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A review & critique of optimal fail-safe structural design
Get PDFStructural material optimization holds great promise for reducing the embodied carbon in future infrastructure. However, optimized solutions typically lack robustness and may be susceptible to disproportionate collapse under damaging events such as blasts, collisions, or material corrosion. Fail-safe optimization offers a solution by balancing material efficiency with the ability to meet design requirements after a defined damage event. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in fail-safe optimization, identifying current knowledge gaps and evaluating methodologies against existing guidelines for fail-safe design. A brief overview of fail-safe and collapse-resistant design is included to contextualize the comprehensive summary of the current literature. Key findings highlight the need for further investigation into buckling failure, allowing partial collapse, buildability aspects and the role of bending within fail-safe frame optimization. Additionally, a significant gap is identified between the types of analysis recommended in fail-safe design guidelines and those used in optimization tools, with the latter often neglecting non-linear and dynamic effects. To address this disconnect, the paper discusses optimization algorithms and techniques through the lens of incorporating more advanced analysis. This review aims to advance the development of fail-safe optimization, guiding improvements in current tools to enhance structural efficiency and safety against life-threatening events
Education lecturers’ expectations about writing proficiency: Insights from corpus analysis of teacher feedback on academic writing
No full textUnderstanding disciplinary lecturers’ expectations about writing proficiency is essential for instruction on Writing for Academic Purposes (WAP) that prepares university students for their written assessment in disciplinary studies. However, few studies have systematically analysed disciplinary lecturers’ feedback on academic writing to reveal their expectations about proficient disciplinary writing. This makes WAP instruction potentially disjointed with disciplinary writing and consequently, students could be ill-prepared for their writing performance in disciplinary assessment. To reveal disciplinary lecturers’ expectations about writing proficiency, this study developed and analysed a 104,765-word corpus of feedback provided by 41 education lecturers on 230 assignments, submitted by international postgraduates who speak English as a second/foreign language (L2). Subsequent regression analyses uncovered how various facets of writing proficiency related to coursework marks. The results showed that Education lecturers commented on a wide spectrum of elements of writing proficiency. Style, coherence, vocabulary, and effective communication were predictors that made unique and significant contributions to the overall quality of assignments. Concordance analyses revealed lecturers’ perspectives on what constitutes writing proficiency and how each component should be manifested in postgraduate disciplinary writing. The paper concludes with important implications for the development and assessment of L2 writing proficiency in Education or related fields
Molecular Insights into Cell-Mediated Immunity in Atypical Non-Ulcerated Cutaneous Leishmaniasis
Get PDFLeishmania (Leishmania) infantum chagasi infections range from asymptomatic (AS) to severe visceral leishmaniasis (VL). One of the manifestations is an atypical non-ulcerated cutaneous leishmaniasis (NUCL), which occurs in some locations of Central America with few cases of VL. We conducted a transcriptomic analysis of cell-mediated immunity (CMI) on blood samples from NUCL, AS, VL patients from Amapala, Honduras, and healthy controls. RNA-seq revealed a similar perturbation of gene expression in NUCL and AS. Eight gene signatures of CMI were found in NUCL involved in CD8+ T lymphocyte infiltration, reactive oxygen species generation, PD-1 receptor ligand, inflammasome assembly, chemotaxis, complement receptor and suppressor immune cell infiltration. NUCL was distinguished from VL by its up-regulation of differently expressed genes (DEGs) related to T lymphocyte exhaustion, adhesion and transmigration of leukocytes, and down-regulation of oxidative stress genes. In contrast, VL exhibited up-regulated DEGs involved in antigen cross-presentation, and similar to VL from Brazil, down-regulated DEGs involved in innate immunity. Corroborating the transcriptome findings, both the Leishmanin skin test, and the immunopathology of NUCL skin lesion defined NUCL as a proinflammatory condition, intermediate between the AS and VL clinical outcomes. That condition may be the underlying element for the benign nature of the NUCL
Referral experiences of healthcare consumers: results from a cross-sectional study in urban slums in southeast Nigeria
Get PDFIntroduction: The inadequate referral system in Nigeria is partly due to the proliferation of informal healthcare providers (IHPs) and constraints within formal providers in urban slums. With limited data on patient referral experiences across these providers, this paper explores referral experiences in urban slums in southeast Nigeria.
Methods: This study involved 1,025 people in eight slums in Enugu and Anambra states, using multi-stage purposive sampling. Data on referral experiences were collected through a pre-tested questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Ethical approval was obtained, and informed consent was secured.
Results: It found that only 7.4% of patients received referrals from their primary healthcare sources, mostly from patent medicine vendors, private clinics, and primary healthcare (PHC) centres to private clinics and laboratories. Verbal referrals were the dominant modality, although the types of referrals varied significantly between facilities that initiated referrals and between states.
Conclusion: This paper highlights the need for innovative solutions to integrate informal healthcare providers into the formal system, improving referrals and enhancing health services in urban slums
Working memory filtering at encoding and maintenance in healthy ageing, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease
Get PDFThe differential impact on working memory (WM) performance of distractors presented at encoding or during maintenance was investigated in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients, elderly (EHC) and young healthy controls (YHC), (n = 28 per group). Participants reported the orientation of an arrow from a set of either two or three items, with a distractor present either at encoding or at maintenance. MRI data with hippocampal volumes was also acquired. Mean absolute error and mixture model metrics i.e., memory precision, target detection, misbinding (swapping the features of an object with another probed item) and guessing were computed. EHC and PD patients showed good filtering abilities both at encoding and maintenance. However, AD patients exhibited significant filtering deficits specifically when the distractor appeared during maintenance. In healthy ageing there was a prominent decline in WM memory precision, whilst in AD lower target detection and higher guessing were the main sources of error. Conversely, PD was associated only with higher guessing rates. Hippocampal volume was significantly correlated with filtering during maintenance – but not at encoding. These findings demonstrate how healthy ageing and neurodegenerative diseases exhibit distinct patterns of WM impairment, including when filtering irrelevant material either at encoding and maintenance
"Shall we talk ? Everyone is talking": L2 pragmatic challenges noticed by Chinese study-abroad postgraduates in the United Kingdom
Get PDFThis study explores how study-abroad learners perceive and interpret gaps in their L2 pragmatic knowledge. While previous research focuses on pragmatic development in specific speech acts or pragmatic phenomena, this research adopts a learner-centered approach, emphasizing pragmatic challenges noticed by learners themselves during naturalistic interactions. Data were collected through learning journals and interviews with five Chinese students studying in the United Kingdom over one academic year. Results reveal that learners predominantly notice pragmatic gaps in three scenarios: (1) encountering unfamiliar sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic features, (2) experiencing difficulties in negotiating social or moral meanings, and (3) receiving implicit feedback from interlocutors regarding their pragmatic choices. Pragmatic awareness was particularly triggered in rapport-sensitive interactions with tutors and non-transactional conversations like small talk. While noticing sometimes led to metapragmatic reflection, learners often overgeneralized or misinterpreted sociopragmatic norms. The findings highlight the need for specialized pragmatics instruction in ESL/EFL contexts to support SA students
Caring for older adults with severe mental health problems in care homes: a qualitative study of staff experiences
Get PDFObjectives
Severe mental health problems are often overlooked within the older adult population. Older people with severe mental health problems are at higher risk of discrimination and may experience a variety of complex needs. Within a care home setting, these factors may pose additional challenges for staff. This research explores the experiences of caring for older adults with severe mental health problems within a care home setting.
Method
Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Thirteen interviews were completed face to face or via online video call with current or previous care home or residential care staff within the North of England. Reflexive thematic analysis was used.
Results
Three key themes were identified: (1) a system that does not support staff, (2) the importance of relationships and connections for staff and residents, (3) the realities of caring for someone with severe mental health problems within a care home setting.
Conclusion
This study highlights the systemic challenges which impact the time and resources needed for staff to provide appropriate person-centred care for older people with severe mental health difficulties within care homes. Clinical implications, recommendations and strengths and limitations are discussed
The decoupling of asset-based welfare from anglo-liberal growth: a curious case of spurious transfer
Get PDFAsset-based welfare (ABW) – the use of public policy interventions to encourage individuals to accumulate assets for future welfare needs – has gained prominence across European economies. This looks like a familiar story of policy transfer from an Anglo-liberal epicentre, the UK, in which ABW emerged as a corollary of the country’s growth model. Drawing on short case studies from diverse welfare and growth regimes, this paper argues instead that ABW’s spread is better understood as a common response to similarly interpreted demographic and fiscal pressures. We further show that ABW generates distinct context-specific structural tensions. In the UK, it is parasitic upon the very growth that the growth regime is there to produce. In more export-oriented, consumption-repressing regimes, ABW may prove more economically viable, but its regressive logic – benefiting the asset-rich while disadvantaging the asset-poor – threatens to fracture the cross-class coalitions that underpin welfare provision. The paper thus both challenges standard models of policy diffusion and underscores ABW’s disruptive potential for welfare state development in Europe
Are the COVID-19 footprints fading? analysing dynamics in work, corporate real estate strategies and building use
Get PDFSentiments about hybrid working have changed in line with the waning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses and organizations are increasingly driving a return-to-office (RTO) mandate, which questions previous perceptions about reimagining office space use and the ESG and economic impacts at the pandemic apex. Using data from two waves of Knight Frank's (Y)OUR SPACE survey (2021 and 2023), we employ probit models to analyse the link between the COVID-19 pandemic and workspace dynamics. We also compare the influence of business strategies and work patterns on office space use expectations during the lockdown and 2 years after. The results indicate that the COVID-19-driven hybrid working led to firms’ decisions to reduce their office space quantity while improving the quality of space. However, these sentiments and expectations are changing in line with post-pandemic work culture and organizational strategies. Our results further reveal that office space flexibility may not be a priority in organizations’ future workspace strategy. These insights indicate that economic factors remain core priorities in future workspace strategies while environmental and social factors remain secondary. This study extends the literature beyond the economic drivers of workspace strategies to environmental and social factors
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