DORA

DORA (De Montfort Open Research Archive) is De Montfort University's research repository. It forms the primary public and institutional record of DMU research outputs. The breadth of research at DMU means that these outputs include articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, and other material available in a digital form. The record for each item contains descriptive information as well as, where possible, a version of the final research output. DORA also provides access to DMU PhD theses. This includes most PhD produced from 2009 onwards.

 

Recent Submissions

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Mini‐Me Fashion Sharenting: Drivers, Consequences, and the Role of Market Mavens
(Wiley, 2024-11-28) Luong, Van‐Ha; Manthiou, Aikaterini; Liu, Huaming; Hickman, Ellie; Klaus, Phil
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the psychological mechanisms that motivate sharenting behavior (the practice of parents sharing information and multimedia content about their children on social media) in the context of mini‐me fashion, where mothers or fathers wear matching outfits with their children. Based on mimicry behavior theory and self‐presentation, we use a mixed‐method approach to analyze 200 Instagram posts (study 1) and 303 surveys (study 2), and we examine the relationships of mimicry behavior and hedonism with self‐presentation and their impacts on brand engagement. The findings make theoretical contributions by confirming that mini‐me sharenting is considered an act of online self‐presentation primarily driven by hedonism and mimicry desire, thus leading to higher brand engagement and eWOM. Furthermore, the level of fashion market mavenism amplifies the impact of hedonism on brand engagement.
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Optimized Quantization Parameter Selection for Video-based Point Cloud Compression
(Frontiers, 2024-07-02) Yuan, Hui; Hamzaoui, Raouf; Neri, Ferrante; Yang, Shengxiang; Lu, Xin; Zhu, Linwei; Zhang, Yun
Point clouds are sets of points used to visualize three-dimensional (3D) objects. Point clouds can be static or dynamic. Each point is characterized by its 3D geometry coordinates and attributes such as color. High-quality visualizations often require millions of points, resulting in large storage and transmission costs, especially for dynamic point clouds. To address this problem, the moving picture experts group has recently developed a compression standard for dynamic point clouds called video-based point cloud compression (V-PCC). The standard generates two-dimensional videos from the geometry and color information of the point cloud sequence. Each video is then compressed with a video coder, which converts each frame into frequency coefficients and quantizes them using a quantization parameter (QP). Traditionally, the QPs are severely constrained. For example, in the low-delay configuration of the V-PCC reference software, the quantization parameter values of all the frames in a group of pictures are set to be equal. We show that the rate-distortion performance can be improved by relaxing this constraint and treating the QP selection problem as a multi-variable constrained combinatorial optimization problem, where the variables are the QPs. To solve the optimization problem, we propose a variant of the differential evolution (DE) algorithm. Differential evolution is an evolutionary algorithm that has been successfully applied to various optimization problems. In DE, an initial population of randomly generated candidate solutions is iteratively improved. At each iteration, mutants are generated from the population. Crossover between a mutant and a parent produces offspring. If the performance of the offspring is better than that of the parent, the offspring replaces the parent. While DE was initially introduced for continuous unconstrained optimization problems, we adapt it for our constrained combinatorial optimization problem. Also, unlike standard DE, we apply individual mutation to each variable. Furthermore, we use a variable crossover rate to balance exploration and exploitation. Experimental results for the low-delay configuration of the V-PCC reference software show that our method can reduce the average bitrate by up to 43% compared to a method that uses the same QP values for all frames and selects them according to an interior point method.
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Bridging the Gap
(Routledge, 2024-09-01) Berghs, Maria
When we think of Sickle Cell Disorders (SCD), they become entwined with the history of the African continent in the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, colonialism and present-day health inequalities between low, middle and high-income countries. However, the history of SCD is also one of entanglements between humans, animals, climatic and physical, socio-economic, political and cultural environments, biology and human psychology. The healthcare professionals and healers in African settings, dealing with patients presenting with SCD understood this complexity, and that such a broader perspective was necessary to care for SCD especially when treatments and access to health were not always assured (Konotey-Ahulu, 1974). This is also correlated to why many medical professionals in the field of SCD have been receptive to the contributions of public health, social sciences, humanities, geography, economics, politics, technology and arts, to improve our past, present and future understanding of the condition and quality of life of people with SCD and their families.
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Am I in Higher Education’s third space? Who’s here with me?
(SEDA: Staff and Educational Development Association, 2024-11-28) Allman, Zoe
The third space is a concept I regularly encounter in articles, calls, and at conferences, but am I in the third space? And who else is here? Following my SEDA blog article (21/08/2024) of the same title, colleagues across the sector, from various roles, some known to me and many unknown, reached out to share their thoughts and responses. This session extends that discussion, are you here too?
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I’m in higher education’s Third Space? Who’s here with me?
(2024-11-15) Allman, Zoe
The Third Space is a concept I regularly encounter in articles, calls, and at conferences. I increasingly believe I am in the third space and want to understand who is here with me? By exploring who else is in the Third Space we can better understand current perspectives of higher education, the roles and relationships of those who consider themselves Third Space practitioners, how we all contribute to greater understanding and knowledge of the Third Space, and how we can ensure that we recognise and support one-another.