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  A review of the successes, barriers and implementation of a heating network in Cambridgeshire – a case study

  Cox, Zoe (University of Bedfordshire, 2024-04-14)

  An area of focus for local authorities (LAs) to reduce their carbon footprint and meet net-zero carbon targets is reducing domestic heating carbon usage, currently responsible for 18% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire (SP), was chosen as a case study due to it being a rural heat pump network scheme, not on the gas network which used renewable energy and had the objective of reducing fuel poverty. I identified contributing factors that led to successful implementation of the scheme through publicly available information and conducting an interview with the LA sponsor. The financial commitment of the LA was crucial as a small community didn’t have resources to fund the build and low household density didn’t attract commercial investment. The ownership by the Community Land Trust (a voluntary committee of residents) was key to gaining residents’ trust, initiating and driving progression of the scheme. The Swaffham Prior scheme can be replicated if funding and underwriting of project costs is available by a public body (LA or central government). Land provision by LAs or social housing providers is key for financial success. Another success factor was that no upfront costs were required by households in connecting to the network so it’s inclusive irrespective of income.
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  Differences in team sport players’ repeated sprint performance, physiology and biomechanics between temperate and hot environments

  Payne, Yasmin (University of Bedfordshire, 2024-10-01)

  Repeated sprinting is defined as a minimum of three sprints with a mean recovery duration interspersed by less than or equal to 60 s of recovery time (Taylor et al., 2015; Sirotic and Coutts, 2007). These occur frequently in team sports, which are played around the world, often in hot environments (Girard, Brocherie and Bishop, 2015). At present, there is an abundance of research exploring the physiological strain of repeated sprinting in the heat (e.g. Almudehki et al., 2012; Drust et al., 2005; Kilduff et al., 2013), but data on the biomechanical alterations is limited (Girard et al., 2017). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of heat on team sports players’ physical performance, physiological strain and biomechanical variables during repeated sprint performance when compared to a temperate environment. Six male recreational team sports players completed four trials; one V̇O2MAX test, one familiarisation and two randomised, counterbalanced experimental trials of the repeated sprint protocol (CON: 20C 50% rH and HOT: 35C 50% rH). For the experimental trials, participants completed a warm-up, followed by the repeated sprint protocol on a non-motorised force plate instrumented treadmill, which consisted of four blocks of six 6 s sprints, with 30 s recovery between each sprint and five-minute recovery between each block. Rectal temperature, heart rate, RPE, thermal comfort and thermal sensation were all taken and the beginning and end of each block and spatiotemporal characteristics (Optojump) and angular kinematics (Quintic 2D motion analysis) were recorded for every sprint. All physical performance variables were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in HOT compared with CON. Rectal temperature, skin temperature, sweat loss, TC and TS were all significantly higher (P < 0.05) in HOT compared with CON. Average step length and peak propulsive horizontal force were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in HOT, whilst peak plantar flexion and hip and ankle range of motion were significantly larger (P < 0.05) in HOT compared with CON. Peak hip flexion, peak plantar flexion angular velocity, peak hip flexion angular velocity, peak knee flexion angular velocity and peak dorsi flexion angular velocity were all significantly higher (P < 0.05) in CON compared with HOT. Considering the performance decrements found in the hot condition, practitioners should be aware of the biomechanical causes of these, particularly as a decreased step length reduces the propulsive horizontal forces. The shorter steps lengths observed in the heat can be explained by the lower force production of the muscles, with heat decreasing the number of muscle fibre units recruited, creating less propulsive force. Therefore, strategies need to be developed to maintain step length in the heat or be able to increase step frequency to compensate for the decrements in step length to maintain running velocity. Further research is required to support the understanding of the underpinning cause for the change in step length in the heat.
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  Role of the α3 and α1α2α3 domains of zinc α2 glycoprotein in health and obesity

  Osborne, Sophie (University of Bedfordshire, 2024)

  Zinc α2 glycoprotein (ZAG) is a 42kDa adipokine with a class I MHC fold containing three domains; α1, α2 and α3. Fatty acids bind to its α1α2 groove. ZAG expression is inversely related to body fat mass and ZAG regulates lipolysis through an unknown mechanism. The ZAG: fatty acid crystal structure revealed ZAG tetramers and an unexpected α3 fatty acid binding site. The first aim of this thesis was to express recombinant E. coli ZAG α3 to investigate fatty acid binding using fluorescence, and tetramer formation using microfluidic diffusional sizing (MDS) in physiological conditions. Attempts at expressing and purifying α3 protein were not successful. A pET23a-α3 construct inhibited E. coli growth. pGEX-2TK GST–α3 and pGEX-2TK GST-3–HIS constructs expressed soluble proteins in E. coli, but the proteins degraded. A pET16b construct containing ZAG with an engineered thrombin cleavage site between its α1α2 and α3 domains produced inclusion bodies but refolded incorrectly. A second aim of this thesis was to optimise the use of the new MDS based Fluidity One-M instrument by measuring the affinity of Zagy-1 antibody binding to recombinant E.coli ZAG. The Zagy-1: ZAG affinity (KD) was 12 pM. This affinity was unaffected by ZAG denaturation, ionic strength and presence of fatty acid. The Zagy-1 antibody was used to measure ZAG concentrations in human plasma from sixteen obese patients’ pre and 9-months post Roux-En-Y surgery by ELISA. Patients underwent significant weight loss (p=<0.0001) and the concentration of ZAG increased after Roux-En-Y surgery (p=0.0684), demonstrating its role in body mass regulation.
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  Cloud native architecture middleware for 5G enhanced autonomous robot

  Popescu, Radu (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2024-06)

  This report presents the cloud-native design for a 5G Enhanced Robot Autonomy (5G-ERA) Middleware System. The system is built to integrate vertical applications e.g., autonomous robots handled by the Robot Operating System (ROS), with the 5G infrastructure handled by Open-Source Management and Orchestration (OSM) in the form of Cloud-native Network Applications (NetApps). The cloud-native architecture realised by the Middleware System is an additional layer of the virtual services to facilitate intent-based network and resource orchestration for large-scale deployment of robots under distributed environment. The 5G-ERA Middleware System, which runs on the cloud and edges, allows robots to send data to be processed by distributed robot services, subsequently utilising the computational power of the cloud and edges, and transmitting the outcome of the cloud/edges-based processing back to the robots. This paradigm reduces physical constraints imposed on the robots’ intelligence by local computing resources and simplifies the application development process of distributed robotics. To enable seamless integration, the Middleware System is built with containerised restful APIs, following the microservice and cloud-native paradigms, orchestrated with Kubernetes, and acts as a Kubernetes operator itself by deploying orchestrated applications on demand. The microservices synchronisation problem of the cloud-native design is optimised by introducing the Redis Cluster, a distributed key-value datastore. The contribution integrates local stateless services and a global stateful set for data persistence and paves the way for the Edge switchover required by the connected intelligence.
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  An evaluation of the adequacy of safeguarding and inspection regimes in UK YOIs with regard to peer-on-peer sexually harmful behaviour

  Walsh, Julia Fiona (University of Bedfordshire, 2024-03-13)

  For a number of years, research has identified that sexual harm to children is often committed by other children and is an issue of concern in the UK. Responses have often focused on the perpetrator and the child’s home environment. More recent studies have shown that extra-familial harm is also commonplace in contexts outside the home and that understanding the environmental as well as personal factors which enable or hinder sexually harmful behaviour (SHB) can improve the response to peer-on-peer SHB. This thesis set out to explore peer-on-peer SHB in young offender institutions (YOIs) to understand the influence, if any, of the unique environment on adolescent SHB. The methods changed during the course of the study due to significant challenges in gaining access to YOIs. Primary data was based on 10 interviews with a participant group identified from among a range of professionals from youth justice, training, safeguarding, prison inspection, law, and prison design. Interviews with children were not conducted. Secondary data from reports of the prison inspectorates was used to supplement primary data. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to analyse the data, this study demonstrates there is little recognition of peer-on-peer SHB in YOIs. The risk to boys may be exacerbated by the chaotic environment and routinely violent interactions on the wing which hinders the development of close, trusting adult/child bonds. The evidence suggests that boys will rarely ‘snitch’ on another boy and just want to survive their time in the YOI. This thesis demonstrates that the turbulent environment and harmful norms within YOIs may provide the conditions which facilitate peer-on-peer SHB. The lack of transparency in these institutions, at a distance from the outside world, highlights that children who may be ‘out of sight and out of mind’ may be at greater risk than children in community settings. It is, therefore, imperative that institutional leaders, their regulators and partners understand the nature of the environment and are able to effectively respond to peer-on-peer SHB. This thesis advocates the continued development of a framework to assess the capability of responding to SHB in YOIs and other closed institutions which house children.
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  Identifying enablers of (individual and) collective flow in a theatre rehearsal process

  Mann, Richard (University of Bedfordshire, 2024-05-14)

  This study investigates identifying enablers of (individual and) collective flow predominantly in a theatre rehearsal process. It is a culmination of over 25 years’ work creating new ensemble productions through the process of Collected Stories Theatre. The research incorporates discussions with a focus group of ten participants, semi-structured interviews with three participants and personal reflections over a two-month (CST) rehearsal process. Using thematic analysis the results show a strong correlation between elements of creative play, sustained energy and the variation of tasks and exercises to enable collective flow in a rehearsal-based setting. From this study I have Identified where and how collective flow is more likely to occur, which could aid actors, directors, choreographers and teachers to create an environment favourable to achieve optimal performance.
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  Exploring correlates of parental fear of crime: parents’ perceptions of their children, their neighbourhoods, and their use of social media

  Stokes, Angelica (University of Bedfordshire, 2024-01-09)

  The aims of the MPhil project were first to investigate the main effects of and possible interactions between age and gender (of both parents and children) on fear of crime for their child and second to explore the parents’ perceptions of neighbourhoods, perceptions of the child and social media use to account for parents’ fear of crime for the child. Responses to an online survey from 447 parent participants were analysed. The results of a 2x2x2 MANOVA showed significant differences in overall parental fear of crime based on the age of the child V = .875, F(7, 438) = 4.770, p < .001, ηp2= .052 and the gender of the child V = .084, F(7, 438) = 8.001, p = .001, ηp2 = .084. There was no statistically significant main effect of parent’s gender or any significant interactions. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that parents’ perception of their neighbourhood was a statistically significant predictor, β = -.34, p<.001, after controlling for gender and age of parent and child. However, their perception of the child did not have a significant impact on parental fear of crime levels, nor did their use of social media. Further research is needed to understand why perceptions of the child and social media use did not have a more significant effect on parental fear of crime.
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  Investigating the issues and core professional for a construction planner competencies

  O'Callaghan, Anthony (University of Bedfordshire, 2023-11)

  The research examines the issues and state of planning within construction in the UK, and associated competencies and skills that should be expected. Project planning does not yet have any assessment criteria or recognised body in place either in the UK or Europe to support or help monitor planning SME’s (Subject Matter Experts), whereas other specialisms that operate alongside planners in project controls or project management offices such as cost engineers have ACostE (Acoste.co.uk, 2013) or risk managers have the Institute of Risk Management (Theirm.org/, 2014) have supporting bodies. This has resulted in planning being saturated with unqualified or poor planners. My research focuses and builds on my BSc (Hons) dissertation and includes the suggested adjustments from the MiPP proposal “How competent planning can effectively influence procurement within the construction sector.” The research incorporated questionnaires, interviews, and relevant literature pertaining to the specialism of planning combining both qualitative and quantitative data. The resultant of this has confirmed that planning indeed has serious issues with regards to qualifications, ability, behaviors, etc. and that this is viewed not just across planning, but also by other disciplines. The research demonstrates and proves there that from the sample of interviewees taken, a significant percentage believe there are issues within the specialism of planning. And if this continues to go on unaddressed it will damage the reputation and value that planning, and a good planner can actually bring to projects when done correctly.
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  A study of Fante-speaking students' learning of academic writing at the Methodist University College, Ghana (MUCG)

  Davis, Regina Atracta (University of Bedfordshire, 2023-09)

  This research study examined Fante-speaking students’ learning of academic writing (L2) at Methodist University College, Ghana (MUCG). For the researcher to narrow the scope of this research study, she chose Fante-speaking students as the population of study because there are over 80 different languages spoken in Ghana. The focus of the research project was to infer ways in which Fante-speaking students’ experiences might be enhanced from their reported experiences of learning academic writing I and II courses. The Academic Writing, I and II courses are university-required courses which are offered to all Level 100 and Level 200 students in MUCG, equivalent to first- and second-year university students in the United Kingdom (UK). The researcher used a mixed-methods approach, which combined qualitative and quantitative methods. The research instruments were designed to allow the researcher to find the answers to the research questions. The university provided Course Outline and Course Content for both Academic Writing I and two courses. Therefore, the researcher designed the research questionnaire questions and the interview questions in line with the Course Outline and the Course Content of the academic writing I and II courses, which can be found in Appendix number 3. The findings are based on a study sample of n=100 participants who were divided into 2 groups, 51 were young students (aged 18-24), and 49 were mature students (aged 25 and above). Both the questionnaire questions and the interview questions investigated each mature and young student’s educational background, qualifications, age, experiences of the difficulties they had before and after taking the two academic writing courses, and how the two courses impacted their learning. The research instruments also inferred ways in which students’ experiences might be improved from their reported perspectives in the two academic writing courses. All Ghanaians have their mother tongue but learn English as a second language so, there was also a question on how the students perceived that Fante their first language (L1) influenced their academic writing in English (L2). The researcher also explored participants’ learning outcomes as well as their suggestions for improvement and their feedback after they participated in the two courses. The course outline was also used as a guideline for both questionnaires and interview questions and was aligned with the research questions. Please refer to the Course Outline in number Appendix 3. Additionally, the features of academic writing that emerged from the course outline and the course content of the two academic writing courses were categorised into four main groups, namely English, grammar, comprehension, paragraph structure and referencing. The study was conducted using mixed methods comprising questionnaires and interviews and the data was repeatedly gathered from the same participants, focusing on the same study population throughout this research project over an extended period. Generally, the research findings highlighted those young students found grammar, comprehension and referencing more difficult than paragraph structures. Furthermore, the feedback from participants also offered important insights into the content of these academic writing courses and has the potential to make positive contributions to the creation of new teaching methods and potential updates to the content of the Department of Language and Communication Studies Course at MUCG. Finally, the researcher hopes that the responses and learnings obtained from this study will be used to improve the experience and learning outcomes of future students partaking in the British Standard English (BSE) academic writing course at MUCG. In this view, it will be important for the institution to consider this feedback and suggestions from the participants as it may help the English department to improve teaching and learning.
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  Effects of bracing and a Futsal-specific fatiguing protocol on muscle reaction time and ground reaction forces

  Lilly, Oliver (University of Bedfordshire, 2020-11)

  Context: Futsal is a rapidly growing sport, with a high prevalence of ankle injuries. It has been found that ankle bracing during sporting activity reduces the incidence of injury, however, research assessing its acute effects on muscle reaction time and ground reaction forces has provided mixed results. Aim: The aim of this thesis was to analyse the effects of bracing on muscle reaction times (MRT) during a simulated lateral ankle sprain, and ground reaction forces (GRF) during a 90-degree cutting manoeuvre, both before and immediately after a futsal-specific fatiguing protocol (FIRP). Participants: Four male participants aged 19-22 who all played for the same University futsal team took part in the study. Methods: Muscle reaction times of the PL, PB and TA were analysed during a simulated lateral ankle sprain, and ground reaction forces during a 90-degree cutting manoeuvre, both before and immediately after the FIRP, when both braced and unbraced. Results: Significant main effects (P < 0.05) were reported during the ANOVAs of lower (improved) MRT of the PL and PB when braced vs. unbraced. A significant main effect was found for increased (worsened) MRT of the tilted PB post-fatigue vs. pre-fatigue (P = 0.032). No significant differences (P > 0.05) were found during post-hoc paired samples t-tests. No significant effects (P > 0.05) regarding GRF were reported between limbs during the 90-degree cutting manoeuvre, when braced and unbraced, pre-, and post-fatigue. Conclusion: Although significant effects were not found, strong trends, supported by large effect sizes (ɳp2 = 0.14>), of improved MRTs when braced, and worsened MRTs post-fatigue were apparent and warrant further research that incorporates a similar study-design and larger sample size.
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  Presence Aware Power Saving Mode (PA-PSM) enhancement for IoT devices for energy conservation

  Saleem, Abdul (University of Bedfordshire, 2022-09)

  The smart home is gradually captivating worldwide and provides the best services to human life. It wipes traditional houses by turning them into smart homes; nowadays, numerous energy-efficient devices lead to optimal energy exploitation. It enhances the inhabitant's lifestyle, safety, and comfort since it is suitable for all users of diverse incomes and ages. It is essential to exploit the technology to develop energy-efficient smart homes. The design and implementation of energy-efficient smart homes are proposed in this research work. It is a proposed model that controls home appliances, monitors energy usage and sends low priority devices in switch OFF mode to save energy. The system uses a combination of a central controller, sensors, modules and PA-PSM algorithm proposed by this research work. The PIR sensor locates the human within the home, brings the nearby appliance in active mode, and sends the rest in switch OFF mode, the LDR (light dependent resistor) to sense the intensity of the light to decide if the light is needed else stays in switch OFF mode. The Arduino manages all the sensors, modules, home appliances including scheduling, and energy consumption of individual home appliances. The system automates the process and accepts the commands from end-user through mobile applications to use home appliances. It is a novel approach that has several experiments that help to reduce 20.34% of energy consumption. The rapidly growing industry has already reached $92bn and has a growth rate of 16% each year, reaching $192bn by the year 2025; so far, the US is the most significant share of using the smart home application. However, it also has entered the European market, especially in voice-controlled applications. This industry is growing rapidly and currently has 21bn active connections. These smart devices will produce substantial data along with the increment of energy consumption significantly. The significant use of energy puts pressure on the energy producer and leading to energy scarceness. The researchers and IT industries are focusing mainly on this area and expect 1tn of sensor interconnects by 2025; even if these sensors have ten years of battery life, it still requires replacing 275mn batteries every day. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce energy consumption in the smart home. "Presence Aware Power Saving Mode (PA-PSM) Development for IoT devices for energy conservation" is a novel approach proposed with the help of the proposed algorithm to reduce power consumption up to 20.34% in the smart home.
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  The investigation into the use of YOLO on overlay images for the purpose of privacy protection

  Biel, Arkadiusz Stanislaw (University of Bedfordshire, 2021-12)

  Human Detection is an important issue from the development of autonomous cities. That technology is used not only by cars but also by CCTVs which use that in event prevention. One of the most significant issues of human detection is privacy safety. Most conventional methods allow not only for detection but also for the recognition of humans, which introduce big concern about privacy protection. This is reason why challenge ChaLearn LAP Challenge @FG2020 "Identity-preserving Human Detection (IPHD)" was initiated, which focus on providing more accurate solution for alternatives types of cameras, which provide better privacy than classic types of cameras. That can be achieved by using different types of of detectors such as You look only Once (YOLO), Region-based Convolutional Neural Networks (RCNN). As YOLO detectors is one of best performing all experiments are focused on improvi-ng detection based on different version of this detector family and determining the most promising version of YOLO for this use case. As provided datasets are synchronised, work also is investigating values for overlays, created by overlapping images. Thermal overlay is done by covering depth image with partially transparent layer made from corresponding thermal image. Similar process is done for depth overlays. Goals of project are to find best version of detector and narrow down possible ranges for overlay. Achievement of improvement within 4-10 percent points on each dataset using v4 and 10-18 percent points for v5 and finding narrowed parameters ranges to [0.35,0.70] for depth overlay and [0.70,0.85] for thermal overlay allows me to conclude that all aims of the project were accomplished.
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  An evaluation of the benefits of participating in a dementia-friendly golf programme for people with dementia and their informal caregivers

  Poynter, Charlotte (University of Bedfordshire, 2023-05)

  Physical activity has been shown to provide benefits for people with dementia and their caregivers, in relation to physical health, psychological well-being, function, and cognition. The aim of this evaluation is to explore the current literature through a scoping review on the effect of golf on people with dementia and their caregivers, to carry out a qualitative study of caregivers of people with dementia playing golf, and outline protocol for a quantitative study. The resulting thematic analysis concluded a beneficial effect of a dementia-friendly golf programme on people with dementia and their caregivers, particularly through the provision of respite for the caregivers and promoting and providing well-being.
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  Employees’ perceptions of work engagement: a study of Nigeria’s private and public universities

  Ajulo, Adesina Adewale (University of Bedfordshire, 2023-02-08)

  Employee engagement is an important concept that has immense links with other intrinsic organisational factors and has been said to have the potential to increase organisational success. This study examined employee perceptions of work engagement and how it may influences the feeling of being engaged within the workplace. In this study, two different types of organisations, private and public universities were examined with a view to understanding how employee perception towards work engagement may influence the feeling of being engaged at work. This study adopted a qualitative research method in examining perceptions towards engagement at work and feeling of being engaged at work using in-depth interviews. Data was gathered from employees across six south-western private and public Universities in Nigeria and was analysed. Samples in the study were selected based on random purposeful sampling and the data gathered were analysed using NVIVO qualitative analysis software. In all, the study employed thirty In-depth interviews with revealing findings about employees’ perceptions as well as their engagement at work. Findings revealed new perspectives of work engagement that creates a clearer conception of employee engagement, it discovered that employees’ understanding and perspective about engagement at work differs from existing notions of work engagement i.e., academics and practitioner’s perspectives. More findings revealed that employee perception towards engagement may not necessarily reflect their actual engagement at work as against the popular believe in literature which suggest that a happy employee is a productive or engaged employee. In addition, result showed that employee engagement relates with organisational performance with a relationship that could occur in various ways. The study concluded that employee engagement is a significant concept within the organisation with effects on overall organisational success. However, employees’ perceptions of engagement may not necessarily determine how engaged an employee will be; it is important to note that employee viewpoint of their engagements at work is crucial and must be actioned into planning of engagement practices.
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  The effect of singular and combined ice vest and neck collar cooling used pre-match and at half-time, during a soccer specific simulation in the heat

  Murphy, Charlotte (University of Bedfordshire, 2021-07)

  The globalisation of soccer has seen matches during international tournaments being played at hot environments, where key physical performance variables including high-speed running and sprinting are decreased, due to an elevation in both actual and perceived body temperatures. The singular use of cooling modalities including ice vests and neck cooling collars have been shown to favourably alter these body temperatures when used throughout a simulated soccer match. However, to not interfere with the laws of soccer, these cooling modalities can only be used within a warm-up pre-match and down-time during half-time. Therefore, the current study explored the singular and combined utilisation of these practical cooling modalities, throughout a soccer specific warm-up, downtime before kick-off and at half-time on simulated soccer performance using an environmental chamber at 28°C Wet Bulb Globe temperature (WGBT). Ten male University level soccer players volunteered for this study, completing the Level 1 Yo-Yo Intermittent recovery test, two non-motorised treadmill-based familiarisations, one peak speed assessment and four randomised, counterbalanced, experimental trials of intermittent soccer performance test (iSPT) using (1) Ice vest (VEST); (2) Neck collar (NECK); (3) combination of ice vest and neck collar cooling (MM) and (4) No-cooling (CON). Physical performance (total, high-speed and sprint distance covered), physiological (rectal, skin (Tsk) and neck (NECKtsk) temperature and heart rate (HR) and perceptual (thermal sensation (TS), thermal comfort (TC), rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and neck thermal sensation (NECKTS) responses were all measured during the first (0-45 min) and second (60-105 min) half of each experimental trial. From 0-15 min, both SD (P < 0.05) and HSD (P < 0.05) covered were significantly increased in NECK and MM compared to CON. These occurred in association with a significant dampening (P = 0.01) of thermal sensation and skin temperature following the warm-up until the first 15-min in MM (3.30 ± 1.11) compared to CON. During the second half, both SD (60-105 min) and HSD (75-105 min) covered in MM were significantly increased (P < 0.05) by a large effect size (d =1.03) compared with CON. Furthermore, there was a significant increase (P < 0.05) to HSD (90-105 min) and SD covered (75-105 min) by a small effect size (d = 0.3) during the second half in NECK compared with CON. Half-time cooling significantly decreased (P < 0.05) Tsk, TNECK TS, NECKTS, however, these were not maintained throughout the second half. The VEST showed no significant improvement (P > 0.05) to physical performance throughout the iSPT. Overall, mixed-methods pre-match applied throughout a soccer specific warm-up and downtime before kick-off and at half-time cooling enhanced physical performance and reduced physiological and perceptual strain in the heat (WBGT: 28°C).
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  Policy refinement with genetic algorithms for job-shop scheduling problems

  Ogur, Emin (University of Bedfordshire, 2020-11)

  Evolutionary approach has been a well known and widely used method in solving scheduling problems besides other soft computing techniques. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is a popular evolutionary approach in solving various complex real-world problems. However, it is required that a careful attention is to be paid to the contextual knowledge as well as the implementation of genetic material and operators. On the other hand, job-shop scheduling (JSS) problem remains as challenging NP-hard combinatorial problem, which attracts researchers since its very beginning of its invention. Similar to other metaheuristic approaches, GA has not been so successful in solving this sort of problems due to instant decision making process needed in solving this type of problems. Heuristic procedures so called Priority Rule or Dispatching Rules are more useful for this purpose, but, depending on the properties and purpose of use of each, the same performance is not expected from these instant decision making operators. A policy refinement approach is proposed to optimise a sequence of Dispatching Rules (DRs) for a time-window of scheduling process in which a GA algorithm evolves the sequences towards an optimum configuration. The preliminary results provided in this paper seem very encouraging. In other words, the set of dispatching rules are considered as policies for allocation of jobs to a number of resources (machines) and these policies are refined through evolution with use of GA for optimisation. The objective of this research is to refine scheduling policies to gain better results for solving job-shop scheduling problems. The criterion considered to be optimised in this research are makespan and mean tardiness in single and multi-objective context.
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  The role of the Anglican Church in English education from the perspective of clergy and educationalists

  Clubb, Gordon (University of Bedfordshire, 2022-07)

  This research investigated: The perceived role of the Church of England within the English state education system. Whether the Church should be raising people's awareness of its involvement in education. Whether there were any moral issues related to funding streams used for expansion. It commenced in 2011, a time when Church of England educational provision was reaching the end of 10 years of rapid expansion and was adjusting its provision following government changes to the Academies school programme in 2010, and the introduction of Free schools. The study was conducted in three stages with a six-year hiatus between stages two and three. A mixed-methods approach was employed with semi-structured interviews conducted with a small group of Anglican clergy occupying various positions in diverse parishes in England, and questionnaires distributed to all headteachers of Church of England schools. An interpretive paradigm, a constructivist grounded theory and reflexive approach were adopted, as these frameworks best fitted both the research focus and analysis of the data collected to address the main research question. The thesis uses the first person to reflect the reflexive approach taken to the study. This is a small-scale study and the conclusions reached are not assumed to be generalisable beyond the sample. Key findings, albeit from the small participant set, are that: Service to the community is perceived by participants to underpin the role of the Church of England in the state education system; There are differences in interpretation, of the Church’s role, between clergy in different conurbations; Church involvement in education is considered by participants to be very important; The Church appears unwilling to advertise its educational work. Church involvement in education is deemed to underpin the parochial role of service, and to support community cohesion. However, a Diocese Board of Education was perceived to be acting outside the parochial model of service expounded by the clergy, and there is a concern that the Church is becoming more Congregationalist, putting at risk the parochial service model. At a local level the Church receives recognition for the work of its schools, but it fails to receive national recognition for its commitment to education. The consensus was that the Church of England should expand its educational provision; however, participants in both rural and suburban areas expressed concern over the availability of human resource to cope with any expansion, and argued that the Church should adopt a pragmatic approach to sourcing the costs of any future expanded educational provision. A particular contribution to knowledge of this study is that clergy, in the same sample of participants in different conurbations and in areas of more or less advantageous demographics, have different views about the role of the Anglican church in education. This particular point deserves further investigation to explore its wider significance. This small-scale study has the potential to provide an informed basis for wider scale research in the use of school Chaplaincy Teams, offering their services to secular schools, to help address issues of mental health and advise on the teaching of religious education, as advocated by some participants.
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  The perceptions and use of cooling modalities by athletes, coaches, and support staff in endurance-based sports.

  Bousfield, Emily Jane (University of Bedfordshire, 2019-10-14)

  The study aimed to investigate what, when and how modalities are used by endurancebased athletes/support staff. Understanding current knowledge of modalities and prevalence of exertional heat illnesses and other heat prevention strategies. Athletes (n = 65) and support staff (n = 12) completed a questionnaire regarding: general participant information; training and competition in the heat; heat illnesses; cooling modalities; and perceptions of cooling modalities and exercise in the heat. Only 12% of athletes reported being diagnosed with exertional heat illness, although 61% reported had experienced one or more symptoms. Cold-water ingestion was the most reported for pre-competition (22%), pre-training (~14%), per-competition (23%) and per-training (26%), likely as it was accessible and easy to administer. However, support staff suggested a more varied use of cooling modalities throughout compared with athletes. Further, athletes suggest short application of cooling time both pre- (35%) and per-exercise (74%), aligning with cold-water ingestion application. Athletes and support staff presented good knowledge, all support staff and the majority of athletes agreeing that cooling is helpful when exercising in the heat. Future research should address the relationship between exertional heat illnesses and type of cooling modalities, which target physiological or perceptual responses.
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  Water quality monitoring drone

  Lloyd-Davies, Christian (University of Bedfordshire, 2019-01)

  Water, a vital substance on earth, and all living things depend on it. This makes it very important to the quality of all life forms on earth. This project intends to focus on researching a cheaper and easy means to help make it easier for water quality sampling and monitoring to be done efficiently and with accuracy as this is a significant part of living things, we need to develop ways to monitor it efficiently. A lot of practices and processes are involved in water quality testing, and this contributes to most of the inaccuracies in test results. To prevent this and minimizing the process, other way needs to be adopted to cut down the time involved and avoid inaccuracies. With the many testing processes available and, with its challenges. Technicians may spend days collecting and running tests on samples of water collected, this causes an increase in the spatial time affecting the results. The author is focus on researching ways to better solve this problem. Getting to hard areas to collect samples of water by technicians for test in the Lab takes a lot of effort and some are impossible to access. Swamps and marsh can also present a challenge. This research work is to develop and implement a drone system which is designed with a “mini laboratory” which houses sensors needed such as PH sensor, temperature sensor, turbidity sensor, infrared camera, and dissolved oxygen concentration sensor. These sensors will make up the “mini laboratory” of the drone for analysing and monitoring the water by using the Arduino as the brain to allow inserting the test devices into the water while hovering to collect data, it can also float on the water to save battery life and transmit the test results to a mobile device accessed by the user. It will analyse the water temperature, the PH level of the water, the Oxygen concentration, turbidity and process the data collected from water test, send results to the user. This can be done by one person controlling the drone remotely while the data collected by the drone is sent via GSM network to a mobile device in the form of a SMS. The drone will also be equipped with an infrared camera which takes aerial photography in infra-red of the water surface to help identify contaminant and it saves the image on an SD card which can be retrieved by the user. There are many challenges involved in such method, of which the author has not ignored during this research work. Some of the challenges to be overcome include weather conditions, battery capacity, drone reliability, GSM signal and accuracy of test results. During the research work, all undocumented problems that may arise will be noted and recorded to help better the system in the near future. As previously stated, the idea is to reduce cost and save time involved in collecting the data and the results availability. This will allow more effective monitoring of a wider range of water resources; it will also give lab technicians the opportunity to access acute areas that are inaccessible and dangerous. All data collected by the drone is used to analyse the quality of the water and can be used to monitor water over a period of time to study the contaminant flow and effect of climate change on the water body over a period of time. This system will undergo an extensive testing procedure and usage, the time frame for the project is short hence, it will be handled according to the duration involved and every step will be noted down for future continuation, upgrade or improvement making the system much better and reliable as it may not be fully completed as the author might have plan to due to the time.
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  Structure, function and phylogeny of zinc-α2-glycoprotein in health and disease

  Allen, Samantha Jayne (University of Bedfordshire, 2021-09)

  Zinc-α2-glycoprotein (ZAG) is a 42kDa non-classical major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I adipokine excreted around the body that regulates body mass through lipid metabolism. Abnormal expression of ZAG occurs in diseases such as cachexia and obesity, with studies suggesting that ZAG has a potential use as a biomarker in the identification of cancer. Recent literature has identified binding sites within the groove of the α1α2 domain and, unexpectedly, in the α3 domain when bound in a tetramer. To identify these sites and investigate the α3 domain’s ability to form a β-barrel, recombinant ZAG was expressed from a pET-23a(+) plasmid in a BL21 DE3 Star pRARE E.coli host. Whilst this investigation was interrupted due to COVID-19, other characteristics of ZAG were investigated. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that ZAG was more closely related to non-classical MHC class I related proteins MICA, MICB, HLA-A, -E, -F, -G and MR1, and evolved linearly with placental mammals, where marsupial mammalian ZAG is more diverged. An interactive ZAG database allowing for the observational analysis of variant mutations in ZAG from cancer patients was developed, revealing that mutations in the RGD triad and lipid binding residues may cause metabolic changes that are required for the progression of cancer.

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