Welcome to the University of Bedfordshire Repository - an open access repository giving you access to the continuing research activity undertaken at the university.
Searching the repository is easy - you can use the search box or the browse options on the left.
Submissions to the Repository (other than theses) are currently managed via our Research Management System. Do not try to upload your publication here. If you have any queries about this please email us at oap@beds.ac.uk.
If you’d like further information or have a query about the repository then please contact us.
Recently Added
-
The uncanny workplaceThe fact that dictionaries fail to agree completely on a definition of uncanny is perhaps, in and of itself, an uncanny occurrence, at least in the sense of uncanny that we hope to use consistently throughout this paper. (Whether we do use this slipperiest of concepts consistently is a matter for the reader to decide.) The writers and compilers of dictionaries, of course, have a job to make their contributions stand out from other similar publications, and a nod towards originality is expected.[1] However, a failure to align semantically – which we might describe as a non-event, as something that did not happen – feels rich with hidden meaning, especially given that “the uncanny” attracts synonyms such as “weird”, “eerie” and (in particular) “unsettling”. [1] For a fascinating account of the professional disagreements between dictionary writers, please see “Authority and American Usage” by David Foster Wallace. “[P]robing the seamy underbelly of US lexicography reveals ideological strife and controversy and intrigue and nastiness and fervor…” (Wallace, 2014, p.885).
-
The mediating impact of organizational innovation on the relationship between fintech innovations and sustainability performanceThe paper explores the impact of digital payment systems, blockchain technology, and AI/machine learning on innovation and sustainability in financial organizations. As part of the analysis, the study has adopted an explanatory research design and has used SmartPLS in order to analyze the data collected from 230 professionals of different fields through a structured questionnaire. The results show positive effects of digital payment systems and blockchain technology on organizations’ innovations with the impact of digital payments being the most pronounced. Empirical results suggest that these technologies are important to improve sustainability performance, depending on measures of internal consistency and discriminant validity among the proposed constructs. Al, also machine learning, has the highest relevance with environmental sustainability, thereby underlining the importance and work of such measures. Based on the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory, the study also explains the need for the organization to assimilate these innovations to enhance the organizational operations, customer satisfaction, and compliance with the laws. The study highlights fintech’s potential to address environmental issues and enhance societal goals, but geographical limitations may obstruct its transportability.
-
FedLSTM: a federated learning framework for sensor fault detection in wireless sensor networksThe rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has significantly increased reliance on sensor-generated data, which are essential to a wide range of systems and services. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), crucial to this ecosystem, are often deployed in diverse and challenging environments, making them susceptible to faults such as software bugs, communication breakdowns, and hardware malfunctions. These issues can compromise data accuracy, stability, and reliability, ultimately jeopardizing system security. While advanced sensor fault detection methods in WSNs leverage a machine learning approach to achieve high accuracy, they typically rely on centralized learning, and face scalability and privacy challenges, especially when transferring large volumes of data. In our experimental setup, we employ a decentralized approach using federated learning with long short-term memory (FedLSTM) for sensor fault detection in WSNs, thereby preserving client privacy. This study utilizes temperature data enhanced with synthetic sensor data to simulate various common sensor faults: bias, drift, spike, erratic, stuck, and data-loss. We evaluate the performance of FedLSTM against the centralized approach based on accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and F1-score. Additionally, we analyze the impacts of varying the client participation rates and the number of local training epochs. In federated learning environments, comparative analysis with established models like the one-dimensional convolutional neural network and multilayer perceptron demonstrate the promising results of FedLSTM in maintaining client privacy while reducing communication overheads and the server load.
-
Exploring EMI students’ attitudes towards translanguaging and English language proficiency threshold across different disciplinesThe current study explores the discipline-based differences in terms of the relationship between English language proficiency and attitudes towards translanguaging in partial English Medium Instruction (EMI) programmes at a Turkish university. Quantitative data were collected from undergraduates in the Faculty of Engineering (n = 173) and the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences (n = 172). Analyses revealed that English proficiency did not predict students’ general attitudes towards translanguaging and their attitudes towards the use of translanguaging in class in engineering programmes. However, proficiency was a significant predictor of both factors for the social science students. MANOVA results showed that the multivariate effect of proficiency was significant in social science programmes but not in engineering programmes. An apparent proficiency threshold was observed with social science students but not with engineering students, where attitudes towards the use of translanguaging decreased at the B2 proficiency level. The paper discusses the pedagogical implications of the relationship between language proficiency and attitudes towards translanguaging in different disciplines.
-
Over the kitchen table: British storytelling as working-class art, belonging and resistanceThis article introduces a contemporary art and storytelling project that took place in January 2024 in Bestwood Village, an ex-coal community, showing a televised play filmed in the village (1963) written by Dennis Potter, Stand Up, Nigel Barton, about the son of a coal miner gaining a place at Oxford University during this period of social change. The project and the article show that the art of working-class storytelling is both political and personal, and despite the lack of working-class voices in the arts, in the culture industries and in academia, small storytelling events such as this one play an important part in strengthening working-class communities.