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.

The making of investor subjects in Anglo-American pensions.

Abstract: An individualisation of responsibility and risk is underway in US and UK pensions, as both state and employers scale back insurance commitments that expanded during the post-1945 era. Approached from the perspective of the Foucauldian-inspired governmentality literature, this neoliberal reworking of responsibility and risk across state and occupational pensions is characterised by the summoning up of the responsible individual worker as an entrepreneurial investor subject. Collective insurance, as a technology for constructing, managing, and pooling ‘risk’ as potential danger, is sidelined in favour of the promotion of individual investment to calculate, embrace, and bear ‘risk’ as opportunity or reward. As pension guides produced by state agencies for popular consumption illustrate, only financial market investment appears as capable of providing the individual with a secure and ‘free’ retirement. Contradictions in neoliberal government ensure, however, that the investor as a subject position that is cal...

Verification, analytical validation, and clinical validation (V3): the foundation of determining fit-for-purpose for Biometric Monitoring Technologies (BioMeTs).

Abstract: Digital medicine is an interdisciplinary field, drawing together stakeholders with expertize in engineering, manufacturing, clinical science, data science, biostatistics, regulatory science, ethics, patient advocacy, and healthcare policy, to name a few. Although this diversity is undoubtedly valuable, it can lead to confusion regarding terminology and best practices. There are many instances, as we detail in this paper, where a single term is used by different groups to mean different things, as well as cases where multiple terms are used to describe essentially the same concept. Our intent is to clarify core terminology and best practices for the evaluation of Biometric Monitoring Technologies (BioMeTs), without unnecessarily introducing new terms. We focus on the evaluation of BioMeTs as fit-for-purpose for use in clinical trials. However, our intent is for this framework to be instructional to all users of digital measurement tools, regardless of setting or intended use. We propose and describe a three-component framework intended to provide a foundational evaluation framework for BioMeTs. This framework includes (1) verification, (2) analytical validation, and (3) clinical validation. We aim for this common vocabulary to enable more effective communication and collaboration, generate a common and meaningful evidence base for BioMeTs, and improve the accessibility of the digital medicine field.

Robust Beamforming Design for Intelligent Reflecting Surface Aided MISO Communication Systems

Abstract: Perfect channel state information (CSI) is challenging to obtain due to the limited signal processing capability at the intelligent reflection surface (IRS). This is the first work to study the worst-case robust beamforming design for an IRS-aided multiuser multiple-input single-output (MU-MISO) system under the assumption of imperfect CSI. We aim for minimizing the transmit power while ensuring that the achievable rate of each user meets the quality of service (QoS) requirement for all possible channel error realizations. With unit-modulus and rate constraints, this problem is non-convex. The imperfect CSI further increases the difficulty of solving this problem. By using approximation and transformation techniques, we convert the optimization problem into a squence of semidefinite program (SDP) subproblems that can be efficiently solved. Numerical results show that the proposed robust beamforming design can guarantee the required QoS targets for all the users.

The use of rhythmic auditory cues to influence gait in patients with Parkinson's disease, the differential effect for freezers and non-freezers, an explorative study

Abstract: Purpose. To study the effect of rhythmic auditory cues on gait in Parkinson's disease subjects with and without freezing and in controls.Method. A volunteer sample of 20 patients (10 freezers, 10 non-freezers) and 10 age-matched controls performed five randomized cued walking conditions in a gait-laboratory. Auditory cues were administered at baseline frequency, at an increased step frequency of 10 and 20% above baseline and at a decreased step frequency of 10 and 20% below baseline. Mean step frequency, walking speed, stride length and double support duration were collected.Results. Rhythmical auditory cueing induced speed changes in all subjects. Stride length was not influenced by rhythmical auditory cues in controls, whereas patients showed a larger stride length in the −10% condition (p < 0.01). Freezers and non-freezers showed the same response to rhythmical auditory cues. Within group analysis for stride length showed different cueing effects. Stride length decreased at the +10% condition for freez...