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Microplastics transport in soils: A critical review
Get PDFMicroplastics (MPs) in terrestrial environments are an emerging contaminant of high concern to ecosystems and human health. However, our understanding of the MPs' fate, particularly their transport within soils, remains elusive. This knowledge gap arises from the multiplicity of coupled physical, chemical and biological processes and parameters affecting MPs transport, together with the scarcity of systematic studies that aim to isolate their individual effects. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the state-of-the-art in our understanding of MPs transport, highlight knowledge gaps and suggest future research to bridge them. We classify the governing factors into four main categories: (i) MPs properties; (ii) soil physicochemical properties; (iii) hydrological conditions; and (iv) biological activity. Our analysis reveals that lack of clear trends in the dependence between MP transport and individual key parameters—often leading to contradictory findings—could be explained by the interference (“co-effects”) with other parameters and processes
Benefits and drawbacks of the Fly-In-Faculty model in transnational education:A student-centric analysis of teaching pace, communication, and faculty engagement
Get PDFFly-in faculty (FF) mode of teaching plays a crucial part of Transnational Education (TNE) and is widely prevalent as part of international higher education, offering cross-border delivery of curriculum. In this paper, we studied the student learning experience of the FF within a franchised transnational business programme in Qatar. A total of twenty-five recent graduates were interviewed to provide contextual data into their learning experiences with FF. The findings revealed five key themes: communication difficulties, subject matter expertise, authenticity, impersonal relationships, and inaccessibility. Despite communication and accessibility concerns, students reported high satisfaction levels with the FF model and would opt to continue with this policy. Generally, the findings suggest positive overall learning outcomes despite perceived difficulties, thus serving as a catalyst for change. This study offers TNE administrators, policy makers and practitioners’ valuable insights and a greater appreciation of the learning experiences of global TNE students to support improvements for TNE pedagogy and enhanced student learning outcomes. Theoretically, the study deepens our understanding of the FF mode of teaching and suggests that when faced with disorienting dilemmas, TNE students positively and realistically balance the pros and cons of this mode of teaching
Winograd Transform-Based Fast Detection of Heart Disease Using ECG Signals and Chest X-Ray Images
Get PDFIn resource-constrained environments, efficient feature extraction is crucial for applications in classification and prediction tasks. This study investigates a fast, DFT-based, one-dimensional Winograd Transform (WT) to extract convolution-based features from 1-D ECG signals. For two-dimensional (2-D) Chest X-Ray (CXR) images, 2-D DFT-based convolution is employed to generate features. Traditional multi-stage convolution methods for feature extraction can be slow and computationally intensive. Therefore, to improve speed and accuracy in heart disease (HD) detection, WT-based convolution methods for both 1-D and 2-D data are applied to extract features from ECG signals and CXR images. These features serve as inputs for AI-based detection models, with six machine learning (ML) and four deep learning (DL) models developed for HD detection. Using standard datasets, extensive simulations were conducted, yielding various performance metrics that were analyzed and compared. Additionally, the feature extraction and model training times were evaluated and compared. The comparative analysis demonstrates that WT-based feature extraction significantly reduces processing time for both 1-D and 2-D data types. The WT-based method achieved speedups of x times for 1-D and y times for 2-D feature extraction relative to traditional convolution methods. Performance metrics, including classification accuracy (0.94) and AUC scores (0.98), remained consistently high across models, confirming that WT-based circular convolution offers a practical and effective solution for real-time heart disease detection. This approach enhances diagnostic capabilities in healthcare by enabling resource-efficient, real-time feature extraction in medical image and signal processing
Double-Graph Representation With Relational Enhancement for Emotion–Cause Pair Extraction
Get PDFThe emotion–cause pair extraction (ECPE) task is to simultaneously extract emotions and causes as pairs (EC-pairs) from documents, which is important for natural language processing. Previous research tackled this task via a two-step approach, which first predicts separately the emotion and cause clauses, and then pairs them up by using a binary classifier. However, such a two-step approach may suffer from the possible propagation of errors, and it neglects the interaction between emotions and causes. In this article, an end-to-end double-graph method with relational enhancement (DGRE) is proposed to stimulate two relationship modes among clauses, i.e., semantic dependence and logical dependence. First, two united graph encoders are established to embed the semantic dependence into the representation of clauses and pairs. The first encoder is built on graph attention networks (GATs) for clause-level representation, the result of which is used by a relational graph convolutional network (RGCN) for the refinement of pair-level representation. Aiming to enhance the fitting ability of logical dependence, the emotion-type classification task is introduced into the multitask learning framework of GATs, which can effectively distinguish the logical relations between clauses according to their emotion types. Moreover, seven types of dependence relations have been designed for the node connections in RGCN, which emphasize the contextual interaction and clustering among neighboring nodes. Experiments on a benchmark Chinese corpus demonstrate that the proposed DGRE approach could effectively establish the communication mechanism between clauses and pairs from multiple perspectives, and comparisons with state-of-the-art (SOTA) models well validate its effectiveness
Exploring Teachers’ Experience of Occupational Value and Global Accountability Reforms:A Qualitative Inquiry
Get PDFTeachers’ feelings of occupational or professional value (that is, the subjective experience of feeling a sense of competence or enjoyment derived from undertaking occupational activities or tasks) can significantly influence the retention of the workforce. The United Kingdom (UK) is currently undergoing a teacher shortage, which, despite efforts to strengthen recruitment, has failed to reduce attrition rates to an acceptable level. Through the lived experience of UK primary school teachers, this study aims to deepen our understanding of occupational value. It explores the various factors that shape this value while also examining the ways in which accountability measures influence these dynamics. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 UK primary school teachers. A thematic analysis revealed three main influential themes: Holistic Wellbeing; Professional Wellbeing; and Educational Dynamics. These results emphasise the importance of occupational value for the recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers. They also indicate that supportive collaboration and constructive accountability can positively influence perceptions of occupational value as well as personal resilience. Further research is needed in this area to substantiate these preliminary findings
Entwicklungszusammenarbeit in einer konfliktreichen Welt
No full textIn einer Welt, in der Konflikte und Spannungen auf regionaler, nationaler und globaler Ebene zunehmen, wird Sicherheit für die internationale Entwicklungszusammenarbeit zu einer der größten Herausforderungen. Um der komplexen geopolitischen Lage zu begegnen, sind Ansätze erforderlich, die die Förderung von Frieden und die Stabilisierung von Krisenregionen noch stärker in den Fokus rücken
Transitioning to tokamak turbulence via states of increasing complexity
Get PDFWe provide a fundamentally new perspective on subcritical turbulence in plasmas, based on coherent structures, which are obtained and characterised via direct numerical solution. The domains where these coherent states exist appear to be closely connected to the those where related turbulent states can exist, so there may be a deep connection between the stability of these coherent structures and the domain where sustained turbulence is possible. In contrast to previous descriptions of turbulence in terms of a stochastic collection of linear waves, we present a fundamentally nonlinear representation based on more general classes of translating oscillatory nonlinear solutions. In turbulent tokamak plasmas, the transport can often be completely suppressed by introducing a background shear flow, whose amplitude is an important control parameter. As this parameter is decreased below a critical value, radially localised structures appear, becoming larger and more complex, in both gyrokinetic simulations and a simpler fluid model of the plasma. For the fluid model, we directly solve for a particular class of nonlinear solutions, relative periodic orbits, and determine their stability, thus explaining why these isolated structures appear in initial-value simulations. The increase of complexity as the flow shear is reduced is explained by a series of Hopf bifurcations of these nonlinear solutions, which we quantify via stability analysis. In gyrokinetic simulations, we are able to indirectly determine the underlying relative periodic orbits by imposing symmetry conditions on the simulations
Professional Nurse Advocates and Restorative Clinical Supervision: National survey of Programme implementation and impact
Get PDFABSTRACTBackground: In 2021, a new national Programme of clinical nurse leadership, called the Professional Nurse Advocate Programme, was launched across the National Health Service of England. The primary aim was to support nurse wellbeing and resilience in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. Trained nurse advocates offered restorative clinical supervision sessions to nurses, career conversations through the Advocating and Educating for Quality Improvement model, aiming to sustain their motivation at work through improved wellbeing. This paper evaluates the national Programme delivered across England.Methods: Cross-sectional questionnaire, underpinned by Laschinger’s model of empowerment, distributed across England in 2022. This explored the effectiveness and impact of Restorative Clinical Supervision on nurse empowerment, and personal effectiveness. The questionnaire sections included demographics and 14 questions to understand restorative clinical supervision in practice; respondents’ abilities to fulfil PNA roles and responsibilities; and four open text questions. Demographic data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Open text responses were coded to generate themes. Results: There were 302 questionnaire responses from nurses receiving restorative clinical supervision n=73, Professional Nurse Advocates n=214 and leads n=15, most were female and identified as ‘white’ ethnicity. Restorative clinical supervision was rated very positively, enhancing structural and psychological empowerment. Three primary themes were identified from open-ended questions; (i) Conditions necessary for restorative supervision; (ii) Nurse engagement and organisational commitment to restorative supervision and (iii) Reinvigoration from supervision. Conclusion: We established that the professional clinical leadership role of the nurse advocates offers individual support through reflective practice and strategies to address resilience. Spaces of safety and adequate time are reported as fundamental to delivering the advocate role, plus time for nurses to be released from clinical duties to participate in restorative supervision. Since the roll out of the Programme 10,933 training places have been funded, representing significant investment. 78,187 restorative clinical supervision sessions; 49,595 career conversations and 2,541 Quality Improvement projects are currently underway in October 2024. This is the first national evaluation of the Programme and findings indicate its potential to address underlying global nursing concerns linked to workforce attrition, wellbeing in the workplace, retention, and recognition of nurse impact. <br/
Pedestrian Profiling Based on Road Crossing Decisions in the Presence of Automated Vehicles:The Sorting Hat for Pedestrian Behaviours and Psychological Facets
Get PDFAutomated Vehicles (AVs) are being developed with the aim to reduce the occurrence and severity of Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs). Studies suggest AVs may improve the safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), particularly on road crossings. However, exposure to novel technology over time may lead to behavioural adaptation. Thus, understanding VRUs’ behavioural intentions towards AVs is crucial for their safe integration into traffic. We investigate four external factors pedestrians consider when crossing a road in front of an AV. An online questionnaire with 281 participants assessed crossing intentions, focusing on road gradient, weather, pedestrian–AV distance, and AV type. Personality traits and self-reported behaviour were measured. Anderson’s experimental protocol revealed all factors significantly influenced crossing decisions. Using hierarchical clustering followed by K-means clustering, the participants were classified into three different profiles :risk-averse, resolute, and indecisive pedestrians. We provide evidence of a strong link between crossing decisions, reported behaviours and psychological facets while interacting with an AV at crossings. Pedestrian profiling allows targeting preventative measures for groups based on unique characteristics, maximising efficiency thereof. Furthermore, pedestrian profiling can inform AV’s driving style to support safer road interactions. This is salient for resolute pedestrians, who take more risks, which may lead to severe RTCs. <br/