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Imagining a “Naya Pakistan”: social media, political mobilisation and charismatic leadership in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
No full textEMBARGOED – PERMANENTLY</p
Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons in decays of W bosons using prompt signatures
No full textDespite the many successes of the Standard Model of particle physics, several open questions remain, such as neutrino masses, dark matter, and matter-antimatter asymmetry. The introduction of a heavy right-handed neutrino, known as a Heavy Neutral Lepton, could provide a solution to these issues. This thesis presents the first search for Heavy Neutral Leptons in decays of W bosons using prompt signatures from 139 fb→1 of data collected by the ATLAS experiment. This dataset was collected using proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018. The Heavy Neutral Leptons in this search are produced in leptonic decays of W bosons, with the decay mode leading to a final state with two same-flavour same-sign signal leptons, plus one signal lepton of a different-flavour and opposite-sign. This is the first analysis of its kind to con-sider two-lepton-only signal regions, allowing events where the third lepton does not pass selection criteria to be recovered. No significant excess was found between the observed data and the predictions made by the Standard Model. However, competitive exclusion limits have been set on Heavy Neutral Lepton masses from 8 GeV to 65 GeV at a 95% confidence level. A separate study on ATLAS electron trigger scale factors and efficiencies is also presented in this thesis. This shows the first set of Run 3 electron trigger scale factor and efficiency pre-recommendations to be circulated to the ATLAS Collaboration, which were produced by the author. The study also demonstrates the need for the new Tag-and-Probe framework and the author’s contributions to its development.</p
Higher education in the UK is in crisis. We need to reimagine its very purpose if it is to survive
No full textNo description supplied</p
Muon tracking in a LiquidO opaque scintillator detector
No full textLiquidO is an innovative radiation detector concept. The
core idea is to exploit stochastic light confinement in a highly
scattering medium to self-segment the detector volume. In this
paper, we demonstrate event-by-event muon tracking in a LiquidO
opaque scintillator detector prototype. The detector consists of a
30 mm cubic scintillator volume instrumented with 64
wavelength-shifting fibres arranged in an 8 × 8 grid with a
3.2 mm pitch and read out by silicon photomultipliers. A wax-based
opaque scintillator with a scattering length of approximately
0.5 mm is used. The tracking performance of this LiquidO detector
is characterised with cosmic-ray muons and the position resolution
is demonstrated to be 450 μm per row of fibres. These
results highlight the potential of LiquidO opaque scintillator
detectors to achieve fine spatial resolution, enabling precise
particle tracking and imaging.</p
Multinational enterprises’ subsidiary density and subsidiary survival: an attention-based perspective
No full textMultinational enterprises (MNEs) often develop an extensive network of foreign subsidiaries within a host country. However, due to the limited attention capacity of managers at MNE headquarters (HQ), the degree to which each subsidiary in such a host market receives positive attention from the HQ is constrained. Our paper adopts the attention-based view to argue that greater subsidiary density of a focal MNE in a host market increases subsidiary mortality propensities. Additionally, we argue that this effect is moderated by important attention regulators such as the subsidiary's relatedness to the MNE HQ, the order of the subsidiary’s entry into the host market, and the subsidiary’s establishment mode. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 1718 foreign subsidiaries of 255 Finnish MNEs operating in 70 host countries. Overall, our paper contributes to the literature by conceptualising MNE-subsidiary density as an attention-based construct and studying its impact on subsidiary mortality.</p
“I think the humanity just gets lost over and over again”: a phenomenological study of the experiences of higher-weight medical students
No full textA growing body of research has found weight stigma to independently drive both morbidity and mortality, regardless of actual weight. This has, however, yet to translate into medical education and practice. Studies have shown doctors to be common sources of weight stigma, which may be driven, in part, by their medical training. Higher-weight doctors may be best placed to understand and support the health needs of higher-weight people. However, significant levels of implicit anti-fat bias towards higher-weight colleagues lingers in the medical profession. Inclusive practices and more holistic education around weight are therefore needed to support and retain higher weight doctors within the workforce, starting within medical schools. This may improve both staff experiences and patient care. This study aims to explore the experiences of higher weight medical students in the UK. This is an interpretive phenomenological study. Three higher-weight medical students (two women, 1 man, all 2nd year medical students, BMI range 31–50 kg/m2) underwent loosely structured interviews over Microsoft Teams. These were audio-recorded. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and underwent an interpretive phenomenological analysis. Participants reported logistic and environmental issues, such a lack of provision of larger uniform sizes or narrow small lecture room seat sizes. They also reported negative experiences with peers, teachers, and the general public in relation to their size. Despite this, higher-weight doctors were indeed felt to be important to advocate for higher-weight patients. Negative experiences seemed to stem from wider sociocultural issues and reflect the intersectional nature of weight stigma. To improve matters in the longer term, medical schools should review and update their weight-related teaching, alongside considering the accessibility of their physical environments. Medical schools could consider weight stigma as part of their current efforts to decolonise medical curricula.</p
Adaptive FEM with explicit time integration for the wave equation
No full textStarting from a recent a posteriori error estimator for the finite element solution of the wave equation with explicit time-stepping [Grote, Lakkis, Santos, 2024], we devise a space-time adaptive strategy which includes both time evolving meshes and local time-stepping [Diaz, Grote, 2009] to overcome any overly stringent CFL stability restriction on the time-step due to local mesh refinement. Moreover, at each time-step the adaptive algorithm monitors the accuracy thanks to the error indicators and recomputes the current step on a refined mesh until the desired tolerance is met; meanwhile, the mesh is coarsened in regions of smaller errors. Leapfrog based local time-stepping is applied in all regions of local mesh refinement to incorporate adaptivity into fully explicit time integration with mesh change while retaining efficiency. Numerical results illustrate the optimal rate of convergence of the a posteriori error estimators on time evolving meshes.</p
Fire-stimulated flowering enhances multiple plant fitness components
No full textBackground and aims Fire is a key ecological driver shaping reproductive strategies in fire-prone ecosystems. One distinctive strategy is fire-stimulated flowering, whereby plants flower more profusely under post-fire conditions than in the absence of fire. Despite its widespread occurrence, the reproductive benefits of this strategy remain poorly quantified. We hypothesized that fire-stimulated flowering is an adaptive strategy that enhances plant fitness by increasing success across multiple reproductive stages.Methods We compared multi-year data on all stages of reproduction, from flowering density to seedling recruitment, in four Mediterranean geophytes (Asphodelus cerasifer, Dipcadi serotinum, Drimia maritima and Narcissus assoanus), between burned and adjacent unburned areas across six natural wildfires.Key results Plants in burned areas showed higher flowering density, flower production and total seed output, and in some species, this was also associated with increased pollinator visitation and pollen deposition. Seedling recruitment was consistently higher in burned areas.Conclusions Our results provide evidence of the adaptive value of fire-stimulated flowering, which allows plants to exploit the unique abiotic and biotic conditions of the immediate post-fire environment, and highlight fire as a key driver of plant life-history evolution in Mediterranean ecosystems.</p
Methodological review of the design, objectives and sample size of Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) applications that use an external randomised controlled pilot trial design: a protocol
No full textBACKGROUND: The National Institute for Health and Care Research accepts applications for pilot and feasibility studies to their Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme. There has been limited work describing the design practices of these applications and funding status. Knowing some of the qualities which may contribute towards a pilot or feasibility study application successfully gaining funding could help researchers improve the quality of their applications. Therefore, this study describes the protocol for a review looking at the characteristics of funded and non-funded external pilot trial applications. In particular, the primary objective is to describe the planned sample size and sample size justifications. METHODS: The study will be conducted on 100 applications from Competition 31-37 with a randomised feasibility design, identified and given access to us by RfPB where the lead applicant has consented. We will screen these applications to identify the external pilot trials, first looking through the titles and then the full text. Following this, we will extract data on information such as medical area, study design, objective(s), sample size, sample size justification, and funding outcome stage one and two. Validation will be performed on 20% of the data extracted; discrepancies will be resolved by discussion or a third reviewer will decide if there is no consensus. We will use descriptive statistics to summarise quantitative data, and will analyse qualitative data using thematic analysis. Findings will be summarised through discussion with the project contributors to produce a reader-friendly guidance document. DISCUSSION: This work will provide a more complete picture of RfPB external randomised pilot and feasibility trials. The findings will assist researchers when planning their pilot trials, and could help improve the quality of submitted applications. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework protocol registration DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/PYKVG.</p
Sustainable Development in Free Trade Agreements of the European Union
No full textThis contribution seeks to examine the labour dimension of sustainable development in modern EU free trade agreements (FTAs). Many of these agreements contain a specific chapter on labour, namely the ‘Trade and Sustainable Development’ (TDS) chapter or entitled more simply ‘Labour’ or ‘Trade and Labour’. This chapter includes labour provisions whereby the parties agree to continue to strive to raise their respective standards and non-regression clauses, aimed at preventing a “race to the bottom” that might lead to a significant deterioration of domestic labour standards. Additionally, these provisions include a reaffirmation of the parties’ existing international commitments regarding labour standards and/or have the aim of incentivising them to commit to key International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions.
This contribution seeks to critically evaluate the extent to which these labour provisions are an effective way of improving labour standards in domestic legal systems. To meet its intended aim this chapter focuses on two EU trade agreements with middle-power countries, namely, the United Kingdom (UK) and Japan. These middle-power states constitute an interesting case-study because they still exert influence in the EU and play a significant role in contemporary international relations and global trade. After an overview of EU social conditionality in trade agreements, the contribution undertakes a country-specific analysis, examining the labour provisions of the 2019 EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the 2020 EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).
On a broader scale, the aim of this chapter is to contribute to the academic discussion about how sustainable development issues are elaborated and included in modern EU FTAs. Relatedly, it also intends to assess the extent to which the provisions of these EU bilateral trade agreements indicate the parties’ intentions in relation to the EU’s role in setting norms for the international trade order.</p