Digital Commons Network^™

Power Of Us: Listening To Families, Tara J. Vassallo

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This article, originating from the ‘Power of Us!’ conference held in June 2025, reflects on the session titled ‘Listening to families’ which offered an experienced parent panel, providing a forum for discussion. The session had a particular focus on the experiences of families and their children with neurodivergent and other individual educational needs and the families’ pursuit of genuine co-production with their children’s school. The article offers an insight into the session, sharing reflections from the discussions, and calls for action aimed at creating a truly inclusive educational system.

Creativity, Inclusion And Participation, Heather Knight

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This paper, originating from the ‘Power of Us!’ conference held in June 2025, reflects on the session titled ‘Creativity, Inclusion and Participation’, which drew upon different theories to explore what is creativity and question why many people believe they are not creative. This raises questions about what happens to creativity and what is the role that education plays in developing or hindering creativity. The paper offers an insight into the session, sharing reflections from the discussions, and exploring the idea that creativity can be seen as a democratic and social process. It argues that everyone can be creative in the …

A Preston Bridge School (Pbs) Approach To Inclusive Multisport Practices Within Sen, Jack Smith

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This paper, originating from the ‘Power of Us!’ conference held in June 2025, reflects on the session titled A Preston Bridge School Approach To Inclusive Multisport Practices Within SEN, which captured the current physical provision offer at Preston Bridge, with a particular focus on how the implementation of inclusive practices enable young people with SEN to meet and achieve their EHCP targets through physical education. The paper offers an insight into the session delivered, sharing best practice, staff and student reflections, and calls for action to promote the inclusion of young people with SEN within the context of physical education.

Positive Psychology And Positive Education: A Strengths-Based Approach To Sen, Michelle Y. Tytherleigh

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This paper, originating from the ‘Power of Us!’ conference held in June 2025, reflects on the session titled: Positive psychology and positive education: a strengths-based approach to SEN, which looked at how positive psychology and positive education can be applied to better support students, and with a particular focus on those with SENs.The paper offers an insight into the session, sharing reflections from the discussions and research findings, and calls for action to create a truly inclusive educational system.

Collaborating Through Place-Based Partnerships For Inclusion, Suanne Gibson

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This reflective paper presents thoughts and insights from an interactive session delivered by Professor Suanne Gibson at this year’s ‘The Power of Us’ Spaghetti Bridge with University of Plymouth conference, on May 1^st.

Suanne reflects on how her talk ‘Plymouth’s story: Place-based school improvement for inclusion 2021 onwards’ took shape, telling the tale of a city’s successful progression for inclusion via a series of cross city and cross sector partnerships and collaborations. Matters of educational leadership and effective management of inclusive ideals, innovative practices and policies for progress and evidenced impact across Plymouth are shared and critically considered. …

Developing A Dynamic Learning Community – A Values Based Inclusive Approach To Relational School Leadership, Kulvarn Atwal

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This paper, originating from the ‘Power of Us!’ conference held in June 2025, reflects on the session titled 'Developing a Dynamic Learning Community - a values based inclusive approach to relational school leadership' with a particular focus on the power of professional learning in creating an inclusive, high performing learning environment for all students. The paper offers an insight into the session, sharing reflections from the discussions and research findings, and calls for action to create a truly inclusive educational system, led by inclusive school leaders.

Foreword To The Special Issue: The Power Of Us Conference, Christopher Lore, Harriet Dismore

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This introduction to the special issue of the Plymouth Institute of Education Open Journal summarises the thinking behind the organisation of the Power of Us Conference held at the University of Plymouth on May 1st, 2025. The theme of the conference was creating more inclusive schools and communities through fostering dialogue between all participants in inclusive spaces: students, families, local authorities, community organisations, leaders, and numerous others. This conference can form a model for creating other inclusive spaces for sharing best practice and enabling as many voices as possible to be heard.

Editorial - Conference Proceedings And Reflections, Alicja Syska, Claudia Blandon, Katherine Gulliver, James Tarling, Jo Hawkes

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This editorial introduces a special issue that documents 'The Power of Us' conference on inclusive education (1 May 2025, Spaghetti Bridge and University of Plymouth) through an innovative format that captures a wide spectrum of scholarly exchange. Rather than presenting traditional abstracts and formal papers, these proceedings privilege the voices and experiences that emerged in real time -audience reflections, presenter insights, and the emotional and intellectual responses that shaped the day's conversations. The editorial outlines the rationale for this approach, positioning it as a more complete representation of how knowledge about inclusive education is co-created through dialogue between diverse stakeholders. …

Making Intra-Urban Monitoring ‘A Walk In The Park’: A Mobile Monitoring Approach For Assessing Pedestrians’ Environmental Conditions, Cho Kwong Charlie Lam, Halat Alnaqshabandy, Shaun Lewin, Jack Morewood, Xiaoxiong Xie, Steve Goodhew

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Heat island effects and air pollution influence urban climates and air quality, impacting pedestrians’ health, comfort, and well-being. This study develops and pilots the Trolley-based Environmental Monitoring System (TEMS), which was validated in a medium-sized city in the UK. Three monitoring campaigns took place during May and June 2024. The mobile transects covered the city's built and natural environments, including high-density university buildings, museum precinct, medium-density dwellings, highways, and two parks. Appropriate apparatus was specified to monitor environmental variables integrated into a trolley that was easily operated by a single pedestrian. Fisheye photographs were taken to calculate the sky view …

Husbandry And Management Interventions For The Conservation And Welfare Of Captive Animals – A Systematic Evidence Map, Anaelle Lemasson Lemasson

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Zoos and aquariums are poised to play increasingly important roles in mitigating the global biodiversity crisis. However, the ultimate success of ex-situ conservation depends on animal welfare and effective husbandry and management practices. As such, an empirical understanding of ‘what works’ in zoo management is crucial for guiding success and embedding cost-effective practices. Here, we present the first systematic evidence map for husbandry and management interventions used in zoos and aquariums. We identified and extracted 1,070 articles spread across 45 journals, and examined patterns within taxonomic, spatial, temporal, and thematic categories. Studies originated from 516 institutions in 69 countries, and …

Protective Multi-Stressor Interactions In The Anthropocene: Key Considerations For Investigating Cross-Tolerance In A Conservation Context, Essie M Rodgers, Simone Baldanzi, Michael Collins, W Wesley Dowd, Lauric Feugere, Giovanna Mottola, Fanny Vermandele, Daniel F Gomez Isaza

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

In the Anthropocene, species are increasingly faced with multiple stressors that are more severe and less predictable than before. While multiple stressors often interact to affect organisms negatively, sometimes these interactions can be beneficial, enhancing resilience through cross-protection. Cross-protection interactions occur when exposure to one stressor, such as elevated temperature, enhances an organism’s tolerance to a different stressor, like hypoxia, through shared protective mechanisms or signaling pathways. Understanding the potential for cross-protection to combat rapid and diverse environmental change is crucial for conservation, as it potentially alters the predicted consequences of such change. Here, we outline 10 key considerations for …

A Comprehensive Review On Machine Learning-Based Job Recommendation Systems, Shaymaa Al-Juboori, Su-Cheng Haw, Rui Ern Yap

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

A dynamic, constantly shifting labor market creates enormous job postings, overwhelming candidates and making it difficult for businesses to find quality candidates. It is also hard for job seekers to find suitable jobs. Addressing these issues, machine learning-driven job recommender systems have recently become an essential tool using predictivemodels to improve the match between jobs and candidates. A hybrid design that combine scollaborative filtering with content-based filtering andadds contextual information like geographic location,industry trends, and user behavioural data can enhance the accuracy and relevance of recommendations. This paper reviews and critically analyzes contemporary jobre commender system techniques. The focus is …

Early Childhood Education – A Unique And Quasi-Hidden Curriculum, Verity Campbell-Barr

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper considers the complexities and debates surrounding the concept of curriculum in Early Childhood Education (ECE). The paper highlights the tension between traditional, structured curriculum models found in schooling and the more flexible, child-centred and play-based approaches advocated in ECE. Starting from the premise that curriculum theory in ECE is underdeveloped, the discussion draws on Bernstein’s Pedagogic Device to provide a theoretical framework with which to analyse how knowledge is produced and recontextualised in ECE in both the official (state) and pedagogic field. Central to the recontextualisation are theories of child development and how they provide an underlying course …

A Survey Of Image Forensics: Exploring Forgery Detection In Image Colorization, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Sharma, Nancy Girdhar, Cheonshik Kim, Ki-Hyun Jung

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

In today’s digital era, the rapid evolution of image editing technologies has brought about a significant simplification of image manipulation. Unfortunately, this progress has also given rise to the misuse of manipulated images across various domains. One of the pressing challenges stemming from this advancement is the increasing difficulty in discerning between unaltered and manipulated images. This paper offers a comprehensive survey of existing methodologies for detecting image tampering, shedding light on the diverse approaches employed in the field of contemporary image forensics. The methods used to identify image forgery can be broadly classified into two primary categories: classical machine …

Description Of The Combined Evidence-Based, Theory-Based And Person-Based Approaches Used To Develop A Behavioural Intervention Package To Support Non-Allergist Healthcare Workers To Remove Incorrect Penicillin Allergy Records From Medical And Surgical Adult Inpatients In A Uk Hospital, Neil Powell, Mathew Upton, Bridie Kent, Jonathan Sandoe, Sarah Tonkin-Crine

School of Biomedical Sciences

Objectives To develop a behavioural intervention package to support non-allergist healthcare workers (HCWs) to remove incorrect penA records from medical and surgical adult inpatients. This paper describes the development of the penicillin allergy de-labelling (PADL) intervention and the implementation intervention that will support non-allergist-delivered PADL. Design We combined evidence-based, theory-based and person-based approaches. Qualitative research with healthcare professionals and patients explored barriers and enablers to implementation of the proposed PADL pathway. Key intervention design objectives and the key features of the implementation intervention required to achieve each objective were then developed and captured as guiding principles. We produced a logic …

Assessing The Effects Of Antibiotic Selectivity And Temperature On The Antimicrobial Activity Of Isolates Derived From The Deep-Sea Sponge Pheronema Capenteri, Lex L. Hilario

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The rapid increase of antibiotic resistance necessitates the discovery of novel antibiotic compounds capable to tackle these resistant bacteria. Deep-sea sponges accommodate a diverse and dense microbiome filled with an array of bacterial communities that have the potential to produce novel antimicrobials. Some discovered novel strains have already shown their capability in producing secondary metabolites that are effective against clinically relevant strains. This study aims to evaluate the impacts of different culture conditions; antibiotic selectivity and temperature, on the antimicrobial activity of isolates recovered from three different Pheronema carpenteri deep-sea sponges. Using culture-dependant methods, a total of 59 bacterial isolates …

Comparing P62 And Lc3 As Autophagy Biomarkers: Insights Into Cellular Homeostasis, Riya Roychan

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Autophagy is a fundamental cellular process that maintains homeostasis by the degradation of damaged organelles and proteins. It plays crucial roles in cellular remodelling, development, and disease progression. These roles apply to the study of neurodegenerative diseases which is heavily linked to the toxicity produced by unwarranted accumulation of cellular material. A key player in autophagy is LC3, which translocate to autophagosomal membranes during the process. Detecting fluorescently labelled LC3-II through immunofluorescence provides a valuable method for assessing autophagy levels in samples. In a similar premise p62, also known as sequestosome-1 (SQSTM-1), is an adaptor between LC3 and ubiquitinated substrates, …

But Who Is It For? Introducing A Framework For Critical Reflection On Design And Delivery Of Ethical Participatory Research, Hannah Gardiner, Clare Pettinger, Louise Hunt, Mary Hickson

School of Health Professions

Delivering ethical collaborative research is challenging, requiring disruption of assumptions, academic norms, and ways of working–including long-standing power dynamics. This article proposes a framework to support critical reflection on participatory practice; an adaptation of the wheel of consent. The adapted ‘ILBR’ framework explores the balance of who Initiates (makes requests/offers), does Labour (the action), gets Benefits, and takes on Risks (ILBR) in the conduct of research. This aims to support reflexive design and delivery of ethical participation, including a shift towards consent becoming an ongoing multi-way negotiation of agreements. Particularly it aims to support ‘interpersonal reflexivity’, and navigation of the …

An Arc Of Time Through Crime: Representations Of Gypsies And Travellers In Police Killings, Coretta Phillips, Becky Taylor, Zoë James

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper examines newspaper stories reporting on the killings by Gypsy and Traveller offenders of PC Leslie Meehan in 1960 and PC Andrew Harper in 2019. These media representations are used as heuristic devices to explore differing media discourses about this white minority ethnic group. Sixty years apart, these stories demonstrate supportive media commentary in the earlier period and more corrosive coverage in the recent period. Making a contribution to historical criminology and its consideration of race, this paper draws from extensive archival analysis and the extant literature. It highlights the political-economic significance of home ownership, the partial inclusion of …

Comparative Designs Reveal Preferences For Human-Generated Rather Than Ai-Generated Art, Oliver Jacobs, Farid Pazhoohi, Grayson Mullen, Alan Kingstone

School of Psychology

The evaluation of AI-generated art has seen increased interest after widespread access to AI-generated art (e.g., DALL-E or Stable Diffusion). While previous studies have suggested that there are preferences for human-generated art, the research remains far from robust with numerous contradictory findings. One potential reason for this discrepancy is differing experimental designs employing comparative or non-comparative methods. To shed light on this problem, two experiments were conducted: one using a Likert scale (N = 250) and another using a 2-alternative forced choice design (N = 102). Our conflicting results between the two designs suggest that traditional Likert-based art appraisals in …

Flow Dynamics And Local Scour Around Seabed-Mounted Artificial Reefs: A Case Study From Torbay, Uk, Yeaw Chu Lee, Amir Bordbar, Jakub Knir, Vasilios Kelefouras, Stephen Hickling, Harrison Short

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This study investigates the flow dynamics and local scour around a Reef Cube® artificial reef deployed in Torbay, UK, using computational fluid dynamics. The flow is modelled using Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations with a k-ω SST turbulence model. A novel hydro-morphodynamic model employing the generalized internal boundary method in HELYX (OpenFOAM-based) is used to simulate scour development. Model performance was validated against experimental data for flow fields, bed shear stress, and local scour. Flow simulations across various scenarios demonstrated that parameters such as the orientation angle and arrangement of Reef Cubes significantly influence flow patterns, bed shear stress, and habitat …

Substitution And Complementarity Between Human And Artificial Intelligence: A Dynamic Capabilities View, Christopher Agyapong Siaw, Waqas Ali

Plymouth Business School

Purpose: This paper draws on the dynamic capabilities (DC) view to develop a conceptual framework that explicates the mechanisms through which human intelligence (HI) and artificial intelligence (AI) substitute and complement each other for organizational knowledge management (KM) while considering the role of ethics. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that draws on DC theory and integrates insights from the burgeoning literature on organizational AI adoption and application to develop a conceptual framework that explains the mechanisms through which HI and AI may substitute and complement each other for organizational KM to develop DC. Findings: The conceptual framework demonstrates that …

Designing Well-Being Intervention Trials For People With Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: The Importance Of Understanding Usual Care Comparators, Marcia Finlayson, Silvia Poli, Federico Bozzoli, Giampaolo Brichetto, Lars Bø, Isolde Martina Busch, Ulrik Dalgas, Nikos Evangelou, Amanda Farrin, Jennifer Freeman, Helena Jidborg, Daphne Kos, Claudia H. Marck, Daniel Ontaneda, Jessica Podda, Michela Rimondini, Polly Swain, Emma Tallantyre, Lauren A. Taylor, Roshan Das Nair

School of Health Professions

Well-being captures an individual’s capacity to lead a mean ingful and engaged life. Interventions to address well-being go beyond managing symptoms or supporting daily activity performance. Designing trials to evaluate the effectiveness of such well-being interventions can be challenging. One such challenge is determining what the comparator or control arm should be. Several trials of complex interventions use usual care as a comparator, but this can be particularly challenging when planning trials across multiple countries and health care systems. Therefore, trial design decisions must be informed by a good understanding of what constitutes usual or routine well-being interventions across locations. …

Infants' Visual Preference For Expansive And Contractive Body Postures: An Eye-Tracking Study, Maryam Rostami-Aghoui, Caroline Floccia, Farid Pazhoohi

School of Psychology

Nonverbal communication is pivotal in early social and emotional development, with body postures serving as crucial cues. While extensive research has explored infants' recognition of emotions from facial expressions, a significant gap remains in understanding their visual inclinations towards body postures. Despite some studies on adults, there has been a lack of investigation into how infants respond to deliberate displays, particularly using eye-tracking methods. This research addresses this gap by examining whether infants exhibit a preference for expansive postures over contractive ones. A sample of 18 infants aged 12–24 months participated in the study, with their gaze patterns measured across …

Unpacking Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Elements: Insights Into Drivers Of Entrepreneurial Activity, Mohamed Yacine Haddoud, Samah Souleh, Omaima Munawar Albadry, Saeyeon Roh, Adah Kole Emmanuel Onjewu

Plymouth Business School

Thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) are instrumental in new enterprise creation and growth, as they provide vital support for entrepreneurial activity. However, as this support may be context-specific, the existing literature has yet to capture the contextual factors that shape the contributions of EEs. To address this inertia, a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) is employed, which examines the influence of ecosystem factors on new venture development in two key MENA countries, namely Algeria and Saudi Arabia. The findings indicate that physical, commercial, and legal infrastructure are important factors for EEs in both countries. Nevertheless, there are intriguing differences in the …

Cutting Corners – Is Mixing Remifentanil And Propofol A Bad Idea?: Mixing Remifentanil And Propofol, Anthony R. Absalom, J Robert Sneyd

More Faculty of Health Research

No abstract provided.

Advancing Ai Literacy In Medical Education: A Medical Ai Competency Framework Development, Chang Cai, Jamie Duell, Daisy Minghui Chen, Weng Kin Ho, Bernett Teck Kwong Lee, Fang Li, Siyuan Liu, Olivia Ng, Vidya Sudarshan, Shang-Ming Zhou, Gaoxia Zhu, Xiuyi Fan

School of Nursing and Midwifery

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into healthcare underscores the need for medical professionals to develop AI competencies. While the UNESCO AI competency framework provides general guidelines, it is broad and lacks the specificity required for medical education. This study proposed and validated an AI competency framework tailored for medical professionals, integrating UNESCO’s AI framework with Miller’s pyramid model. The preliminary framework was refined based on expert feedback from six hospital administrators, eight medical professionals, and ten university instructors. This study presents an AI competency framework for medical professionals, laying the groundwork for future curricula development. It offers insights and …

We Are Tectonic! A Queer Geophysics For Intra-Solidarities And Resisting The Cloud Regime, Helen Pritchard, Femke Snelting, Seda Gürses, Jara Rocha, Miriyam Aouragh

School of Art, Design and Architecture

This paper analyses how Big Tech and global consultancy firms are asserting control over carbon removal certification and governance through infrastructure solutions and technical standards. We argue that defining gaps in the underground constitutes a global takeover of material sovereignty, encompassing both knowledge and geological formations. We unearth Big Tech’s strategies of infra-solutionism to demonstrate, drawing on the work of inhuman geographer Kathryn Yusoff, how this takeover reinforces geological grammars and essentialises racialised and sexualised categories that disconnect us from the Earth. Drawing on queer poetry together with work of Marxist agronomist Amílcal Cabral we advocate for resistance to dominant …

Trusted Professional Multi-Agency Transitions For Young People Facing Multiple Disadvantage – Learning From Co-Production By A Third Sector Partner In The Plymouth Alliance, Uk, Gemma Doyle, Sean Mitchell, Sue Hawley, Katy Krysiak, Felix Gradinger

Peninsula Medical School

Introduction: This case study provides practice-based reflections on challenges and potential solutions for young people with multiple disadvantages across housing, substance misuse, mental health, criminal justice, and domestic abuse systems, informed by 4 local principles: trauma informed, learning based, an alliance commissioning ethos, and workforce development.Description: To improve the current experiences of 17–25-year-olds in service transition iterative insights drew from networking staff across sectors, clinical audit and following live cases, and appreciative enquiries with young people. This was conducted by a practitioner researcher in a local Young Person’s charity and was supported by peer researchers with lived experience and embedded …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Self-Harm Among Autistic Women, Jessica Rebbettes, Alison Bacon

School of Psychology

Background: Autistic individuals, particularly females, demonstrate a higher prevalence of self-harm compared to those who are not autistic. Core cognitive, affective, and sensory differences inherent to autism are linked to the increased vulnerability within autistic populations. However, these factors are not sufficiently explored in relation to individuals’ social and environmental contexts, resulting in a gap in understanding the self-harm experiences of autistic females. Methods: Eleven autistic women participated in semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences of self-harm. Data was transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Three key themes were identified: Regulation of Emotional States, highlighting self-harm as a …