Northumbria University

About: Northumbria University is a education organization based out in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Population. The organization has 5624 authors who have published 17423 publications receiving 381949 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Northumbria at Newcastle.

Differential Evolution Algorithm as a Tool for Optimal Feature Subset Selection in Motor Imagery EEG

Abstract: One of the challenges in developing a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is dealing with the high dimensionality of the data when extracting features from EEG signals. Different feature selection algorithms have been proposed to overcome this problem but most of them involve complex transformed features, which require high computation and also result in increasing size of the feature set. In this paper, we present a new hybrid method to select features that involves a Differential Evolution (DE) optimization algorithm for searching the feature space to generate the optimal feature subset, with performance evaluated by a classifier. We provide a comprehensive study of the significance of evolutionary algorithm in selecting the best features for EEG signals. The BCI competition III, dataset IVa has been used to evaluate the method. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method performs well with Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier, with an average classification accuracy of above 95% with a minimum of just 10 features. We also present a comparison of Differential Evolution (DE) with other evolutionary algorithms, and the results show the superiority of DE which implies that, with the selection of a good searching algorithm, a simple Common Spatial Pattern filter features can produce good results.

Temporary work and human resources management: Issues, challenges and responses

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue volume that examines a range of concerns, challenges and responses relating to temporary workers and human resource management (HRM).Design/methodology/approach – The paper highlights eight key research questions and describes the structure of the issue. The various articles investigate six main areas: the rationale for using temporary workers rather than permanent workers; factors determining types of temporary work arrangements; the rationale for temp workers entering into temporary employment; the nature and extent of the relationship between TWAs and user firms; the relationship between employment regulations and an organisation's labour use patterns of temporary workers and the HR challenges associated with ongoing and extensive use of temporary workers.Findings – Findings varied according to the main focus of each paper. It is evident, however, that no one perspective, public policy or organisational strategy is likely to fit all ...

Lycopene and tomato and risk of cardiovascular diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological evidence.

Abstract: Background and aims: Worldwide, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remains as the main cause of mortality. Observational studies supports an association between intake of tomato products or lyc...

Virtue and Meaningful Work

Abstract: This article deploys Alasdair MacIntyre’s Aristotelian virtue ethics, in which meaningfulness is understood to supervene on human functioning, to bring empirical and ethical accounts of meaningful work into dialogue. Whereas empirical accounts have presented the experience of meaningful work either in terms of agents’ orientation to work or as intrinsic to certain types of work, ethical accounts have largely assumed the latter formulation and subjected it to considerations of distributive justice. This article critiques both the empirical and ethical literatures from the standpoint of MacIntyre’s account of the relationship between the development of virtuous dispositions and participation in work that is productive of goods internal to practices. This reframing suggests new directions for empirical and ethical enquiries.