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Item Open Access Cyberbullying and Cyber Aggression in Young People: A Mixed Methods Study(De Montfort University, 2023-03) Smith, EmilyCyberbullying is a conceptually flawed term, with issues surrounding its definition and measurement. The term cyber aggression was formulated to overcome many of these issues and provide a new and more inclusive way to investigate online aggressive behaviours. However, since its introduction researchers have been using these terms inconsistently and interchangeably, creating an additional issue with distinguishing between the two concepts. As there is an absence of research to explore this conceptual confusion, this thesis aimed to investigate whether the same confusion was evident within adolescents and emerging adults. The current research adopted an exploratory sequential mixed method design to further explore cyberbullying and cyber aggression by placing a greater emphasis on the initial qualitative phase to explore the phenomena of interest, and for the results of which to be used to guide the sequential phases. In accordance with this mixed methods design, this thesis has a three-phase design. Phase one included two focus group studies, that were conducted to explore the perceptions of cyberbullying and cyber aggression in adolescents and emerging adults. The key themes that were identified within each of these studies were built upon in the subsequent two phases. Within phase two, the focus group findings were used develop two scales. The Cyber Aggression on Social Media (CASM) scale was constructed to measure cyber aggression victimisation and perpetration. Within phase two, an additional novel scale was developed, the Cyberbullying and Cyber Aggression Knowledge Scale (CBCAK), to quantitatively measure participants knowledge and ability to distinguish between cyberbullying and cyber aggression. This phase also aimed to validate and the assess the psychometric properties of the CASM scale and pilot the CBCAK scale in emerging adults. The third and final phase aimed to further expand upon the focus group findings and to use the two newly developed scales to measure emerging adults’ knowledge of cyberbullying and cyber aggression, and to investigate whether social media related measures could predict cyber aggression. This phase also included three open-ended questions to further explore cyber aggression support and education that were thematically analysed. The findings of this thesis suggest that cyberbullying and cyber aggression are not only conceptually blurred within the literature, but confusion is also evident amongst young people. The participants found it difficult to distinguish between cyberbullying and cyber aggression and would often over characterise behaviours as cyberbullying. A lack of education and support targeted at emerging adults at university was another consistent finding throughout this thesis. The results also suggest that sufficient education and support should be made an importance within university services to help emerging adults to identify and better understand the wide range of aggressive behaviours online, in addition to providing advice around reporting and dealing with such behaviours. This was recommended to be implemented alongside adequate support avenues within universities to those who have experienced acts of cyber aggression.Item Open Access Agricutural value chain optimisation in a turbulent economy: A study of smallholder farmers in Nigeria(De Montfort University, 2023-03) Adeyeye, Adebowale Olumide AdewoleThis study aims to uncover the factors that impact agricultural value chain optimisation for small-holder farmers in Nigeria amidst economic instability. The study was conducted in the south-west, north-central, and core northern regions of Nigeria, which were selected for their suitability for cashew and sesame production respectively, taking into, account the crops’ requirements and environmental conditions. The data used in this study was obtained from primary sources which include structured questionnaires administered to 450 respondents and key informant interviews. Using Stata, the collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics and econometric models. A two-stage least square regression analysis was conducted to explore the factors that contribute to the optimisation of cashew and sesame value chain, and a multiple linear regression model was employed to examine the variables impacting production costs. The findings of the study indicated that household head's age, educational level, cashew yield, cultivated area, and economic instability are crucial factors that influence the optimisation of the value chain for small-scale cashew farmers; the size of the household, monthly income, years of farming experience, sesame yield, land area dedicated to sesame cultivation, and inflation rate has a crucial impact on the value chain optimisation of small-holder sesame farmers. Additionally, the age of the head of the household, literacy level, monthly income, purchasing cost of better seeds, farming equipment, production inputs, and the cost of inbound and outbound logistics are significant contributors to the total production cost for cashew farmers. Furthermore, this study found that monthly income, cost of improved seeds, fertilizers, and labour play a significant role in determining the production cost of sesame farming during economic instability. In conclusion, this study emphasises the significance of the aforementioned factors in enhancing the agricultural value chain for small-scale farmers in Nigeria. These results hold significant meaning for policy makers as they can draw insights from this study to develop and implement targeted initiatives aimed at enhancing the conditions of smallholder farmers.Item Open Access A theory of fair treatment of health and social care students during fitness to practise proceedings: a constructivist grounded theory.(De Montfort University, 2023-09) Chesters, Anna ElizabethAim: The aim of the study was to explore how higher education institutions (HEIs) in England operated their fitness to practise processes. Methodology: A qualitative approach within the constructivist paradigm underpinned the research that followed Charmaz grounded theory methodology. Methods: In phase one, an internet search of HEIs in England was undertaken to source the student fitness to practise procedures and process documents. Fifty-four HEIs were identified of which fourteen were selected for analysis. Coding was undertaken using the line-by-line approach advocated by Charmaz. Themes arising from the document analysis informed phase two; the semi-structured interviews. Staff within the fourteen universities whose documents were reviewed, were approached to take part in the second phase of the research. Fourteen individuals from four universities from the North, South and West of England agreed to participate in the semi-structured interviews. One participant withdrew prior to their interview. Thirteen participants were interviewed for the study. The staff were all academics and were from a variety of professional health and social care backgrounds. All participants had prior involvement with various aspects of the student fitness to practise processes. The interviews were digitally recorded and were transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were uploaded into NVivo and analysis of the transcripts was performed using line by line coding. An iterative approach towards the analysis was adopted until saturation was achieved. The study for this thesis was conducted at HEIs offering programmes validated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Health and Care Professions Council and Social Work England. Findings: Fairness emerged as a core category and was adopted as the lens through which the student fitness to practise process was considered. A substantive process theory of “fairness and student fitness to practise processes” was created. Adding to the literature on fairness and fair procedures, the conceptual metaphor of the fairness yardstick was devised, which harmonised three components: policy, student voice and analysis. Three procedural stages of the fitness to practise process were identified: investigating, deliberating and resolving. The fairness yardstick was embedded throughout the process providing an ethical sense of positioning. Conclusion: A variety of approaches towards student fitness to practise processes were found to exist within HEIs in England. Fair treatment of students who were subject to fitness to practise processes was the underlying ethos of staff involved, however inconsistencies and contradictions were apparent. Fairness, in relation to student fitness to practise processes, has not been the focus of research previously. The development of a substantive, constructivist process theory of fairness and student fitness to practise processes, offers a unique and new addition to the minimal literature in this field.Item Open Access Robert Zemeckis, Hollywood & the American Dream, 1978-1994(De Montfort University, 2023-03) Glanville, RichardFor two decades, Robert Zemeckis enjoyed an astonishing run of commercial success at the US box-office, with eight of the eleven movies he made between 1984 and 2004 becoming top ten hits in their respective years of release. These included two year-end number ones in Back to the Future in 1985 and Forrest Gump in 1994. Taking specifically the decade from the mid-’80s to the mid-’90s as his most concentrated stretch of fiscal success, cultural impact and industrial recognition, it is notable that Zemeckis made a series of movies during this period which dealt very centrally with US social values, recent American (i.e., baby boomer) history, and the concept of the American Dream. Significantly, this run coincided with the peak years of the culture wars, an era in which questions around American national identity and US history since the 1950s were being loudly debated, interrogated and redefined within the broader cultural sphere. Zemeckis’s films offer a unique opportunity to explore how one particular filmmaker was able to engage with these issues in a way that achieved a striking, even unparalleled, resonance with the American cinemagoing public. The principal questions I ask are; how do these films thematically, narratively and generically engage with the subject of the American Dream? How do they speak to American values and how do they define their own visions of success in America? And in what ways do these issues evolve from Zemeckis’s earliest work, through his 1980s movies, to the point of Gump’s release in 1994? I intend for this project to act as a case study which explores how a creative individual expresses his artistic interests, preoccupations and enthusiasms within a complex, evolving social and industrial environment.Item Open Access Holistic Approach for Sustainable Heat Energy Services in High-Altitude Rural Communities(De Montfort University, 2023-10) Mehta, KedarThis thesis focuses on developing a holistic approach to improve heat energy services in high-altitude rural communities in Kyrgyzstan. Due to remote locations, low-income situations, and limited access to modern heat energy supply, these communities rely on non-sustainable heating methods, leading to pollution, health problems, and local deforestation. Urgent attention is required to address the challenges of heat energy services in high-altitude rural communities. Although, no comprehensive scientific studies are available that focus on the existing issues and provide solutions. In response, this thesis presents a novel and holistic approach to improving heat energy services that incorporate three key elements: current energy demand, future heat demand scenarios, and sustainable heat supply solutions supported by quantitative on-site household surveys. To identify the current heat demand of a typical community, a validated archetype-based bottom-up model was developed. The results indicated that the age of the buildings, the absence of thermal insulation and the extreme cold climate result in high heat demand and low thermal comfort in Kyrgyz houses. Hence, heat demand for high-altitude rural Kyrgyz houses is up to 5 times higher (250-400 kWh/m2) compared to European houses (90-120 kWh/m2). The findings also highlight the necessity of formulating a strategy to decrease the high heat demand in the future to reduce solid fuel consumption and improve thermal comfort by considering building energy efficiency measures. Regarding future heat demand scenarios based on building energy efficiency, it was identified that due to low-income conditions and limited access to modern insulation materials, implementing building energy efficiency is crucial. To overcome this, the presented research proposed and developed a novel sustainable strategy using affordable and locally available thermal insulation structures such as sheep wool, straw, and reed. As a result, a novel sequential roadmap was developed to gradually reduce heat demand, with the potential to decrease the current heat demand by up to 70 % Based on the technical potential analysis, it was found that Kyrgyzstan holds favourable conditions for sustainable heat supply through solar energy (with a potential 60 % higher than Central Europe) and biomass energy (abundant due to forest cover). The decision-making framework was established as the research outcome to assess heat supply solutions at the community level using an evaluation matrix considering technical, economic, environmental, social, and geographical factors with the input of experts. The thesis presents five exemplary heat supply solutions assessed in the setting of high altitude. rural Kyrgyz communities and developed the evaluation score. Based on the novel evaluation matrix, a centralised solar district heating system appeared as the suitable system among the other supply solutions. This thesis recommended building energy efficiency as the key driver to establish the sustainable energy transition in high-altitude rural (Kyrgyz) communities. This research could have broader implications for other rural communities facing similar energy challenges, both within Kyrgyzstan and in other parts of the world. Therefore, the research findings hold significant value for local stakeholders and decision-makers, researchers, providing valuable insights about energy planning for high-altitude rural communities.Item Open Access Optimising Risk Mitigation Strategies in the Nigerian Petroleum Supply Chain Using Data Envelopment(De Montfort University, 2022-12) Asu, John OtuPurpose: The complexity and vulnerability of the petroleum supply chain have pushed supply chain managers to source a more practical approach to supply chain risk management. Therefore, this thesis develops a comprehensive risk management framework to analyse 28 selected risk factors from Nigeria's petroleum supply chain. I divide the supply chain into three stages (supply, production, and distribution) to assess the risk in the internal structure. The proposed risk management framework for the Nigerian petroleum supply could support risk managers to understand the process, key indicators, and parameters for effectively measuring risk performance. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method research is considered in this thesis. The quantitative approach considered a survey questionnaire with a sample size of 172 and a response rate of 32%. Data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based approach is used to evaluate the importance of each risk factor and determine the best response strategy. Specific risk priority number (RPN) indicators of the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) are considered the 3 inputs (Severity, occurrence, and detectability). In addition, the three outputs are significant indicators in the oil industry (people, environment, and business continuity). The qualitative approach considered 8 interviews with top supply chain management personnel. Findings: The findings show that the most critical risk factors in the Nigerian oil industry supply chain, in order of performance score (priority), include terrorist attacks (0.27), the explosion of road tankers (0.28), logistics (0.57), environmental (0.64). In terms of mitigation strategies, transfer, safety planning, alternative energy carriers, improved energy efficiency, emergency rescue plans, expected shortage, and diplomatic relations are among the best mitigation strategies. Research contributions: This study provides a comprehensive risk management framework of the significant risks in the Nigerian petroleum supply chain. It shows how RPN indicators are applied in a DEA model to simultaneously analyse the relationship between risks and their related impact measures. Originality/value: This thesis illustrates how RPN and DEA can be combined to analyse data for better decision-making and management. DEA integrated with RPN data to simultaneously prioritise supply chain risks, and their corresponding mitigation strategies is a novel idea. Although the findings relate to the Nigerian context, these can be readily adopted in other processing supply chains operating in different countries/regions for optimising risk mitigation strategies.Item Open Access Intention Mining from Social Network Data: A Fuzzy Logic Model Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour(De Montfort University, 2023-09) Mishael, QadriThe pervasive growth of social networks has led to an unprecedented wealth of information generated by users, providing vast opportunities for understanding and predicting user intentions. This research aims to investigate the impact of sentiment analysis on modelling social network users' intentions, focusing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Fuzzy Logic (FL). Drawing upon publicly available online datasets and data collected from social media platforms such as Twitter, this thesis employs advanced sentiment analysis and fuzzy logic techniques to create a robust model for estimating user intentions. By examining users' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control, valuable insights into the factors influencing their social network behaviour are uncovered. The study employs advanced classifiers such as the Decision Tree, Naive Bayes, and Support Vector Machine to validate the efficacy of features in predicting user intentions. Furthermore, the thesis underscores the significance of sentiment analysis, utilising the NRC Valence, Arousal, and Dominance (VAD) Lexicon to evaluate users' opinions and emotions towards various topics, products, and services. The seamless integration of sentiment analysis and fuzzy logic into the methodology for modelling the TPB ensures accurate and reliable results. The contribution of this research lies in its ability to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of sentiment analysis on social network users' intentions and to demonstrate the feasibility of using fuzzy logic in different applications, such as recommendation systems. The results of this research will interest a wide range of stakeholders, including researchers, businesses, and policymakers. In conclusion, this thesis presents a novel and comprehensive methodology for understanding and predicting user intentions within social networks, ultimately facilitating the development of tailored and effective marketing and advertising strategies.Item Open Access An Efficient Multidimensional k-Anonymisation Strategy Using Self-Organising Maps(De Montfort University, 2022-11) Mohammed, KabiruData mining techniques are highly efficient in sifting through big data to extract hidden knowledge and assist evidence-based decisions. The commercial benefits of these techniques have led to their successful adoption in different domains. However, there is an evidential concern that data mining could potentially be exploited to infer sensitive information, which raises a number of ethical issues, including those relating to privacy rights. Therefore, it is essential to enforce privacy constraints during mining processes in order to maintain a certain degree of privacy on the data to prevent inferences. As such, it is imperative to develop novel privacy techniques that can safeguard individual privacy during mining processes, while yet enabling the use of the data. This thesis centers primarily on privacy-preserving data mining, and specifically focuses on a proposed hybrid framework that combines data transformation methods in conjunction with anonymisation algorithms to derive more data utility during mining processes. The framework encompasses Self-Organising Maps for data transformation, two prominent clustering-based k-anonymisation algorithms to guarantee a certain degree of privacy, selective privacy and data quality metrics to validate our methods, and classification tasks to study the impact of our methods in data mining. The experiments of the study reveal that the proposed hybrid framework produces the most desirable properties for subsequent data mining. It is effective in meeting the desired privacy requirement and captures relevant patterns in microdata that are beneficial for classification tasks. In addition to this, the transformed data produced by self-organising maps conceals the input set into a 1-dimensional set of data, therefore preserving the true values of the original set. Results obtained from the experiments show that this unified approach has better overall performance in classification tasks than conventional methods. The outcome of the study concludes that anonymisation and data mining techniques are highly interdependent. Complicating their combination is the fact that both parties are attempting to achieve contradicting objectives. Therefore, the inclusion of additional techniques serves as a viable starting point for subsequent enhancements to promote compatibility between both parties. This would lead to reduced fluctuations in data mining performance and produce more consistent outcomes. The proposed model is effective in meeting this goal of adequately satisfying a privacy requirement while enhancing utility for subsequent data mining problems.Item Open Access ‘Mountaineering Underground’: A History of Caving c.1890-1939(De Montfort University, 2023-03) Reid, Melinda AnnThe thesis examines the development of caving as an organised leisure activity circa 1890-1939. This work was prompted by the observation that caving was not present in academic histories of the outdoor movement in Britain for that period. The thesis seeks to remedy this omission through providing a history of the development of caving in the late nineteenth century from its dual origins as an alternative activity for mountaineers or exploration by cave scientists, to its emergence as a discrete sporting activity in the later interwar years. Caving lacked the widespread appeal of walking, cycling and climbing partly because its environment failed to reflect the interwar interest in healthy exercise in the outdoors. Caving was not linked with the ongoing campaign for access to the outdoors nor with any preparation of the nation for war. However, the thesis argues that despite this there was enough interest in caving to support its growth into an organised, club-based activity for those interested in either cave science or exploration, or for those enjoying sport caving purely as active leisure. The thesis makes use of a wide range of primary and secondary sources to examine the development of caving through the themes of class, gender and identity, both in the context of the changing leisure experience of the interwar years and as an opportunity to contribute to the original exploration of a little-known environment at a time of exploration of the wider world. By 1939 caving was an identifiable sporting activity and had developed to the point where its infrastructure was stable enough to survive into the post-war years and undergo significant expansion and progression. The thesis seeks to place a contemporaneous history of caving alongside existing histories of the interwar outdoor movement in Britain.Item Open Access The impact of economic policy uncertainty on cost of capital, stock market development, and debt home and foreign bias: cross country evidence.(De Montfort University, 2023-06) Owusu-Manu, SamuelThe study examines three empirical questions. The first investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty on the cost of capital. The second examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty on stock market development. The third explores the role of economic policy uncertainty on debt home and foreign bias. In the first empirical chapter, we investigate whether economic policy uncertainty and the interaction of foreign equity portfolio flow and economic policy uncertainty impact the cost of capital. Using panel data from 20 countries from 2001 to 2018, we find economic policy uncertainty to exert a positive effect on the cost of capital. However, the interaction between foreign equity portfolio flow and economic policy uncertainty has a negative effect on the cost of capital, demonstrating that the combined effect of foreign equity portfolio flow and economic policy uncertainty has the opposite effect (i.e., reduces the cost of capital). The results are robust to alternative specifications and endogeneity. In the second empirical chapter, we find that economic policy uncertainty hampers stock market development. This is consistent with our hypothesis and the notion that economic policy uncertainty influences investors to halt investment decisions and adopt a wait-and-see attitude, thereby reducing stock market activities. Nonetheless, the interaction between institutional quality and economic policy uncertainty has a positive impact on stock market development. This implies that institutional quality brings to bear greater transparency and better disclosure practices which are essential for the efficient allocation of financial resources, thereby neutralising the negative effect of economic policy uncertainty. The results of our study are very important as policy decision-makers can appreciate that strong institutions can forestall the negative effect caused by economic policy uncertainty on stock markets. In the third empirical chapter, we find that economic policy uncertainty increases debt home bias. We also find that economic policy uncertainty has a negative effect on debt foreign bias. Further analysis shows that central bank independence and transparency mediate the impact of economic policy uncertainty on debt home and foreign bias. The implication is that countries will continue to attract debtholders during periods of economic policy uncertainty when there is an independent and transparent central bank.Item Open Access Transitioning to trauma care: A phenomenological study of non-trauma foreign-trained nurses(De Montfort University, 2023-02) Al-Sheikh Hassan, MohammedBackground: As the global nursing workforce faces an escalating shortage, the recruitment of foreign-trained nurses has become a necessity, particularly in high-income nations, which increasingly rely on them to bridge their nursing workforce deficits. These nurses, estimated at 3.7 million, practice in countries foreign to their birth or training. This leads to a notable non-uniform distribution of the nursing workforce in relation to global population density and healthcare demands, where approximately half the world's populace is covered by merely 20% of the worldwide nursing force. A quintessential example of this phenomenon is Saudi Arabia, a high-income nation and home to one of the highest trauma rates in the world. To meet its healthcare demands, Saudi Arabia employs a strategy of recruiting foreign-trained nurses who constitute two-thirds of its entire nursing workforce, predominantly sourcing from countries such as India and the Philippines. However, a glaring challenge emerges as many of these recruits are thrust into care settings that are often significantly different from their prior clinical experiences. Notably, several are placed within major trauma care environments despite having no prior experience in such settings from their home countries. This potentially jeopardises the nurses' work efficiency, subjecting them to excessive workloads and heightening dissatisfaction levels. These challenges can significantly impede their smooth transition and successful integration into their new professional environments. Aim: The primary objective of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of moving to major trauma care in Saudi Arabia as non-trauma foreign-trained nurses. By capturing these nurses' narratives, the study aimed to shed light on the challenges, adaptations, and insights these professionals encounter when acclimating to an unfamiliar and demanding clinical environment in a foreign country. Methods: Grounded by Husserl's philosophy of descriptive phenomenology, this research adopted a descriptive phenomenological approach to explore and describe the lived experiences of foreign-trained nurses transitioning into major trauma care roles in Saudi Arabia from non-trauma backgrounds. Consequently, the study recruited nine foreign-trained nurses from India and the Philippines working at a major trauma centre in Saudi Arabia. Unstructured, in-depth individual interviews were conducted, allowing participants to freely share their unique experiences, illustrated by personal stories and real-life instances. For a comprehensive understanding, each of the nine nurses participating in the study was interviewed on two separate occasions, where the member checking was applied during the second interview. The collected data were then thematically analysed using Colaizzi's descriptive phenomenological analysis method, ensuring a right representation of participants' narratives. Findings: Through detailed thematic analysis, three main themes emerged from the nurses' narratives: (1) 'Facing a New Reality', underscoring the initial shock and adaptation required upon their arrival in a distinct cultural and professional setting. This theme also delves into the 'cultural shock' many experienced as they grappled with divergent societal and workplace norms. (2) 'Adjusting Towards Growth' illustrating the resilience and determination exhibited by these nurses as they navigated the various challenges of adapting to a specialised trauma care role. Within this, the ‘emotional labour’ required to maintain professional composure, despite personal and cultural challenges, was evident. (3) 'Achieving Belonging', highlighting the culmination of the nurses' journey where they not only acquired advanced proficiency but also carved out a sense of belonging and integration within their new professional environment. Collectively, these themes, including the two distinguishing components of culture shock and emotional labour, capture the profound transitions experienced by these nurses across personal, emotional, and professional dimensions, painting a holistic picture of their adaptive journey in Saudi Arabia's major trauma care settings amidst cultural nuances and emotional demands. Conclusion: Extreme cultural, social, and religious disparities, coupled with the demands of nursing within a challenging practice area, became defining elements in the transition experienced by the nurses. This transition frequently brought them face-to-face with both cultural and practice shocks. Nevertheless, by consciously practising emotional labour throughout this transitionary phase, the nurses surmounted these challenges, eventually achieving a sense of belonging within their new care setting. The findings of this study have broader implications for the stakeholders in Saudi Arabia's healthcare system, notably the policymakers, nursing educators, and healthcare administrators. The insights underscore the importance of tailored orientation programmes, ongoing mentorship, and culture-centric training modules to facilitate smoother transitions for foreign-trained nurses. Moreover, these findings can be instrumental in reshaping recruitment and retention strategies for foreign nurses, aiming to enhance their pre- and post-arrival experiences. Consequently, the study lays down a blueprint of recommendations for both contemporary practice and future research. By acknowledging and acting on these insights, stakeholders can further enrich the nursing ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, ensuring a cohesive and integrated healthcare workforce.Item Open Access Valorising Hidden Culture: Power, Identity and Affect in Leicester Food Practices(De Montfort University, 2023-03) Parsons, LauraThis thesis offers a fresh perspective on mainstream cultural studies discourse, in which culture is conceived as capital, through economic valorisation, and a productionist gaze, which favours culture as produced and as product. The thesis highlights the shortcomings of such an approach, expressed as a deficit in our understanding of culture, through which everyday cultural practices are overlooked and the value of ‘high culture’ reinforced over other forms. Responding to the limitations of hegemonic models and approaches, ‘hidden culture’ is developed and presented as an alternative conceptual and analytical framework for cultural studies, and deployed in the thesis through a case study of food practices and everyday materiality. When conceived in this way, people are seen to live rich cultural lives in an everyday context, and cultural production is seen as not exclusively taking place in institutional settings, but in households, community spaces, and in social interactions and behaviours, in a way that is not captured through traditional models and approaches. Hidden culture opens up new avenues of research for cultural studies, by offering a fresh, more nuanced approach to considering cultural value; providing opportunities for a recalibrated scale of research focus which centres individual experiences and concerns, and reappreciates female-coded cultural representation. Moreover, hidden culture has significance for policy and praxis, highlighting the need to reappraise policy design focused on institutional culture, revisit evaluation approaches which emphasise tangible cultural products over cultural production and consumption, and foregrounding the imperative of recognising and valuing everyday activities as culture.Item Open Access Classroom Photographic Journeys: Alfred Hugh Fisher and the British Empire's Development of Colonial-era Visual Education(De Montfort University, 2021-09) Meneghini, SabrinaThis thesis explores the Colonial Office Visual Instruction Committee’s (COVIC) conceptualization and use of photography in order to demonstrate the role played by the medium in structuring a visual framework for the imperial indoctrination of children in early twentieth-century Britain. It focuses on photographs made by Alfred Hugh Fisher, an artist photographer who was employed by COVIC between 1907 and 1910 to document the peoples and lands ruled by the British Empire. Fisher was the first and only photographer to have ever been employed by COVIC and many of his photographic images were used in this context for the production of lantern-slide lectures, dedicated for use in children’s geography lessons. In attending to Fisher’s production of visual materials for COVIC, the thesis, therefore, simultaneously reveals how COVIC modified its approach to the importance of photography in imperial education and how personal sensibilities inflected the educational narrative populated by the British Empire during the time period in question. Drawing on material from COVIC archive, the Fisher Photograph Collection, and the Herbert F. West Collection of Alfred Hugh Fisher, the study analyses the relationship between Fisher and COVIC to establish what particular circumstances and imperial desires have led to his employment by the Committee. Similarly, it investigates the impact COVIC aspired to exert on audiences of Fisher’s images through an investigation of the instructions Fisher received from his supervisor, renowned geographer Halford John Mackinder. Particular attention is given to COVIC’s use of lantern slides in its pedagogical approach to the dissemination of visual information, demonstrating how the Committee aimed to involve young learners in emotionally-charged, multi-sensory teaching and learning activities. A discussion of the legacy of Fisher’s work in light of new political debates after World War I brings the study to conclusion. By addressing the context in which Fisher produced his photographs and through consideration of their contents and deployment, the study stresses the complicated institutional and inter-personal structures that materialised the structure of COVIC’s imperial visionItem Open Access Evolutionary Algorithms for Resource Allocation in Smart Grid(De Montfort University, 2023-02) Zheng, ZedongAs an upgrade and development direction of the traditional grid, the smart grid provides a feasible solution for the global low-carbon targets. The smart grid's bidirectional communication architecture and decentralization control methods contribute to integrating distributed energy sources, energy storage equipment, and interaction or coordination between energy supply and demand. However, resource allocation and energy management are getting more complex due to the heterogeneous of various components, information, and data. At the same time, the penetration of massive electric vehicles generated by traffic electrification has significantly influenced the energy system. Implementing an appropriate strategy to orchestrate the interplay between the smart grid and energy consumers or devices will enhance the resource allocation and management of the energy system. Demand response has recently been proven a reliable management approach for energy systems integrating electric vehicles. In addition, the management decision of the energy system has always been a very complex optimisation problem. Choosing and implementing an appropriate optimisation technology can broaden the smart grid's management ideas and application effects. Therefore, this thesis is dedicated to designing proper energy management strategies and applying evolutionary algorithms in smart grid resource allocation and management. With the massive literature review and analysis, the research mainly focuses on the linkage management of microgrids and electric vehicles, and three specific management scenarios have been studied. Firstly, for the energy management of small microgrids, this paper proposes a novel energy management method, which not only considers the charging demand of electric vehicles parked in the area but also regards electric vehicles as expandable energy storage devices under direct control by the energy system. At the same time, when applying the evolutionary algorithm to search for optimal solutions, the working idea of combining with other strategies to improve the optimisation ability of the algorithm is analysed. Secondly, considering the differences in electricity prices, energy-consuming behaviours and service objectives in different regions, this paper proposes a new idea of using commuter electric vehicles as energy transfer devices for multi-region microgrids based on price demand responses to improve the performance of multiple energy systems. In this scenario, the main consideration in applying evolutionary algorithms is improving the algorithm's performance by adjusting algorithm parameters according to the actual case. Finally, this paper proposes an energy interactive management method to optimize the energy management of community microgrids by coordinating large-scale electric vehicles. In the first stage, the microgrid and electric vehicles freely handle their energy demand and make pre-scheduling plans; in the second stage, the energy supply and demand balance is maintained, and the economic costs of both energy system and electric vehicles owners are reduced through real-time data update and market interaction. In this case, evolutionary algorithms are used to find decision schemes for large-scale optimisation problems. The experimental results show that the evolutionary algorithm can effectively solve complex optimisation problems in the energy system, and the proposed energy system management method also shows its unique advantages.Item Open Access Exploring Rice Husk Ash As A Supplementary Cementitious Material And Its Impact On Building Energy Performance(De Montfort University, 2023-10) Onyenokporo, NwakaegoGlobal cement production is responsible for 5-7% of anthropogenic greenhouse gases produced annually and is one of the biggest contributors to the reduction of finite natural resources. This excessive production and utilisation of cement is currently considered unsustainable due to its negative impacts on the environment, especially with regard to climate change and its resulting effects. Alternative measures have been recommended to reduce the negative impact of cement production. One of these alternatives is the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) for the partial replacement of cement in construction. Rice husks, an agricultural waste, are one of these SCMs and have been selected for this study due to the large quantities being produced in the study context and their ability to combine with hydrated cement to form compounds possessing cementing properties. In addition to rising global cement consumption and waste production, energy consumption is also rising. Building operations account for 55% of global energy consumption. As the building envelope is a major contributor to building energy performance, especially the external walls, its optimisation is therefore imperative to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. This research aimed to critically investigate the use of Nigerian rice husk ash as a supplementary cementitious material, its influence on the thermal properties of sandcrete blocks, and the resulting impact on building energy performance. A mix of methods, including observations, surveys (questionnaires and interviews), experimental investigation, and simulation study, were employed for this study to properly address each of the objectives set out. The results of the interviews and questionnaires served to provide evidence on the perceptions of householders and building professionals on the use of rice husk ash (RHA) and RHA blended blocks and also gather reasons for its low utilisation from building experts and researchers who have done similar studies. The environmental investigation included the production of RHA using rice husks from a major rice mill in Nigeria to justify rice husk ash as a suitable supplementary cementitious material for partial cement replacement. The production of the RHA masonry blocks followed, and tests were conducted in line with the research questions set out for this study to determine the effects of Nigerian rice husk ash on the physical and thermal properties of sandcrete blocks. Amorphous RHA was produced, which complied with the ASTM C618-19 standard for testing and utilisation of SCMs. Three variations of RHA block samples were then created for this investigation: RHA 5%, RHA 10%, and RHA 15%. For the three variations used, RHA15% recorded the best thermal performance when compared to the control sample. It recorded a U-value of 3.04 W/m2K. This was followed by the RHA10%, which recorded a U-value of 3.34 W/m2K. The average values for RHA5% did not record any significant difference in thermal properties when compared to the control sample, which had a U-value of 3.67 W/m2K. The building simulation results helped quantify the improvements to building energy performance from reuse of the rice waste using prototype buildings from the study context (a bungalow and a duplex/storey building). The largest improvement to the building fabric was recorded with the RHA15% blocks, which resulted in a 9.9% and 11.3% reduction in solar heat gains through the external walls for the bungalow and duplex/storey building, respectively. This led to a 6.55% and 4.2% reduction in cooling loads and a 4.1% and 2.8% reduction in CO2 emissions, respectively, for the bungalow and duplex/storey building. Furthermore, questionnaires and interviews revealed that participants would readily use the RHA blended blocks if they were inexpensive, strong enough for use, and blended well with other materials. The outcomes of this research will prove useful to householders, researchers, architects, and policymakers in their decision-making processes, and will be valuable in bridging the knowledge gap as well as introducing new methods that can be adopted for similar studies.Item Open Access Navigating Landscapes of Longing and Belonging: Dialogues of Capoeira and Welsh Folk Dance in Intercultural Performance(De Montfort University, 2023-07) Harrop, AngharadThis thesis is an autoethnographic critical enquiry exploring the innovative methods and processes employed throughout Perguntas & Atebion (2011-2013), an intercultural practice research exchange project between artists from Wales and Brazil, that was co-led by myself, a Welsh dancer and choreographer and Brazilian musician and capoeirista, Ruan de Vargas. Perguntas & Atebion took place between Wales and Brazil with dancers, musicians and capoeiristas drawing upon their practices of capoeira and dawnsio gwerin (Welsh Folk Dance) to create intercultural performance. Facilitated by an interrogation of the creative and critical processes that supported the collaborators on Perguntas & Atebion to bring their embodied knowledge of these cultural art forms into dialogue, this thesis offers a new methodology for creating intercultural performance. Thus, this thesis aims to contribute to renewed interest in intercultural performance making and offers a significant contribution to the paucity of academic writings about capoeira and performance and dawnsio gwerin. The thesis distinctively works from the perspective of the artist providing insight from the lived experiences of the process. It proposes an approach that combines collaborative improvised practices, and reflective writing as a process of sense-making. In so doing, it creates an innovative approach to the processes of writing about dance practice. It also revisits written journal reflections from the period of practice research to consider the embodied insights from it within the context of wider discourse from a variety of fields including: dance studies (Midgelow 2011, Roche 2015); intercultural performance studies (Knowles 2010, Loukes 2016, Fischer-Lichte, 2014); dance and cultural studies (Rosa 2015); geography (Anderson 2010); Brazilian and Welsh history (Assunção 2005, Lile 1999). The chapters address: autoethnography as a research method; approaches to intercultural performance creation; the practices of capoeira and dawnsio gwerin and their historical parallels; notions of embodiment and identity, place, space and temporality, and belonging that arise from both practices of capoeira and dawnsio gwerin within the context of intercultural performance making. Key themes of saudade and hiraeth offer lenses through which presence and absence, and bringing the past into the present, are examined to frame our intercultural collaboration in the contexts of Brazilian and Welsh culture.Item Open Access Joining Non-Signatory Third Parties to Arbitration Agreement with Particular Reference to Construction Disputes: Comparative Study Between England and Jordan (Lessons to Learn)(De Montfort University, 2023-05) Al-Maaiteh, YazanThis thesis conducts a comprehensive analysis of the regulations pertaining to the participation of third parties in arbitration proceedings as outlined in the Jordanian Arbitration Law No. 31 of 2001 and its subsequent amendment No. 16 of 2018. The objective of this research is to conduct a thorough evaluation of the intricacies and difficulties related to the enforcement of arbitration agreements on parties that have not signed them. This is a highly delicate and controversial matter within the present context of international arbitration. The research methodology employed in this thesis encompasses a thorough examination of comparative law and a doctrinal legal approach, drawing upon a diverse range of primary and secondary sources. Furthermore, this thesis examines the English and Welsh Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996) as a comparative framework in order to identify potential approaches for Jordan to tackle the problem of non-signatory third-party participation in arbitration proceedings and effectively navigate around the doctrine of privity. In order to address these challenges, the thesis proposes the modification of the current national legislation, particularly the Arbitration Law of 2001. The proposed amendment seeks to explicitly acknowledge the possibility of third parties being obligated by arbitration agreements and engaging in the arbitration process, drawing inspiration from section 82(2) of the AA 1996. The proposed amendment aims to optimise the efficiency and efficacy of arbitration as a method of resolving disputes in Jordan. In summary, this thesis constitutes a noteworthy addition to the realm of international arbitration and dispute resolution. The thesis not only presents significant observations regarding the difficulties and intricacies of third-party engagement in arbitration within the context of Jordan, but also puts forth practical suggestions for enhancing the effectiveness of arbitration as a means of resolving disputes that involve multiple parties across different legal jurisdictions. Given the similarities observed in the legal systems of Middle Eastern nations, it is plausible that the outcomes of this thesis could have broader implications beyond the specific context of Jordan. The primary objective of this thesis is to enhance the overall comprehension of third-party arbitration and make a valuable contribution to the advancement of more efficient and effective methods in the field of international arbitration.Item Open Access Electromagnetic Risk Management for Dependability of Road Vehicles using Discrete Bayesian Networks(De Montfort University, 2023) Devaraj, LokeshThe analysis of functional safety, cybersecurity and other risks has become an integral part of the development of modern road vehicles, which are increasingly reliant on the correct functioning of lectrical/electronic/programmable electronic (E/E/PE) systems. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) originating from on-board and off-board radio frequency (RF) sources are well-known common cause of failures or malfunctions in E/E/PE systems. Although vehicle electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements take some account of safety issues, they are mainly concerned with interoperability and their separate and independent development means that they are not directly connected with the more recently developed interests in other dependability aspects e.g., cybersecurity. From the system assessor’s perspective, functional safety issues caused by EMI have mostly been believed to be handled by legislative EMC measures. However, this position is highly questionable for systems that contain new technologies that are not considered in existing EMC standards. A unified approach that enables EMC risk management for the wider aspects of vehicle resilience as well as for functional safety and cybersecurity would increase the efficiency of the additional analyses by promoting the sharing and reuse of information. Based on the identified challenges for adopting a risk-based EMC approach, the application of probabilistic graphical models called Bayesian network (BN) is proposed in this thesis for two main purposes. First, to graphically model the epistemic uncertainties considered for electromagnetic (EM) immunity risk assessment, second, to overcome the limitations of assessing EMI risks due to multiple disturbances that can be simultaneously present (multitone) in the system EM environment. Two new multi-causal effect prediction models are proposed in this thesis to predict the failure probability of E/E/PE systems due to multitone EMI. The proposed models are verified with experiments to have an enhanced prediction accuracy when compared to the existing models in literature.Item Open Access Exploring resilience in pre-registration undergraduate nursing students: A constructivist grounded theory study(De Montfort University, 2023-03) Welyczko, Nicola AnnResilience has been posited as an important characteristic in nursing and identified as a key factor in managing stress, promoting wellbeing and reducing attrition in university students (USs). Despite this, resilience in the context of nurse education remains under-researched, particularly in the United Kingdom (UK). This study aimed to address this gap in extant knowledge and develop a more comprehensive understanding of resilience in UK undergraduate (UG) student nurses (SNs). A constructivist grounded theory (CGT) approach, underpinned by symbolic interactionism and social constructivism, was utilised to investigate how UG SNs in one UK university conceptualised resilience and to identify the factors that support and challenge it. Factors that co-created, sustained, and developed resilience in SNs were termed ‘constructs of resilience’ (CoR). Second-year student nurses (n=24) were interviewed using focus groups. Data were analysed by using initial, focussed, and theoretical coding, supported by constant comparative analysis and reflexivity. The analysis generated six key themes: the challenges of studying nursing; organisational belonging and connectedness; struggling to maintain balance; external CoR; internal CoR; and the components of resilience. Internal CoR that enhanced resilience included persevering, coping, prioritising, recognising and expressing, courage, balancing, bouncing back, accepting, and a passion for nursing. External factors were relational in nature and centred on the relationships students had with family, friends, peers, patients, mentors and academic staff. Two over-arching themes were found to be significant in SN resilience: connectedness and belonging; and positive relationships. A new definition and grounded theory of resilience in SNs are presented, contextualising resilience as a transactional constructivist concept. The Chain Theory of Resilience in Student Nurses (CTRSNs) evolved from synthesising the SN voice captured in this study with four existing theories Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979); salutogenesis (Antonovsky, 1979); Relational Cultural Theory (RCT) (Jordan, 2006); Ungar’s (2004) transactional constructivist approach to resilience and three concepts: co-creation; holism; and connectedness. The theoretical perspectives elicited from this study provide a novel insight into understanding resilience in SNs, presenting an original contribution to the extant knowledge base and an opportunity to further enhance resilience in SNs. The developed grounded theory offers a foundation for further research to explore and identify the CoR in other nurse education settings, both nationally and internationally. The model also has broader applicability to other disciplines, and settings, outside of nursing and higher education (HE).Item Open Access The Footballer of African Heritage in Ireland (1948-2004): Migration, Identity, and Racism(De Montfort University, 2023-03) Redmond, Patrick RaphaelThis thesis aims to explore the African heritage footballer in Ireland over a period between 1948 and 2004. These dates correspond to the year that the first known footballer of African heritage played in the top two tiers of Irish soccer (1948), and the year that Ireland finally removed the universal right to Irish citizenship of anyone born in Ireland (2004). This thesis also adds to the limited historiography on both Irish soccer and Africans in Ireland: by introducing the African footballer in Ireland as a case study, it focuses on societal reactions to African-heritage people in Ireland as a whole, and the ‘hegemonic racism’ of the Irish government with regards to people of colour. The thesis explores African-heritage footballers in Ireland through the prisms of identity, migration and race, comparing their lives, careers and experiences with similar footballers elsewhere, principally in Britain. It investigates how well these footballers were received in a largely monocultural society and how they were able to move into situations of sporting leadership often denied in Britain, its colonies, and the United States. It also explores the complexities and ambiguities of Irish race-relations, especially with regards to its own historical intercourse with the African through Irish missionaries and Irish-America, and Black mixed heritage children born outside of marriage. Furthermore, this thesis highlights how international soccer in the Republic became one of the very few sporting organisations that manifested itself as a representative of state: it thus demonstrates how important ‘Black’ footballers, all born abroad and mostly growing up in the Irish diaspora rather than in Ireland, were to making soccer a popular sport throughout the Republic following Ireland’s qualification to major international tournaments from the 1988 onwards. This thesis examines the African-heritage footballer in Ireland through four different chapters, centring on a single footballing aspect of Irish soccer: the student from Africa, the footballer of African heritage from Ireland, the foreign import of African heritage, and finally the ‘Black’ Irish international representative born in the diaspora. It explores the vagaries and intricacies of each group and their relationship with the Irish state, as well as the reactions to them as footballers from the Irish public and press. This thesis contends ultimately that the ‘hegemonic racism’ of the Irish state was far more welcoming to African-heritage visitors than many other nations. But it also argues that it was harsh towards those African-heritage population permanently settled in the state: either those born out of wedlock in the 1950s and 1960s, or the African immigration that arrived after 1997.