical resource for the scientific community, bridging gaps in data availability, and enabling comprehensive meta-analyses across different geographical and temporal scales. Through OpenGPS, researchers can collaborate more effectively, share resources, and advance the understanding of human mobility patterns globally.Peer reviewe
tert-butyl [(4-fluoro-3-isopropoxyisoxazol-5-yl)methyl](phenylsulfonyl)carbamate
Get PDFFunding: The authors acknowledge Universiti Teknologi MARA for financial support.The title compound, C18H23FN2O6S, a new derivative of a fluoroisoxazole containing sulfonamide functionality has been structurally characterized. The C—S—N—Cipr and C—S—N—Ccarb (ipr = 3-isopropoxyisoxazole, carb = carbamate) torsion angles are 111.1 (3)° and −70.0 (4)°, respectively. The sulfonamide functional group of this structure features S=O bond lengths of 1.403 (3) and 1.433 (3) Å, an S—N bond length of 1.672 (4) Å, and an S—C bond length of 1.753 (4) Å. The crystal packing features non-classical C—H⋯O hydrogen-bond interactions, with the carbonyl atom acting as a bifurcated acceptor, resulting in an R12(8) ring.Peer reviewe
Motion anti-predation strategies and the visual system
No full textPredator vision is finely tuned to detect movement, which often circumvents camouflage. However, literature suggests that motion can be used as camouflage, e.g.: (1) Motion Signal Minimization - animals adapt their motion to resemble their surroundings; (2) Protean motion - unpredictable motion hinders a predator’s estimation of prey location; (3) Punctuated motion - when prey stop and start motion unpredictably. However, the effectiveness of these strategies has not been quantified or directly compared.
The central purpose of the thesis to achieve this is to quantitively assess whether documented proposed motion camouflage strategies function as effective camouflage, and if so, how effective they are. By measuring how these different motion types affect human estimation of movement direction and tracking ability, this research provides a direct comparison of their effectiveness, ultimately determining which strategies are most successful in enhancing camouflage.
It is important to consider animals in dynamic environments and the implications for camouflage techniques and visual search, as real-world surroundings are rarely static. Therefore, virtual environments were utilized in the experiments of this thesis to curate a balance between ecological validity and experimental control.
This thesis explores the interaction between movement type and environmental complexity through the use of custom-developed 3D-modeled forest scenes and ecologically valid virtual reality (VR) environments. Across three experimental chapters, the influence of motion type and background complexity on target detection and tracking difficulty is examined. Additionally, target properties such as saliency and speed are evaluated to further understand their impact on camouflage effectiveness in the final experimental chapter.
Each experiment demonstrates motion as camouflage is quantifiably successful. The extent of its effectiveness in minimising predation is shown to be varied across experimental tasks and combinations of factors with which they operate
“Grey is all that is depressing and dull” : the chromatic landscapes of rooftop exploration in St Petersburg and the “grey spaces” of leisure in the Capitalocene.
Get PDF‘Grey spaces’ have been adopted as a frame to understand the spatial and material impact of skateboarding in the Anthropocene (O’Connor, 2024; O’Connor etal. 2023), highlighting greyness as both a material and symbolic element in skateboarding praxis. This paper extends the ‘Grey spaces’ framework to explore urban exploration in St Petersburg, Russia, which has been shaped by material greyness including that of the country’s (post-)socialist history, and the symbolic greyness of the authoritarian present. As well as examining these local cultural and political influences, I adopt the Capitalocene epoch as a framework to investigate how these spaces function in the Russian context, offering a nuanced lens to understand alternative spatial practices under oppressive systems (of both neoliberal capitalism and authoritarian governance). This approach not only enriches the ‘Grey spaces’ paradigm but also proposes new directions for research on leisure practices, spatial exploration and grassroots appropriation in the Capitalocene.Peer reviewe
Grain-boundary-dependent segregation and phase separation in ceria–zirconia from atomistic simulation
Get PDFFunding: TLU acknowledges support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), United Kingdom, grant numbers EP/P007821/1 and EP/R023603/1. MM would also like to thank the University of Huddersfield for IC funding.Doping is the most common strategy employed in the development of new and improved materials. However, predicting the effects of doping on the atomic-scale structure of a material is often difficult or limited to high-end experimental techniques. Doping can induce phase separation in a material, undermining the material’s stability. A further complication is that dopant atoms can segregate to interfaces in a material such as grain boundaries (GBs), with consequences for key macroscopic properties of the material such as its conductivity. Here, we demonstrate a computational methodology based on semi-grand canonical Monte Carlo which can be used to probe these phenomena at the atomic scale for metal oxide solid solutions. The methodology can provide precise predictions of the thermodynamic conditions at which phase separation occurs. It can also provide the segregation patterns exhibited by GBs at given conditions. We apply the methodology to one of the most important catalytic materials, ceria–zirconia. Our calculations reveal an interesting richness in the GB segregation in this system. Most GBs we examined exhibited continuous increases in Zr segregation upon Zr doping, with a concomitant reduction in the formation enthalpies of the GBs. However, a few GBs exhibited no segregation at low temperatures. We also observed evidence of first-order complexion transitions in some GBs.Peer reviewe
The incidence of arthrogenic muscle inhibition in acute knee injuries : a prospective cohort study in a tertiary acute knee unit
Get PDFBackground: Arthrogenic Muscle Inhibition (AMI) is not well recognised and is therefore underdiagnosed. Improved understanding of AMI would allow improved patient treatment pathways and rehabilitation after acute knee injuries. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of AMI in acute knee injuries. The secondary aim was to evaluate correlation between AMI and type of underlying knee injury. Methods: This was a prospective cohort study. All patients reviewed by the acute knee service in a tertiary referral centre between January 01, 2023 and April 30, 2023 were included (n = 97). The patients were diagnosed with AMI by a fellowship trained orthopaedic consultant knee surgeon. The incidence was evaluated with descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis performed to ascertain association of AMI with the underlying acute knee injury diagnosis. Results: Of the 97 patients reviewed, 12 were excluded due to a mechanical block to extension on MRI imaging. Twenty-seven (31.8 %) of the 85 eligible patients were diagnosed with AMI. Nine of the twenty-seven patients (52 %) presenting with AMI had resolution of symptoms at the index clinic appointment with directed physical therapy. Patients with AMI were 6 times (OR 6.3, 95 % CI 1.48) more likely to have a diagnosis of patellofemoral (PFJ) dislocation (p = 0.013) than those with bone bruising or minor sprain. Other associations of AMI which did not reach statistical significance were meniscal tear (OR 4.2, 95 % CI 0.4) and ACL rupture (OR 3.5, 95 % CI 0.72). Conclusions: AMI is common in acute knee injuries, affecting nearly a third of all patients reviewed. Patients with AMI were more likely to have an underlying diagnosis of PFJ dislocation than any other acute knee injury diagnosis, and was the only statistically significant association. Correct diagnosis and instituting immediate treatment can resolve >50 % cases at the index clinic appointment. Treatment workflows incorporating early review and management could result in improved patient outcome and expedited recovery from AMI.Peer reviewe
Inactivating SARS-CoV-2 virus with MOF-composites as smart face masks
Get PDFFunding: European Research Council. Grant Number: 787073; EPSRC Light Element Analysis Facility. Grant Number: EP/T019298/1; Scottish Funding Council. Grant Number: SFC/AN/08/020 (XRR064); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Grant Number: EP/R023751/1; Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.The significant impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak on people's lives has highlighted the urgent need for effective personal protective equipment. To improve the limited protection of existing surgical face masks, the fabrication of face masks containing porous metal–organic framework (MOF) nanoparticles is proposed. Utilizing low toxicity MOFs, such as Al-Fumarate and HKUST-1(Cu), allows i) the modification of their external surface with active moieties to specifically bind on proteins or virus surfaces, such as the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus; ii) the adsorption of large amounts of water in their pores, enabling them to dehydrate virus aerosols; and iii) the preparation of MOF-based composites, providing good breathability. To ensure optimal binding, the MOFs are grown in situ on the fabric and then functionalized with test antiviral agents. Carefully evaluating their protein binding performance with bovine albumin serum (BSA) shows a ten-fold higher binding of proteins than surgical face masks. Further plaque assays with a SARS-CoV-2 virus with an incubation period of 30 min verifies the great potential of MOF-composites to effectively reduce the recovered viable SARS-CoV-2 particles up to 99%. Consequently, the smart MOF-composites represent an elegant and innovative approach to effectively combat airborne viruses and reduce their spread.Peer reviewe
Carbon and nitrogen cycling in response to global environmental change during the Carnian Pluvial Episode (late Triassic)
Get PDFFunding: This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 42241203, 42241202, 91955204, W2433105), Sichuan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Research Team Project (2021JDTD0020), Science and Technology Cooperation Project of the CNPC-SWPU Innovation Alliance (2020CX0101), Tibet Science and Technology Department Project (XZ202101ZY0014G). EES acknowledges funding from a NERC Frontiers grant (NE/V010824/1). PYK acknowledges funding from China Scholarship Council (No. 202409220004).The Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) (∼234 Ma) was marked by recurrent climate shifts, changes in the hydrological cycle, in particular precipitation pattern, which in turn affected biogeochemical cycles and nutrient supply to shelf and epicontinental seas. Among biogeochemical cycles, the nitrogen cycle represents a fundamental process governing the transformation and distribution of nitrogenous species, including dinitrogen (N₂), ammonium (NH₄+), nitrite (NO₂−), and nitrate (NO₃−). However, due to the lack of detailed studies, the response of the nitrogen cycle to the environmental changes during the CPE remains poorly understood. This study presents organic carbon (δ13Corg) and nitrogen isotopes (δ15N) along with bulk elemental geochemical data from the Carnian Quemo Co section in the Qiangtang Basin, China. The δ13Corg chemostratigraphy indicates that the sediment succession investigated spans the onset of the CPE, which is marked by successive short-term negative carbon isotope excursions (NCIEs). Lithological observations, coupled with elevated Si/Al and Al/K ratios suggest an increased input of silt and chemically altered clay minerals, in which may related to increased hydrological cycle during the CPE. A positive δ15N excursion during the NCIE interval suggests increased nutrient fluxes to marine environments, possibly driven by increased terrestrial organic matter input resulting from enhanced erosion and weathering, stimulating nitrogen uptake by marine phytoplankton and partial nitrate assimilation.Peer reviewe
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage St Andrews Research Repository? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!