RSS 1.0Welcome to WIRE
(Wolverhampton Intellectual Repository and E-Theses)
WIRE is an open access repository for the research publications and other outputs from postgraduate students and staff at the University of Wolverhampton.
Wolverhampton staff: to deposit your publication to WIRE, go to: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/research/wire/
Use the search box above or the browse function on the left to discover publications from the research community at the University of Wolverhampton.
University students and staff can also search WIRE using LibrarySearch
For further information or help, contact the Scholarly Communications Team at wire@wlv.ac.uk
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A phenomenological inquiry of building and living in European Earthship homesEarthships remain a relatively under explored type of sustainable/alternative home. This is the first study to investigate the personal experiences of constructing and living in European Earthship-homes. The aim of this study is to reveal insights into the 'hands-on' practical experience of persons who have constructed their own Earthship-homes; and to also gather insights into the collective experience of these dwellers on the realities of living full-time in an Earthship-home. A phenomenological methodology, using an inductive research approach, was utilised through a qualitative research strategy to solicit insights into the personal experiences of these unique persons. The main themes and sub-themes that emerge from analysis are that anyone from any background can make the shift to building/living in an Earthship-home. However, a mixed skillset and knowledge of building trades, plus a physical and emotional prowess is needed for the long-haul build process, together with access to financial means and/or available materials are critical factors that influence the outcome of the Earthship building. Meanwhile, once constructed, off-grid living in an Earthship-home gives dwellers a greater connectivity with the natural world, raises awareness of consumerism and an enhanced appreciation of human impacts.
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Identifying disability-related barriers to academic employmentThis study sought to increase understanding on barriers to securing academic employment met by people with disabilities. Lindsay and Fuentes (2022) pointed out the paucity of research on disability in academia. We surveyed over 5,000 authors of scholarly articles with “disab” in the title and with UK or USA academic email addresses. People with disabilities were asked to describe barriers they met, and people without disabilities to describe barriers they believed that people with disabilities faced. The responses were classified according to category of barrier. We found examples of 11 categories of barrier, indicating that a wide range of factors contribute to barriers to academic employment. The most common categories of barrier in responses by people with disabilities were attitudinal barriers, inadequate provision of reasonable adjustment, and excessive workload. Moreover, the frequencies of categories of barrier vary greatly with impairment. We consider the possible ramifications of our study for addressing the barriers to academic employment, the understanding the nature of disability and methodology. Our study is the first investigation of the relative frequencies of barriers to academic employment.
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Injury incidence and severity in Chinese pre-professional dancers: a prospective weekly monitoring surveyObjective: To determine dance injury incidence and severity in full-time Chinese pre-professional dancers. Study Design: Prospective weekly online monitoring survey Methods: Respondents were asked to record all dance-injury incidences between September 2020 to July 2021 using a remote weekly self-report injury monitoring tool. An inclusive definition of injury was used in this study to record all injuries, even if they didn’t cause a cessation of training. Data were excluded if respondents completed less than 90% of the survey period and had over 3 consecutive weeks of missing data. Results: 450 individuals from 11 different schools were included in the analyses. A total of 1157 injuries were reported over a 30-week academic year. Injury prevalence was 64.9% and injury incidence was 5.51 injuries per 1000 hours. Forty-eight percentage of the injuries were minor severity and 41% were of moderate severity, and the main injury sites were knees (0.89/1000hrs), lower back (0.80/1000hr), feet (0.58/1000hrs), groin (0.56/1000hrs). Female dancers reported significantly higher injury prevalence and injury incidence, and higher rates of moderate to severe injuries than males. The university group reported higher injury incidence than the adolescent group (p<0.05), whereas the latter reported higher rates of moderate to severe injuries than the former (p<0.001). Conclusion: The injury incidence found in this study (5.1 injuries/1000hrs) is higher than most previous sets of data. Female dancers are at a higher risk of injury and reported higher levels of injury severity than male dancers, especially for the female adolescent group.
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Melt pool monitoring and x-ray computed tomography-informed characterisation of laser powder bed additively manufactured silver–diamond compositesIn this study, silver (Ag) and silver–diamond (Ag-D) composites with varying diamond (D) content are fabricated using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM). The L-PBF process parameters and inert gas flow rate are optimised to control the build environment and the laser energy density at the powder bed to enable the manufacture of Ag-D composites with 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% D content. The Ag and D powder morphology are characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Ag, Ag-D0.1%, Ag-D0.2% and Ag-D0.3% tensile samples are manufactured to assess the resultant density and tensile strength. In-process EOSTATE melt pool monitoring technology is utilised as a comparative tool to assess the density variations. This technique uses in-process melt pool detection to identify variations in the melt pool characteristics and potential defects and/or density deviations. The resultant morphology and associated defect distribution for each of the samples are characterised and reported using X-ray computed tomography (xCT) and 3D visualisation techniques. Young’s modulus, the failure strain and the ultimate tensile strength of the L-PBF Ag and Ag-D are reported. The melt pool monitoring results revealed in-process variations in the build direction, which was confirmed through xCT 3D visualisations. Additionally, the xCT analysis displayed density variations for all the Ag-D composites manufactured. The tensile results revealed that increasing the diamond content reduced Young’s modulus and the ultimate tensile strength.
