University Of Glamorgan Research Articles

Control and simulation of a stand-alone wind-hydrogen generation system

The potential to produce hydrogen from renewable resources is of considerable interest due to fears over man-made climate change and resource depletion. Hydrogen produced from renewable resources can be used to generate electricity through a fuel cell, or for other uses in a hydrogen economy. There are a number of potential system configurations for hydrogen production from electrolysis including grid connected and stand alone. In remote locations, stand-alone configurations are of interest, and may prove more economically viable than grid connected systems. In this paper a standalone wind - hydrogen generation system is designed and proposed to take advantage of an electrolyser capable of operating at very low power levels. A dynamic model of the system is presented, along with a maximum power point (MPPT) control algorithm of the system. The potential yield of such a wind-hydrogen stand-alone system located at the University of Glamorgan’s Hydrogen Centre is investigated using wind speed data collected at the site and the performance of the system under variable wind conditions determined.

Guest Editorial: Learning, optimisation and control of cyber‐physical systems

Guest Editorial: Learning, optimisation and control of cyber‐physical systems

Implementing a Police Foundation Degree—Insights from South Wales

AbstractThe recent announcement by the College of Policing in England and Wales that policing is soon to become a degree entry profession should come as no surprise. For the past decade or so, a professionalization agenda has slowly pushed police forces in England and Wales to recognize that policing is irrevocably changing. Police officers now need to be equipped with higher educational skills, abilities, and knowledge to allow them to function in a complex landscape. However, attempts have been made in the past to establish degree or similar-type programmes involving partnerships between police forces and different universities, with varying levels of success. This article explores a foundation degree programme in a partnership between a local police organization and the University of Glamorgan. It explores the rationale behind the implementation of the programme, its content, and its aims and objectives. It also critically examines the positive and negative aspects of such a programme, and will have resonance for the future.

Transforming How Children Perceive STEM Careers: Engineer-Author Promotes Her Profession Through Butterfly Books [Pipelining: Attractive Programs for Women

Engineer Kerrine Bryan didn't know what an engineer was until she was 17. At the time, all she knew was that she enjoyed math and science and she'd likely follow her mother into the accounting field. Then a math teacher suggested she try an taster course at the University of Glamorgan. She went on to major in electronic and electrical engineering at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Without a True North: Tactical Approaches to Self-Published Fiction

In 2007, American online retailer Amazon.com launched both the Kindle ereader device and its associated independent publishing platform Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). In the years subsequent, the integration of KDP within the Amazon retail environment dramatically altered the digital self-publishing landscape, effectively paving the way for today's vibrant - and, at times, crassly entrepreneurial - self-published fiction communities. These communities operate in a chaotic zone of production located beyond the 'knowns' of traditional publishing. In this paper, I aim to map out some of the dominant beliefs and values extolled by successful self-published fiction authors. Over time, the fiction community around these writers have enacted various tactical approaches that specifically strive to tame their chaotic marketplace, and they have occasionally succeeded. Taken as a whole, their approach is lofty, effectively aiming to further democratise publication via increasingly sophisticated virtual and translocal scenes. In the doing, these ad-hoc communities act to geographically re-centre publishing's production hubs and foreground histories and business practices seldom discussed within the traditional book industry. Yet despite their brash commercialism, these authors desire operational autonomy, stable revenue-streams and fulfilling craft-based production within a field plagued by a disparity of capital and power.

EDITORIAL NOTE

The customary schedule of papers read at the Society's meetings is supplemented by papers from our regional meetings and symposia, comprising Peter Borsay's paper given at the symposium at the University of Glamorgan on ‘Visualising the Seaside’ in November 2011, Phil Withington's paper given at the University of Sheffield in April 2012 and two papers by Ian Talbot and Harshan Kumarasingham given at a regional visit to the University of Southampton in October 2012. We are also delighted to include the essay by Levi Roach, the winner of the Alexander Prize.

Introduction: local communisms within a global movement

Reviewing the impact of the then recently available archival sources on research into the German Communist Party (KPD), Sigrid Koch-Baumgarten observed that the quintessential question for researchers – the balance between exogenous and endogenous factors in shaping communism – was here to stay. 1 Th is is a question which has been framed in a number of ways, but in one form or another it is embedded across the varying national historiographies of a transnational movement. 2 Th e contributions to this issue of Twentieth Century Communism – which draws on a selection of papers presented to a conference at the University of Glamorgan (2011) – explore the relationship between the universalising intentions of Bolshevism and the prism of local conditions, which fragmented the light from the East to produce a spectrum of communisms.3 Each author places the balance – as Koch-Baumgarten termed it – at a diff erent point on the scales in weighing up these exogenous and endogenous infl uences; but they all, to one extent or another, point towards many shades of ‘red’, as a diversity of specifi c ‘local’ factors reacted with the Soviet-issue pigment. Before pointing the way ahead to the individual contributions, this introductory discussion fi rst itself engages with this most enduring debate in communist studies, primarily using the German Communist Party as an example. Th e main point is as basic as it is fundamental: the ‘monolith’ was undeniably a Bolshevik aim, and was central to western constructions of communism; but the infl uence of very diverse ‘local’ conditions meant that it remained an unfulfi lled statement of intent.

Student life - Rapid response team

NURSING STANDARD The University of Glamorgan won the 2012 Times Higher Education Outstanding Support for Students award for a project addressing the needs and experiences of undergraduate nursing and midwifery students with disabilities and dyslexia. I lead the project in partnership with the faculty head of learning and teaching, the disability and dyslexia service manager and the faculty computer programmer. The team uses the Microsoft Offi ce SharePoint Server (MOSS) secure document management system to organise and share sensitive information about the needs of students who have disabilities. The UK Equality Act (2010) imposes a duty on public sector organisations, including higher education institutions, to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students (see box). The large number of staff involved in teaching pre-registration nursing programmes made it diffi cult for students to communicate their support needs. Now, appropriate adjustments are discussed with the student, assessed by the university and recorded on individual student support plans (ISPs), which are shared with staff in accordance with the Data Protection Act via the SharePoint system. The university’s Disability and Dyslexia Service (DDS) used to manage a shared folder containing students’ ISPs. However, staff and students said it was time-consuming to access and unresponsive to changing learning needs. The MOSS system allows sensitive information to be organised, managed and shared by the DDS and it can be updated quickly by students and lecturers. Research from the Higher Education Academy (HEA) suggests that students with disabilities who are given immediate support are more likely to have a positive learning experience. The HEA recommends therefore that students’ needs should be assessed and communicated promptly to tutors. That is, there should be systems in place for students to register their needs as soon as their courses start. The MOSS system has improved the student learning experience by speeding up information transfer between the DDS and lecturers. When a new ISP is added to SharePoint, the course leader receives an automatically generated email and can then discuss the student’s needs with DDS staff and the student. SharePoint has improved the way that students with disabilities and dyslexia can communicate their learning needs to those in a position to lend support. An icon that appears on staff computer desktops gives fast access to students’ ISPs and reduces the need for email. For example, when the exams offi cer was absent just before an exam, a SharePoint permission and 15 minutes of training enabled a team leader to identify students who needed exam support NS

Merger in Higher Education: learning from Experiences

AbstractPolitical pressure to reduce the number of higher education institutions in Wales has been sustained for over a decade by three successive ministers for education, two of whom, Jane Davidson and the current incumbent, Leighton Andrews, have left the Welsh sector in no doubt about the strength of their personal commitment to the policy of reconfiguration and collaboration. In this paper, an attempt is made to understand and explain how this policy was experienced by some of the people most closely affected by the recent merger between the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the University of Glamorgan in South East Wales. Some of the lessons learned in this particular context are elucidated in the hope that they might be of assistance to both policy‐makers and members of higher education institutions elsewhere that are contemplating merger.

Welsh university and health boards’ HCSW collaboration

The UK Government's ‘Widening Participation’ agenda ( Public Accounts Committee, 2009 ) aims to ensure those who are able to benefit from higher education have the opportunity to do so. In 2008, in response to this and other Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) publications, the National Leadership and Innovation Agency for Healthcare (NLIAH) in Wales lodged monies with local health boards (LHBs) to develop accredited education at level 4, Credit Qualification Framework Wales (CQFW). This was to be aimed at developing the nursing support roles within Agenda for Change (A4C) pay bands 1-4 and providing evidence-based, patient-responsive care. Four LHBs in South Wales approached the University of Glamorgan and collaborated in the development of a higher education certificate, with the intention of providing education that would benefit the care patients received from support staff.

Case Conferences – Safeguarding Children/Cynadleddau Achos – Diofelu Plant, DVD/CD co‐production between the Faculty of Health, Sport and Science, University of Glamorgan and the Skillset Screen Academy Wales, and funded by the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education, 2010. Free. Available: Janine Wyn Davies, University of Glamorgan/Prifysgol Morgannwg. E‐mail: jdavies4@glam.ac.uk

Case Conferences – Safeguarding Children/Cynadleddau Achos – Diofelu Plant, DVD/CD co‐production between the Faculty of Health, Sport and Science, University of Glamorgan and the Skillset Screen Academy Wales, and funded by the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education, 2010. Free. Available: Janine Wyn Davies, University of Glamorgan/Prifysgol Morgannwg. E‐mail: jdavies4@glam.ac.uk

Development of Energy Saving Mechanism for Renewable Hydrogen Vehicles

This paper describes the development of energy saving mechanisms for renewable hydrogen vehicles, thereby providing extended range and improved efficiency. Simulation studies of configuration setup and analysis for better energy management strategies are carried out using simulation tools developed by the University of Glamorgan (UoG), Faculty of Advanced Technology (FAT). The simulation tools are used to analyze the effect of operating conditions and energy demand of a hybrid vehicle. A dynamic model of onboard hydrogen production employing electrolysis energized by electricity recovered from the vehicle’s suspension sub-system, is implemented in MATLAB/SimulinkTM and integrated with a fuel cell vehicle model. The entire system model is then parameterized to represent a renewable hydrogen fuel cell vehicle for simulation analyses. Simulation results show that by using recovered energy normally lost in damping, appreciable benefits might be accrued from hydrogen production on-board.

‘Absent fear’: Re-envisioning a future geography

This paper explores the significance fear plays, or does not play, in the practice of envisioning. Envisioning is seen as a powerful tool in the delivery of education for sustainable development, for it seeks to engage people in imagining and creating a better future. However, drawing on work undertaken with undergraduate students at the University of Glamorgan, South Wales, we argue that envisioning relies upon ‘absent fear’: it works to suppress, or make absent, fear as a valid response to present and future development. The presence of ‘absent fear’, we suggest, poses a barrier to fully engaging with the challenges and opportunities of a sustainable future, for it is difficult to conceive of a positive vision without first acknowledging and confronting our fears. It is in articulating fear, we observe, that people are more able to respond to the challenges of the future in hopeful and creative ways. Utilising work undertaken with our students this paper revisits envisioning and suggests the need to understand envisioning as a broader process of reflection and action.

How Facebook users select identity categories for self-presentation

This paper focuses on the display of identity on Facebook, and more specifically on how undergraduate students in Cardiff, Wales, say they express identity on their profiles. The theoretical context of this study is observed processes of change in the way we play out identity through what have been described as globalisation, deterritorialisation and the rise of lifestyle consumer society. The paper is based on an analysis of responses from a questionnaire and interviews with 100 students from Media and Communication degrees at the University of Glamorgan. The data collection is designed to indicate what kinds of self-categorisation are used. These data are analysed using Social Actor Analysis developed by Machin and Van Leeuwen. The paper shows that we find a range of identity categories, some that are based around a biological model of national identity, while others focus on a belonging to a territory, others on national cultural activities and yet others link to lifestyle identity. What is most notable in this Welsh sample is the high use of nationalist identity categories and biological ethnic classification alongside other lifestyle identities.

The Harmful Effects of Non Alcoholic Drugs on Driving: It’s Time to Use Technology to Enforce the Law

1Institute for Health, Medical Science and Society, Glyndwr University, Wrexham, LL11 2AW, UK 2Health and Exercise Science Research Unit, School of Science, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, South Wales, UK 3Institute for Clinical Health and Exercise Science, Exercise Science Research Laboratory, School of Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the West of Scotland, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland, ML3 OJB, UK

Editor's foreword

In 1992, Editor's Foreword of Biomedical Reviews (BMR), volume 1, started with the above cited poetry of Sheenagh Pugh, a British poet, novelist and translator, who taught creative writing at the University of Glamorgan in Wales until retiring in 2008. Then, from London, I wrote: "After 45 years of sorrow, the "sometimes" melting point reached Bulgaria too. The Journal is a part of such a sometime-ness that has become possible through collaborative work with my friends, Dr P. Ghenev, Dr K. Dikranian and Mr K. Kralev - executive director of the Bulgarian-American Center in Varna." Biomedical Reviews 2011; 22: iii-iv.

“Making an impact”: a profile of a business planning competition in a university

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the issues experienced in the delivery of a business challenge to a cohort of business undergraduate students at the University of Glamorgan. The challenge involved initiating and running a “real” business and returning a profit within a week. The students worked in groups of up to eight and were given start up capital. The paper seeks to evaluate the impact of the business challenge in terms of changing entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour, and to examine the skills competencies acquired by the individual students.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a mixed method approach to examine the respondent experience. The basis of the investigation involved a semi‐structured questionnaire undertaken on completion of the challenge. In total, in excess of 50 students completed the research instrument. The questionnaire enabled the authors to quantitatively explore the overall impact of the business challenge by student age and gender. In addition, the semi structured design enabled the authors to explore the qualitative “rich data” of individual student experience based on their reflections.FindingsThe findings reveal a positive impact in terms of enhanced attitudes towards the attainability and attractiveness of an entrepreneurial career. The findings reveal that the business challenge provided the students with a significant enhancement in generic enterprise skills including team working, leadership, communication and specific business skills such as sales and marketing behaviour. The students valued the opportunity and personal responsibility offered by the business challenge to apply their theoretical knowledge in a real world context. Several individuals reported that the positive experience with their business venture meant that they wished to continue the business alongside their graduate studies.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to a limited literature in assessing the impact and benefit of business challenges. It will be of value to enterprise education providers in organising and planning such activities.

Critical care training: using Twitter as a teaching tool

In 2010, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded a project to explore the usefulness of Twitter as a teaching tool. The project, which was based at the Clinical Simulation Centre at the University of Glamorgan, involved the creation of four short, videoed clinical scenarios and used a high-fidelity mannequin-based simulator. A group of twelve learners on a BSc Critical Care course accessed these videos asynchronously and were encouraged to 'tweet' very short messages on the evolving condition of the patient in the videos, on key clinical decision points or respond to specific questions posted by the tutors. Another group of learners on a pre-registration nursing course used Twitter in a synchronous, face-to-face classroom environment and also tweeted their responses to the videos. The overall aim of the project was to explore the merits, or otherwise, of Twitter as a tool to scaffold learning and engage nursing students in reflection and clinical decision making.

The role of education, training and skills development in social inclusion

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to examine the initiation of the University of the Heads of the Valley Initiative (UHOVI) project and evaluate the development of its focus, materials and structure. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology employs interviews with a purposive sample of local employer stakeholders. The rationale for this approach is that it allows identification of the key requirements that UHOVI will need to fulfil if it is to be successful in this endeavour, within a reasonable timeframe. The in‐depth interviews also allow increased clarity in terms of the conclusions that can be drawn, particularly in terms of the recommendations for the next stages of UHOVI project. Findings – UHOVI's aim is to encourage social inclusion, through vocational education and training programmes explicitly suited to non‐traditional learners in an area of high social deprivation. UHOVI is a strategic partnership backed by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Social Fund, between the University of Glamorgan and University of Wales, Newport. The purpose of the project is to alleviate the long‐term problems inherent within the Valleys area of Wales, which include low levels of professional and managerial jobs, limited qualifications and educational progression and high levels of economic inactivity, sickness and disability. Practical implications – This study can also act as a case study for other similar policies undertaken in similar economic geographies in the future. It also provides an important and original insight into the underpinning design of a large scale social inclusion educational project which will be of interest to policy makers, academia and enterprise support agencies. Originality/value – The paper provides an in‐depth study of the significant UHOVI project, examining the requirements for such an initiative in terms of both content and delivery of vocational education, and how this can affect the role that an education and training programme can play in meeting a social inclusion agenda.

Austerity, poverty, resilience, and the future of mental health services for children and adolescents

aWelsh Institute for Health and Social Care, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, South Wales, UK bUniversity of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK cRobert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK dTy Bryn, Aneurin Bevan Health Board, Caerleon, South Wales, UK eDiscipline of Psychiatry, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia fDiscipline of Psychiatry, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia Correspondence to Professor Richard Williams, Ty Bryn, St Cadoc's Hospital, Lodge Road, Caerleon, Wales, NP18 3XQ, UK Tel: +44 1633 436832; fax: +44 1633 436834; e-mail: [email protected]