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Self-organizing proteinoid–actin networks: Structure and voltage dynamics
Get PDFProteinoids are thermal proteins produced by heating amino acids to their melting point and initiation of polymerization to produce polymeric chains. Proteinoids swell in aqueous solution forming hollow microspheres, usually filled with aqueous solution. The microspheres produce spikes of electrical potential similar to the action potentials of living neurons. The cytoskeletal protein actin is known in its filamentous form as F-actin. Filaments are organized in a double helix structure consisting of polymerized globular actin monomers. Actin is a protein that is abundantly expressed in all eukaryotic cells and plays a crucial role in cellular functions by forming an intracellular scaffold, actuators, and pathways for information transfer and processing. We produce and study proteinoid-actin networks as physical models of primitive neurons. We look at their structure and electrical dynamics. We use scanning electron microscopy and multichannel electrical recordings to study microsphere assemblies. They have distinct surface features, including ion channel-like pores. The proteinoid−actin mixture exhibits enhanced electrical properties compared to its individual components. Its conductivity (σ = 4.68 × 10 −4 S/cm) is higher than those of both pure actin (σ = 1.23 × 10 −4 S/cm) and pure proteinoid (σ = 2.45 × 10 −4 S/ cm). The increased conductivity and new oscillatory patterns suggest a synergy. They indicate a synergy between the proteinoid and actin components in the mixture. Multichannel analysis reveals type I regular spiking in proteinoid networks (ΔV ≈ 50 mV, τ = 52.4 s), type II excitability in actin (V max ≈ 40 mV), and bistable dynamics in the mixture. These findings suggest that proteinoid−actin complexes can form primitive bioelectrical systems. This might lead to the better understanding of the evolution of the primordial neural system
Spatial analysis of depression and anxiety among frontline health workers during Nigeria’s COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional study
Get PDFBackground: The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused considerable panic and anxiety among health workers in all countries of the world, including Nigeria. This study aimed to identify the spatial clustering for prevalence and factors associated with anxiety and depression among frontline health workers (FHWs) during COVID-19 in the 36 states of Nigeria. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in COVID-19 hospital treatment centres (one in each state) across 36 Nigerian states and Federal Capital Territory. A total of 3,353 FHWs were recruited using convenient sampling technique. The main outcomes were depression and anxiety symptoms examined using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and categorised into binary. The sequential modelling approach in Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with anxiety and depression among FHWs. The spatial distribution of anxiety and depression across Nigerian states was examined, and prevalence and adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for mental health outcomes were visualized using ArcGIS Desktop 10.86, with graduated color symbols representing aORs adjusted for confounders. Results: FHWs in the Southeastern States of Anambra, Enugu, Abia, and Imo, experienced higher odds of depression and anxiety compared with other states. For anxiety alone, higher odds were observed among FHWs in Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, and Edo states. Logistic regression analyses revealed higher odds for anxiety and depression among Nurses, while FHWs who have practiced for 1–6 years had significantly higher odds for depression (adjusted odds ratios (AOR) = 3.21, 95%CI: 1.90, 5.43 for 5–6 years; and AOR = 2.33, 95%CI: 1.27, 4.26 for 1–4 years). The odds for anxiety and depression were significantly lower among FHWs with a prior history of psychological distress compared to those without such a history. Conclusions: This study highlights significant spatial clustering of anxiety and depression among FHWs in Nigeria, with the highest burden in Southeastern states. Nurses and FHWs with fewer years of practice were particularly vulnerable, indicating the need for targeted mental health interventions. Those with a prior history of psychological distress had lower odds of experiencing anxiety and depression, suggesting potential resilience or coping mechanisms. These findings underscore the urgency for tailored mental health support and policy interventions to mitigate the psychological impact of future public health crises on healthcare workers
Harnessing success: A qualitative study of best business practices among high-performing smes
Get PDFSmall and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies often operate under challenging conditions, yet some consistently outperform others despite resource constraints and volatile markets. Most SMEs are led by single owners whose charismatic leadership and personal management style define the organization's direction rather than standardized processes. Understanding what drives such high performance remains a critical research gap. This study examines the strategies and managerial practices that contribute to the success of high-performing SMEs in Pakistan. Using a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten SME owners and managers representing diverse sectors, including manufacturing, services, and retail. The collected data were thematically analysed to identify common behavioural and strategic patterns associated with sustained performance. The results reveal that successful SMEs adopt a balanced approach that integrates strong customer orientation withinnovative differentiation. They customize offerings to meet niche demands, focus on high-margin products, and avoid price-based competition. At the same time, they maintain strict cost control, streamline operations, and invest selectively to enhance efficiency. Leadership emerges as a central factor, with owners relying on intuition, personal networks, and hands-on involvement to respond quickly to external changes. The findings of this study suggest that the combined effects of charismatic leadership, innovation, and operational efficiency strengthen organizational resilience and enable SMEs to sustain competitive advantage even under adverse conditions
Habitat suitability is correlated with acoustic activity of bats
Get PDFContextHabitat suitability models (HSMs) are a powerful tool for estimating species occurrence and contribute to evidence-based conservation planning. It is important to verify HSM predictions with ground validation but this is not always completed, partly because habitat suitability cannot be measured directly. The emergence of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) as an inexpensive ecological tool provides an opportunity to relate habitat suitability predictions to a physical measure of species activity on the ground.ObjectivesWe aimed to investigate the relationship between acoustic activity and habitat suitability predictions, test the utility of PAM for HSM validation, and apply a ground validated HSM to landscape-level conservation. We illustrate this approach with a British species of conservation concern, the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum).MethodsWe built a 1 km resolution HSM for R. ferrumequinum and used PAM to record acoustic activity across a predicted habitat suitability gradient. We assessed correlation between acoustic activity and habitat suitability, and performed a post-hoc power analysis to determine the minimum sample size needed to detect a habitat suitability signal in our acoustic data.ResultsWe found a statistically significant positive correlation between acoustic activity and predicted habitat suitability, losing power below about 50 acoustic sampling points. Our results indicate that climate change could have a positive effect on R. ferrumequinum distribution in Britain, while cave availability limits distribution. We predict a negative effect of urban expansion, driven by urban sprawl rather than urban densification.ConclusionsWe demonstrate the potential of PAM as a tool for model validation as part of robust, evidence-based species conservation planning, and provide novel insight into the nature of acoustic data that will increase understanding in the burgeoning field of bioacoustic research
Knights in shining armour and (M)others in life jackets: Women’s experiences of advocating for care alone when suffering recurrent early pregnancy loss during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
Get PDFBackground: Recurrent early pregnancy loss [rEPL] is a traumatic experience, marked by feelings such as grief and depression, and often anxiety. Despite this, the psychological consequences of rEPL are often overlooked, particularly when considering future reproductive health or approaching subsequent pregnancies. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic led to significant reconfiguration of maternity care and a negative impact on the perinatal experience, but the specific impact on women’s experience of rEPL has yet to be explored. This study aimed to examine the impact of changes to early pregnancy loss care and social restrictions during the pandemic on women’s experience of rEPL. Methods: A qualitative interview study design was employed, with semi-structured interviews conducted virtually. A total of 16 women who had suffered two or more early pregnancy losses (≤ 14 weeks gestation) during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the United Kingdom participated. Data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed by hand, following a Classical Grounded Theory Analysis, appropriate for cross-disciplinary health research. Results: Iterative and inductive analysis generated the theory ‘Knights in Shining Armour and (M)others in Life Jackets’, which describes women’s experience of advocating for care alone, when suffering rEPL during the pandemic. This theory was derived from the way in which three emergent themes inter-related: (1) Dismantling Validation; (2) Preserving an Identity of Motherhood; and (3) Support Waning. Conclusions: This study affirms recent findings of devalued maternity care during the pandemic, and magnification of pre-pandemic issues with EPL care, such as a lack of support or perceived empathy
Accepting your Body after Cancer (ABC), a group-based online intervention for women treated for breast cancer: Study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial
No full textIntroduction Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. While increasing numbers of women are living beyond breast cancer, treatment-related body image concerns are common and associated with adverse consequences. Nonetheless, rigorously evaluated and effective body image interventions are lacking among this group. Accepting your Body after Cancer (ABC) has indicated promise in relation to inperson delivery. However, online delivery may increase accessibility and facilitate sustainability of the intervention. Therefore, we aim to establish the feasibility of conducting a fully powered randomised controlled trial to evaluate online delivery of ABC.Methods and analysis 120 women who have received treatment for breast cancer and are experiencing body image concerns will be randomised equally to either the ABC or standard care control group. All participants in both conditions will receive a body image booklet for people who have had cancer. ABC participants will also take part in a weekly seven-session, group-based cognitive behavioural therapy intervention, delivered online by a psychologist and cancer support specialist. Outcome measures will be completed at baseline and 9 weeks, 20 weeks and 32 weeks post baseline. Quantitative data on recruitment, retention, ABC attendance and questionnaire completion rates will be analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data will also be collected to better understand the feasibility and acceptability of the research process and intervention, with data analysed using ‘codebook’ thematic analysis.Ethics and dissemination The study has received ethical approval from the Newcastle North Tyneside Research Ethics Committee (ref: 24/NE/0092). The findings will be disseminated to academic and health professionals via a peer-reviewed publication and presentations at relevant conferences. Results will also be disseminated to participants, national cancer organisations and the general public via accessible reports, online presentations and different communication channels.Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06412341; ISRCTN ISRCTN88199566; IRAS 327507; REC reference 24/NE/0092; funder reference NIHR205415
Edge intelligence: A deep distilled model for wearables to enable proactive eldercare
Get PDFWearable devices are becoming affordable in our society to provide services from simple fitness tracking to the detection of heartbeat disorders. In the case of elderly populations, these devices have great potential to enable proactive eldercare, which can increase the number of years of independent living. The wearables can capture healthcare data continuously. For meaningful insight, deep learning models are preferable to process this data for robust outcomes. One of the major challenges includes deploying these models on edge devices, such as smartphones or wearables. The bottleneck is a large number of parameters and compute-intensive operations. In this research, we propose a novel knowledge distillation scheme by introducing a self-revision concept. This scheme effectively reduces model size and transfers knowledge from a deep model to a distilled model by filling learning gaps during the training. To evaluate our distilled model, a publicly available dataset, ‘growing old together validation (GOTOV)’ is utilized, which is based on medical-grade standard wearables to monitor behavioral changes in the elderly. Our proposed model reduces the 0.7 million parameters to 1500, which enables edge intelligence. It achieves a 6% improvement in precision, a 9% increase in recall, and a 9% higher F1-score compared to the shallow model for recognizing elderly behavior
Sex and the social order: Creative approaches to teaching the history of gender and sexuality in modern Britain
No full text‘Sex and the Social Order: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Britain’ is a second‐year optional module for history students at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE). The module examines histories of gender and sexuality from the mid‐nineteenth century to the present day, providing a wealth of accessible primary material and a diversity of scholarship for students to engage with. This article reflects on the space we have attempted to create within this module for students to engage imaginatively and creatively with history, with a focus on producing original public‐facing research outputs and fostering a community of researchers amongst our students
Human-centered design trade-offs for semi-powered knee prostheses: A review
Get PDFFor many decades, developments of knee prostheses have shown a dichotomy regarding fundamental working principles. The industry has mainly emphasized on quasi-passive hydraulic solutions, whereas most research works have focused on powered devices, employing electric actuation. The former have an energetically passive effect at the knee joint, for which they often lack in providing versatility and movement robustness for the wearer. Powered prostheses can address these deficiencies, but are often rejected as they struggle to fulfill other user needs (e.g., weight and acoustic noise). Correspondingly, recent studies have emerged that attempt to significantly attenuate the deficiencies of fully powered prosthesis knees, partially sacrificing on device versatility. Recognizing the state-of-the art difficulties in balancing active assistance and user needs fulfilment, this work analyses human-centered design perspectives and their prospects for prosthetic development, in light of the often diverging user needs. We conclude that various types of both explored and yet unexplored semi-powered solutions may have the potential to provide the better trade-off between quasi-passive and fully powered prosthetic devices
High-fidelity aeroelastic analysis of a wind turbine using a nonlinear frequency-domain solution method
Get PDFThis paper investigates the aeroelastic behaviour of a full wind turbine model with realistic blade vibration amplitude (9% span) using a nonlinear frequency-domain solution method. The primary objective is to demonstrate the computational efficiency of this method for an aeroelastic analysis compared to resource-intensive time-domain approaches. The underlying CFD model was validated against experimental data and benchmark simulations. The frequency-domain method was then validated against a conventional time-domain method, comparing aerodynamic damping and unsteady pressure distributions, with strong agreement observed. Results show a more complex unsteady pressure distribution at 324.5 RPM compared to 424.5 RPM, directly affecting aerodynamic damping. While aeroelastic stability was observed at both speeds, aerodynamic damping was significantly lower at 324.5 RPM. Flow field analysis reveals a clear relationship between relative velocity, static pressure, and blade vibration. Critically, the frequency-domain method achieved comparable accuracy to the time-domain method but with a significantly reduced computational cost (9 h versus 120 h), making it highly attractive for routine aeroelastic analyses and design optimisation