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Miles with smiles: the role of e-cargo bikes in facilitating new personal and family-oriented travel and relevant beyond-utility motivations
Get PDFE-cargo bikes (ECBs) can play a crucial role in the transition to sustainable transport. Existing research primarily focuses on ECBs in sharing schemes and urban delivery, with limited attention to domestic use. Most studies emphasize mode substitution, often overlooking motivations unique to ECBs and beyond-utility travel motivations. Critically, little is known about ECBs’ role in generating new travel demand. This study explores how ECBs generate new trips, focusing on individual and household motivations that extend beyond purely utilitarian purposes. Trials were conducted with 49 households across three cities: Leeds, Oxford, and Brighton. A mixed-methods approach was employed, emphasizing qualitative data from interviews and supplemented with quantitative insights from travel diaries.
Findings indicate that ECBs enhanced accessibility, leading to increased travel distance and frequency, and enabling travelers to ‘do more.’ Their capacity to transport children and bulky items unlocked induced and latent demand, facilitating trips that otherwise would not have occurred. Beyond utility, ECBs fostered new solo and family travel shaped by a range of intrinsic motivations. They promoted well-being, offered therapeutic outdoor experiences, disrupted daily routines, and supported personal growth, freedom, and autonomy. Caregivers particularly valued ECBs for the control, spontaneity, and flexibility they provided in managing complex household schedules. Parents’ and children’s enjoyment, curiosity, and sense of adventure encouraged additional travel, transforming routine journeys into playful and memorable family experiences. New ECB travel enhanced family bonding, strengthened intra-household cohesion, and increased children’s willingness to participate in activities that might otherwise have been resisted. Households used ECBs to cultivate sustainable travel identities, model pro-environmental behaviors, and instill active mobility norms in children.
The paper reframes induced demand and advances research on travel behavior and motivations. It provides valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and societies, positioning ECBs as a distinct mode in the transition to sustainable mobility
Editorial: Narrow and general intelligence: embodied, self-referential social cognition and novelty production in humans, AI and robots
Get PDFGenSwarm: Scalable multi-robot code-policy generation and deployment via language models
Get PDFThe development of control policies for multi-robot systems traditionally follows a complex and labor-intensive process, often lacking the flexibility to adapt to dynamic tasks. This has motivated research on methods to automatically create control policies. However, these methods require iterative processes of manually crafting and refining objective functions, thereby prolonging the development cycle. This work introduces GenSwarm, an end-to-end system that leverages large language models to automatically generate and deploy control policies for real-world multi-robot systems based on user instructions in natural language. As a multi-language-agent system, GenSwarm achieves zero-shot learning, enabling rapid adaptation to altered or unseen tasks. The white-box nature of the code policies ensures strong reproducibility and interpretability. With its scalable software and hardware architectures, GenSwarm supports efficient and automated policy deployment on both simulated and real-world multi-robot systems, realizing an instruction-to-execution end-to-end functionality that may transform the development paradigm of multi-robot systems in the future
Biodegradable polymer films incorporating aggregation-induced emission luminogens for smart food packaging
Get PDFBiodegradable polymer films containing AIE luminogens enable real-time monitoring of food quality while extending shelf life to reduce food waste. They offer a low-energy approach to freshness sensing and food safety management.
Packaging is essential for preserving food quality by protecting against microbial contamination and environmental factors such as oxygen, moisture, and light. Polymers are widely used for food packaging due to their versatility, low cost, and ease of processing. Over the past several decades, biodegradable polymer films have been extensively developed, either by using naturally derived polymers or by chemically modifying conventional polymers to enhance their environmental degradability. These advances have improved the sustainability of packaging and reduced the environmental impact associated with polymer use. More recently, the integration of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens into biodegradable polymer films has further enabled multiple functionalities, including real-time monitoring of food spoilage. This review highlights strategies for incorporating AIE into biodegradable polymer matrices, summarizes current progress, and discusses key challenges and future opportunities involved
The 23rd Glossop Lecture: Mud to rock and back
Get PDFAs mudrocks underlie large areas of the UK, including major urban areas and infrastructure routes, they frequently form the bedrock at construction sites and slope and tunnel engineering works. They may also be used as fills or construction materials. They range widely in terms of strength and compressibility, depending on composition, degree of compaction and induration, weathering grade, fabric and structure. A review of the performance of mudrocks in engineering situations including slopes, tunnels and in embankment and foundation construction highlights the importance of durability and the role of chemical weathering processes, especially the oxidation of pyrite, in the engineering performance of these materials. It is necessary for the effects of changes in the environment of mudrocks, brought about both during and after completion of engineering works, to be anticipated early in projects so that design and construction measures that circumvent or avoid problems can be adopted. Advances in the understanding of factors controlling mudrock durability that can facilitate improved prediction of changes in properties are described.
It is argued that understanding controls on the properties of mudrocks underlies ways of avoiding the problems that can arise in civil engineering works involving these materials. It is apparent that there is much to be gained from the publication of case histories of past engineering projects, particularly those in which problems stemming from unexpected changes in the properties of mudrocks have occurred
A Study of the avalanche multiplication and excess noise in AlxIn1–xAsγSb1-γ avalanche photodiodes lattice-matched to GaSb
Get PDFHigh-sensitivity linear-mode avalanche photodiodes (APDs) that operate beyond 1.65 μm and up to 2 μm require a narrow bandgap that also gives rise to high dark currents, especially when subject to the large electric fields necessary for avalanche multiplication. This has led to increasing interest in separate absorption, charge, and multiplication (SACM) detectors where the narrow bandgap absorber has a low electric field and the wider bandgap multiplication region provides the gain. A systematic study of Al0.7In0.3As0.31Sb0.69 grown lattice-matched on GaSb as the multiplication layer has been undertaken on p–i–n structures varying in width from 0.1 to 1.5 μm and the ionization coefficients and excess noise extracted over a wide electric field range (195 kV/cm–830 kV/cm). When integrated with a lattice-matched Al0.3In0.7As0.64Sb0.36 absorption layer, such an SACM APD is found to demonstrate a quantum efficiency of 64% and 10% for the wavelengths of 1.55 and 2 μm, respectively, at punch-through, without any antireflection coating. The device shows a maximum avalanche gain of 197 with an excess noise of 3.1 at a gain of 10. Such APDs can be potentially used in a receiver for many photon-starved applications, including gas sensing and LiDAR
Search for heavy neutral leptons in decays of W bosons produced in 13 TeV pp collisions using prompt signatures in the ATLAS detector
Get PDFThe existence of right-handed neutrinos with
Majorana masses below the electroweak scale could help
address the origins of neutrino masses, the matter–antimatter
asymmetry, and dark matter. In this paper, leptonic decays
of W bosons from 140 fb−1 of 13 TeV proton–proton collisions at the LHC, reconstructed in the ATLAS experiment, are used to search for heavy neutral leptons produced
through their mixing with muon or electron neutrinos in a
scenario with lepton number violation. The search is conducted using prompt leptonic decay signatures. The considered final states require two same-charge leptons or three leptons, while vetoing three-lepton same-flavour topologies. No
significant excess over the expected Standard Model backgrounds is found, leading to constraints on the heavy neutral
lepton’s mixing with muon and electron neutrinos for heavyneutral-lepton masses. The analysis excludes |Ue|
2 values
above 8×10−5 and |Uμ|
2 values above 5.0×10−5 in the full
mass range of 8–65 GeV. The strongest constraints are placed
on heavy-neutral-lepton masses in the range 15–30 GeV of
|Ue|
2 < 1.1 × 10−5 and |Uμ|
2 < 5 × 10−6
How do large language models and reference analysis differ in tracing disciplinary contributions to interdisciplinary fields?
Get PDFInterdisciplinary research is a key driver of scientific innovation, yet how knowledge from different disciplines integrates to address research problems remains understudied. Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) provide new tools for analyzing complex texts and extracting domain knowledge. Using bioinformatics as a case study, this paper explores the potential of LLM-based title/abstract analysis to identify contributing disciplines and their functional roles within interdisciplinary research from titles and abstracts, and compares the results with those derived from the topics of references and enriched cited references (ECR) data. The findings suggest that the performance of LLMs in extracting the contributing disciplines and their roles within interdisciplinary research can be enhanced through stepwise prompt optimization. Compared to the ECR-enhanced reference analysis, the LLM-based method focuses more directly on disciplines closely related to the core content of the study and suggests disciplinary contributions that the ECR-enhanced reference analysis may overlook. In the co-occurrence networks of disciplines, the ECR-enhanced reference analysis reports broader and more diverse integration pathways, while the LLM-based network exhibits a more centralized structure, highlighting the strong connections between core fields such as Biochemistry, Genetics & Molecular Biology and Computer Science. Additionally, the LLM-based method suggests more fine-grained contributions of different disciplines across key components of the research process, while the ECR-enhanced reference analysis tends to capture a broader range of disciplinary contexts involved in different sections of a study. Overall, the findings demonstrate the complementary strengths of LLMs and reference analysis in understanding the process of interdisciplinary knowledge integration. Future work could combine these two approaches to develop a more comprehensive methodological framework
Physical inactivity in chronic airways disease: an important candidate in the treatable traits paradigm
Get PDFBackground
Physical inactivity is a common and potentially modifiable trait in individuals with chronic airways disease, yet disease-specific physical activity profiles and clinical determinants remain poorly defined.
Methods
We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis in accordance with PRISMA guidelines to characterise physical activity profiles across the spectrum of chronic airways disease. Studies reporting objectively measured physical activity in adults with COPD, asthma, noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis or primary ciliary dyskinesia were included. Primary outcomes were daily step count and time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Univariate and multivariate regression analysis was used to explore disease-specific determinants and associations with established clinical outcome measures.
Results
236 studies (353 cohorts, n=25 278 with chronic airways disease) met the eligibility criteria. The mean daily step count was 5494 (95% CI 5152–5636) and MVPA was 48.2 min·day−1 (95% CI 33.8–62.6), with the lowest levels observed in COPD. Physical activity levels were consistently lower than matched healthy controls. Disease-specific determinants of physical activity remained elusive; body mass index and percent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) were significant in COPD and asthma. Step count associated positively with FEV1 % pred and 6-min walk distance, and negatively with modified Medical Research Council scores.
Conclusion
Physical inactivity is highly prevalent across chronic airways diseases and is consistently associated with established clinical outcome measures. These findings highlight the clinical relevance of objective physical activity assessment and support its consideration within the treatable traits framework as part of routine disease evaluation and management
Microtubule dynamics in adult retinal ganglion cells and dorsal root ganglion neurons
Get PDFIntroduction: While axon regeneration is very limited in the adult central nervous system (CNS) in vivo, this is not the case in the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Indeed, both CNS and PNS neurons can regenerate in vitro although to varying degrees. Given the role of microtubule stabilization in promoting regeneration, we have examined microtubule polymerization during the regeneration of two types of adult neurons in vitro, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) from the CNS and dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons from the PNS.
Methods: In order to compare microtubule dynamics between these cell types, the density, polymerization rate and orientation of microtubules have been analysed during neurite regeneration in both cell types by analysing GFP-tagged Microtubule End Binding 3 (EB3) protein transfected into the neurons.
Results: The density of EB3 comets and the speed of EB3 movement was similar in both cell types, although only one subtype of RGC regenerated sufficiently long neurites for analysis. In the absence of extracellular substances that could inhibit neurite regeneration, the dynamics of the microtubules of the RGC subtype that extend long neurites are very similar to those in DRG neurons. However, some RGCs with very short neurites exhibited EB3 comets that progressed retrogradely. Additionally, live imaging of mitochondria was performed in both neuronal cultures.
Discussion: Regenerating neurites assessed in our study exhibited similar microtubule extension dynamics in both CNS- and PNS-originated neurons. Importantly, the observation that robust neurite outgrowth is restricted to RGC subtypes highlights the need to integrate molecular heterogeinity among RGCs in future studies
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