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Reimagining usages of international trade in the era of artificial intelligence (AI)
Get PDFTrade usages are a pivotal building block in international commercial law. Besides serving as a useful tool to aid interpretation of commercial contracts, trade usages, depending on the applicable laws and rules, are frequently deemed binding on the parties, even in the absence of the parties’ knowledge or awareness. The normative value that tends to be assigned to trade usages is justified on various grounds, including that the community of traders, and not the legislator(s), is in the best position to formulate the most efficient rules to govern the traders’ transactions. Nevertheless, trade usages have been exposed to various forms of criticism, including that, in practice, their existence is difficult to prove and that courts and arbitral tribunals have been willing to accept the existence of trade usages based on flimsy evidence. This article first explores the very concept of trade usages, focusing on the following questions: (i) how are trade usages defined, if at all; (ii) what is the theoretical foundation of trade usages; (iii) what justifies assigning normative value to trade usages; and (iv) what are the critiques directed towards trade usages? Second, the article explores the possibility of relying on artificial intelligence technology in order to maximize the efficiency of usages of international trade
Does innovation drive emission cuts? Evidence from China and the UK under SDG 13
Get PDFData availability:
The datasets used in this manuscript are publicly available as follows:
• The World Intellectual Property Organization -https://www.wipo.int/publications/en/series/index.jsp?id=129
• Germatwatch -https://www.germanwatch.org/en/CCPI
• Our World in Data - https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china#citation and https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-kingdom.The assumption that innovation inherently supports climate goals is central to policy and academic discourse, yet its actual impact on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions remains contested. This study investigates the relationship between national innovation levels and CO₂ emissions in China and the United Kingdom—two major emitters with differing developmental trajectories—to evaluate whether innovation supports climate action in line with Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13). Using annual data from 2007 to 2022, we employ a panel regression base model with fixed effects to assess the direct influence of the Global Innovation Index (GII) on per capita CO₂ emissions. To ensure robustness, an interaction model incorporating the Climate Policy Index (CPI), part of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is used to test for moderating effects of climate policy on the innovation-emissions nexus.
Findings reveal a positive correlation between innovation and emissions in China, indicating that innovation has not translated into sustainability gains. In contrast, the UK shows a decline in emissions despite stagnating innovation levels, suggesting alternative drivers of emission reductions. The robustness model finds no significant moderating role of climate policies in either case, exposing a gap between policy design and implementation.
Policy implications are clear: China must align its innovation strategy with green technology adoption, while the UK should bolster innovation to maintain long-term emission reductions. Both nations require more integrated, enforceable climate policies linked explicitly to innovation outputs.This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors
HR‐Led Co‐Design for Neuroinclusion: A Critical Pragmatist and Sociotechnical Systems Approach to Transforming Neuronormative Organisations
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Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.Despite growing interest in neurodiversity in the workplace, most organisational responses remain fragmented, compliance-driven, and disconnected from the lived realities of neurodivergent individuals. This paper addresses the limitations of current approaches by proposing a process model of HR-led co-design for neuroinclusion, grounded in a dual-theoretical framework that combines critical pragmatism and sociotechnical systems (STS) theory. Drawing on an abductive synthesis of literature and practice-based insights, we develop a process model that identifies four interrelated organisational challenges: ignorance and lack of buy-in, legal ambiguity, disclosure dilemmas, and resistance to systemic change. The model offers a set of HR-led co-design interventions and outcomes that centre neurodivergent perspectives in redesigning policies, practices, and organisational systems. Critical pragmatism provides the ethical and epistemological foundation for participatory inquiry and institutional transformation, while STS supports the structural integration of inclusive practices. This paper contributes to HRM theory by repositioning HR as a catalyst for collaborative, recursive, and justice-oriented organisational change. Implications for future research and practice include the need for participatory, cross-contextual, and intersectional studies of neuroinclusion, as well as attention to the design and evaluation of HR systems that enable meaningful co-production
Causes of evolutionary divergence in prostate cancer
Get PDFData Availability: Components of the PPCG data set can be accessed through different portals in accordance with the required level of data protection for each data type. The main data constituents, and respective modes of access, are listed in detail in the companion manuscript by GM Jakobsdottir [ref. 19].A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv:2503.13189v1 [q-bio.GN], https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.13189 . It has not been certified by peer review. Submission history: From: Emre Esenturk [v1] Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:00:02 UTC (818 KB).Code Availability: Codes are available to reviewers. Open-source repository will be made available at the time of publication.Cancer progression involves the sequential accumulation of genetic alterations that cumulatively shape the tumour phenotype. In prostate cancer, tumours can follow divergent evolutionary trajectories that lead to distinct subtypes, but the causes of this divergence remain unclear. While causal inference could elucidate the factors involved, conventional methods are unsuitable due to the possibility of unobserved confounders and ambiguity in the direction of causality. Here, we propose a method that circumvents these issues and apply it to genomic data from 829 prostate cancer patients. We identify several genetic alterations that drive divergence as well as others that prevent this transition, locking tumours into one trajectory. Further analysis reveals that these genetic alterations may cause each other, implying a positive-feedback loop that accelerates divergence. Our findings provide insights into how cancer subtypes emerge and offer a foundation for genomic surveillance strategies aimed at monitoring the progression of prostate cancer.Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), which is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) as a ‘Severo Ochoa’ Centre of Excellence (ref. CEX2019000891-S). Both A.F.-S. and G.M. also received support from Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grants PID2019-111356RA-I00 and PID2023-151298OB-I00 (MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033). Additionally, A.F.-S. was awarded a fellowship from La Caixa Foundation (ID 100010434; LCF/BQ/DR21/11880009). V.J.G. acknowledges infrastructure backing from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215–20014). V.M.H. received support from the Petre Foundation via the University of Sydney Foundation (Australia). H.H.H. is supported by project grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (142246, 152863, 152864, 159567 and 438793). This work was also funded by NHMRC project grants 1104010 (C.M.H., N.M.C.) and 1047581 (C.M.H., N.M.C.), as well as through a federal grant from the Australian Department of Health and Ageing awarded to the Epworth Cancer Centre, Epworth Hospital (N.M.C., C.M.H.). We acknowledge further financial support from Australian Prostate Cancer Research and the University of Melbourne, Australia. M.L. received funding from National Cancer Institute grants P50CA211024, P01CA265768, R01 CA259200, from the U.S.A. Department of Defense (DoD) grants PC160357 and PC200390, as well as from the Prostate Cancer Foundation (22CHAL05). Additional support for SAPCS analytical costs came from the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) Award R01CA285772-01 and a U.S. Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) Challenge Award (2023CHAL4150). Genomic sequencing and investigation of Southern African Prostate Cancer Study (SAPCS) data received funding from the U.S. Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP), which included an Idea Development Award (PC200390, TARGET Africa) and HEROIC Consortium Awards (PC210168 and PC230673, HEROIC PCaPH Africa1K). R.M. and A.T.P. are supported by The Lorenzo and Pamela Galli Medical Research Trust, and A.T.P. also holds an Investigator Grant (2026643) from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). B.P. is the recipient of a Victorian Health and Medical Research Fellowship awarded by the Victoria State Government, Australia. K.D.S. is funded by The Novo Nordisk Foundation (grant nos. NNF20OC0059410, NNF21OC0071712), The Danish Cancer Society (grant no. R352-A20573), and Independent Research Fund Denmark (grant no. 9039-00084B). J.R. acknowledges support from a CIHR Project Grant (grant no. PJT-162410) and an Investigator Award from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), which is itself funded by the Government of Ontario. Work at the University of Konstanz was supported by the university and an Exploration Grant from the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation to A.J.G. J.W. received grants from the Danish Cancer Society (#R147-A9843, #R374-A22518), the Danish Council for Independent Research (#8020-00282, #3101-00177A), the Novo Nordisk Foundation (#NNF200C0060141), and Sygeforsikringen Danmark (#2022-0198). A.L. is supported by Cancer Research UK (C57899/A25812), The John Fell Fund (0012782), the Health Technology Assessment (NIHR 131233), and the John Black Charitable Foundation (TRANSLATE Triallinked biobank). Y-J.L. receives funding from Orchid, Prostate Cancer Research UK & Movember (MA-CT20-011, RIA22-ST2-006) and Cancer Research UK (C16420/A18066). A full list of funding organizations for the Pan Prostate Cancer Group is provided in a companion manuscript [ref. 19: to be published as supplementary material in due course]
Healthy and Sustainable Diets in Times of Crisis: A Longitudinal, Mixed-Methods Study of Risk Factors and Coping Mechanisms in UK Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFData Availability Statement:
Anonymized data are available from the corresponding author on request.Supplementary Materials:
The following supporting information can be downloaded at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/su17135878/s1, Supplementary S1—First survey, Supplementary S2—Integrated Health and Sustainability Score, Supplementary S3—Focus Group Protocol, Supplementary S4—Second Survey, Supplement S5—survey participants, Supplementary S6—Focus group quotes by theme.To develop interventions and policies to promote healthy and sustainable diets during times of crisis, it is important to understand how populations respond to such situations based on real-life examples. Using the recent COVID-19 pandemic as a case study to identify risk and protective factors for such situations, we implemented the first longitudinal mixed-methods approach of this topic to date. Data were collected from a sample of UK parents (stratified for gender and socioeconomic status) through two surveys and a set of focus groups during the pandemic. The focus groups identified multifaceted drivers of change linked to capability (e.g., shielding), opportunity (e.g., time, food access and availability), and motivation (e.g., reflective motivation, stress and mental health challenges) barriers. High levels of COVID-19 stress were linked with less healthy and sustainable diets in the survey results, while higher social cohesion, reflective motivation to consume healthy foods, and positive coping scores were protective, and linked to healthier and more sustainable diets. A range of coping strategies were identified, including home cooking and meal planning, which could provide a basis for future intervention development to reduce stress, maintain wellbeing, and improve dietary outcomes in future crisis situations.This work was supported by a sandpit grant from the STFC Food Network+ Scoping Project Funding (2020)
HECS4MQTT: A Multi-Layer Security Framework for Lightweight and Robust Encryption in Healthcare IoT Communications
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The original data presented in the study are openly available in FigShare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7836779 .Internet of Things (IoT) technology in healthcare has enabled innovative services that enhance patient monitoring, diagnostics and medical data management. However, securing sensitive health data while maintaining system efficiency of resource-constrained IoT devices remains a critical challenge. This work presents a comprehensive end-to-end IoT security framework for healthcare environments, addressing encryption at two key levels: lightweight encryption at the edge for resource-constrained devices and robust end-to-end encryption when transmitting data to the cloud via MQTT cloud brokers. The proposed system leverages multi-broker MQTT architecture to optimize resource utilization and enhance message reliability. At the edge, lightweight cryptographic techniques ensure low-latency encryption before transmitting data via a secure MQTT broker hosted within the hospital infrastructure. To safeguard data as it moves beyond the hospital to the cloud, stronger end-to-end encryption are applied to ensure end-to-end security, such as AES-256 and TLS 1.3, to ensure confidentiality and resilience over untrusted networks. A proof-of-concept Python 3.10 -based MQTT implementation is developed using open-source technologies. Security and performance evaluations demonstrate the feasibility of the multi-layer encryption approach, effectively balancing computational overhead with data protection. Security and performance evaluations demonstrate that our novel HECS4MQTT (Health Edge Cloud Security for MQTT) framework achieves a unique balance between efficiency and security. Unlike existing solutions that either impose high computational overhead at the edge or rely solely on transport-layer protection, HECS4MQTT introduces a layered encryption strategy that decouples edge and cloud security requirements. This design minimizes processing delays on constrained devices while maintaining strong cryptographic protection when data crosses trust boundaries. The framework also introduces a lightweight bridge component for re-encryption and integrity enforcement, thereby reducing broker compromise risk and supporting compliance with healthcare security regulations. Our HECS4MQTT framework offers a scalable, adaptable, and trust-separated security model, ensuring enhanced confidentiality, integrity, and availability of healthcare data while remaining suitable for deployment in real-world, latency-sensitive, and resource-limited medical environments.This research received no external funding
Exploring ethnic differences in student engagement and assessment preferences in higher education
Get PDFThis study examined the relationship between student engagement, assessment preferences and ethnicity among university students. 64 participants who were enrolled in either BSc Psychology or BSc Psychology (Sport, Health and Exercise) at a UK university took part in the survey. The survey assessed student engagement through the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI) and assessment preferences using the Assessment Preference Inventory (API). Our results indicate no significant differences in student engagement across different ethnic groups. However, notable distinctions were observed in assessment preferences. White students preferred to receive more detailed remarks in their feedback than Asian and Black students. All participants ranked oral presentations as their least preferred assessment type. On the other hand, preferences for the most favoured assessment type varied by ethnicity; White students preferred multiple-choice question exams, while Asian and Black students preferred coursework essays. These findings suggest that, while engagement levels may be similar across ethnic groups, preferences for feedback and assessment types differ, which can help educators develop more inclusive and effective assessment strategies
Role of shock waves in materials processing: Fundamentals and applications
Get PDFThis article is part of a special issue entitled: ‘Underlying Physics of Ultrasonic Processing’ published in Ultrasonics Sonochemistry.In recent years, ultrasonic processing (USP) technology has led to some of the most promising scientific breakthroughs in the field of pharmaceutical, food, environmental and material sciences leading to advancements in manufacturing, process efficiency, and material performance. However, the industrial scalability of USP still remains a key challenge, largely due to the lack of awareness, standardization and predictive multiphysics models. Optimizing this technology necessitates a bottom-up approach, emphasizing fundamental understanding of the physical phenomena at play prior to scaling-up. Despite the advancements of opto-acoustic characterization tools, the underlying root-cause driving these technological innovations remains unexplored. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of our work carried out in the last 5 years to uncover the fundamental mechanism that governs the deployment of USP in areas related to metal casting, additive manufacturing, production of nanomaterials and composites by employing in-situ high-speed visualizations techniques and characterization of acoustic emissions. The results presented and discussed in this article offer a new perspective on the pivotal role of cavitation-induced shock waves, shifting the focus from being just a by-product, to a primary driver of material modification during USP.The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude for the support provided by EPSRC grants (EP/R011001/1, EP/R011095/1 and EP/R011044/1, EP/R031665/1, EP/R031401/1, EP/R031819/1, EP/R031975/1, EP/W006774/1, EP/W006154/1 and EP/W00593X/1). M. Ghorbani and I. Tzanakis would also like to acknowledge the financial support received from the Royal Society via the Isaac Newton International Fellowship grant (NIF\R1\221238) and British Council via the International Science Partnerships Fund grant (1203770538). J. Mi would also like to thank and acknowledge the award of the synchrotron X-ray beam time (GUP 264609) by the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, USA. Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory, was supported by the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357
Developing an autonomous fleet of unmanned underwater vehicles and aerial platforms for marine missions
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No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.A new generation of Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) has been facilitating the development of a new class of IoT apps, i.e. marine apps. Of interest in this research are Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs). Our experience with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) thus far suggests that UUVs have the potential to become effective and efficient when supported with optimisation algorithms. To explore this, this work first puts together a school of UUVs by using acoustic communications, and Deep Learning (DL). It then introduces an aerial platform as a source of renewable energy for the school. The resulting fleet is then empowered to operate autonomously for the purpose of carrying out marine missions and detecting underwater objects using a dual cognitive brain developed using a Dolphin Optimization Algorithm (DOA) and a Support Vector Machine (SVM). The results obtained indicate that the communication link budget parameters, reliability and localization, as well as the accuracy of coordination among the school of UUVs and the aerial platform as well as initial management of underwater missions and object detection is reasonable. Key findings at 50 kHz frequency and depths ranging between 4 and 7 meters reveal: the optimal number of acoustic Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) users is 18; an acceptable Received Signal Strength (RSS) average of -61.8dB with the lowest Bit Error Ratio (BER) of
110⁻⁶ which indicates reasonable performance for MIMO antennas; confidence scores on the health of underwater plants ranging between 91% and 96%; a synchronous autonomy accuracy ranging between 0.91 and 0.99; an object detection accuracy ranging between 0.85 and 0.93; the supply of energy exceeds demand. Finally, a sensitivity analysis experiment on several missions does not reveal any variable outliers since changes in all input variables appear to be directly proportional to model outputs, therefore, indicating an otherwise robust model.This research was funded by Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia, Project No. TU-DSPP-2024-139
Assessing calf exercise fidelity among people with Achilles tendinopathy using videos recorded via Zoom®: an observational study
Get PDFRelated Research Data is available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638288.2023.2174604# .Purpose:
Exercise fidelity is a fundamental aspect of exercise prescription by physiotherapists. Assessing exercise fidelity via telehealth (videoconference) is potentially useful but its reproducibility has not been assessed. The objective was to evaluate agreement (reproducibility) of video rating of calf exercise fidelity within (over four weeks) and between telehealth raters and compared with live rating.
Methods:
Nineteen videos of participants with AT undertaking calf exercises were rated by physiotherapists in person (live) and by watching pre-recorded videos (replicating telehealth). Three forms of agreement were assessed: (i) between live assessment and recorded video (telehealth) assessment; (ii) between telehealth raters (inter-rater); (iii) agreement within telehealth raters over four weeks (intra-rater).
Results:
There was weak to almost perfect agreement (Kappa = 0.65 to 1.00, rater 1, Kappa = 0.57 to 1.00, rater 2) between the telehealth and live raters. There was moderate to almost perfect agreement (Kappa = 0.65 to 1.00) when assessing intra-rater reliability, aside from one of the six criteria (quality of movement).
Conclusion:
Assessing calf exercise fidelity via videos recorded on Zoom® appears to demonstrate weak or greater agreement versus live rating and over time. Inter-rater agreement was lower, suggesting that the criteria developed may be better suited to use by individual raters over time.
Implications for rehabilitation:
• Telehealth assessment (when compared with live, in person assessment) shows a moderate or greater agreement for the majority of assessment criteria when assessing calf exercise fidelity.
• The calf exercise fidelity criteria developed can be used as an adjunct to assessment and management of people with Achilles Tendinopathy.
• Intra-rater assessment was shown to be moderately or more consistent over a four-week period when assessing calf exercise fidelity.The researchers were awarded 15k AUD of funding from the Pat Cosh Fund via the Australian Physiotherapy Association to undertake this study
Data sources:
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