co 2 emissions are directly related to buildings mainly to inefficient insulation materials and...

ABSTRACTS: Research Student Poster Conference, 17-18 March 2015A-Z by surname

A

Development of Clay Aerogel

Omar Abo Madyan

Poster Location: 1

High CO2 emissions are directly related to buildings mainly to inefficient insulation materials and systems. Currently required insulation performance may only be achieved either by installing extremely thick ordinary insulation materials and sacrificing living spaces or by using unaffordable materials. Therefore a demand exists for a new generation of low cost and efficient insulation materials. The project is to develop nano-structured ultra-lightweight clay-aerogel insulation based on harmless and inexpensive materials through an effective freeze-drying process. Current Clay-aerogel possess low thermal conductivity; however they lack mechanical properties therefore the project will look at implementing polymers, and new process methods to create a robust net aerogel with enhanced thermal abilities that can be implemented in the construction industry. The addition of polymers will result in higher strength due to the increase in density however at the expense of thermal conductivity, thus a compromise has to be found between thermal and mechanical properties.

A Study of User Interaction Modelling With Telemedicine Application in Developing Countries

Wan Mohd Nor Izudeen Bin Wan Ahmad

Poster Location: 2

Telemedicine is delivery of healthcare services and applications based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tool to enhance people’s health (World Health Organization (WHO), 2010). The use of telemedicine being growing globally especially in developed countries generally, and is increasingly being adopted in developing countries like Malaysia. Due to limited study concerning improvement of processes and designs that interplay between human, computerized systems and other factors related to user interaction in the healthcare context that affecting users’ behavioural intention to successfully adopt telemedicine adoption, this study is designed to propose the conceptual framework based on integration factors from Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methods. The outcome of this study should give an insightful knowledge to researchers in academia and system implementation of telemedicine projects, service providers, and healthcare administrators in developing countries.

1

Disclaimer: The Graduate School has not edited these abstracts, they appear in the format that they were submitted by their authors


Facilitating adoption of e-banking in Saudi Arabia through reduction of perceived risk in e-banking

Zawlikhah Al Somali

Poster Location: 3

This research looks at perception of risk in Saudi e-banking sector in detail, identifying the factors that affect the perception of risk and how to resolve this so as to reduce the perception of risk. This research also considers the influence of cultural factors on perception of risk and adoption of e-banking. This research adopts a pragmatist philosophy and mixed method .Data was collected using questionnaire surveys and focus groups. This research finds hat security and financial risks are the key risks affecting perception of risk in Saudi e-banking sector. But in addition other risks such as transaction risk, time risk, cultural dimensions, social risk, and performance risks also influence perception of risk. The key recommendation is that e-banking channel should preserve some of the attributes of the brick and mortar channel which are valued high by Saudi customers such as one-to-one interaction.

The impact of Inward Foreign Direct Investment on human capital development in developing countries: Case of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Abdulmohsen Alalshiekh

Poster Location: 4

This poster explains the gap in the literature “the impact of inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) on human capital development in developing countries: case of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)”. Further, it describes the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in human capital development and that when MNE subsidiaries provide training in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. Moreover, this poster clarifies the factors affecting on MNE subsidiaries’ training programs. Moreover, this poster investigates demonstrations and spill overs from MNE subsidiaries’ training activities in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia and how these kinds of spill overs can improve human capital.

2



Designing a Decision Support System for Improving Medical Devices Maintenance in Saudi Arabia

Hamad Albadr

Poster Location: 5

Medical devices maintenance, not only, costs billion dollars every year from the national limited income, but also, needs to be handled professionally, to minimize health risks to medical workers, the patents, and the environment. A comprehensive effort and knowledge based methods are needed to improve medical devices maintenance to have them safe, their life is maximized, and total costs are minimized. Like many other developing countries, Saudi Arabia is in need of appropriate and comprehensive solutions to improve medical devices maintenance including performance inspections, corrective and preventive maintenance to justify clinical risk caused by adverse events in health care. Several models for managing and planning medical devices maintenance have been developed, the problem is lacking in knowledge based methodology and still presents an open challenge for today’s health experts. This paper aims to design a decision support system for improving medical devices maintenance in Saudi Arabia.

An Optimal Governance System for Reducing Modern Slavery Practices at Suppliers in Emerging Markets

Mohammad Alghababsheh

Poster Location: 6

In the recent years, multinational corporations (MNCs) are seeking costs saving by outsourcing some of their products to suppliers based in developing countries. However, suppliers are increasingly using practices such as child labour, forced labour, low pay and corporal punishment at their premises to meet the MNCs’ cost requirements. Despite MNCs’ investments in socially sustainable programmes, suppliers are still found using illegal and unethical means at workplace. This research develops a novel governance system for reducing social issues by combining social control and transactions-based mechanisms. The system allows MNCs to drive suppliers to establish social sustainability while achieve dyadic returns for buyer and suppliers. The developed governance system increases the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge, information and resources flow between with supplier, thereby reduce the costs associated with implementing sustainability and increase supplier compliance.

3



Market Manipulation In Saudi Arabia: “A Case for Reform”

Saad Aljoud

Poster Location: 7

One of the most debated issues is that of market manipulation. The topic has been investigated by scholars from several scientific fields including the legal. The main objective of this research is to suggest reformation to the Saudi market manipulation framework in order to achieve satisfactory market manipulation practices. The second purpose of this research is to examine the means adopted by the United States and the United Kingdom in combating the main two types of fraud that interfere with financial market trading. These are namely insider dealing or insider trading depending on the jurisdiction that is examined and market manipulation. Both these jurisdictions are examined in relation to the ways each uses differing methods of regulatory enforcement mechanisms to control these types of market fraud.

Occupational stress among private hospital nurses in Saudi Arabia

Qamra Alomani

Poster Location: 8

In this study, the researcher aims to develop an understanding of the occupational stress concept through nurse’s lenses. The effects of the stressors on mental ill health (depression-anxiety), turnover intention and happiness are relatively new in the occupational stress literature.

Saudi Arabia will be used in this study as an empirical site because most of the occupational stress research and theory development of this field has been done in the west. Little attention has been paid to the Arab world and to Saudi Arabia in particular as a conservative society in which Islamic value, customs and traditions play the major role in shaping one’s life.

Measurement of Power Quantities at Non-Sinusoidal Conditions based on Wavelet Transform

Saeed Sultan Alshahrani

Poster Location: 9

Definitions of power components in IEEE standard 1459-2010 are based on Fourier Transform (FT). Unfortunately, FT is not an appropriate method for non-sinusoidal situations and unable to resolve fluctuated information. This research aims to improve the method of measuring power quantities at non-sinusoidal conditions using wavelet transform (WT). Objectives of this research are: analysis of power signals based on WT and calculation of RMS values of power components effectively. The methodology of this research has the following procedure: express mathematical models for Power signals and inject power signals with distortion model to reach the non-sinusoidal conditions. Results with an improved method of power components shall insure accurate measurements for power terms and enhance the accuracy under non-sinusoidal conditions.

4



A One-Dimensional Model of a High Performance Nozzle-less Radial Inflow Turbine with Extremely High Pressure Ratio

Fuhaid Alshammari

Poster Location: 10

In recent years, extraction of energy from exhaust gases of automobiles came to the area. In heavy vehicles, about 60% of input fuel energy is wasted as losses. Using Rankine Cycle with steam as working fluid, a mainline model for the design of a single stage nozzle-less radial inflow turbine was developed to recover these losses. Data from Thermodynamics’ Rail (TDR) was used.

The current research focuses on the design of a turbine with extremely high pressure ratio (> 17). The main constraint of this model is the size which should not exceed 42 cm (Total size including the volute) to fit the spacing available in the vehicle. The aerodynamic and geometric parameters of the rotor blades and the volute (Outer case) were selected using this model.

High-Order Discontinuous Galerkin methods in time for the Wave equation

Fatima Al-Shanfari

Poster Location: 11

The main aim of this research is to generalize the existing theory, which should remarkably improve the understanding of the simulation of wave equations.

The existing theory introduced by Schötzau (1999) and later published by Werder et al. in 2001, for time-discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods applied to a parabolic partial differential equation will be extended and generalized to a linear hyperbolic problem of second-order in time, by rewriting the 2nd order problem as a first-order system in time.

All proofs will be first shown for systems with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions and later with inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Such proofs will help in understanding how different ways to discretize the Dirichlet boundary condition can influence the convergence rate in the simulation of wave phenomena.

5



Green biosynthesis of Ti and Ag nanoparticles using the spores of edible (Portobello) mushroom as biotemplates: Characterization and future applications

Iman AL-Timimi

Poster Location: 12

It is shown that a combination of green chemistry and biosynthetic processes based on the edible Portobello mushroom spores (PMS) can be used to prepare novel biocompatible materials for:

(i) Drug delivery, (ii) antimicrobial treatments and (iii) assembly of replacement bone with no toxicity or environmental issues. Other biosynthetic organisms for the future range from bacteria, yeast, fungi and plant. These bio-organisms are used as vectors on which to fabricate submicron-sized and nanoparticles (NPs) for these different applications.

Large Scale Wind Turbine Deployment Operation and Control

Ahmed Al-Toma

Poster Location: 13

During the last thirty years, the use wind energy has grown fast compared to other types of energy due to more efficient performance as well as the environmental benefit. Therefore, a lot of techniques have been developed to increase efficiency and decrease the cost of wind turbine (WT) systems.

Form wind turbine connected to farm, there are an important strategies have been introduce to achieve a good performance as well as high efficiency in operation.

Dissemination of academic knowledge

Faris Alwzinani

Poster Location: 14

Journals articles and conference proceedings are the main academic channels for faculties to disseminate research papers. Research papers are peer-reviewed and scientifically oriented to academics. These papers might be of interest for non-academic audiences such as SMEs and general public. However, non-academic audiences are not able to read papers through these channels for many reasons such as subscription and paper structure. This study aims to create alternative online channels to widely disseminate research papers. Faculties of Computer Science and Social Sciences were interviewed and thematic analysis was applied to analyse data. The two main themes are barriers (e.g. lack of motivators and lack of support to disseminate beyond academia) and benefits of disseminating beyond academia (e.g. potential of real impact and wide communication). Experiments are undertaken to overcome the main issues of academic channels to non-academic audience 1) subscription and 2) paper structure.

6



Factors influencing citizens' trust in e-government

Latifa Alzahrani

Poster Location: 15

This paper provides a critical and systematic review of the current literature on citizens’ trust in e-government, with a particular focus on the most critical factors influencing citizens’ trust related to the adoption of e-government. The issue of trust is one of the critical factors leading to the success of e-government adoption. While there is a great deal of literature concerning e-government, little has been written from the citizens’ trust perspective. For this purpose, the extant literature was identified through six electronic databases, from 2000 to 2014. In particular, articles were reviewed if they contained a relevant discussion of the antecedents or factors influencing citizens’ trust in e-government adoption. The findings of this systematic review reveal that there are four antecedents influencing citizens’ trust in adopting e-government services: technology, government agencies, risk, and citizens’ characteristics.

B

Improving innovation by reducing the cost of knowledge transfer between designers and engineers.

James Burchill

Poster Location: 16

I am looking at the cost of transferring knowledge between designers and engineers at the beginning of collaborative projects. There is little formal support for this stage of the process and this is a problem as poor knowledge transfer can lead to significant problems later on in the project and restrict the ability of the group to produce radical innovations. I use my involvement in an EU project which has just this kind of interaction to inform my research coupling it with industry interviews to find existing solutions. A number areas of common ground are becoming apparent which bring the two groups together and could form the basis of a tool kit or methodology to support this project, improving knowledge transfer, reducing the cost to industry and increasing the chance of radical innovation arising from the collaboration.

7



Decision Making Behaviour of Umpires in the Netball Superleague

Adele Burnett

Poster Location: 17

Despite being essential to all sports competition, match officials remain a relatively understudied population. Often making complex, dynamic decisions under pressure, the current investigation aims to explore the decision behaviours of Netball umpires. The decision-making behaviour of umpires from the Netball Super league will be analysed for potential patterns of decisions, contextual influences and biases on their performance. Super league match footage (N = 60) will be analysed using performance analysis software. Data will be collected within three categories: umpire decision (e.g. rule infringements), location and potential influences/biases (e.g. home advantage) as advised by a panel of expert umpires and assessors. We predict that decision behaviours will vary dependent on home advantage, crowd size, time and score line. The results will help to enhance umpire training and aid the development of a representative video based decision-making task to be used in a following study.

C

Personal Health Record: Design of a Wireless Bio-sensor Device Compatible with Smartphone

Numan Celik

Poster Location: 18

This project presents a multiple biosensor system within a smartphone to enable a continuous unobtrusive monitoring of core body temperature, electrocardiogram (ear-lead ECG), and pulse oximeter sensors on ambulatory patients. According to our research, continuing accurate measurements of core body temperature are crucial to investigate human thermoregulation in ambulatory environment and during activity. On the other hand, ECG remains the mainstay test for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with heart diseases. We deploy a wireless wearable system that measures both the tympanic temperature inside the ear and ECG signals from an ear and an arm. The behind-the-Ear device makes desirable to measure ECG data without any chest belt or sticky tape. The proposed Bluetooth device that sends the body measurements to a smartphone to which is paired. In future work, we want to secure the communication of medical information using local biometric authentication methods.

8



The Influence of Acculturation and Identification on Organizational Commitment of Immigrant Employees

Jennifer Chavanovanich

Poster Location: 19

Highly-skilled immigrants have been increasingly employed as they can fill skill shortages and bring broader knowledge and expertise. However, cultural barriers can cause difficulties in adjustment and psychological distress, leading to poor performance and turnover. Despite the crucial role immigrant employees plays in workplace, the influence of cultural adaptation on organizational commitment has been overlooked. To fill in this research gap, the present research highlights the importance of ethnic identity and acculturation on organizational commitment of immigrant employees. The results showed that immigrant employees who integrate (i.e. maintaining the heritage culture and adapting to the mainstream culture) report the highest level of organizational commitment. Type of organization also moderates the relationship between mainstream culture and organizational commitment in which mainstream culture is related to commitment more strongly in multinational organizations than in domestic organizations. The study suggests the importance of cultural training programs in enhancing organizational commitment of immigrant employees.

How much can your blood tell us about your ovarian cancer?

Dimple Chudasama

Poster Location: 20

Ovarian cancer affects over 7,000 women a year, with a poor outlook of only 30% surviving to 5 years. The biggest challenge has been identifying the disease at an early stage, as in most cases there are no symptoms. Initial work has shown that the blood is abundant in cancer material in the form of cancer cells and tumour DNA that are identical to the primary cancer. With advances in technology we are now able to isolate and manipulate this information to diagnose cancer, and have done so successfully in cell line experiments. This research aims to combine high level technology with simple easy to access cancer material from patient’s blood to perform a ‘liquid biopsy’. In an effort to develop a highly successful screening test for women. Early diagnosis could mean 90% of ovarian cancer patients will survive and a successful test could save >5000 lives every year.

9



D

Development of new strategies against influenza viruses

Stefan Diaz Gaisenband

Poster Location: 21

Influenza A virus (IAV) is a major threat to human health with seasonal epidemics, occasional pandemics and emergence of new highly pathogenic strains from the animal reservoir. Besides seasonal illness, a general concern is that more pathogenic viruses can appear after reassortment of human seasonal viruses with circulating highly pathogenic avian influenza. Also, resistance to current antiviral drugs has increased the interest in developing new strategies against influenza viruses. Hence, current work is ongoing to study the interaction of viruses with host cell factors as it has been suggested to be a very promising approach. Our laboratory has shown that human Annexin A6 interacts with the M2 viral protein and limits production of progeny IAV from infected cells. We aim to further understand the molecular mechanism responsible for restriction of IAV morphogenesis by Annexin A6. Our discoveries will pave the way towards the identification of new highly potential antiviral strategies.

The effects of visual guidance on observational learning of the golf swing

Giorgia D'Innocenzo

Poster Location: 22

Experts exhibit more efficient gaze patterns than do novices, attending more to task-relevant regions whilst ignoring irrelevant ones. Accordingly, the question of whether we might guide novices’ visual attention to those task-relevant regions in order to improve skill acquisition is of interest. We tested this hypothesis with regard to observational learning of the golf swing – a highly complex motor skill. Golfing novices viewed videos of a skilled golfer performing 10 swings, with (VG, or visually guided group) or without (FV, or free viewing group) visual guidance toward pertinent features of the setup, or a video about the history of golf (Control). We predicted that the VG group would attend more to task-relevant regions and show improved swing kinematics relative to the FV and Control groups. Results confirmed these predictions. Thus, visual guidance may prove to be an efficient method for accelerating observational learning of complex motor skills.

10



RFID tracking system based on mathematical model.

Abdulsalam Dukyil

Poster Location: 23

Recently RFID used in many advanced application such as warehouse management and supply chain, safety and securer the building control gates .RFID tracking system has been used for different purpose in industrial world. RFID can track moving objects such as persons, animals, kids on theme park and valuable products. This research is to design and develop a new framework for tracking the documents inside the building using WLAN 802.11 prototype. This project used passive tags and the active tags for the confidential documents using g hardware which are RFID reader and passive tags a software been used and web server. The experiment will use both active and passive tags to show the different taking account the accuracy, real time tracking and comparing the cost for each to give the customers a choice for both tags. A mathematical matrix model is under processing to complete the tracking part of this system.

F

The effect of arm segment mass on throwing performance

Patrick Fasbender

Poster Location: 24

Throwing for maximal distance or speed is part of many sports and the outcome is largely determined by release velocity. As release velocity is the end result of complex coordination patterns between muscles and body segments, it could be the case that different mass distributions between arm segments could affect release velocity. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to determine how changes in arm segment mass influence the throwing performance by using a 2D simulation of the upper arm and forearm. Increases in forearm mass resulted in decreases in the release velocity. As the forearm mass decreases, higher upper arm mass is required to achieve maximal release velocity. These findings are important as they inform coaches and teachers how to increase throwing performance. In addition, they add to our understanding of the reasons for humans being able to throw fast and accurate, a skill that is unique to humans.

11



Turbocharger Design Optimisation for Realistic Engine Conditions

Adam Feneley

Poster Location: 25

With emissions legislations tightening around the world, car manufacturers have turned to turbocharging as the key enabler for downsizing internal combustion engines. When approaching the design of turbochargers, simplifications are made which lead to sub-optimal performance. This study aims to address three key issues: the omission of heat transfer and pulsating flow phenomena, along with errors arising from data extrapolation. By conducting a series of cold flow and on-engine tests to measure heat transfer and pulsating flow, this research aims is to produce an improved design methodology. In past studies, these three issues have only been considered independent of one another. Data correlations should enable the modification of standard performance maps to incorporate all three of the aforementioned sources of error. The resulting performance maps could be used directly in industrial engine simulations to improve turbocharger performance predictions; thereby reducing emissions through more efficient design solutions.

G

Long Term Performance of Bacteria Based Self Healing Concrete

Intisar Gatea

Poster Location: 26

Concrete is one of the most common construction materials because of its relatively low cost and freedom of design. Despite many important benefits, the concrete exhibits cracks, and via these cracks, aggressive salts may attack concrete causing concrete degradation and reinforcement corrosion. Repairs are time consuming, expensive and in some cases impossible. Therefore, self-healing concrete has been attempted for in situ crack repairing.

One type of these self-healing bacteria is a material that can biologically produce limestone to heal cracks, typically such as genus Bacillus along with a calcium-based nutrient known as calcium lactate.

However, the engineering design performance of self-healed concrete, especially long term performance is still unclear. Before implementing this concrete into construction application, it is vital to understand this material and accumulate reliable and repeatable data, and such to ensure a safe engineering design, and also direct further innovations.

12



H

Analytical characterisation of Biopharmaceutical products and disease biomarker through Aqueous two phase partitioning

Rana Hameed

Poster Location: 27

The partitioning of proteins and other biomolecules in Aqueous Two phase Systems (ATPS), formed by the addition of incompatible polymers or combinations of polymers and salts to aqueous solutions, may be applied to the analytical characterisation of biomolecules. Partitioning may be used to determine ligand binding, molecular association, critical quality attributes, and the presence of molecular variants. The partition coefficient of a solute represents a thermodynamic constant determined by the structure and conformation of the analyte and its interaction with the solvent environment. Simple assays, normally thought of as purely quantitative, can potentially yield significant structural information.

Initial work to develop a rapid automated system for the measurement of protein partition coefficients and to find ATPS sensitive to different aspects of protein structure will be presented. Applications of the method are envisaged in the simple and rapid analysis of biopharmaceuticals and disease biomarkers.

Genomic instability of human pluripotent stem cells: development of a high-sensitivity screen utilisingdroplet digital PCR

Marianne Henry

Poster Location: 28

For human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to be approved for therapeutic use, both sensitive and meaningful methods must be developed to assess product safety. An area of concern is genomic instability and the effect it may have on cellular phenotype, differentiation potential and malignant transformation. Whilst other methods do exist for analysis of genomic copy number variation (CNV), they are likely unsuitable for fine-scale, high-throughput studies.

Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) enables highly sensitive absolute quantification of nucleic acids and can be used for CNV and rare event detection. Here, ddPCR will be utilised to determine origin and selection of aneuploidy hPSCs in culture, whereas fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)-based analysis will determine the impact of aneuploidy on chromosome territory positioning in hPSC nuclei. Combined with molecular analysis by ddPCR and chromosome behaviour monitoring by FISH, this should translate into rapid, high-sensitivity screens to assess use of hPSCs in regenerative medicine.

13



Role of Brk isoforms in response to breast cancer therapeutics

Haroon Hussain

Poster Location: 29

Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in women in the UK. Improved therapies should be patient specific, non-toxic and contribute towards patients’ overall survival. Breast tumour kinase (Brk) appears to be a desirable therapeutic target. Breast cancer cell lines were irradiated at doses of 0Gy (control), 2Gy, 4Gy, 6Gy and 8Gy using gamma radiation. Brk expression was assessed by western blot using anti-Brk ICR-100_ antibody. Gamma H2AX staining was detected using the ImagestreamX system to detect levels of DNA repair after double strand breaks (DSB). A proportionate decrease in cell survival was seen after irradiation; however, sensitivity to radiotherapy and repair of DSB did not relate with Brk expression levels. No clear correlation between Brk expression and cellular-survival rates in response to radiotherapy is seen. This means radiotherapy is a suitable treatment for patients with Brk-positive breast cancer.

I

The Implication of Work-Family Balance Practices Amongst Manager

Noorhasyimah Ismail

Poster Location: 30

There is a growing body of literature that recognises the importance of a balance between work and family. However, those changes are resulting in various perspectives and then formed a concept of work-family balancing, or harmonizing both responsibilities. In this chapter, we review the international literature on the concept of work–family balance. We discuss the role of managers in fostering work-family balance in organisations. The aim of this study is to analyse the introduction of work-family balance practices in the public sector organisation in Malaysia. In order to achieve this aim, three main objectives will be explored. We give suggestion on methodologies in order to determine the most appropriate approach for this study.

14



J

Research Strategies on Manufacturing Lead-Time Reduction

Twana Jaff

Poster Location: 31

Companies’ need to improve their manufacturing competitiveness in terms of better, faster and cheaper products; short lead-times are a major source of potential competitive advantage. The research work depends on (qualitative & quantitative) research; by focusing on both approaches, it is possible to reduce lead-time & throughput time. Using the manufacturing assessment is necessary to increase the reliability and safety of manufacturing set ups and the manufacturing systems. This poster proposes a study on reducing manufacturing lead time (MLT) in factories in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, where lead-time has become a major issue for the manufacturing industry and to determine assessment tool to find the defects, resolving a problem before working towards MLT reduction. The objective of this study is to investigate on the opportunities for lead-time reduction and identify simple strategies for reducing lead-time. The aim is to provide guidance to industry practitioners/technicians on how to reduce MLT

An empirical study of exporter-intermediary relationship quality and SME performance improvement

Akarawat Jatuphatwarodom

Poster Location: 32

Despite research on relationship quality has increased over the past three decades, a large number of previous studies tend to investigate relationship quality in the Western countries in modern developed economies instead of conducting research in other contexts. This research develops an approach that argues SMEs gain advantage by leveraging the idiosyncratic capabilities from the exchange episodes between the interacting parties and draw upon RBV and relational exchange theory. Results illustrate that trust; commitment and cooperation are a higher-order construct of relationship quality. Interestingly, personal relationship plays a prominent role for facilitating relationship quality in most cases. Perceived environmental uncertainty leads to collaboration between exporters and intermediaries due to their need to reduce the level of uncertainty. These inter-organisational relationships are seen as complementary resources of the firm, which SME exporters can rely on through relational exchange with intermediaries to facilitate their operations as a result of their performance improvement.

15



K

Increasing Motivation and Diversity in Cultural Tourism: Integration of Inclusive Design and Digital Storytelling to facilitate Cultural Tourism

Kittichai Kasemsarn

Poster Location: 33

Cultural tourism not only helps promote tourism, preserve the cultural and historical heritage and reinforce a country’s identity (LORD, 1999; UNESCO, 2003), but also promotes communication and integration worldwide (UNESCO, 2003). However, cultural tourism is considered as lack of diversity (LORD, 1999; Silberberg, 1995; UNESCO, 2003) and motivation (Rizvic et al., 2012). In order to solve these problems, research question is proposed “could use of inclusive design and digital storytelling help increase the motivation and diversity for four groups (teenagers, people with disabilities, non-attendant tourists and older adult) in cultural tourism and how?”. The poster presentation will be planned and organized with my previous studies, research problems, questions and aims. The DRM is adopted within this study to illustrate research methodology. In the next section, the initial framework will be presented relationship of three key areas. Finally, the outcomes and conclusion of this study will be analysed.

Development of two-slit probe for quality assurance of Electron Beam for Welding

Aman Kaur

Poster Location: 34

The aerospace industry has high quality requirements for fabrication, and critically monitors manufacturing processes, components and assemblies. Electron beam welding is used in an increasing number of quality critical applications because of its inherent advantage. Ensuring the beam quality is maintained for such applications requires probing of the electron beam itself, and not just monitoring of process parameters. An overview of the development of a novel two-slit beam probing system has been presented. It has been found that within the EB gun itself, small changes can produce large enough variations in beam characteristics to give unpredictable welding performance. Precise monitoring of these beam qualities is required to improve quality assurance, enable the transfer of processing between EB machines and to ensure accurate assessment of new production equipment.

16



Investigation of Adaptable Winglets for Morphing Aircraft Control and Performance

Erdogan Kaygan

Poster Location: 35

An investigation of adaptable winglets for morphing aircraft control and performance is described in this poster. The concepts investigated consist of various winglet configurations fundamentally centred on a baseline swept wing. The impetus for the work was to identify and optimize winglets to enhance controllability and the aerodynamic efficiency of a small unmanned aerial vehicle. All computations were performed with Athena Vortex Lattice modelling with varying degrees of twist, swept, and dihedral angle considered. The results from this work indicate that if adaptable winglets were employed on small scale UAV’s improvements in both aircraft control and performance could be achieved.

L

The changing higher education environment in England – Implications for students and universities

Helga Lecca

Poster Location: 36

Recent changes in the English Higher Education environment pose new challenges for both students and universities. An initial study measured the expectations of commencing students in light of these changes and explored how demographic and other personal characteristics influence student expectations. Through this, student employability has been identified as an area where universities could enhance the student experience. Further investigating student employability, a second study acknowledged confidence as a key factor in relation to employability development. As such, it is argued that universities should focus on the development of confidence within students in order to improve students’ employability. As an outcome of a third study and the overall research, recommendations are provided based on student interviews on how universities could support the development of confidence and employability skills in order to enhance the student experience.

17



Mentality shift in inclusive design; from physical to psychosocial inclusion

Yonghun Lim

Poster Location: 37

With the dual demographics of an aging population and people with disabilities, inclusive design has been recognized as a driving force for accessibility and social-equality in design of products, services and environments. However, it is yet to be thoroughly and effectively applied. The limited understanding of inclusive design principles among various stakeholders and public is one contributing factor. Secondly, the conventional application and interpretation of inclusive design has mainly focused on physical inclusion, usefulness and usability aspects rather than the psychological or social aspects of inclusion or exclusion. In this paper, these psychological and social aspects will be called “psychosocial inclusion”.

The psychosocial perspective could have potential roles in the next stage of facilitation and practice of inclusive design. In the existing design literature, however, the concept of psychosocial inclusion is limited. Therefore, a definition and framework of psychosocial inclusion in design will be proposed and evaluated in this study.

Development of a Novel Styrene-free Unsaturated Polyester for Composites

Wendi Liu

Poster Location: 38

Unsaturated polyester (UPE) is one of the most important and commonly used matrix resins for composites due to its advantages such as low costs, easy to process and good mechanical properties. Styrene is widely used as reactive diluent for UPE systems. However, styrene is a volatile organic compound and a hazardous air pollutant and is emitted during UPE based composite production. This proposal aims at the synthesis and characterization of a bio-based reactive diluent from isosorbide and acryloyl chloride, the formation of styrene-free UPE resins with the novel reactive diluent, and the production of fibre-reinforced composites with the new UPE resins in an effort to reduce styrene emissions while maintaining the properties of the composite systems. The production of the bio-based UPE resins and its composites will not only improve the environmental benefits of the new products, but also greatly alleviate the depletion of petroleum resources.

18



M

Eat your packaging

Virginia Martin

Poster Location: 39

The manufacturing and design of a considerable amount of plastic objects, such as packaging, is not contemplated from inception to end-of life. This produces a less sustainable society, where our landfills and oceans are replete with plastic waste that could have been recycled, composted or merely minimised.

This project is focused in the waste minimisation area and aims to create a more environmentally friendly packaging for logistics by using biodegradable materials, such as gelatine and starch, the main component of flour.

Gelatine-starch packaging is a remarkable alternative to fossil-fuel plastics, providing similar material properties without compromising future generations. These types of packaging materials open several possibilities for innovation and future research, such as edible packaging.

"Blowing the Whistle on Abuse": Developing Safer Organisational Cultures in Sport

Jamie McDermott

Poster Location: 40

High-profile child abuse within organisational settings has received extensive media attention of late. An integral factor which enabled abuse to occur owed to the culture within these organisations. Recent research has revealed that child abuse occurs in organised sport settings. The aim of this exploratory research was to assess the transferability of safety culture principles to safeguarding in sport. These principles originate from high-risk industries such as nuclear, aviation and maritime. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals that have a national role for safeguarding in a sporting National Governing Body. It is anticipated that the findings for the study will provide the initial basis for a definition of safety culture in sport and how a positive safety culture for sports could be manifested. The results will inform the next stage of the research to further investigate the applicability of safety culture within sports organisations through individual case studies.

19



High Temperature Radiation Hard Detectors.

Alex Metcalfe

Poster Location: 41

Solid state radiation detectors for gamma rays and neutrons, particularly with functionality at high temperature and with long life in high radiation environments are of many uses; Nuclear power generation, high energy physics, synchrotron facilities and medical devices are just a few examples. In considering these requirements the use of diamond as a detector material is an obvious candidate; It is a wide bandgap semiconductor with excellent radiation hardness, thermal and mechanical properties and can be grown synthetically under controlled conditions to meet requirements for purity and geometry. As a material diamond presents its own challenges; it is expensive at the grade required for detectors and difficult to process consistently. Towards solving these problems potential high temperature contacts have been developed using thin film technologies and further computer simulation of complex geometries has been performed. The results from which support further development into a highly functional, versatile radiation detection solution.

CFD Modelling of Single Phase Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer In Single and Multichannel Micro Heat Exchanger

Amirah Mohamad Sahar

Poster Location: 42

Numerical simulations were performed using Fluent 14.5 to investigate single phase flow and conjugate heat transfer in copper rectangular micro channels. The simulation results of the single channel configuration were validated using experimental data of water as a test fluid while the results of the multichannel configuration were validated using experimental data of R134a refrigerant. The 3D fully conjugated and 2D model under predicted the experimental data of the single channel. However, there was excellent agreement with the 3D thin-wall model. Also, the results demonstrated that there is a significant difference between the 3D thin-wall and fully conjugate models. The simulation of the multichannel configuration with inlet manifold with gradual contraction achieved very reasonable uniform flow distribution among the channels and will provide uniform heat transfer rates across the base of the micro channels.

20



A Study on the Innovation Adoption of Mobile Computing and Wearable Technology in a Developing Country

Syakirah Mohamad Taib

Poster Location: 43

The emergence of a new wearable technology is an innovative concept refers to electronic technologies embedded worn on the human body as unobtrusively as clothing and continuously accessible. The wearable devices such as smartwatches can perform many computing tasks as mobile smartphones; the transition from smartphone to wearable mobile computing in the ubiquitous computing environment is still at its infancy. Reported that about millions of wearable devices will be in global market and Malaysia is also being influenced by this phenomenon. Due to limited research concerning about wearable technology, this research will employ the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DOI) and related factors on mobility and ubiquity of technology to examine the factors that significantly affect users’ behavioural intention to adopt a wearable technology by empirically develop the conceptual framework. The insightful knowledge in adopting innovation, thereby will beneficial related people in this area as well as in other developing country.

The Large Hadron Collider: The End of the Beginning

Alexander Morton

Poster Location: 44

The Standard Model of Particle Physics is one of the most successful and powerful physical theories, describing all known fundamental particles and their relation to the electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces in nature. However, it falls short of being a complete “Theory of Everything”. Despite its continued success in providing experimental predictions, there are phenomena which it cannot explain. It does not incorporate gravity, present dark matter candidates, and cannot account for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

One area of interest is the “top” quark – the heaviest known fundamental particle. Given its relationship to the Higgs Boson, its mass being close to where the electromagnetic and weak forces are expected to unify, and other properties, the top quark offers a unique probe into physics beyond the Standard Model.

21



The Effects/Outcomes/Implications of Turkish Legislation on Minor Political Parties

Harun Muratogullari

Poster Location: 45

The level of interventionist treatment and paternalistic aspect to political parties in Turkey are not commonly observed in advanced democracies. One of the most fragile subjects around the legislation is small political parties as in first periods of her competitive system. This research considers the compatibility issue of party laws by narrowing the discussion on a specific case and a pattern, the Turkish party laws and her minor political parties respectively. By doing that, the observation on the implications or the consequences of the state regulations could also provide some modest traces for the bigger question of the legal theory from not the beginning but the end. This is hence both an inductive approach by combining the principles beneath the party laws and the perceptions of party officials and members. The method conducted in this research is a mixed methodology based on normative, qualitative and quantitative methods.

Modelling Enhancement of LV Network Equivalents for Operational Planning of the GB Power System

Shahriar Muttalib

Poster Location: 46

The research concentrates on interfacing between operational applications at the transmission or distribution network level. For example at the GB transmission level interfacing between Energy Management System (EMS) and Data Historian and between EMS (including future WAMS) and Energy Balancing System. It also includes remote NG access to assess a novel industry scale trusted cloud computing platform for secure and scalable data processing and information exchange. The final objective is to build a secure and scalable data exchange between Distribution Network Operators and Transmission Network Operators to extend real-time large-scale power system model depth.

22



N

Health Monitoring of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics repaired patch subjected to aerodynamic loading

Berta Navarro

Poster Location: 47

As composites materials are becoming increasingly popular in aerospace applications the market for structural health monitoring (SHM) will be increasing in the near future. The research will be focused on the development of a “smart-patch” repair system for composite aircraft structures.

The smart patch will be cured through induction heating. Curing control will be possible using magnetostrictive materials (MMS).The same MMS system will be used for SHM in order to both propagate and receive guided ultrasonic waves through the patch and detect matrix cracking and delamination, thus giving the patch capability for long term health monitoring. The smart patch will allow SHM of the component with the goal of condition based maintenance and life extension rather than component replacement.

O

Degradation of Pharmaceuticals

Jasper Ojoghoro

Poster Location: 48

Pharmaceutical are medicine we take to protect, preserve and improve our health. Humans take medicine and excrete them as metabolites, conjugates or complex mixture of unchanged/metabolites. Pharmaceuticals widespread detection in water/reported gender-bending in fishes is critical environmentally. Some drugs metabolites are reportedly bioactive, perhaps more active than their parent compound. Unfortunately, conventional wastewater treatment processes are unable to treat these contaminants resulting in their regular discharge with effluent into rivers. My research is aimed at identifying/characterising transformation products of selected EU priority pharmaceuticals. The Eawag Bio catalysis/Biodegradation Database has been used to predict possible products of the model pharmaceuticals. A laboratory-based degradation study on progesterone yielded 5 products all retaining the core parent structure. The study indicates that microbial transformation of progesterone other than human/animal excretion produces androgens present in the rivers. This finding highlights the need to identify/characterise drugs transformation products that can exhibit bioactive/cocktail chemical effect on environmental resources.

23



Evaluating the potential impacts of likely future rainfall changes on sugar beet productivity in East England.

Stanley Okom

Poster Location: 49

Projected climate change impacts in the UK include increasing temperatures and reduced summer rainfall. The interaction of these impacts poses a challenge for agricultural productivity and the growing industry. This study examines firstly, the potential impacts of future changes in rainfall between now and 2050 in England. Secondly, it investigated the impact of these changes on sugar beet productivity. Two experimental sugar beet categories (control and future) of 75 replicates each were carried out in the greenhouse under different watering regimes. The control category received 0.46L of water every second day and the future category received 0.39L based on initial future rainfall analysis. Results indicated a general response to soil moisture with the future category showing more reduced soil moisture. Statistical comparison of mean tuber mass between the two groups showed a significant difference in mean mass with control at 360g and future at 319g with a P-Value of 0.01.

P

Is Progress We Making: Confronting the Traumatic Impact of Grenada’s Taboo History through Fiction

Chioma Paul

Poster Location: 50

The implosion of the Grenada Revolution in 1983 is still a traumatic memory for many whether they experienced it or not. One reason is frustration at how Grenada could have become a more progressive society. As a result, I sought to discover the following:

1. How essential is it that we confront and learn from these traumatic events?2. Can fiction assist in overcoming such trauma?3. Can fiction stimulate the dialogue needed to confront the issues that have been avoided?

As part of my research I travelled to Grenada and interviewed a range of people whose experience of the Revolutionary period varied. I subsequently invented characters in a novel that reflects some of the interviewees’ experiences with the intention that this novel will stimulate dialogue and facilitate the process of healing the psychological damage caused by the trauma.

24



P4P Incentives Lead to Better Patient Outcomes

Alina Peluso

Poster Location: 51

The "Pay-for-Performance" approach has been widely adopted to motivate improvement of the healthcare providers by increasing quality or reducing costs. In order to estimate providers' effectiveness, we used data from the Lombardy region (Italy), both before and after the introduction of the P4P program in 2011, separating wards in each hospital as treated and control groups.

Using a multilevel logistic mixed-effects model at a ward, hospital and patient level over the time, we have checked for performance improvements through the evaluation of multiple outcomes and considering both the aggregated periods and the single years. Lastly, we have implemented Radar-Plots at a hospital-wards level to summarize and provide intelligible results. The policy has affected the hospital performance, especially for those wards influenced by a managerial action, that those more affected by the patient's condition.

This research supports effects on patient outcomes due to the introduction of P4P system.

Q

The role of Negative Emotion of Saudi Arabia and the UK Employees in Private Universities in Individual Relationship, Behaviour and Personal Well-Being.

Amal Qassim

Poster Location: 52

Emotional well-being is vital for overall health as it enables individuals to realise their abilities and work productively. As such, employees who experience negative emotions in the workplace can cause violence and aggression. Therefore, it is crucial for employees to be able to manage their emotions. This paper highlights a proposed empirical research study on the Saudi Arabia and the UK context, through a qualitative analysis, to discuss the main factors that arouse negative emotions. Moreover, it focuses on how they affect the relationship, behaviour and well-being of employees. It also discusses how to manage the negative emotions through a study of employees in Saudi Arabia and the UK private universities.

25



R

Chromosome Dynamics and Molecular Motor Activity in Interphase Nuclei

Kumars Riyahi

Poster Location: 53

The cell nucleus is a very complex organelle in eukaryotic cells and scientists are still revealing new complexity in its organisation. The central role of the nucleus in the control of gene expression compels thorough investigations of the mechanisms involved in its functions. Different cells express different sets of genes depending on their functions in specific tissues; therefore it is crucial for chromosomes in cell nuclei to be highly regulated. Evidence has been accumulating supporting the movement of whole chromosomes and specific gene loci in interphase nuclei, through nuclear motors. This project involves the investigation of the organisation and function of nuclear motor proteins and their involvement in the active movement of chromosomes and genes, in the interphase nuclei of proliferating and non-proliferating cells.

S

Optimisation of Pavement Surface Damage Repair

Fauzia Saeed

Poster Location: 54

There are significant public concerns due to rapid increase in the amount of surface damage namely potholes in asphalt surfaces. These localised failed areas also reduce ride quality and potentially create a dangerous driving condition. This research will focus on asphalt damages, first understanding the formation of surface damage, namely due to water and thermal segregation during compaction. Secondly the project will aim to drive and evaluate, through parametric modelling and full scale experimentation, scientifically based materials, construction and application that supports durable pothole and patch repairs. One expectation is that the minimum life of a typical pot-hole repair can be increased from 2 years to 5 years. Also investigate the means for greater confidence and dependency on the use of recycled materials, and thus open up the way to a substantially reduced carbon footprint in road repair, Also the cost of ancillary impacts through vehicle damage and accidents.

26



A Qualitative study of QOL and Stigma in People with Epilepsy in the UK and Kurdistan

Nashmel Sargalo

Poster Location: 55

Epilepsy does not discriminate across cultures, continents or gender. 50 million people are affected worldwide and 80% are in the developing countries. In western societies there’s increased awareness with the help of better medical understanding and available support groups assisting those diagnosed with epilepsy and their families, however, this does not seem to be case for areas like Kurdistan. Using semi structured interviews and Thematic Analysis; the results indicated that the UK group showed significantly better knowledge of epilepsy and experience less stigma compared to the Kurdish group. It is concluded that the level of stigma present in the UK and Kurdistan contributes to the quality of life of people with epilepsy, although it seems that the Kurdish group also had the added pressure of their family and society in their coping mechanisms which may in turn cause more stress and may feel a lack of control over their symptoms.

Evaluation of frost heave and mass transfer mechanisms in highway sub soils using a novel laboratory simulation method

Assel Sarsembayeva

Poster Location: 56

Seasonal freezing-thawing of highway sub soils and systematic maintenance by de-icing chemicals steadily affect their thermal regime and moisture distribution. As the result, it leads to significant change of sub soils from the designed engineering characteristics including their bearing capacity. In order to better understand the process and to evaluate the correlation between temperature field and frost heave, and also to simultaneously supply with de-icing chemicals, the modified laboratory method was developed in this research. The current test method is upgraded by increasing height of soil samples up to 1 meter and more soil columns being able to be tested simultaneously. It also admits a thorough study of soil properties and a mass transfer during the close to nature freezing-thawing technics.

27



Neuroticism -Related Differences On Dual Task PRP Paradigm

Rahmi Saylik

Poster Location: 57

While it is known that high levels of neuroticism are associated with cognitive impairments, it is unknown whether this is also associated with impairments in multitasking. Therefore we investigated neuroticism-related differences in the dual-task paradigm of the psychological refractory period (PRP). We hypothesized that highly neurotic individuals will have higher dual-task costs compared to low neurotic individuals. Participants performed an auditory and a visual two-choice reaction task either separately as single tasks or concurrently as dual tasks. We indeed found higher dual-task costs in the highly neurotic group as compared to the low neurotic group. Moreover, we found that highly neurotics were slower than low neurotic participants in dual task with zero stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) both for reaction time 1&2.This expands previous knowledge about the cognitive impairments related to high levels of neuroticism.

Helping make plastic pipes last 100 years!

Muhammad Shaheer

Poster Location: 58

The nuclear industry is starting to use polyethylene pipes (PE) in safety critical applications. These applications require a welding procedure that can validate the structural integrity of PE welds for their intended design life. The standards on butt fusion welding procedure of PE pipes are currently fragmented. The test methods specified to test the joint integrity have little correlation between their results. Therefore it is difficult to compare the different standards. This NSIRC PhD intends to address the concerns of the nuclear industry. TWI’s in-house developed whole pipe tensile creep rupture test will be used together with various short-term tests to carry out a rigorous comparison of the current industry standards.

28



Investigating Data Challenges to Enable Advanced Analysis Applications for Power Systems

Corinne Shand

Poster Location: 59

As utilities move towards more intelligent and autonomous networks, there is increased requirement for the analysis of how these changes will affect network operation and performance. Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) can be integrated into a network for the analysis and identification of bad data. As PMUs contain a GPS chip, it is possible for them to determine their own location when connected to a network. By creating a Common Information Model (CIM) network model in the cloud, using geographical data, the PMU would be able to connect to this and know what it is connected to and where in a network it is located. Network data could then be collected and analysed to help identify any points of bad data. Challenges to overcome include the building of the network model from the available geographical data, the automatic integration of the PMU with the network, and the authentication of the data.

An investigation of the factors that influence consumers’ adoption of information from online reviewson different platforms

Jutarat Sirithanaphonchai

Poster Location: 60

The effect of consumer online review has been studied in the past few years. It is interesting to examine why consumers who are seeking information are willing to adopt online reviews from websites and which factors influence them to do so. This research provides an opportunity to advance the understanding of the effect of these online reviews on e- merchants and independent websites platforms on consumers’ information processing in the tourism context. The information adoption model is utilised to investigate the factors that influence consumers’ adoption of online reviews. The research framework will consist of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of this study are expected to identify what influences consumers to adopt information by using Elaboration Likelihood Model. Also, it will helps electronic marketers to better understand the way in which consumers process this kind of information and decide to adopt it.

29



Talking pipe: Wireless sensor network for condition monitoring in oil and gas pipelines

Siva Kumar Subramaniam

Poster Location: 61

Revolution of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has drawn popularity and fuelled its way into many areas especially in the oil and gas industry as its long distance data communication technology is significantly practical. The unique geographical nature of linear WSNs arrangements battle its way among other topologies in the pipeline application even with a series of drawback on packet delivery ratio, end to end delay, single node failure and network energy efficiency. Therefore the aim of this research is to highlight these challenges by introducing a set of odd and even path in linear arrangements with an improved auto node failure recovery routing algorithm in the afford to improve the overall system efficiency. NS2 tool is established with IEEE 802.11 standard and TCP parameters to visualize significant improvement on the above mentioned parameters by making it viable of this scheme in a realistic scenario.

T

Is your number sense “good enough”?

Rebecca Turvill

Poster Location: 62

This poster draws on data from an on-going ethnographic study of number sense development in primary school. I demonstrate that whilst number sense is considered a real-life application of number, the opportunities for children to learn number are predominantly decontextualized. Further, although risk taking is promoted as a necessary skill in number sense development, lessons are structured to encourage children to follow rules. Through misrecognition of this wider socialisation as mathematical “ability”, number sense contributes to the reproduction of social inequality through education.

30



W

The fire performance of high strength steel

Dorothy Winful

Poster Location: 63

Steel structures are widely used in the UK, particularly in multi-storey construction, owing to their excellent efficiency in terms of structural response, construction time and material usage. High strength steels (HSS) offer additional advantages over conventional steels as they can lead to lighter buildings with reduced CO2 emissions and construction and transportation costs. Before engineers can specify these materials in structures, it is critical that their performance in fire is fully understood.

The project aim is to develop an understanding of the behaviour of HSS during a fire. The time-temperature dependence of the yield strength and stiffness will be investigated to determine the effects of various alloying and processing routes used to acquire strength. It is of particular interest to explore whether any metallurgical effects can be utilised to retard the loss of strength at elevated temperatures. This project will support the wider use of HSS in the construction industry.

Assessment of Advanced Easy-Clean Durable UV coatings

Anna Wojdyla-Cieslak

Poster Location: 64

Easy-clean or self-cleaning surfaces are of considerable potential in many industrial sectors. Conventional, highly repellent coatings do not meet market requirements, due to the low mechanical durability, complex preparation and high cost of production. New advanced UV coatings systems having inorganic additives might have the potential to improve the materials performance, by linking together high repellency and mechanical robustness.

The assessment of coating with the new inorganic fillers indicates that improved performance can be achieved. The study of the results on both, abrasion data and surface energy show that both of these features can be enhanced by the use of functionalized inorganic fillers.

31


co 2 emissions are directly related to buildings mainly to inefficient insulation materials and...

Documents