Now showing items 1-20 of 7751

    • Influence of Environmental Factors and Genome Diversity on Cumulative COVID-19 Cases in the Highland Region of China: Comparative Correlational Study.

      Deji, Zhuoga; Tong, Yuantao; Huang, Honglian; Zhang, Zeyu; Fang, Meng; Crabbe, M. James C.; Zhang, Xiaoyan; Wang, Ying; University of Bedfordshire; Tongji University; et al. (JMIR Publications, 2024-03-25)
      Background: The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 caused the global COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging reports support lower mortality and reduced case numbers in highland areas; however, comparative studies on the cumulative impact of environmental factors and viral genetic diversity on COVID-19 infection rates have not been performed to date. Objective: The aims of this study were to determine the difference in COVID-19 infection rates between high and low altitudes, and to explore whether the difference in the pandemic trend in the high-altitude region of China compared to that of the lowlands is influenced by environmental factors, population density, and biological mechanisms. Methods: We examined the correlation between population density and COVID-19 cases through linear regression. A zero-shot model was applied to identify possible factors correlated to COVID-19 infection. We further analyzed the correlation of meteorological and air quality factors with infection cases using the Spearman correlation coefficient. Mixed-effects multiple linear regression was applied to evaluate the associations between selected factors and COVID-19 cases adjusting for covariates. Lastly, the relationship between environmental factors and mutation frequency was evaluated using the same correlation techniques mentioned above. Results: Among the 24,826 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported from 40 cities in China from January 23, 2020, to July 7, 2022, 98.4% (n=24,430) were found in the lowlands. Population density was positively correlated with COVID-19 cases in all regions (ρ=0.641, P=.003). In high-altitude areas, the number of COVID-19 cases was negatively associated with temperature, sunlight hours, and UV index (P=.003, P=.001, and P=.009, respectively) and was positively associated with wind speed (ρ=0.388, P<.001), whereas no correlation was found between meteorological factors and COVID-19 cases in the lowlands. After controlling for covariates, the mixed-effects model also showed positive associations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) with COVID-19 cases (P=.002 and P<.001, respectively). Sequence variant analysis showed lower genetic diversity among nucleotides for each SARS-CoV-2 genome (P<.001) and three open reading frames (P<.001) in high altitudes compared to 300 sequences analyzed from low altitudes. Moreover, the frequencies of 44 nonsynonymous mutations and 32 synonymous mutations were significantly different between the high- and low-altitude groups (P<.001, mutation frequency>0.1). Key nonsynonymous mutations showed positive correlations with altitude, wind speed, and air pressure and showed negative correlations with temperature, UV index, and sunlight hours. Conclusions: By comparison with the lowlands, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was substantially lower in high-altitude regions of China, and the population density, temperature, sunlight hours, UV index, wind speed, PM2.5, and CO influenced the cumulative pandemic trend in the highlands. The identified influence of environmental factors on SARS-CoV-2 sequence variants adds knowledge of the impact of altitude on COVID-19 infection, offering novel suggestions for preventive intervention.
    • High resolution temperature evolution maps of Bangladesh via data-driven learning

      Wu, Yichen; Yang, Jiaxin; Zhang, Zhihua; Das, Lipon Chandra; Crabbe, M. James C.; Shandong University; University of Chittagong; Oxford University; University of Bedfordshire (MDPI, 2024-03-21)
      As a developing country with an agricultural economy as a pillar, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change, so the generation of high-resolution temperature maps is of great value for Bangladesh to achieve agricultural sustainable development. However, Bangladesh’s weak economy and sparse meteorological stations make it difficult to obtain such maps. In this study, by mining internal features and links inside observed data, we developed an efficient data-driven downscaling technique to generate high spatial-resolution temperature distribution maps of Bangladesh directly from observed temperature data at 34 meteorological stations with irregular distribution. Based on these high-resolution historical temperature maps, we further explored a data-driven forecast technique to generate high-resolution temperature maps of Bangladesh for the period 2025–2035. Since the proposed techniques are very low-cost and fully mine internal links inside irregular-distributed observations, they can support relevant departments of Bangladesh to formulate policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change in a timely manner.
    • Realising participation and protection rights when working with groups of young survivors of childhood sexual violence: a decade of learning

      Cody, Claire; Bovarnick, Silvie; Soares, Claire; ; University of Bedfordshire (Elsevier Inc. All, 2024-03-18)
      Childhood sexual violence is a global problem that has far-reaching impacts on children, families and communities. Whilst there has been significant commitment and action to tackle this issue, research with young people consistently draws attention to gaps and limitations. Emerging research, and practice-based evidence, tells us that young survivors of childhood sexual violence hold essential knowledge and expertise about the impacts of, and solutions for addressing, this form of violence. Yet, despite widespread recognition that children and young people have a right to ‘be heard’, in practice there are limited examples where young survivors come together collectively to collaborate with professionals to inform and influence research, policy or practice interventions in this field. This discussion paper begins by reflecting on barriers to, and opportunities for, participatory engagement with young survivors. The article draws on a decade long international programme of work and shares three key elements that have helped ‘scaffold’ our participatory work with young survivors: forming the right partnerships; weighing up the potential risks and benefits of engagement; and putting in place support for all involved. In conclusion, we present potential ways forward, underscoring the importance of addressing structural barriers, the need for creativity, and the significance of support and training for those accompanying young people and facilitating their engagement in the future.
    • Effectiveness of postnatal maternal or caregiver interventions on outcomes among infants under six months with growth faltering: a systematic review

      Rana, Ritu; Sirwani, Barkha; Mohandas, Saranya; Kirubakaran, Richard; Puthussery, Shuby; Lelijveld, Natasha; Kerac, Marko (Nutrients, 2024-03-14)
      The care of infants at risk of poor growth and development is a global priority. To inform new WHO guidelines update on prevention and management of growth faltering among infants under six months, we examined the effectiveness of postnatal maternal or caregiver interventions on outcomes among infants between 0 and 6 months. We searched nine electronic databases from January 2000 to August 2021, included interventional studies, evaluated the quality of evidence for seven outcome domains (anthropometric recovery, child development, anthropometric outcomes, mortality, readmission, relapse, and non-response) and followed the GRADE approach for certainty of evidence. We identified thirteen studies with preterm and/or low birth weight infants assessing effects of breastfeeding counselling or education (n = 8), maternal nutrition supplementation (n = 2), mental health (n = 1), relaxation therapy (n = 1), and cash transfer (n = 1) interventions. The evidence from these studies had serious indirectness and high risk of bias. Evidence suggests breastfeeding counselling or education compared to standard care may increase infant weight at one month, weight at two months and length at one month; however, the evidence is very uncertain (very low quality). Maternal nutrition supplementation compared to standard care may not increase infant weight at 36 weeks postmenstrual age and may not reduce infant mortality by 36 weeks post-menstrual age (low quality). Evidence on the effectiveness of postnatal maternal or caregiver interventions on outcomes among infants under six months with growth faltering is limited and of ‘low’ to ‘very low’ quality. This emphasizes the urgent need for future research. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022309001).
    • Microplastics in human urine: characterisation using μFTIR and sampling challenges using healthy donors and endometriosis participants

      Rotchell, Jeanette M.; Austin, Chloe; Chapman, Emma; Atherall, Charlotte A.; Liddle, Catriona R.; Dunstan, Timothy S.; Blackburn, Ben; Mead, Andrew; Filart, Kate; Beeby, Ellie; et al. (Elsevier, 2024-03-14)
      Microplastics (MPs) are found in all environments, within the human food chain, and have been recently detected in several human tissues. The objective herein was to undertake an analysis of MP contamination in human urine samples, from healthy individuals and participants with endometriosis, with respect to their presence, levels, and the characteristics of any particles identified. A total of 38 human urine samples and 15 procedural blanks were analysed. MPs were characterised using μFTIR spectroscopy (size limitation of 5 μm) and SEM-EDX. In total, 123 MP particles consisting of 22 MP polymer types were identified within 17/29 of the healthy donor (10 mL) urine samples, compared with 232 MP particles of differing 16 MP polymer types in 12/19 urine samples from participants with endometriosis. Healthy donors presented an unadjusted average of 2589 ± 2931 MP/L and participants with endometriosis presented 4724 ± 9710 MP/L. Polyethylene (PE)(27%), polystyrene (PS)(16%), resin and polypropylene (PP)(both 12%) polymer types were most abundant in healthy donor samples, compared with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) (59%), and PE (16%) in samples from endometriosis participants. The MP levels within healthy and endometriosis participant samples were not significantly different. However, the predominant polymer types varied, and the MPs from the metal catheter-derived endometriosis participant samples and healthy donors were significantly smaller than those observed in the procedural blanks. The procedural blank samples comprised 62 MP particles of 10 MP polymer types, mainly PP (27%), PE (21%), and PS (15%) with a mean ± SD of 17 ± 18, highlighting the unavoidable contamination inherent in measurement of MPs from donors. This is the first evidence of MP contamination in human urine with polymer characterisation and accounting for procedural blanks. These results support the phenomenon of transport of MPs within humans, specifically to the bladder, and their characterisation of types, shapes and size ranges identified therein.
    • Engaging young people with sexual health services in general practice surgeries: a qualitative study of health care professionals

      Adakpa, Itodo; Randhawa, Gurch; Ochieng, Bertha; University of Bedfordshire; De Montfort University (Wolters Kluwer, 2024-02-08)
      Evidence to date suggests that young people are becoming more sexually active and are forming relationships during the early stages of their lives, sometimes engaging in sexual risk-taking, which contributes to high rates of conception and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Young people at risk of adverse sexual health outcomes are the least likely to engage with reproductive and sexual health promotion programmes and services (RSHPPs), especially in mainstream clinics such as general practice (GP) surgeries. The study aimed to explore the views and experiences of service providers. A qualitative approach to explore the views and experiences of designing and implementing RSHPPs for young people in GP surgeries was used. A total of seven participants were interviewed, including four general practitioners (GPs), two of whom were managers at the practice; one nurse; one healthcare and support worker; and one practice manager. The context of RSHPPs such as local health priorities and partnerships to address STIs and unplanned pregnancies among young people contribute to the implementation and engagement of young people with RSHPPs. Training of GPs, nurses, and support workers helps develop confidence and overcome personal factors by promoting effective engagement of young people with RSHPPs. Addressing local health priorities such as reducing teenage pregnancies and STIs requires organisations to provide RSHPPs in both non-clinical and clinical settings to ensure that RSHPPs are accessible to young people. There is room for improvement in access to RSH for young people in GP surgeries by addressing organisational and structural barriers to access.
    • A privacy-preserving approach to effectively utilize distributed data for malaria image detection

      Kareem, Amer; Liu, Haiming; Velisavljevic, Vladan; University of Bedfordshire; University of Southampton (MDPI, 2024-03-18)
      Malaria is one of the life-threatening disease caused by the parasite knows as Plasmodium falciparum affecting the human red blood cells. Therefore, it is an important to have an effective computer aided system in place for early detection and treatment. As the visual heterogeneity of the malaria dataset is highly complex and dynamic, therefore higher number of images are needed to train the machine learning (ML) models effectively. However, hospitals as well as medical institutions do not share the medical image data for collaboration due to general data protection regulation (GDPR) and data protection act (DPA). To overcome this collaborative challenge, our research utilised real-time medical image data using framework of federated learning (FL) framework. We have used the state of the art ML models that include the Resnet50 and densenet in a federated learning framework. We have experimented both models in different settings on malaria dataset constituting 27,560 publicly available images and our preliminary results showed that the densenet model performed better in accuracy (75%) in contrast to resnet50 (72%) while considering 8 clients, while the trend is observed common in 4 clients with the similar accuracy of 94% and 6 client showed that the densenet model performed quite well with the accuracy of 92% while resnet50 achieving only 72%. The federated learning framework enhances the accuracy due to it’s decentralised nature, continuous learning, effective communication among clients as well as the efficient local adaptation. The use of federated learning architecture among the distinct clients for ensuring the data privacy and following the GDPR is the contribution of this research work.
    • Relational wellbeing in the lives of young refugees

      Kohli, Ravi K.S.; Fylkesnes, Marta Knag; Kaukko, Mervi; White, Sarah C.; University of Bedfordshire; NORCE; Tampere University; University of Bath (MDPI, 2024-02-29)
      This book is a Special Issue Reprint. In it we consider the ways in which a relational wellbeing approach can be used to understand the lives and trajectories of refugees in general and young refugees in particular. We mainly focus on the lives of young adults who came to the global North as unaccompanied children—that is, without an adult responsible for them when they claimed asylum. Many of the papers report from the Drawing Together project (see https://www.drawingtogetherproject.org/, accessed on 11 January 2024). The project focus is on ‘relational wellbeing’ for young refugees—that is, wellbeing that is experienced through actions that repair and amplify a sense of responsibility they and other people have to each other. Hospitality and reciprocity emerge through small acts of fellowship. In time, these build patterns of exchanges between young refugees and those important to them, leading to a mutual sense of ‘having enough’, ‘being connected’, and ‘feeling good’ (White and Jha 2020). This is wellbeing as a shared endeavour. Overall, the project and many contributions in this Special Issue stand at the conjunction between fields of research into wellbeing and refugee studies. The papers span contexts and countries, offering a sense of an international array of experiences, joined by an issue of supra-national importance—that is, the ways interaction and relationality mediate the experiences of becoming and being a refugee.
    • An exploration of factors influencing the recent levels of incarceration of girls in England and Wales

      Goodfellow, Pippa (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2024-02)
      This study seeks to highlight the existing gaps in understanding the imprisonment of girls in England and Wales. The relatively small number of girls in the youth justice system, further marginalised within custody, exacerbates the fact that they are overlooked by the penal system in both policy and practice. Compared to boys, the number of girls in the justice system and custody is low, but their particular vulnerabilities and aetiology of offending justify their consideration from a gendered perspective. The damaging effects of custody on girls during and after their release underline the argument that incarceration should be kept at an absolute minimum. Since the early 1990s, shifting systemic responses have produced substantial fluctuations in the levels of criminalisation of girls, which have been even more pronounced for their levels of incarceration. While the overall numbers were much lower, the dramatic proportionate increase and subsequent decline in numbers were more marked than similar trends for their male counterparts. This systemic dynamic has received less attention than other aspects of girls’ involvement in the penal system and represents a significant gap in youth justice scholarship. This thesis seeks to explain the shifting levels of custody for girls by exploring a range of factors and gendered dynamics that have influenced these trends. This thesis provides an analytical account of custody trends over the past three decades, considering the socio-political context, changing public perceptions and narratives, and how these dynamics have influenced policy, practice and professional culture. By drawing on the research literature, analysis of legislative and policy developments, and the views of a wide range of professionals, this study integrates empirical findings with existing theoretical concepts to engender original insights into the phenomenon under investigation. The current low levels of penal incarceration of girls are certainly welcome but have further engendered a vacuum of strategic attention for girls at a time when the youth justice system is otherwise ripe for potential reform. To guard against a future increase in incarceration, the factors driving these systemic dynamics must be recognised from a gendered perspective to inform a gender-responsive and effective decarcerative strategy. Without an understanding of what explains the extent to which custody is used for females in the youth justice system, there is a perpetual risk of a future upward spiral of hyper-custodial inflation for girls.
    • Accounting professionals' legitimacy maintenance of modern slavery inspired extreme work practices in an emerging economy

      Win, Sandar; Chhatbar, Mehul; Parajuli, Mahalaxmi Adhikari; Clement, Seyefar; Sheffield Hallam University; Coventry University; Abertay University; University of Bedfordshire (Taylor and Francis, 2024-02-23)
      It is well-established in the human resource management literature that high intensity and excessive workload can cause undesirable physiological, psychological, behavioural, and social outcomes. However, there is a need to theorise the process by which extreme work has been legitimised and embedded among professionals. In this paper, we view extreme workers as those professionals who contribute to their works beyond acceptable contractual obligations, either voluntarily for personal rewards or involuntarily due to the menace of penalty, or both. We chose to investigate how accounting professionals in India legitimise extreme work in their workplaces using exploratory qualitative research methods and applied economies of worth theoretical framework. Our findings demonstrate that senior accounting professionals with the assistance of professional associations can play an important role in mobilising professional and organisational resources to tackle extreme work in their accounting firms and the industry.
    • Passion and intention among aspiring entrepreneurs with disabilities: the role of entrepreneurial support programs

      Dakung, Reuel Johnmark; Bell, Robin; Orobia, Laura Aseru; Dakung, Kasmwakat Reuel; Yatu, Lemun Nuhu; University of Jos; University of Worcester; Beijing Foreign Studies University; Makerere University; University of Bedfordshire (Emerald Publishing, 2023-11-10)
      Purpose: This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial support programs and entrepreneurial intention, and the moderating role of entrepreneurial support programs in the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention, among students with physical disabilities in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a closed-ended questionnaire survey, composed of previously validated scales, to sample 209 students with physical disabilities at tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Hierarchal regression was performed to assess the relationships between the variables and test the hypotheses. Findings: Both entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial support programs were found to be significantly positively related to entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurial support programs also moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention. Research limitations/implications: This research paper identifies that developing entrepreneurial passion and providing accessible and inclusive entrepreneurial support programs are valuable in supporting and facilitating a passage into entrepreneurship for those with disabilities. Originality/value: This research paper addresses calls for further understanding of how those with disabilities can be supported into entrepreneurship, by identifying supporting factors. The research paper provides further understanding of the entrepreneurial passion and intention nexus by exploring the relationship within those with a physical disability, where significant barriers exist and within a developing country context where entrepreneurship might be a necessity rather than driven by passion.
    • Enhancing text comprehension via fusing pre-trained language model with knowledge graph

      Qian, Jing; Li, Gangmin; Atkinson, Katie; Yue, Yong; Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University; University of Bedfordshire; University of Liverpool (Association for Computing Machinery, 2024-02-16)
      Pre-trained language models (PLMs) such as BERT and GPTs capture rich linguistic and syntactic knowledge from pre-training over large-scale text corpora, which can be further fine-tuned for specific downstream tasks. However, these models still have limitations as they rely on knowledge gained from plain text and ignore structured knowledge such as knowledge graphs (KGs). Recently, there has been a growing trend of explicitly integrating KGs into PLMs to improve their performance. For instance, K-BERT incorporates KG triples as domain-specific supplements into input sentences. Nevertheless, we have observed that such methods do not consider the semantic relevance between the introduced knowledge and the original input sentence, leading to the issue of knowledge impurities. To address this issue, we propose a semantic matching-based approach that enriches the input text with knowledge extracted from an external KG. The architecture of our model comprises three components: the knowledge retriever (KR), the knowledge injector (KI), and the knowledge aggregator (KA). The KR, built upon the sentence representation learning model (i.e. CoSENT), retrieves triples with high semantic relevance to the input sentence from an external KG to alleviate the issue of knowledge impurities. The KI then integrates the retrieved triples from the KR into the input text by converting the original sentence into a knowledge tree with multiple branches, the knowledge tree is transformed into an accessible sequence of text that can be fed into the KA. Finally, the KA takes the flattened knowledge tree and passes it through an embedding layer and a masked Transformer encoder. We conducted extensive evaluations on eight datasets covering five text comprehension tasks, and the experimental results demonstrate that our approach exhibits competitive advantages over popular knowledge-enhanced PLMs such as K-BERT and ERNIE.
    • Coachees’ experiences of integrating a self-selected soundtrack into a one-off coaching session

      Wilcox, Donna; Nethercott, Kathryn; University of East London; University of Bedfordshire (Oxford Brookes University, 2024-02-01)
      Artistic media use in coaching has received growing interest in recent years with increased research and encouraging results. Music benefits wellbeing, aids new perspectives, and enhances embodiment, however, research on the use of music in coaching is limited. This study thematically analysed participants’ reflective texts (N=12) relating to their experience of a one-off coaching session that integrated a self-selected piece of music as a soundtrack related to the session topic. Results support previous literature on the subject, while also providing new findings that the soundtrack primed thinking for the session and was a motivational reminder of the session.
    • Assessing place experiences in Luton and Darlington on Twitter with topic modelling and AI-generated lexicons

      Taecharungroj, Viriya; Stoica, Ioana Sabrina; Mahidol University International College; University of Bedfordshire (Emerald Publishing, 2023-07-28)
      Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the in situ place experiences of people in Luton and Darlington. Design/methodology/approach: The study used 109,998 geotagged tweets from Luton and Darlington between 2020 and 2022 and conducted topic modelling using latent Dirichlet allocation. Lexicons were created using GPT-4 to evaluate the eight dimensions of place experience for each topic. Findings: The study found that Darlington had higher counts in the sensorial, behavioural, designed and mundane dimensions of place experience than Luton. Conversely, Luton had a higher prevalence of the affective and intellectual dimensions, attributed to political and faith-related tweets. Originality/value: The study introduces a novel approach that uses AI-generated lexicons for place experience. These lexicons cover four facets, two intentions and two intensities of place experience, enabling detection of words from any domain. This approach can be useful not only for town and destination brand managers but also for researchers in any field.
    • How do existing organizational theories help in understanding the responses of food companies for reducing food waste?

      Ramanathan, Ramakrishnan; Ramanathan, Usha; Pelc, Katarzyna; Hermens, Imke; University of Sharjah; University of Bedfordshire; Whysor BV (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2024-02-11)
      Food waste is a serious global problem. Efforts to reduce food waste are closely linked to the concepts of circular economy and sustainability. Though food organizations across the world are making efforts to reduce waste in their supply chains, there is currently no theoretical explanation that would underpin the responses of food companies in reducing food waste. Based on interactions with food companies over a nearly 5-year period, we explore the applicability of some well-known and not so well-known organizational theories in the operations management literature to underpin the observed responses of companies in reducing food waste. This paper is one of the first attempts to study food waste from an operations and supply chains point of view, especially from the lens of existing theories in the operations management literature and newer sustainability theories borrowed from other disciplines. Our research findings not only show that existing organizational theories and societal theories can help explain the motivations of firms engaging in food waste reduction, but also call for more research that could help explain some interesting observations that are not apparent when existing theories are used. This paper contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2 and 12.
    • Malaria vaccine efficacy, safety, and community perception in Africa: a scoping review of recent empirical studies

      Chutiyami, Muhammad; Saravanakumar, Priya; Bello, Umar Muhammad; Salihu, Dauda; Adeleye, Khadijat; Kolo, Mustapha Adam; Dawa, Kabiru Kasamu; Hamina, Dathini; Bhandari, Pratibha; Sulaiman, Surajo Kamilu; et al. (Springer, 2024-03-05)
      The review summarizes the recent empirical evidence on the efficacy, safety, and community perception of malaria vaccines in Africa. Academic Search Complete, African Journals Online, CINAHL, Medline, PsychInfo, and two grey literature sources were searched in January 2023, and updated in June 2023. Relevant studies published from 2012 were included. Studies were screened, appraised, and synthesized in line with the review aim. Statistical results are presented as 95% Confidence Intervals and proportions/percentages. Sixty-six (N = 66) studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the vaccines identified, overall efficacy at 12 months was highest for the R21 vaccine (N = 3) at 77.0%, compared to the RTS,S vaccine (N = 15) at 55%. The efficacy of other vaccines was BK-SE36 (11.0-50.0%, N = 1), ChAd63/MVA ME-TRAP (- 4.7-19.4%, N = 2), FMP2.1/AS02A (7.6-9.9%, N = 1), GMZ2 (0.6-60.0%, N = 5), PfPZ (20.0-100.0%, N = 5), and PfSPZ-CVac (24.8-33.6%, N = 1). Injection site pain and fever were the most common adverse events (N = 26), while febrile convulsion (N = 8) was the most reported, vaccine-related Serious Adverse Event. Mixed perceptions of malaria vaccines were found in African communities (N = 17); awareness was generally low, ranging from 11% in Tanzania to 60% in Nigeria (N = 9), compared to willingness to accept the vaccines, which varied from 32.3% in Ethiopia to 96% in Sierra Leone (N = 15). Other issues include availability, logistics, and misconceptions. Malaria vaccines protect against malaria infection in varying degrees, with severe side effects rarely occurring. Further research is required to improve vaccine efficacy and community involvement is needed to ensure successful widespread use in African communities.
    • From augmentation to inpainting: improving Visual SLAM with signal enhancement techniques and GAN-based image inpainting

      Theodorou, Charalambos; Velisavljevic, Vladan; Dyo, Vladimir; Nonyelu, Fredi; University of Bedfordshire; Briteyellow Ltd; Royal Holloway (IEEE, 2024-03-07)
      This paper undertakes a comprehensive investigation that surpasses the conventional examination of signal enhancement techniques and their effects on visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (vSLAM) performance across diverse scenarios. Going beyond the conventional scope, the study extends its focus towards the seamless integration of signal enhancement techniques, aiming to achieve a substantial enhancement in the overall vSLAM performance. The research not only delves into the assessment of existing methods but also actively contributes to the field by proposing innovative denoising techniques that can play a pivotal role in refining the accuracy and reliability of vSLAM systems. This multifaceted approach encompasses a thorough exploration of the intricate relationships between signal enhancement, denoising strategies, their cumulative impact on the performance of vSLAM in real-world applications and the innovative use of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for image inpainting. The GANs effectively fill in missing spaces following object detection and removal, presenting a novel state-of-the-art approach that significantly enhances overall accuracy and execution speed of vSLAM. This paper aims to contribute to the advancement of vSLAM algorithms in real-world scenarios, demonstrating improved accuracy, robustness, and computational efficiency through the amalgamation of signal enhancement and advanced denoising techniques.
    • Students perspective regarding employability skills within business and management education in Jordanian universities

      Al Jaber, Amneh (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2022-07-15)
      This study set out to determine how undergraduates view the concept of employability at business faculties at Jordanian universities, and how they apply it to the marketplace, in order to improve the fundamental motivation which helps them to bring their employability skills into line with the needs of the market. This study used Tomlinson’s graduate capital model, as well as, Bourdieu social theory to gain a clear understanding of the nature and progression of employability. The issue of graduate employability has attracted the attention of Higher Education, government and employers alike. This study presents both practical and academic findings which will make a significant contribution to the field of employability research, by undertaking a literature review, and extracting relevant information from government policy and experiential and theoretical academic studies. The study was carried out across the business faculties of five typical private universities, namely: The Philadelphia University; the Applied Science Private University; the University of Petra (Amman); the Al-Ahliyya Amman University; and the Middle East University, Amman, Jordan. Data collection began with organising focus groups where students were asked questions, and their responses were subsequently presented during interviews with HE educators and stakeholders. The study used an interpretive case study methodology, since this yielded a broad range of views and opinions about employability. The data was used to build a composite student perspective on employability, put together by the researcher, which evidenced that students had a comprehensive understanding of what is meant by the term employability, while maintaining that its development is a complex issue. Contrary to the conclusions reached in some of the literature, students were well aware that employability does not consist of gaining a number of transferable skills. The study discovered that applying knowledge through work experience was seen by students as a more helpful way of developing employability, although some students were not aware of how to pursue this avenue. In addition, the study found that students felt university teaching methodology needed to be modernised and focus on applying, rather than merely acquiring, knowledge. Moreover, self-awareness and confidence – which is a source of psychological capital – was instrumental in buttressing the meaning of employability for students. This study’ theoretical framework has thus underlined that the development of employability hinges to a significant extend on psychological capital. The responses to students’ views, which the researcher elicited from employers and educators, indicate that ongoing development is also of major importance for employability. As a result, this study provides a framework which distinguishes it from past research, setting out nine approaches that create the standards adopted in the Jordanian universities, which 10 could make a major contribution to ensuring qualified outputs meet and line up with the needs of the marketplace.
    • Fault detection and monitoring for electric pump motors

      Velisavljevic, Vladan; Dyo, Vladimir; Newton, J.; Newton, B.; Sunal, Cem Ekin (2024-02-29)
      Patent file GB2402869.8 Outcome of Innvoate KTP project.
    • The social, legal, and technical perspectives of cyberstalking in India

      Miftha, Ameema (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2024-02)
      Cyberstalking is a consequence of the worldwide growth in the use of internet-enabled information and communication technology (ICT) services and devices, especially the indiscriminate and unhindered use of the products and services of social media sites, channels, and apps. This cybercrime has had a severe impact on the psychological and physiological states of millions of innocent victims and is a major social and legal concern. Society is still discovering ways to effectively address cyberstalking, especially in countries such as India, where IT-based technologies and services are comparatively better developed due to the country’s strong talent pool and expertise. This study explores the social, technical, and legal perspectives on cyberstalking in India. Although cyberstalking is a global phenomenon, in the Indian context it has received limited attention in both academic and social research fields. From the Indian perspective, the research gaps result from poor sociocultural perception, perpetual ignorance, and cultural conflict among the victims and their family members; poor perception, inadequate legislation, and late reaction from the legal authorities; and technological limitations to identifying perpetrators. The objectives of this research were to examine Indian victims’ perceptions of cyberstalking in their prevailing socio-cultural setting; examine the impacts of cyberstalking; understand the perceptions of legal enforcement authorities and identify inadequacies of the Indian legal system; understand the role of technology in preventing cyberstalking; draw a comparison between India, the United States, and the UK; and suggest improvement measures. Following a grounded theory synthesis, this study used a victim questionnaire, individual victim’s testimonials, and thematic expert interviews as the primary data collection tools together with an exploratory literature review to achieve the research objectives and answer the research questions. An extensive review of the literature on the subject was conducted to analyse and identify gaps in the research to formulate the research questions according to the objectives of the study and to frame the research strategy with tools. Accordingly, a Likert scale survey, which had 260 samples associated with cyberstalking, was conducted to understand the following: the social media environment and cases of cyberstalking, the victims’ perceptions based on their experiences in the online environment, the victims’ experiences of dealing with the police and the legal system, the responses, and attitudes of the victims’ families while they were pursuing their cases, and the outcomes. The research also delved into specific cases of cyberstalking to understand the genesis, development, and outcomes of such incidents. To further understand the causative factors and dynamics of cyberstalking and its outcomes, an expert opinion was sought from select experts from the technological, social, and police/legal justice systems. The analysis included quantitative analysis of the survey data with statistical tools such as percentage analysis, comparative analysis, and correlation coefficient analysis using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) software to gather insights about the internet and the social media environment. Next, the perceptions of victims gathered via the Likert scale method were analysed using content analysis and comparative analysis techniques. The third stage included an analysis of expert inputs using thematic analysis and content analysis backed by software-based output using NVivo software. From the sociocultural perspective, the accumulated findings from the literature review, victim surveys, victim case studies, thematic analyses of interviews with experts and victims, and semiotic analyses of victim case studies suggested issues and concerns, primarily secondary victimisation from family and friends. The primary study results pertaining to the case testimonials and the thematic interviews suggest that secondary victimisation by family members’ and relatives’ reactions to cyberstalking are determined by the social and cultural responses that may happen if such incidents occur in the real world. In Indian society and culture, family prestige and standing have more value than an individual’s choice or preference. The family, extended family, and social environment are integral parts of life. However, in most cases of cyberstalking, the support system does not provide the required support, as there is a gap in the parents’ and family support groups’ understanding of the context of the cyberstalking. In India, the flawed sociocultural mindset and inadequate legislation often result in secondary victimisation. Factors such as poor social and cultural perceptions of the victims and their family/relatives, general and cultural ignorance, and false family prestige permeate the crime and its implications for victims’ psychological and physiological states. Cyberstalking can even result in victims being punished and harassed further by family members. As a result, the number of formal legal complaints and cases remains low compared to the actual number of incidents. Often, the cyberstalking incidents change victims’ lives permanently. The impact on victims is particularly severe due to secondary victimisation. As per the findings from the legal and technical perspectives, factors such as poor social perception of the crime, cultural conflict and ignorance, the subjective characteristics and habits of the victims, the freedom and remoteness of internet technology, and the inadequacy of cyber-legislation to preventing and to penalise cyberstalking have all facilitated the proliferation of cyberstalking in India. Hence, from the Indian perspective, the research gaps are threefold: social, legal, and technical. From a social perspective, the factors are general lack of understanding, cultural conflict, and perceptual ignorance on the parts of the victims and their family members. From a legal perspective, compared to developed countries like the United States and the UK, the law is inadequate to prevent cyberstalking, and from a technical perspective, technology plays the dual role of facilitator and preventer of cyberstalking. This study validates the findings, and recommendations based on Stamper’s semiotic framework are given. In addition, a framework for regulating cyberstalking across the six layers of the semiotic framework is suggested.