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Grow to last or grow to sell? Strategy making and narrative identity refocussing in business support programmes
Full text linkVenture growth creates tensions that, in turn, cause entrepreneurial identities (EI) to evolve as entrepreneurs have to engage with new forms of strategic thinking in order to scale up. However, little is known about how these tensions inform emergent entrepreneurial identity work and its consequences, as entrepreneurs reorganize ventures for growth. We explore this issue by analysing how the process of remaking strategy under the auspices of a UK university business school venture growth programme informed the narrative identity work of the participant entrepreneurs. Our findings illustrate that engaging in strategy making generated ‘narrative identity refocussing’ as entrepreneurs used strategy-related meanings to plot growth events into their self-narration and construct growth trajectories expected to lead to future growth. We contribute to debate by extending understanding about how narrative identity work is undertaken at moments of transition in the entrepreneurial journey, specifically as entrepreneurs scale their ventures, and how business schools can enhance this process
Fiction Feature Filmmaking:Research and Practice in Screenwriting, Production, Distribution, Exhibition, and Beyond
No full textThis book examines fiction feature filmmaking as a mode of creative practice research, offering an innovative framework Fictsearch for investigating the challenges of creating intersex-themed films in the United Kingdom. Through the author's embodied experience in film conception, screenwriting, direction, production, distribution, festivals, and exhibition it reveals the current standing of intersex subjects in commercial filmmaking and why British cinema has yet to embrace these narratives. Key concepts include the impact of filmmakers' lack of awareness and the conflation of intersex with LGBT themes on funding opportunities. The book critically reflects on societal taboos and the hesitancy of financiers to invest in intersex narratives, often relegating such films to indie productions. It highlights the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of intersex individuals in English-language feature films from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. This book is essential for scholars, filmmakers, and students interested in feature filmmaking, film sales and distribution, film studies, gender studies, and representation in media. It demonstrates how fiction filmmaking can serve as a rigorous method for generating new knowledge, particularly when addressing socially sensitive topics, and raises vital questions about creating more visible and nuanced portrayals of marginalized identities in mainstream cinema
Regional patch-based MRI brain age modeling with an interpretable cognitive reserve proxy
No full textAccurate brain age prediction from MRI is a promising biomarker for brain health and neurodegenerative disease risk, but current deep learning models often lack anatomical specificity and clinical insight. We present a regional patch-based ensemble framework that uses 3D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) trained on bilateral patches from ten subcortical structures, enhancing anatomical sensitivity. Ensemble predictions are combined with cognitive assessments to derive a cognitively informed proxy for cognitive reserve (CR-Proxy), quantifying resilience to age-related brain changes. We train our framework on a large, multi-cohort dataset of healthy controls and test it on independent samples that include individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. The results demonstrate that our method achieves robust brain age prediction and provides a practical, interpretable CR-Proxy capable of distinguishing diagnostic groups and identifying individuals with high or low cognitive reserve. This pipeline offers a scalable, clinically accessible tool for early risk assessment and personalized brain health monitoring
On groups with EDT0L word problem
No full textWe prove that the word problem for the infinite cyclic group is not EDT0L, and obtain as a corollary that a finitely generated group with EDT0L word problem must be torsion. In addition, we show that the property of having an EDT0L word problem is invariant under change of generating set, and passing to finitely generated subgroups. This represents significant progress towards the conjecture that all groups with EDT0L word problem are finite (i.e. precisely the groups with regular word problem)
Post-Quantum Protected Federated Learning with Explainable and Adaptive Intelligence for Smart City Transportation
No full textExisting AI-powered Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have limitations in scalability, privacy, and vulnerability to cyberattacks, as well as a lack of transparency in decision-making. In this work, we present a hybrid framework based on Post-Quantum-protected Federated Learning, a lightweight CNN-Transformer model, LIME explanations, and a local model, achieving a loss of 0.02% and a validation accuracy of 98%. At the boundary, congestion is determined using CityFlowV2 traffic camera feeds, which are based on Federated Learning, a distributed training framework that does not require sharing raw data, and the architecture is privacy-respectful. Reinforcement learning trained on OpenStreetMap road networks in Los Angeles coordinates rerouting plans in a simulated environment at the global level, and SHAP provides an explanation of the decision. The Federated aggregation retained accuracy at the zone level, exceeding 97%. Furthermore, this affirms its strength. CRYSTALS-Kyber is used to encrypt V2I and V2V communications, ensuring they are resistant to attacks in the quantum era. The framework is scalable and interpretative, and offers a secure, adaptable, city-neutral blueprint of next-generation ITS
Vortex light at the nanoscale: twists, spins, and surprises
No full textFor over three decades, the study of optical vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum has been at the forefront of optics, driven by fundamental questions about optical momentum as well as diverse applications in quantum information, communications, and optical manipulation. Most work has focused on paraxial beams, whose transverse fields are accurately described by conventional wave optics and the Stokes formalism. By contrast, when light is confined to the nanoscale and tightly focused beyond the paraxial regime, vortex beams exhibit complex electromagnetic structures that transcend these conventional models. In this deeply non-paraxial regime, the resulting fields display rich and often counterintuitive behavior, opening new perspectives on light–matter interactions. This review unifies the emerging physics of nanoscale optical vortices by developing a coherent theoretical framework and offering a critical synthesis of recent advances, guiding readers toward a deeper understanding and stimulating future work in this rapidly evolving field
The Teaching Excellence Framework: Discursive Institutionalism, Policy and Academic Discourse
Full text linkThe Teaching Excellence Framework, by claiming to measure the quality of teaching in higher education institutions in the UK, represents a significant move in quality management, student choice, accountability and marketisation for universities. This study places its introduction and development into the context of historical changes in the way UK universities are funded and managed, as well as shifts in how governments position universities as drivers of social mobility and economic growth.
This research aimed to understand how teaching quality is framed in TEF policy, how it is discursively interpreted by academics and implemented by universities and their staff. Fifteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out with academics across universities, occupying a range of positions/roles in relation to TEF. Their responses are interwoven with text from six core policy documents on the TEF. The conceptual framework of discursive institutionalism has been used to support analysis of this data. This approach helps explain actions and reactions to the TEF policy framework based on agents’ institutional and ideational positions.
The findings reveal how academic staff seek to maintain the capacity to control (but not dominate) both the meaning of and ideas about teaching ‘excellence’ through their own discourse and in their practice. The coordinative/communicative discourse of policy and university leadership, maintaining a certain power over ideas, creates the ideational conditions for limited institutional change. However, institutional change is also affected by a perceived lack of cognitive argumentation in policy and process for the academic community (e.g. use of metrics as proxies to measure the quality of teaching at institutional and national level). Conflicting ideas which were identified in policy were either taken up or reformulated by academic staff, particularly at leadership level; at the same time, existing practices, often at individual and departmental levels were used to structure understandings about learning and teaching
c-Met and EGFR and integrin crosstalk regulates tunnelling nanotube formation in lung adenocarcinoma cells
No full textNon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for over 80% of lung cancer diagnoses and remains associated with poor prognosis. Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) and Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) are implicated in NSCLC due to mutations in their respective receptors, c-Met and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR). Crosstalk between EGFR, c-Met and integrins is a key feature of the tumour microenvironment (TME), playing a central role in tumour progression and actin cytoskeletal reorganisation. Tunnelling nanotubes (TNTs) are thin actin-based protrusions that facilitate intercellular transfer of cargo, thus contributing to tumour progression and therapeutic resistance. While previous studies identified HGF/c-Met and β1-integrin crosstalk in TNT induction, the role of EGFR, c-Met and integrin crosstalk in TNT formation, particularly via the cytoskeletal pathway, remains unexplored.
Confirmed through non-adherence experiments and immunofluorescent labelling of F-actin, α-tubulin and organelles, HGF, EGF and HGF+EGF induced TNT formation to a similar extent to each other, highlighting crosstalk in cell signalling between HGF and EGF in inducing TNT formation. This crosstalk was observed to not occur at receptor level, highlighting downstream interactions. Whilst inhibitor experiments revealed that actin polymerisation is essential for TNT formation, it was found that key regulators of actin polymerisation, FAK, Rac1, CDC42 and N-WASP did not facilitate TNT formation. Furthermore, αV-integrin, rather than α2-integrin, was identified to mediate HGF, EGF and HGF+EGF induced TNT formation in addition to co-localising with β1-integrin, c-Met and EGFR inside TNTs, aiding the theory that focal adhesion components are essential for HGF, EGF and HGF+EGF mediated TNT formation.
To conclude, this thesis demonstrates that HGF and EGF induce TNT formation through downstream signalling crosstalk and most importantly highlights αV-integrin as a potential therapeutic target for NSCLC, possibly combining with dual EGFR/c-Met inhibiting treatments
Corona-Impfung sensibilisiert Tumore für Immuncheckpoint-Inhibitoren
Full text linkCorona-mRNA-Impfstoffe waren ursprünglich entwickelt worden, um vor Infektionen mit SARS-CoV-2 zu schützen. Jetzt haben US-amerikanische Forscher gefunden, dass der Impfstoff resistente Tumore für Immuncheckpoint-Inhibitoren sensibilisiert. In Tierversuchen führten Corona-mRNA-Impfstoffe zu einem Anstieg von Interferon-alpha, wodurch Immunzellen in die Lage versetzt wurden, CD8+-T-Zellen zu stimulieren. Bei gleichzeitiger Behandlung mit Immuncheckpoint-Inhibitoren waren die aktivierten CD8+-T-Zellen schließlich imstande, Krebszellen resistenter Tumor zu töten. Eine ähnliche Immunantwort wurde auch beim Menschen beobachtet. Retrospektive Kohortenstudien zeigten zudem, dass eine Immunisierung mit Corona-mRNA-Impfstoffen innerhalb von 100 Tagen nach Beginn einer Immuncheckpoint-Inhibitoren-Therapie mit einer signifikant verbesserten Gesamtüberlebensdauer bei Krebspatienten einherging. Diese Ergebnisse befürworten eine routinemäßige mRNA-Impfung bei Krebspatienten, um deren Immunsystem kurzfristig zu stimulieren, damit Immuntherapien besser wirken können