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Addressing intersectional bias in AI recruitment using HITHIRE model: a fair, ethical, green AI and transparent hiring solution for Saudi Arabia’s diverse workforce in line with vision 2030
Full text linkArtificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming recruitment by allowing organisations to employ data-driven hiring decisions. However, AI-powered tools are prone to reinforcing biases instead of eliminating them, posing ethical and fairness concerns. Since AI-powered tools are critical in hiring, this study introduces HITHIRE, an AI-driven recruitment model designed to enhance transparency, fairness, and inclusivity within the diverse workforce of Saudi Arabia, which aligns with Vision 2030. A baseline model was first evaluated using Llama 3.1, BERT, and regular NPL techniques. However, the baseline model revealed significant biases in gender and nationality-based hiring, making it inappropriate for the Saudi Arabian diverse hiring environment. The Llama 3.1 model was enhanced through data augmentation, sentence transformers, standard scoring, and transparency mechanisms, resulting in the HITHIRE model. Fairness analysis demonstrated improvements across gender and nationality dimensions, with reduced Statistical Parity Difference (SPD) and Disparate Impact (DI) scores. The findings highlight the potential of ethical AI integration in recruitment, ensuring unbiased, accountable, and transparent hiring practices. HITHIRE sets a precedent for AI-driven fairness in recruitment, contributing to HR policies and ethical AI discourse globally
Long-term warming and vegetation change have no impact on microbial resistance to drought, but destabilise microbial communities and microbially-mediated functions
No full textClimate change presents multiple stresses to ecosystems that operate over different timescales, such as long-term warming and short-term drought. It is well established that soil microbial communities are highly responsive to individual stresses, but how they respond combined warming and drought, and how factors such as vegetation change moderate responses, remains uncertain. Here we tested whether long-term passive warming modifies the resistance (amplitude of response) and resilience (degree and duration of recovery) of soil microbial communities to short-term drought. We also tested whether warming effects on microbial resilience to drought are moderated by vegetation composition, and specifically the presence of ericaceous dwarf shrubs, the dominant vegetation type of peatland. This was tested using soil from a nine-year warming and vegetation manipulation experiment established on blanket peatland in northern England. We completed a subsequent laboratory study designed to quantify resistance and resilience of microbial communities and microbial-mediated functions to drought. Neither long-term warming nor shrub removal impacted the resistance of microbial communities to drought. However, resilience of bacterial diversity to drought was decreased by warming (fold change 0.38) and shrub removal (fold change 0.27). Notably the interaction between warming and shrub removal resulted in higher resilience of bacterial diversity than individual treatments (fold change 0.58; warming x shrub removal: p = 0.008). Further, warming and shrub removal individually increased the diversity of fungal communities, and reduced resilience of fungal diversity to drought (fold change of warmed against unwarmed 0.11, shrub removal against control 0.39, combination against control 0.59; warming x shrub removal p = 0.006). Warming also strongly decreased resilience, but not resistance, of nitrogen-based functions to drought, although shrub removal dampened this effect. Our findings demonstrate potential for long-term warming and vegetation change to modify microbial responses to extreme drought events, with implications for peatland carbon and nitrogen cycling under future climate scenarios
Viruses Infecting Cuban Honey Bees and Evolution of Deformed-Wing-Virus Variants
Full text linkCuba is in a unique situation in which it has a large (220,000 managed colonies) and isolated honey bee population due to a 60+ year ban on the importation of bees. Despite this, the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor arrived in 1996, and with it came deformed wing virus (DWV). In 2018, an island-wide survey detected varroa and DWV in 91% of colonies. In this study, we conducted a full-virome analysis on some of these samples, along with additional samples collected in 2021. For the first time, we detected two variants of Lake Sinai Virus and confirmed the absence of the normally widespread black queen cell virus in Cuba. We also detected both DWV-A and DWV-B master variants, with DWV-B being the dominant variant. Interestingly, the DWV-B/A recombinant was also detected, indicating that despite Cuba’s isolated nature, the pattern of DWV evolution mirrors that found in the USA and Europe. However, this pattern is not found in neighboring Latin America, China, or Japan, where the DWV-A master variant continues to be dominant. How and why two distinct evolutionary DWV pathways have arisen remain a mystery
A New Domain-Independent Approach for Classification of Bacteria, Fungus, and Virus-Infected Fruit and Leaf Images
Full text linkEarly and reliable detection of bacterial, fungal, and viral infections in fruits and leaves is essential for improving crop productivity, preventing disease spread, and supporting food security. Most existing approaches are domain-specific and struggle to generalize across diverse plant organs or varying image qualities. To address this challenge, we propose a novel domain-independent classification framework that integrates quality-metric features—Mean Squared Error (MSE), Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), and Structural Similarity Index (SSIM)—with an adapted lightweight Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). This is the first approach that explores quality measures as features for addressing challenges of classification of fruits and leaves infected by virus, fungus, and bacteria. The method first performs connected-component analysis on K-means clusters generated from R, G, B, and Gray channels to isolate disease-relevant regions and extract quality-based features. These features are fused with visual features extracted from the RGB images using a multimodal CNN architecture. Extensive experiments conducted on the proposed fruit–leaf dataset and four external benchmark datasets demonstrate that the model achieves high accuracy, strong robustness to blur, noise, rotation, and scaling, and superior generalization performance compared with state-of-the-art methods. Cross-domain evaluations further confirm that the proposed method is domain-independent and reliable for the classification of fruits and leaves infected by bacteria, fungi, and viruses
Quantifying the trade-offs between indoor air quality and energy efficiency in a specialised test facility
Full text linkDomestic cooking is a key contributor to poor indoor air quality (IAQ) and one of the most significant indoor sources of particulate matter, including ultrafine particles (UFPs). Since cooking forms an essential part of domestic life, cost-effective active abatement strategies are necessary to improve IAQ. Increasing the ventilation rate by natural or mechanical means will reduce cooking related UFP concentrations but can lead to domestic heat loss: this represents an IAQ and energy efficiency dichotomy. In this study a specialist test facility is used to explore this dichotomy during short-duration cooking activities replicated under different ventilation scenarios, both related to natural and mechanical ventilation in the kitchen, and the relationship between ventilation and airflow around the home more generally. We relate our results to the recently introduced World Health Organization (WHO) good practice statement on UFPs to determine good IAQ. Energy penalties associated with heat loss are calculated to determine which combinations of behavioural and technological interventions can best balance the competing demands of good IAQ and energy efficiency. It was seen that IAQ benefits were achieved at little detriment to energy efficiency. For natural ventilation, behavioural interventions such as opening windows for 20 min yielded significant IAQ benefits, reducing UFPs from peak values by 86 %. Similarly, 20 min of mechanical extract ventilation operation yielded IAQ benefits, reducing UFPs from peak values by 94 %. However, in all ventilation scenarios UFPs remained above the WHO good practice high threshold for ∼1 h. All mechanical extract ventilation scenarios resulted in lower energy penalties than for natural ventilation. Our experiments also show that airflow within the house is important to consider when looking at the IAQ and energy efficiency dichotomy. Whilst results are primarily concerned with managing IAQ and energy efficiency under domestic cooking scenarios, there are wider implications for balancing IAQ and energy efficiency, which have increasing importance in light of management of the COVID-19 and energy crises and future policy, such as the Future Homes Standard
“It’s like a toxic relationship”: Examining internal conflict experienced in wearable activity tracker users
Full text linkWearable activity trackers have been recognised as effective tools for physical activity promotion, leading to their integration in healthcare services. Although, some qualitative literature indicated that device users may experience internal conflict. The current study is the first of our knowledge to directly examine the conflict faced by wearable activity tracker users. A qualitative, exploratory design was followed, with inductive thematic analysis conducted on semi-structured interview transcripts. The current study consisted of 11 regular wearable activity tracker users (8 female), aged between 18–59 years (M = 30.73). Four themes and nine sub-themes captured participants’ internal conflict. Themes were; Who knows best? Who’s in charge? Who am I without it? And What is happening to me?. Themes highlighted that device users faced conflict around navigating a data mismatch, how a wearable activity tracker impacted their behaviour, the amount of control a tracker had over them, whether their device use was positive, and how they would act and feel if they no longer used their wearable activity tracker. Participants experienced substantial internal conflict from wearable activity tracker use. The intensity of device-user relationship was clear, suggesting device dependency and perceived device importance. Findings hold crucial implications around the integration of activity trackers in healthcare services, recommendations around healthy use, and the potential long-term negative impact of using these devices on bodily intuition. Theoretical underpinnings remain unclear around wearable activity tracker use; results suggested blurred boundaries between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation - likely due to device embodiment - and highlighted the role of pressure in driving increased physical activity
Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric testing of the Turkish Version of the Workplace Activity Limitations Scale (WALS) in people with inflammatory arthritis
Full text linkLay Summary: What does this mean for patients? Work plays an important role in people’s lives, supporting financial security, social connection and overall wellbeing. However, people with inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, may experience pain, fatigue and reduced mobility that make work more difficult. The Workplace Activity Limitations Scale (WALS) was developed in Canada to help understand these work-related challenges. In this study, we translated and adapted the WALS into Turkish and tested how well it works for people with inflammatory arthritis in Türkiye. First, 30 people took part in interviews and told us that the 12 questions in the Turkish WALS accurately reflected the problems they face at work. Then, 200 people completed the Turkish WALS along with other questionnaires about work and health (e.g. mood, confidence at work, pain and fatigue). The results showed that WALS scores were closely related to scores on these other questionnaires, meaning that the Turkish WALS gives realistic and meaningful information about work difficulties. Seventy-nine people repeated the WALS 2 weeks later. Their scores were very similar to the first time, showing that the Turkish WALS is reliable and gives consistent results
Performance Assessment in Strength and Conditioning
No full textPerformance Assessment in Strength and Conditioning provides an indicative guide regarding the most appropriate and reliable methods of assessing and monitoring athletic performance in athletes. This new and fully revised second edition explores the full range of considerations required to reliably assess performance, including questions of ethics and safety, reliability and validity and standardised testing, before going on to recommend (through a comparison of field- and laboratory-based techniques) the optimal methods for testing all aspects of physical performance.The book delivers a concise review of the existing literature related to the primary topic, followed by practical applications and guidelines for the standardisation of appropriate testing procedures and protocols for each type of testing. Additionally, a discussion of the key variables (e.g., specific force–time characteristics) for the tests is explored in relation to benchmarking, longitudinal monitoring, fatigue monitoring and injury risk, as appropriate for each test. Closing with a section on interpreting, presenting and applying results to practice, and illustrated with real-life case study data throughout, Performance Assessment in Strength and Conditioning offers the most useful guide to monitoring athlete performance available.This book is an essential text for upper-level strength and conditioning students and practitioners alike as well as all individuals involved in training athletes and researchers in the field of sports science
New Miocene mystacinid bat fossils from New Zealand, including a small new species of the endemic genus Mystacina (Chiroptera: Noctilionoidea: Mystacinidae)
Full text linkNew mystacinid bat fossils recovered from Miocene lacustrine sediments near St Bathans in Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand represent several taxa, including a new species. This new mystacinid species is the smallest yet recorded from St Bathans, and the smallest mystacinid known from New Zealand. It is similar in size to the Australian Miocene mystacinid Icarops paradox. The dental morphology of the new St Bathans mystacinid aligns with that of Mystacina species. A phylogenetic analysis using both maximum parsimony and undated Bayesian analysis of 292 unordered dental characters with a molecular scaffold enforced supports monophyly of an endemic New Zealand mystacinid clade comprising all known Mystacina species. Also assigned here to the genus Mystacina is a previously reported but still unnamed mystacinid from St Bathans. A decline in mystacinid diversity in New Zealand since the Early Miocene is evident
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