Sustainable Communities
‘Serving a Changing Scotland’: The role of education in the education and training of police officers in Scotland – Larissa Engelmann, Dr. Andrew Wooff, Dr Liz Aston, Dr. Martha Caddell, School of Applied Sciences
Police Scotland has devoted themselves to the empowerment and development of its people. However, the best way to educate and train police officers in the 21st century is still unclear. With the first policing degrees launching in Scottish Universities, further research into the role of education in police officer development is required to identify best practice and opportunities for Police Scotland to develop as a learning organization.
Therefore, this project will explore how Scottish police officers view their engagement with education in relation to rank, years of experience and educational background, in what way officers understand Police Scotland to be a professional learning organization and examine perspectives of policing students and partner organizations on the role of education in police officer development and partnership work. To do this, a mixed- methodology approach will be adopted, engaging with Scottish police officers, professionals working in partnership with the police and current policing degree students.
Doing Well by Doing Good: Investment in Ethical Funds and its Risk Exposures – Shaikh Masrick Hasan, The Business School
Ethical funds consider the social, environmental, governance, religious and ethical issues alongside the financial performance where conventional funds consider only financial performance while making an investment decision. Ethical investment contributes to social change by making companies more responsible towards society (Heinkel, Kraus & Zechner, 2001). To do this, ethical investment imposes non-financial criteria to select the companies for their portfolio that reduces the possible number of investment options.
Modern portfolio theory (Markowitz, 1952) predicts that unrestricted investment (conventional funds) enjoys better risk reduction opportunity than the restricted investment (ethical funds). This is because it is assumed that by applying the screening criteria ethical funds may have a higher risk than conventional funds. On the other hand, stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984) argues that firm’s long-term sustainability can be achieved by considering the rights of all stakeholders and this theory is aligned with the ethical funds’ investment decision. Therefore, this can also predict that ethical funds may enjoy lower risk compared to conventional funds.
Furthermore, there is a gap in the literature about the risk exposure of ethical funds as previous researchers such as Hoepner & Schopohl (2018), Reddy, Mirza, Naqvi & Fu (2017) and Renneboog Horst, & Zhang (2011) mainly focus on the performance of the ethical funds. This statement is also supported by Charles, Darne & Pop (2015).
Exploring the History and Cultural Representation of Capital Punishment in Scotland – Simon McFadden, School of Arts and Creative Industries
This visual presentation relates to the research project of ‘Exploring the History and Cultural Representation of Capital Punishment in Scotland’. The overarching aim of this research is to address gaps in scholarship via analysing how capital punishment was represented and perceived historically.
Moreover, this interdisciplinary project entails numerous different areas of exploration including: the impact of gender and the role of religion in how capital punishment was depicted. Furthermore, the legacy of capital punishment in contemporary Scotland will be examined via analysing the significance of dark tourist sites relating to capital punishment in Scotland and researching public opinion of the death sentence in modern day Scotland.
This visual presentation illustrates an overview of the project accompanied with historic visual representations of capital punishment.
Humanitarian Supply Chains: Enabling Multi-dimensional Information Flows to achieve Coordination, Cooperation and Collaboration – David Duddy, The Business School
This poster expresses the aim of my research which is to explore the behaviours of stakeholders where they influence the flow of information in the humanitarian supply chain to determine the practicality and feasibility of coordination, cooperation and collaboration. My research will explore human activity and interaction, behaviour, perception and value judgements in challenging, often hostile environments: the humanitarian supply chain is a social constructivist paradigm.
This research will employ a multi-method form of qualitative research, drawing on participant observation within a cross-sectional timeframe, and will apply inductive reasoning to the themes and behavioural patterns witnessed.
The key outputs of this research will be the identification of the components of this human activity system; establishing a root definition for the humanitarian supply chain; and producing a conceptual framework which will allow NGO and donor stakeholder groups to better contribute holistically to the humanitarian supply chain as it supports relief operations.
Material Journey: the calculation of the carbon footprint of an art project – Inge Panneels, School of Computing
This poster seeks to ‘map’ the carbon footprint of a creative art practice, that has first and foremost a material focus. Material Journey (2018) details the carbon footprint of a recent artwork: from concept to making, to installation and exhibition. It will note that the tools needed to get this information are currently lacking. In the same way jewellers can source ethically mined gemstones which show provenance and accountability, the carbon equivalent is currently lacking for material-based craft businesses in particular, and materials-based art practices in general. The necessary data are patchy, and in some cases missing, and the tools to enable targeted calculations are missing. This project was reviewed and published in Arts (2019) and peer review feedback noted that this was a timely question: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/8/1/7/htm . The future aims are to develop some digital tools that would enable a practitioner to keep tabs of their material carbon footprint.
Developing The Lions’ Gate Garden as a Locative Augmented Reality Game for Actions on Climate Change – Callum Egan, School of Computing
The Lions’ Gate is an in-development interactive permaculture gardens project based at Merchiston campus.
This visual representation details the concept of an Augmented Reality game-based application that will demonstrate the principles and ethics of permaculture, introduce users to plant-lore, and recipes and highlight actions to Climate Change based on a sister project the researcher has been working on – 52 Actions for Climate Change.
The concept is an instantiation of a Blended Space.
Children’s Literature and Science – Emily Alder and Lois Burke, School of Arts and Creative Industries
This poster showcases the early stages of an interdisciplinary project on the subject of children’s literature and science. Children’s literature and material culture is packed with scientific stories, characters, and learning. Fiction writers, artists, and designers turn to science for inspiration; science writers are drawn to storytelling and fictional representations to communicate the work of scientists. The project explores intersections between science and children’s literature (fiction and non-fiction) to seek new directions in interdisciplinary research and richer understandings of children’s written and material culture.
Denser and taller urban environments: is it the right path to building sustainably? – Ruth Saint, Niaz Gharavi, Francesco Pomponi, Bernadino D’Amico, School of Engineering and the Built Environment
The built environment is the greatest cause of carbon emissions, global energy demand, resource consumption and waste generation. Given the global growth of population and urbanisation, achieving optimal utilisation of space and maximal efficiency in resource use is therefore fundamental if a sustainable tomorrow is to exist. The aim of this research is therefore to investigate what building forms yield maximal efficiency in terms of space provision, land use, energy demand, carbon emissions, and resource consumption. This multi-criteria approach greatly extends the often partial view of most existing research and will enable better-informed decisions for designers, urban planners, and policymakers by providing a more holistic picture of what sustainable urban environments should look like.
Simulations of Liquefaction – James Leak, School of Engineering and the Built Environment
This presentation will briefly discuss the phenomenon of liquefaction and the grievous damage it has on infrastructure and loss of life. Following this, the scope of the research will be discussed. This being to simulate individual soil particle interactions undergoing liquefaction. This aims to allow engineers to understand the phenomena better and aid in simplifying designs of structures likely to be influenced by liquefaction and landslide interactions.
Information Society
Helping SaaS companies to lead in the global skills crisis: Mapping Digital Education Routes-to-Market and examination of their influence on product adoption – Alexander Ziegler, The Business School
The whole SaaS industry is talking about the value of ‘adoption’. But there is still no proven recipe on how to drive ‘adoption’. The global skills crisis is causing more and more challenges to find any people with the right skills in the SaaS area, not to mention anyone who knows about a specific product. It is surprising that, especially in the very innovative area of SaaS, nobody has, to date, looked for data to obtain more background around the best ways for ‘adoption’.
If you ask companies how they innovate in the services area, then you learn that they are using advice from industry organizations, such as Technology Services Industry Association. Product ‘adoption’ plays a key role in their LAER model (land, adopt, expand, renew. A possible solution that is scalable for large SaaS companies could be digital education.
But education is not strategic in a software company, the focus is, of course, on software sales. Therefore, it is not a surprise that nobody has looked into which route-to-market is better to drive ‘adoption’ than others.
Thus, to support adoption in the SaaS area, there are two key questions to be solved: We need to map the existing routes-to-market for education and then we need to figure out which routes-to-market are better than others to drive ‘adoption’.
Leveraging ICTs for enhanced marketing performance: Key issues for marketers in Trinidad and Tobago’s commercial banks – Tracey Savary, Dr Constantia Anastasiadou, Dr Janice McMillan, The Business School
Marketers perform a vital function, impacting organisational revenue and profitability. Increasingly, advances in information and communications technology (ICT) have been impacting upon the marketing discipline and are being leveraged for enhanced business performance. Apart from affecting firms, technology is also propelling consumer empowerment -another dynamic confronting marketing practitioners. Notwithstanding these developments, while ICT is becoming increasingly necessary in marketing practice, research has shown that marketers are struggling with this change.
Against this backdrop, the purpose of this research is to contribute to the academic discussion on the impact of ICT on marketing and moreover, how this resource can be leveraged for enhanced marketing performance. The study aims to explore and gauge the perceived effectiveness of marketers’ integration of ICT into marketing. The research design comprises a qualitative multi-methods approach. This investigation addresses the gap in extant literature by focusing on the various ICTs used to enhance marketing approaches and functions.
DIY wireless networks: insights for participatory design – Ingi Helgason and Michael Smyth, School of Computing
This poster presents a set of insights developed collaboratively by researchers during a three-year participatory design project spread across four European locations. The MAZI project explored potential uses of a “Do-It-Yourself” WiFi networking technology platform. Built using low-cost Raspberry Pi computer hardware and specially developed, open-source software, this toolkit has the potential to enable hyper-local applications and services to be developed and maintained within a host community for its own use. The nine insights are a distillation and articulation of the collective reflections of the project partners gained from their experiences of working in diverse settings with varied communities and stakeholders.
The usability and acceptability of a mobile health app during military training – Coral Hanson, Sheona MacHale and Lis Neubeck, School of Health and Social Care
Women undertaking military training are more prone to injury and mental illness than men, and are more likely to have fertility problems than other women. Understanding how to mitigate risks for Servicewomen is important. This study explored the usability and acceptability of a mobile health app used to collect health data (diet, physical activity and stress) during military training.
The study consisted of two parts; data entry into the app to analyse accuracy and ease of use, and telephone interviews with seven army officers who used the app during military training.
The app was difficult to use and did not record data accurately. Study participants reported design limitations compared with commercial apps such as MyFitnessPal, limitations on using mobile devices during training, particularly when on exercise, and the social unacceptability of using a phone at mealtimes. Health apps were considered to be more relevant during active service than military training.
Wellbeing
Associations between chondrocyte transiency and osteoarthritis pathology – Hasmik Jasmine Samvelyan and Dr Katherine Staines, School of Applied Sciences
Osteoarthritis is a progressive musculoskeletal disease affecting over 8 million people in the UK. It is characterised by loss of the articular cartilage, formation of osteophytes, synovial proliferation and inflammation, ultimate loss of joint function and disability. We have previously shown that in mouse model of osteoarthritis the articular cartilage chondrocytes undergo transformation from inherently stable phenotype to transient phenotype and revealed associations between growth abnormalities and osteoarthritis predisposition. We hypothesised that altered growth dynamics underpin osteoarthritis predisposition. The poster shows the preliminary results some of the experiments performed to test this hypothesis.
Dyslipidaemia and altered hepatic function in males – consequences of androgen excess in fetal life – Katarzyna Siemienowicz, Filis, P., Shaw, S., Douglas, A., Thomas J., Howie, F., Fowler, PA, Duncan WC and Rae, MT, School of Applied Sciences
Adult male offspring of women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) have increased dyslipidaemia, characterised by elevated triglycerides (TG), increased total and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), and hyperinsulinaemia. As altered intrauterine endocrine environments can ‘programme’ adverse health outcomes in adulthood we hypothesised that this dyslipidaemia was a consequence of a hyperandrogenic intrauterine environment. We used an outbred large animal model to identify if prenatal androgen excess could be causally linked to male hepatic dysfunction.
Our results demonstrated that androgen overexposure in utero leaves a legacy in adolescent life of male offspring that is characterised by hypercholesterolemia. This is directly programmed in utero and suggests that dyslipidaemia in the sons of women with PCOS may have a significant environmental rather than genetic component. This effect is underpinned by altered expression of gene/protein pathways responsible for bile acid synthesis and de novo cholesterol synthesis in the liver. As the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway is decreased standard therapeutic strategies to reduce cholesterol may be less effective.
Decreased hepatic detoxification potential in males – consequences of androgen excess in fetal life – Katarzyna Siemienowicz, Filis, P., Shaw, S., Douglas, A., Thomas J., Howie, F., Fowler, PA, Duncan WC and Rae, MT, School of Applied Sciences
Altered intrauterine endocrine environments can ‘programme’ adverse health outcomes. Linkage between altered androgen exposure in utero and adverse offspring health is robust. For example, increased maternal androgen concentrations and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in female offspring and dyslipidaemia in male offspring. We hypothesised that the liver was a major target for androgenic programming in utero and hepatic dysfunction would be present in offspring. We therefore examined the hepatic transcriptome and proteome in a non-biased approach using an outbred large animal model, to understand if key hepatic functions are altered by prenatal androgens, and identify circulating biomarkers in adolescence, indicative of prenatal androgenic excess.
This is the first study documenting that direct fetal male androgen overexposure results in decreased hepatic detoxification capacity, with potential for liver damage and fibrosis. In addition to mechanistic understanding of the journey from in utero androgenic overexposure to adolescent hepatic health issues, we observed the echoes of hepatic alterations reflected in the circulation, providing utility for biomarker development.
Attitudes towards pregnant women with substance use disorders – Proposal for a 3 stage study – Naomi Waddell and Sonya Macvicar, School of Health and Social Care
The poster is a visual representation of the work that has been completed to date. It describes the systematic review of the literature that has been undertaken and the results of this.
Pathogen detection in bathing waters using microfluidic technology, image processing and deep learning – Muhammad Ilyas and Abdelfateh Kerrouche, School of Engineering and the Built Environment, Alistair Lawson, School of Computing, and Sonja Rueckert, School of Applied Sciences
Monitoring the quality of recreational waters such as beaches and rivers is becoming a global concern to protect human health (e.g. the EU Bathing Water Directive (BWD) in Europe). In Scotland, water quality at 86 designated bathing water sites is assessed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) from May to September. However, methods for detecting pathogens such as E-coli are challenging as samples need to be collected from several locations and transported to the laboratory within a short period of time, typically within 6 hours. Therefore, authorities responsible for these bathing waters would ideally require new tools to continually monitor levels of pathogens on-site. The aim of this poster is to present the findings from initial investigations into the development of a microfluidic system for the processing of water samples including a new approach to improve the quality of images from a microscopic camera. This will then allow image processing and a deep learning algorithm to be investigated for the detection and classification of microorganisms. The system will be tested on real water samples with collaborators at the SEPA. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving School of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Computing, School of Applied Sciences, and SEPA. It is funded by The Data Lab and SEPA.