30793 research outputs found
Sort by
Two Ideologies of Openness: A comparative analysis of the open universities in the UK and Greece
Get PDFCan the open universities in the UK and Greece be seen as representing two ideologies of openness? That is the main question this article poses. I argue that these institutions, shaped by their unique social, political and historical contexts, embody different interpretations of openness. The Open University in the UK was founded with a commitment to openness that aimed to democratise education and foster social equality, while the Hellenic Open University in Greece aligns its openness with the goals of developing a knowledge society within the framework of European integration. Despite these differences, both institutions share a complex ideological foundation that positions openness as a central, albeit divergent, guiding principle. However, what shapes the article is not this argument per se, but trying critically to reflect on the idea of openness as an epistemic and political position, and the ways in which the epistemology of higher education is embedded in the politics of both national reforms and international political relations.This work was supported by Academy of Athens
Pro-Life Policy Preferences Partly Reflect Desires to Suppress Casual Sex, Not Solely Sanctity of Life Concerns
No full textSupplementary material is available online at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19485506251320681#supplementary-materials .A preprint version is available at PsyArXiv under a CC BY license at https://osf.io/j5dn3_v1 . It has not been certified by peer review.Pro-life individuals often emphasize sanctity-of-life concerns as driving their opposition to abortion. This implies the straightforward prediction that the more strongly people oppose abortion for such reasons (e.g., “abortion is murder”), the more they will endorse policies preventing abortions (face-value account). An alternative suggests that typically nonconscious reproductive goals (e.g., discouraging casual sex) influence policy preferences; this strategic account predicts a different pattern of policy endorsement: all else equal, abortion opponents will prioritize abortion-preventing policies discouraging casual sex. A pilot study and two preregistered U.S. experiments (N = 1,960) provide relatively greater support for the strategic account: the strongest abortion opponents more strongly endorse policies that prevent abortions by discouraging casual sex (e.g., abortion bans, abstinence-only sex education) over policies that do not (comprehensive sex education)—even controlling for conservatism and religiosity. Commonly voiced arguments against abortion may be more rhetorically effective but less reflective of genuine drivers underlying arguers’ beliefs.J.W.M. gratefully acknowledges funding from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (under the Investissement d’Avenir program, ANR-17-EURE-0010)
Trajectory Mamba: Efficient Attention-Mamba Forecasting Model Based on Selective SSM
Get PDFThe CVPR 2025 papers at https://openaccess.thecvf.com/WACV2025 are the Open Access versions, provided by the Computer Vision Foundation. Except for the watermark, they are identical to the accepted versions; the final published version of the proceedings is available on IEEE Xplore at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/1000147/all-proceedings.
This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright.Motion prediction is crucial for autonomous driving, as it enables accurate forecasting of future vehicle trajectories based on historical inputs. This paper introduces Trajectory Mamba, a novel efficient trajectory prediction framework based on the selective state-space model (SSM). Conventional attention-based models face the challenge of computational costs that grow quadratically with the number of targets, hindering their application in highly dynamic environments. In response, we leverage the SSM to redesign the self-attention mechanism in the encoder-decoder architecture, thereby achieving linear time complexity. To address the potential reduction in prediction accuracy resulting from modifications to the attention mechanism, we propose a joint polyline encoding strategy to better capture the associations between static and dynamic contexts, ultimately enhancing prediction accuracy. Additionally, to balance prediction accuracy and inference speed, we adopted the decoder that differs entirely from the encoder. Through cross-state space attention, all target agents share the scene context, allowing the SSM to interact with the shared scene representation during decoding, thus inferring different trajectories over the next prediction steps. Our model achieves state-of-the-art results in terms of inference speed and parameter efficiency on both the Argoverse 1 and Argoverse 2 datasets. It demonstrates a four-fold reduction in FLOPs compared to existing methods and reduces parameter count by over 40% while surpassing the performance of the vast majority of previous methods. These findings validate the effectiveness of Trajectory Mamba in trajectory prediction tasks.10.13039/501100006041-Innovate UK;
10.13039/100018693-Horizon Europe
Thermoeconomic performance of a CO2 heat pump for space and water heating of a 4-bedroom house in the South of England
Get PDFData Availability Statement: The data used in the study are included in the paper, but if further data is required, it can be obtained by contacting the corresponding author.Footnote:
1. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/boiler-upgrade-scheme-bus/property-owners.Heat pumps are considered a key technology for the decarbonisation of space and water heating in domestic dwellings in the UK. Heat pumps that employ high-temperature working fluids such as CO2 have the potential to be used in retrofit applications. This paper presents the characteristics of a CO2 heat pump developed at Brunel University of London and the simulation results of its application to provide space and domestic hot water heating in a well-insulated four-bedroom semi-detached house with four occupants. The heating system is assumed to employ water thermal energy storage. Analysis has shown that storage volumes between 200 L and 300 L can satisfy the space temperature control requirements of the domestic dwelling if a heat pump capacity of 4.5 kW at 7°C ambient temperature and 60°C water flow temperature is employed. A comparison of the heat pump with a gas boiler reveals that with current gas and electricity prices, running costs for the heat pump can be 91% higher and CO2 emissions 40% lower than those of the gas boiler. Further design and control optimisation of the heat pump is expected to reduce both its running costs and CO2 emissions.
Practical application:
This paper examines the practical application of a 4.5 kW heat pump with water thermal energy storage for domestic heating. The system operates efficiently at 7°C ambient and 60°C water flow temperatures, and can be retrofitted in two-thirds of UK homes without upgrading radiators. For a four-bedroom house, 200–300 L thermal storage volumes are optimal. While running costs are 91% higher than a gas boiler, the heat pump reduces CO2 emissions by 40%, offering a more sustainable heating solution.This work was supported by the Active Building Centre and the Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains (CSEF)
Dual-Band Dual-Polarized Array Based on Electromagnetic Transparent Antenna for Vehicle-Mounted Base Station Systems
Get PDFThis paper introduces a novel ±45° shared-aperture, dual-band, dual-polarized interleaved array for vehicle-mounted base station systems. The array integrates a lower band (LB) antenna with four higher band (HB) antennas. To address the issue of cross-band scattering and its impact on higher band performance, we employ an innovative method that involves reducing the aperture size and incorporating lumped or distributed inductors. These inductors function as frequency-selective structures, permitting low-frequency currents to pass while blocking high-frequency currents. Consequently, at high frequencies, these inductors act as open circuits, making the low-frequency antenna radiator resemble multiple discontinuous small metal strips. This approach achieves an electromagnetic transparent (EMT) bandwidth of over 82.9%, making it highly suitable for mobile base station applications. By integrating this low-scattering LB antenna with four bandwidth-optimized cross dipoles, we achieve a dual-band interleaved array. The measured results confirm that the dual-band array operates effectively within the 0.85-0.98 GHz and 1.4-2.7 GHz frequency ranges, maintaining stable radiation performance. The superior performance of this design makes it an ideal choice for vehicle-based base stations.This research received partial funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under Grant EP/Y003144/2, Huawei Technologies Ltd, and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong under Grants GRF 14210623 and AoE/E-101/23-N
Problematic anti-human smuggling law
No full textCases of Nepalis, especially young people, being smuggled across international borders, primarily to countries such as the United States and Russia, are making headlines. As media outlets, activists, scholars and human rights organisations raise the alarm, Nepal must protect its youth by introducing anti-smuggling legislation. However, while the dangers of these precarious journeys are undeniable, implementing new anti-smuggling laws could deepen the crisis rather than solve it.BRIEF Award ('BRUNEL RESEARCH INITIATIVE AND ENTERPRISE FUND') Tracing Deaths of Nepalese Migrant Domestic Workers
Investigating Older Adults’ Response to Climate Change
Get PDFData Availability Statement:
The data relating to this study can be obtained from the first author.Older adults are both vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and uniquely positioned to contribute to climate action. However, their ability and willingness to engage vary significantly due to health disparities, financial constraints, and cultural factors. To ensure inclusivity, climate policies must reflect these differences and empower older adults to participate effectively. This research focused on 30 London-based older adults aged 60–85 (18 women, 12 men) selected via purposive sampling and stratified by gender and climate awareness. All participants were interested in climate issues and engaged in seven small focus groups facilitated by two researchers. Discussions addressed climate perceptions, low-carbon behaviors, and policy recommendations. The findings reveal that tailored communication, featuring simplified language and visual materials, resonates deeply with older adults, fostering better understanding and emotional connection. Participants highlighted practical low-carbon actions they already undertake, such as energy conservation, food waste reduction, and public transport use. They also proposed innovative strategies for promoting climate awareness, including integrating cultural and emotional elements, encouraging intergenerational learning, and providing economic incentives for green practices. To enhance the engagement of older adults in climate action, governments and corporations should develop inclusive communication strategies, provide financial support for adopting green technologies, and foster intergenerational collaboration to share knowledge and experiences in the communities. This study amplifies the voices of older adults in climate discourse, offering actionable insights for shaping communication strategies and policies. While this study provides valuable insights into older adults’ contributions to climate action, future research could expand the sample size and geographic diversity to enhance the generalizability of findings.This study received no external funding
Metabolic cost of physical rehabilitation in mechanically ventilated patients in critical care: an observational study
Get PDFTrial registration number NCT05101850.What is already known on this topic:
⇒ Physical rehabilitation can increase oxygen consumption in mechanically ventilated patients, yet there is a paucity of evidence exploring between- and within-patient variability of oxygen consumption change in patients undertaking the same functional activity.
What this study adds:
⇒ This study shows that oxygen consumption during physical rehabilitation varies considerably within, and between, mechanically ventilated patients performing the same functional activity.
How this study might affect research, practice or policy:
⇒ These data highlight that how functional measures, such as the ICU mobility scale, do not necessarily relate to exercise intensity. Formal cardiopulmonary testing and measurement of oxygen consumption may have the potential to assist with exercise prescription and categorise rehabilitation interventions in future interventional studies.Data availability statement:
Data are available on reasonable request. The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable requestBackground: Physical rehabilitation is advocated to improve muscle strength and function after critical illness, yet interventional studies have reported inconsistent benefits. A greater insight into patients’ physiological response to exercise may provide an option to prescribe individualised, targeted rehabilitation, yet there is limited data measuring oxygen consumption (VO2) during physical rehabilitation. We aimed to test the feasibility of measuring VO2 during seated and standing exercise using the Beacon Caresystem and quantify within- and between-patient variability of VO2 percentage change.
Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study on patients mechanically ventilated for ≥72 hours and able to participate in physical rehabilitation in critical care. Oxygen consumption was measured continuously using indirect calorimetry. A total of 29 measurements were taken from ten participants performing active sitting and standing exercise.
Results: Median (IQR) first session baseline VO2 was 3.54 (2.9–3.9) mL/kg/min, increasing significantly to 4.37 (3.96–5.14) mL/kg/min during exercise (p=0.005). The median (IQR) coefficient of variation of VO2 percentage change in participants (n=7) who completed more than one rehabilitation session (range 2–7 sessions) was 43 (34–61)% in 26 measurements. The median (IQR) coefficient of variation of VO2 percentage change was 46 (26–63)% in participants performing >1 sitting exercise session (six participants, 19 sessions).
Conclusions: VO2 increases significantly with exercise but is highly variable between participants, and in the same participant on separate occasions, performing the same functional activity. These data suggest that simplified measures of function do not necessarily relate to oxygen consumption.The study was funded by the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity Fellowship, award number N/A
Strengthening the Rights to Culture and Mental Health in the Face of Environmental Violence
Get PDFConnections between the rights to culture and mental health are under-developed in international human rights law. This article interrogates the international legal framework relevant to these rights in the context of environmental violence against Indigenous Peoples and other land-dependent communities. It argues these rights can be strengthened by (1) accommodating alternative conceptions of mental health, (2) recognizing the rights to spiritual and cultural health, (3) treating cultural rights as underlying determinants of mental health, (4) evading a narrow focus on culturally appropriate treatment, and (5) framing the rights to culture and mental health as interrelated, interdependent, and mutually enforceable rights.This research was funded in whole or in part by the Wellcome Trust (220767/Z/20/Z)
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Open Research Online? Become a CORE Member to access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard! 👇