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Integrated building retrofit for seismic resilience and environmental sustainability: A critical review
Get PDFIntegrated seismic–environmental retrofit is gaining attention in research and practice, as it combines resilience and sustainability objectives in building retrofits. However, current research and practice remain fragmented. This paper presents a systematic literature review to analyse how retrofit is addressed across four key dimensions: structural, environmental, social, and governance. A thematic analysis in NVivo was combined with Python-based quantitative analysis of code frequency and co-occurrence. The integrated retrofit literature reframes environmental assessment, shifting towards whole-building lifecycle assessment and having seismic environmental impacts and energy efficiency as embedded components. Retrofit practices are mainly discussed in technical and compliance terms, but are not properly examined using unified quantitative metrics; the broad use of metrics and indicators limits comparability and replication. Social and governance dimensions remain peripheral, with weak connections to structural and environmental dimensions, which constrain cross-domain integration and challenge scaling up retrofit interventions. These gaps encompass the barriers facing integrated retrofit, with potential pathways to overcome, including aligned standards and datasets, capacity building, community engagement, and coordinated regulatory frameworks
A model of disciplinarity: Literature conceptual differences
Get PDFIndustry and society face disruptive change, from digitalisation, net zero challenges, and rising costs. Industry supplies complex solutions to such societal problems, and literature claims to address such future need, inter or transdisciplinary is key. A means to differentiate disciplinarities is still elusive, but to find its value we need know what each disciplinary level looks like. This contribution suggests a disciplinary model, to evaluate the level of disciplinarity being used in a project. We use literature content analysis finding identifiers of disciplinary levels and develop a disciplinary model. To show how we created this model, the work is first placed in the context of research, we then describe the approach used to show how the data informs creating the model. The paper discusses future work needed to evaluate such models and widen the scope of its applicability
Validity and reliability of the Danish and Swedish versions of the Bristol Rheumatoid Arthritis Fatigue questionnaires in patients with spondyloarthritis
Get PDFObjectiveTo investigate the validity, reliability, and interpretability of the Danish and Swedish versions of the Bristol Rheumatoid Arthritis Fatigue Multi-Dimensional Questionnaire (BRAF-MDQ) and Bristol Rheumatoid Arthritis Fatigue Numerical Rating Scales (BRAF-NRS V2) (BRAFs) in patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA).MethodThe BRAFs were tested for validity and reliability in an online survey. Participants were identified in the national rheumatology databases.ResultsIn Denmark, 234/435 participants (53.8%) completed the first survey (T1), of whom 125 (82.2%) also completed the second survey (T2) (mean ± sd age 59.6 ± 13 years, 52.6% women). In Sweden, 183/420 participants (43.6%) completed T1, of whom 171 (93.4%) also completed T2 (age 54.7 ± 13 years, 62.3% female). In both Denmark and Sweden, the content validity was supported for the BRAFs; regarding structural validity for BRAF-MDQ, explanatory factor analysis identified five factors; Cronbach’s α (internal consistency) was 0.94/0.95 for BRAF-MDQ and 0.79–0.93/0.76–0.94 for the four subscales; intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were 0.96/0.93 for BRAF-MDQ and 0.84–0.93/0.86–0.90 for the subscales, and ICCs of the three BRAF-NRS scales were 0.70–0.90/0.71–0.89; and Construct validity: 80% of the hypotheses were fulfilled for the BRAFs.ConclusionsGood content validity, acceptable construct validity, good reliability, and low degree of measurement error were found for BRAF-MDQ and BRAF-NRS V2. BRAF-MDQ had acceptable structural validity, but five factors were identified, instead of four, suggesting caution in distinguishing dimensions of fatigue. The BRAFs are considered valid and reliable for measuring fatigue in Danish and Swedish patients with SpA
Social media landscape: A cross-sectional survey of health professionals
Get PDFSocial networks are widely used in the healthcare system for education, research, and professional networking. However, its adoption and impact in Central Asia, particularly among medical professionals, remain underexplored. This study assesses social media usage patterns, motivations, and perceived challenges among healthcare professionals in Kazakhstan, with a focus on professional engagement, information-seeking behaviours, and the need for structured training. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among healthcare professionals in Kazakhstan from November 2022 to January 2023 after extensive pilot-testing by a multi-professional team. The questionnaire comprised multiple-choice and open-ended questions, and Likert scale answers to explore, social media preferences for professional engagement, and future possibilities. Among 147 respondents (M:F ratio = 1:1.17, median age = 32 years), social media adoption was nearly universal (97.96%, n = 144). The primary reasons for usage were knowledge acquisition (81.94%, n = 118), skill development (79.16%, n = 114), and maintaining social connections (68.05%, n = 98). YouTube and Instagram were the most frequently accessed platforms. Despite the perceived professional utility of social media, 75% (n = 108) of respondents felt overwhelmed, and only 65.27% (n = 94) considered it a secure means of communication.69% (n = 99) had never attended training on optimal social media use for professional growth, and 98.61% (n = 142) expressing willingness to participate in future trainings. The social media landscape among healthcare professionals in Kazakhstan reveals nuanced patterns of platform utilisation. The perceived utility of these platforms is tempered by acknowledged challenges, highlighting a critical need for structured guidance and comprehensive professional training frameworks tailored to the unique digital communication environment of Central Asian healthcare settings
A grapeful discovery: Reservoir computing with wine beads
Get PDFIn this work, we introduce encapsulated wine beads as a novel, edible material for unconventional and neuromorphic computing. When encapsulated in alginate beads, wine, a complex mixture of proteins, organic acids, sugars, metal ions, and volatiles, exhibits nonlinear electrical behavior and memory effects governed by ox-redox processes. These responses show plasticity-like features, allowing programmable resistance states. The wine beads can be leveraged for computing, and to demonstrate this potential, the wine bead was used as a single-node reservoir for classification tasks. Our findings indicate that the resistance is programmable, exhibits a high degree of repeatability, and can be used for reservoir computing scenarios
Invasive urodynamic investigations in the management of women with refractory overactive bladder symptoms: FUTURE, a superiority RCT and economic evaluation
Get PDFBackground Overactive bladder is a common problem affecting the United Kingdom adult female population. Symptoms include urinary urgency, with or without urgency incontinence, increased daytime urinary frequency and nocturia. Initial conservative treatments for overactive bladder are unsuccessful in 25–40% of women (refractory overactive bladder). Before considering invasive treatments, such as botulinum toxin injection-A or sacral neuromodulation, guidelines recommend urodynamics to confirm diagnosis of detrusor overactivity. However, the clinical and cost effectiveness of urodynamics has never been robustly assessed. Objectives To compare the clinical and cost effectiveness of urodynamics plus comprehensive clinical assessment versus comprehensive clinical assessment only in the management of refractory overactive bladder in women. Design Parallel-group, multicentre, superiority, open-label, randomised controlled trial. Allocation by remote web-based randomisation (1 : 1 ratio). The cost-effectiveness analysis took the National Health Service perspective with a model-based lifetime time horizon, as informed by a within-trial analysis. Setting Sixty-three United Kingdom secondary and tertiary hospitals. Participants Women aged ≥ 18 years with refractory overactive bladder or urgency-predominant mixed urinary incontinence who had failed conservative management and pharmacological treatment and were being considered for invasive treatment. Women were excluded if any of the following criteria were met: predominant stress urinary incontinence; previous urodynamics in last 12 months; current pelvic malignancy or clinically significant pelvic mass; bladder pain syndrome; neurogenic bladder; urogenital fistulae; previous treatment with botulinum toxin injection-A or sacral neuromodulation for urinary incontinence; previous pelvic radiotherapy; prolapse beyond introitus; pregnant or planning pregnancy; recurrent urinary tract infection where a significant pathology has not been excluded; and inability to give an informed consent. Interventions Urodynamics plus comprehensive clinical assessment (urodynamics arm) versus comprehensive clinical assessment only. Main outcome measures Participant-reported success at the last follow-up time point as measured by the Patient Global Impression of Improvement. Primary economic outcome was incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained as modelled over the lifetime of participants. Results A total of 1099 participants were included: 550 randomised to the urodynamics arm and 549 to the comprehensive clinical assessment only arm. At the final follow-up time point, participant-reported success rates of ‘very much improved’ and ‘much improved’ were not superior in the urodynamics arm (117 participants; 23.6%) compared to the comprehensive clinical assessment only arm (114 participants; 22.7%) [adjusted odds ratio 1.12 (95% confidence interval 0.73 to 1.74); p = 0.601]. Serious adverse events were low and similar between groups. Based on the estimated incremental costs and quality-adjusted life-years of urodynamics (£463 and 0.011, respectively), the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was £42,643 per quality-adjusted life-year gained. The cost-effectiveness acceptability curve shows that urodynamics has a 34% probability of being cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of £20,000 per quality-adjusted life-year gained. This probability reduced further when the results were extrapolated over the patient’s lifetime. Limitations include: only short-term outcomes were available, and as most participants underwent botulinum toxin injection-A treatment, pre-planned secondary analyses for some outcomes such as sacral neuromodulation were not possible. Conclusion Participant-reported success in the urodynamics arm was not superior to the comprehensive clinical assessment only arm at 15-months follow-up. Urodynamics is not cost-effective at a threshold of £20,000 per quality-adjusted life-year gained. Longer-term follow-up is required to explore need for further interventions and treatments and their effect on the clinical and cost-effectiveness analyses. Trial registration This trial is registered as ISRCTN63268739. Funding This award was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme (NIHR award ref: 15/150/05) and is published in full in Health Technology Assessment Vol. 29, No. 27. See the NIHR Funding and Awards website for further award information
Immanent idealism
Get PDFThis article introduces immanent idealism as an alternative path in social ontology and theory. It argues for a distinction between three basic ontological dimensions, the ideational, the institutional and the structural. This approach highlights the cognitional priority of worldviews, as the core element of the ideational dimension, and it also argues for the immanence, the transhistorical existential priority (over the institutional and the structural dimensions) and the transituational pervasiveness of the ideational dimension. It is argued that this approach is both anti-realist and anti-naturalist in socio-theoretical terms, and that it has decisive implications for the emerging sub-field of cognitive sociology. These steps lead us to the invocation of a new idealism standing in opposition to new materialist approaches in social theory
How police culture impacts mental health: Perspectives from retired police officers
Get PDFTake Home Messages- A ‘macho’ police culture discourages police officers from discussing or seeking help for mental health struggles.- Although mental health stigma remains prevalent, generational shifts are helping to foster more open and supportive attitudes.- Peer-based support and everyday mental health resources—not just post-trauma— appear more effective in the long term
Closing the productivity gap
Get PDFThis report highlights South Gloucestershire’s economy – which is anchored in advanced manufacturing, aerospace and defence – consistently delivering strong productivity performance over the long term; Bristol’s relatively slower productivity growth despite its economic scale; and the comparatively weaker positions of BANES and North Somerset.The City of Bristol has considerable potential to contribute to regional economic growth through productivity improvements, given its scale, proximity and connection with the high-performing South Gloucestershire area. Bristol’s economy is larger than that of any outer London borough and many inner London boroughs, yet it lags in terms of productivity. South Gloucestershire outperforms all outer London boroughs and would rank fifth among inner London boroughs for productivity, highlighting its strong national position.The West of England has strengths in research and development (R&D) and leveraging this research capacity could drive productivity growth. The Brunel Centre’s analysis suggests that there is an ‘unexplained regional productivity premium’ that could be unlocked through targeted investments in capital infrastructure, education and R&D, which would help realise additional productivity growth and boost the region’s contribution to UK prosperity.Given the region’s economic strengths, scale and potential, a more focused growth plan – with targeted interventions to enhance connectivity and encourage investment in capital infrastructure, people and skills, and innovation systems – should deliver higher returns on investment and greater productivity gains for the UK
The effects of autistic traits in adolescents on the efficacy of paediatric Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment (IIPT)
No full textAutistic adolescents are at greater risk of chronic pain, but it is unclear how autistic features may relate to individual aspects of chronic pain. As autism traits exist in the general population as well, it is important to know if autistic traits could impact how effective chronic pain management is for adolescents. Here we examined autistic traits in 112 patients (12-18yrs) recruited from a UK national specialist adolescent pain rehabilitation programme. Participants completed screening questionnaires for autistic traits upon entry to the programme, as well as clinically recognised pain measures before and after the 3-week treatment program. Autistic traits predicted greater psychological challenges at treatment onset. Critically, autistic traits were not related to the magnitude of improvement in pain measures during the pain management program. Our study suggests that adolescents with greater autistic traits may benefit from existing pain rehabilitation programs at similar rates to their peers. Additionally, these data suggest no reason for therapeutic pessimism for autistic pain patients. We do however acknowledge that these data may differ in populations with an autistic diagnosis, and that barriers may still exist for autistic people in treatment for pain