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An examination of work-life balance policies and practices: A case analysis of Ghanaian judges
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonWork-life balance (WLB) is an emerging concept in Africa and currently not much is known about the WLB experiences of judges, particularly in Africa. Based on this, the study explored the WLB policies and practices of judges in Ghana. In addition, many studies have neglected the experiences of judges in WLB research. Specifically, the study critically examined the notion of work-life balance among Ghanaian judges, identified the available work-life balance policies and practices adopted by the Ghanaian judiciary; investigated the factors that facilitate or constrain the utilisation of work-life balance policies and practices in the Ghanaian judiciary and the coping strategies adopted by Ghanaian judges.
The study adopted a qualitative research method based on an interpretivist philosophy. The research approach adopted was inductive and the research strategy was a case study considering Ghanaian judges. Primary data was collected from 32 judges in Ghana using a semi-structured interview guide. The sample for this study was drawn from the population of Ghanaian judges in the Supreme Court, Court of appeal, High Court of justice, Circuit court and District court. The data collected were analysed using thematic analysis based on the recommendations of Braun and Clarke (2012).
The findings indicate that the judges had different notions of WLB: managing work and non-work demands, increased autonomy and control, absence of work-life conflict, healthy work and non-work experience and time for family. There was variance in the judges’ perception of WLB and their experience. The range of WLB initiatives in the Ghanaian judiciary were limited to flexible leave arrangements. Flexible working arrangements, flexible locations, and other arrangements were not prominent. The prevailing employment legislation was found to be reactive, and not reflective of the current realities in the workplace. Factors that facilitate the uptake of WLB initiatives are career stage, gender stereotype, marital status/dependants, health, support, and awareness. Factors that constrained the uptake of WLB initiatives are perceived career damage, lack of information, cultural stereotypes, organisational culture, economic factors, lack of support, and politics/corruption. Assistance seeking approach such as Family/spousal support, psychologists, spiritual/religious activities, and paid workers/house helps were the major coping strategies employed by judges. Other personal strategies included weekend travels, and rest and leisure activities. Strategies to transform WLB in the Ghanaian judiciary were digital transformation, expanding the workforce, introducing the rota and court sharing system and setting up more courts.
The study concluded that WLB is socially constructed and varies depending on the individual’s perspective and experiences. The scope of WLB initiatives in the Ghanaian judiciary is streamlined to leave arrangements, and this connects with the fact that the concept is still emerging. The study also concludes that the factors that constrain the uptake of WLB initiatives in the judiciary outweigh those that facilitate the uptake of WLB initiatives. The study hence recommended the need to address the WLB experiences of judges in Ghana in terms of their workload and long working hours. There is also the need for regulatory and supervisory frameworks to be established or strengthened as the case may be to assist public and private organisations in Ghana (re)design work more humanely and in line with globally accepted standards. Issues like support and awareness need to be addressed to mitigate the notion of perceived career damage, lack of information and cultural stereotypes
Apprenticeships as pathway to care careers: Ethical challenges and opportunities for professions
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Dynamic Fashion Video Synthesis from Static Imagery
Get PDFData Availability Statement: This paper did not generate any new data.Online shopping for clothing has become increasingly popular among many people. However, this trend comes with its own set of challenges. For example, it can be difficult for customers to make informed purchase decisions without trying on the clothes to see how they move and flow. We address this issue by introducing a new image-to-video generator called FashionFlow to generate fashion videos to show how clothing products move and flow on a person. By utilising a latent diffusion model and various other components, we are able to synthesise a high-fidelity video conditioned by a fashion image. The components include the use of pseudo-3D convolution, VAE, CLIP, frame interpolator and attention to generate a smooth video efficiently while preserving vital characteristics from the conditioning image. The contribution of our work is the creation of a model that can synthesise videos from images. We show how we use a pre-trained VAE decoder to process the latent space and generate a video. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our local and global conditioners, which help preserve the maximum amount of detail from the conditioning image. Our model is unique because it produces spontaneous and believable motion using only one image, while other diffusion models are either text-to-video or image-to-video using pre-recorded pose sequences. Overall, our research demonstrates a successful synthesis of fashion videos featuring models posing from various angles, showcasing the movement of the garment. Our findings hold great promise for improving and enhancing the online fashion industry’s shopping experience.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant number EP/T518116/1
A UNIFIED THEORY FOR ARMA MODELS WITH VARYING COEFFICIENTS: ONE SOLUTION FITS ALL
No full text......Alessandra Canepa acknowledges financial support under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan
(NRRP), Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.1, Call for tender No. 104 published on 2.2.2022 by the
Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU–
Project Title 20223725WE - Methodological and computational issues in large-scale time series models for
economics and finance – CUP J53D23003960006- Grant Assignment Decree No 967 adopted on 30/06/2023
by the Italian Ministry of Ministry of University and Research (MUR)
A study on emission reduction and combustion efficiency, analyzing oxymethylene ether (OME1-5) with diesel fuel
No full textData availability: Data will be made available on request.This study investigates an optimized fuel blend comprising oxymethylene ethers (OMEn = 1–5 series) with diesel aimed at simultaneously reducing soot and NOx emissions while enhancing fuel efficiency. An optimal blend was identified through rigorous experimentation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. The study employs the response surface method (RSM) for regression analysis and integrates machine learning techniques for predictive modeling to assess various fuel compositions and optimize the mixture for improved combustion dynamics. Experimental measurements were conducted in an optical constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC) to confirm the blend’s effectiveness in reducing both soot and NOx emissions. The investigation thoroughly analyzes spray combustion properties, including injection duration, Start of Combustion (SOC), End of Combustion (EOC), Lift-Off length of fuels, spray tip penetration, and their impact on combustion efficiency. Analysis of energy densities between the blends reveals that OMED exhibits a heating value superior to OME2-5 but inferior to diesel, striking a balance in energy output. Furthermore, OMED demonstrates superior energy density compared to OME1-3 and diesel, highlighting its potential for enhanced fuel efficiency. The optimized blend achieves a significant 78.2 % reduction in soot emissions and a 31.3 % reduction in NOx emissions compared to conventional diesel, underscoring its efficacy in mitigating harmful emissions without compromising combustion performance. This research contributes valuable insights into developing sustainable fuel solutions for diesel engines, paving the way for greener automotive technologies in the future.This research was financially supported by the College of Engineering Design and Physical Sciences at Brunel University London under grant number 11667100
Anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of indoor environmental hazards impacting Syrian refugees in Lebanon
Get PDFThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonA pilot study of indoor air quality in Syrian refugee settlements in Lebanon found
indoor mould growth significantly linked with moisture and ventilation levels. A follow-up
cross-sectional study was subsequently performed in 4 provinces of Lebanon. It was
revealed that although non-residential shelters had the highest mean total indoor count
(TIC), 3 mould genera were strongly associated with non-permanent shelters (p<.001)
and occupancy was found strongly associated with some of the genera. Regarding shelter
conditions, highest TIC was observed in unfinished structures. These findings suggest
shelter category, condition and occupancy significantly influence indoor mould
concentrations and may lead to increased respiratory health risks for Syrian refugees in
Lebanon. Biomonitoring using the fractional exhaled breath nitric oxide (FENO) biomarker
and clinical interpretation of results suggested potential persistent exposure to allergens.
Two mitigation technologies were developed for deployment in non-permanent shelters:
Solar-powered Window Air Cleaning (SWAC) and Solar-powered Wall Air Vent (SWAV).
Operating at 100% outdoor air intake, the SWAC unit exceeded the ASHRAE standard
62.2 minimum requirement for an average refugee household occupancy (n=6) and total
floor area (56 m2) and met equivalent outdoor air requirements for the most stringent
ASHRAE standard 52.2 particle range (0.3 – 1.0 μm) operating at 50% outdoor air. The
SWAV unit exceeded ASHRAE ventilation requirements for individual refugee rooms (15
m2) at average occupancy. In conclusion, this project provides a rare insight into the poor
indoor air quality of refugee shelters in Lebanon. Exposures to indoor mould can increase
susceptibility to respiratory health risks in this vulnerable population, already impacted by
multiple factors, from poor hygiene to displacement trauma and poverty. However, the
low-cost renewable mitigation technologies developed here, offer a sustainable solution
to remediate poor indoor air quality in refugee shelters accommodating displaced
populations not only in Lebanon, but in refugee settings globally
Explanation–Question–Response dialogue: An argumentative tool for explainable AI
Get PDFAdvancements and deployments of AI-based systems, especially Deep Learning-driven generative language models, have accomplished impressive results over the past few years. Nevertheless, these remarkable achievements are intertwined with a related fear that such technologies might lead to a general relinquishing of our lives’s control to AIs. This concern, which also motivates the increasing interest in the eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) research field, is mostly caused by the opacity of the output of deep learning systems and the way that it is generated, which is largely obscure to laypeople. A dialectical interaction with such systems may enhance the users’ understanding and build a more robust trust towards AI. Commonly employed as specific formalisms for modelling intra-agent communications, dialogue games prove to be useful tools to rely upon when dealing with user’s explanation needs. The literature already offers some dialectical protocols that expressly handle explanations and their delivery. This paper fully formalises the novel Explanation–Question–Response (EQR) dialogue and its properties, whose main purpose is to provide satisfactory information (i.e., justified according to argumentative semantics) whilst ensuring a simplified protocol, in comparison with other existing approaches, for humans and artificial agents.This research was partially funded by the UK Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under grant #EP/P010105/1
New blood brings change: Exploring the link between rookie independent directors and corporate cash holdings
Get PDFData availability: Data will be made available on request.This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.This study examines the relationship between rookie independent directors (RIDs) and corporate cash holdings, using a sample of Chinese A-share firms listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges from 2006 to 2020. We further investigate the moderating effect of economic policy uncertainty on this association. Our results reveal that the presence of rookie independent directors is positively and significantly related to corporate cash holdings, and that economic policy uncertainty amplifies this relationship. Importantly, we also demonstrate that firms with rookie independent directors exhibit improved operating performance when making cash holding decisions in the Chinese context. The study also finds that firms with greater growth opportunities tend to prefer RIDs, who bring new perspectives essential for leveraging these opportunities, leading to enhanced cash holdings. To ensure the robustness of our findings, we employ a variety of advanced econometric techniques, including alternative proxies, tests for reverse causality, two-stage least squares, propensity score matching, and entropy balancing. Based on our results, we recommend that shareholders in China carefully consider the role of RIDs in their governance structure, as they effectively monitor firm management and contribute to the protection of shareholder interests.“Funds for High-Level Talents of Xijing University (2019), Grant/Award Number: XJ19B02;; “The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” in UIBE, grant number: CXTD12-01
Green class struggle: Workers and the just transition
Get PDFFrom the paper edition: At the Edge: Frontiers of Climate AdaptationInspiration for decarbonising industry and creating green jobs is within the hands of those already facing precarity in today’s economically unstable times. A resilient history of workers’ initiatives overcoming redundancies, alongside recent activist, trade-union, and workforce collaborations, provides concrete examples for empowered transitioning
Contributions of transcriptional noise to leukaemia evolution: KAT2A as a case-study
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This article has no additional data.Declaration of AI use:
We have not used AI-assisted technologies in creating this article.Footnotes:
One contribution of 10 to a discussion meeting issue ‘Causes and consequences of stochastic processes in development and disease’ [see: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb/379/1900].Transcriptional noise is proposed to participate in cell fate changes, but contributions to mammalian cell differentiation systems, including cancer, remain associative. Cancer evolution is driven by genetic variability, with modulatory or contributory participation of epigenetic variants. Accumulation of epigenetic variants enhances transcriptional noise, which can facilitate cancer cell fate transitions. Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive cancer with strong epigenetic dependencies, characterized by blocked differentiation. It constitutes an attractive model to probe links between transcriptional noise and malignant cell fate regulation. Gcn5/KAT2A is a classical epigenetic transcriptional noise regulator. Its loss increases transcriptional noise and modifies cell fates in stem and AML cells. By reviewing the analysis of KAT2A-depleted pre-leukaemia and leukaemia models, I discuss that the net result of transcriptional noise is diversification of cell fates secondary to alternative transcriptional programmes. Cellular diversification can enable or hinder AML progression, respectively, by differentiation of cell types responsive to mutations, or by maladaptation of leukaemia stem cells. KAT2A-dependent noise-responsive genes participate in ribosome biogenesis and KAT2A loss destabilizes translational activity. I discuss putative contributions of perturbed translation to AML biology, and propose KAT2A loss as a model for mechanistic integration of transcriptional and translational control of noise and fate decisions.
This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Causes and consequences of stochastic processes in development and disease’.No specific funding for this study. Work in the Pina lab is funded by the Lady Tata Memorial Trust, by the Little Princess Trust through the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group, and by an MRC Pilot Scheme / Brunel University London Research Development Fund award