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Adaptive Federated Learning Defense Against Byzantine Attacks and Concept Drift in IIoT
Full text linkFederated Learning (FL) enables collaborative intrusion detection in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environments without compromising data privacy. However, FL systems face critical challenges from Byzantine attacks, where malicious clients send poisoned model updates, and concept drift, where data distributions evolve over time. Existing defenses typically force a trade-off between security and efficiency, employing either computationally expensive robust aggregation methods or fast but vulnerable approaches. This paper proposes an adaptive defense framework that dynamically responds to the threat landscape using lightweight statistical detection mechanisms. The system defaults to efficient Federated Averaging (FedAvg) aggregation and switches to robust methods only when attacks or drift are detected. We validated the framework through experiments on the Edge-IIoTset dataset and real-world deployment on five Raspberry Pi 3B devices. Results show the adaptive approach maintains F1=0.828 under 40% malicious clients and remains robust up to the 50% threshold
FocusViT: Faithful Explanations for Vision Transformers via Gradient-Guided Layer-Skipping
Full text linkVision Transformers (ViTs) have emerged as powerful alternatives to CNNs for various vision tasks, yet their token-based, attention-driven architecture makes interpreting their predictions challenging. Existing explainability methods, such as Grad-CAM and Attention Rollout, either fail to capture hierarchical semantic information or assume atten tion directly reflects importance, often lead- ing to misleading explanations. We propose FocusViT, a novel explainability framework that integrates gradient-weighted attention attribution with dynamic, faithfulness-driven layer aggregation. By fusing attention maps with class-specific gradients and introducing per-head dynamic weighting, FocusViT highlights not only where the model attends but also how sensitive the prediction is to those attentions. Furthermore, our adaptive layer-skipping strategy ensures that only semantically meaningful layers contribute to the final explanation, enhancing both faithfulness and clarity. Extensive quantitative and qualitative evaluations on diverse benchmarks demonstrate that FocusViT improves over existing methods in faithfulness and sparsity, achieving competitive robustness and class sensitivity, and provides sharper, more reliable visual explanations for ViTs. The official implementation is publicly available at: https://github.com/game-sys/focusvit- aistats2026.gi
Peace treaties’ environmental provisions and conflict recurrence
Full text linkA fundamental idea in the environmental peacebuilding literature is that environmental cooperation can serve as a catalyst for broader collaboration and, in turn, reduce the risk of renewed conflict. While this claim has long been asserted, only a few empirical studies have examined it in cross-country and comparative analyses. This article adds to these works by providing a comprehensive quantitative analysis of conflict recurrence data and provisions for environmental cooperation in over 1,000 peace treaties since the end of the Cold War. The central finding is that environmental clauses in such agreements are associated with a significantly lower risk of conflict recurrence. This result not only provides systematic empirical evidence supporting the environmental peacebuilding thesis but also demonstrates that environmental cooperation is not merely a symbolic gesture. Rather, it plays a vital, substantive role in establishing sustainable post-conflict stability and durable resolution
Long Covid: a longitudinal perspective of cognitive impairment and symptom trajectories in a working age sample
Full text linkSARS-CoV-2, has been shown to induce inflammation in the hippocampus which may lead to prolonged memory deficits in people with Long Covid (pwLC). While Long Covid (LC) is estimated to affect over 65 million people worldwide, its long-term cognitive and functional sequalae remain poorly understood. Using a mixed-methods longitudinal design, this thesis investigated the symptom trajectories of LC. It also examined the lived experiences of pwLC, integrating qualitative insights alongside quantitative data. People of working age (N = 68), most of whom (81%) had a formal LC diagnosis, completed sub-tests of the BIRT Memory and Information Processing Battery (BMIPB-II), a word categorisation and recognition task (Addante et al., 2012) and health surveys at three time points, from March 2023 to March 2025 with an average of 19 months between the first and third assessment (SD = 1.41). Qualitative data from open-ended survey responses and semi-structured interviews, were examined using thematic analysis to capture lived experiences. Finally, a study protocol was designed to explore cortical dynamics of memory encoding and retrieval, to further delineate the neurophysiological underpinnings of the condition. Persistent impairments in memory were observed for up to 60 months since LC diagnosis. Verbal learning and retention and speed of information processing were impaired on all assessments. Visual memory, semantic categorisation accuracy and speed were preserved. Participants self-reported up to 34 LC symptoms. The most frequent were fatigue, memory and concentration problems. PwLC demonstrated elevated fatigue compared to controls, which correlated with low quality of life. Linear mixed modelling showed changes over time for some of the cognitive performance measures, but not on all other measures. Lived experience perspectives demonstrated the complex and multifaceted challenges of living with LC. The findings from this thesis evidence the persistent cognitive and functional deficits in pwLC, and may inform the development of better diagnosis and support pathways for pwLC
A psychoanalytic exploration of the emotional experience of breastfeeding mothers who have experienced difficulties feeding their baby with tongue-tie. An interpretative phenomenological analytic study
Full text linkBackground: Infant tongue-tie or ankyloglossia is a relatively minor and easily treated condition associated with breastfeeding complications which have been linked with consequential emotional maternal distress. Research Aim: To gain insight into lived emotional experiences of mothers who have experienced difficulties breastfeeding their tongue-tied baby. Method: This was a qualitative study of four participants who had breastfed a baby with tongue-tie (aged 3-12 months) using a single Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI) - aimed at making available inner-world and unconscious experiences. Data analysis by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) focussed on unique idiographic aspects of individual lived experience leading to identified recurrent group themes. Within the IPA framework, aspects of FANI and Reverie Research methods were included, adopting psychoanalytic concepts, tools and understanding to promote and deepen the unconscious experience made available for understanding within the hermeneutic IPA process. Results: Four main Group Experiential Themes were identified: “The psychological and emotional complexity as a breastfeeding mother”; “The hope of connection and the pain of disconnection”; “Internal relationships with dependency and care in interaction with lived external experiences”; and “Alone and stuck in an unbearable situation – reaching breaking point”. Conclusions: Results suggest breastfeeding is both physical and emotional, with success linked with feelings of maternal confidence and capacity, and difficulties with the reverse. Maternal emotional experiences of infant tongue-tie were inextricably linked with pregnancy and delivery, and past and current lived experiences. Professional care was profoundly experienced - positively and negatively. If left feeling unsupported, participants reached a state of desperation disrupting their sense of connection with their baby and with the support around them. By contrast, timely, specialist attentive care and emotional containment promoted emotional recovery and a reparative breastfeeding relationship with their baby
Communication modality, authenticity, and continuance usage intention of GenAI chatbots: A media richness theory perspective
No full textGenerative AI chatbots are increasingly popular for tourist destination information searches. However, how communication modalities (text vs. voice), interaction styles (social vs. task-oriented), destination types (hedonic vs. utilitarian), and their interactions contribute to users’ perceptions and continuance usage intention remains unclear. Building on media richness theory, this study used a sequential explanatory mixed-methods and multi-study research design, with four scenario-based experiments to examine how the above factors affect tourists’ perceived authenticity of GenAI chatbots and continuance usage intention, and a focus group study to validate and contextualize findings from experimental studies. The results indicated that voice communication evokes a higher level of GenAI chatbots’ authenticity. Individuals’ perceived authenticity of GenAI chatbots is positively associated with their continuance usage intention. Destination type was a significant moderator, with voice modality enhancing authenticity more for hedonic than utilitarian destinations. The moderating roles of destination type and interaction style are clarified, shedding new light on destination marketing theories and practices
The cytochrome P450 decarboxylase from Staphylococcus aureus can produce a diene from a C18 monounsaturated fatty acid: A spectroscopic, structural and kinetic characterisation.
Full text linkCertain members of the bacterial cytochrome P450 152 family (CYP152) are peroxygenases that catalyse the decarboxylation of fatty acids into terminal olefins making them attractive biocatalysts for biofuel production. To date, the characterisation of decarboxylating CYP152s has mainly focused on their reaction with saturated fatty acid substrates. CYP152s are often co-purified with a bound substrate, which is generally removed before further experiments are conducted. In the present work we identified that heterologous over-expressed CYP152 from Staphylococcus aureus (OleTSa) is co-purified with the trans-monounsaturated C18:1 fatty acid, elaidic acid. We report the spectral, thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics of OleTSa bound to both elaidic acid and its saturated counterpart, stearic acid. Despite differing spectral profiles, metabolic and kinetic studies reveal that OleTSa is capable of decarboxylating elaidic acid, converting it to heptadeca-1,8-diene following addition of hydrogen peroxide, at the same rate and chemoselectivity as the conversion of stearic acid to 1-heptadecane. The X-ray crystal structure of the as purified OleTSa in complex with elaidic acid is also presented, allowing for several key residues to be identified for site-directed mutagenesis studies. The influence of the site-directed variants on C18:0 and C18:1 product formation, binding thermodynamics and kinetics have been investigated, showing that while spectral differences occur as a likely result of perturbing the binding pocket, this does not alter the chemoselectivity of the enzyme. Our work provides important insights into the mechanism of decarboxylation of an unsaturated fatty acid substrate by OleTSa potentially expanding the sustainable substrate space available for CYP152s
Effects of the 2023 Poole Harbour oil spill on sediment bacterial communities and ecosystem functioning
Full text linkIn March 2023, approximately 27 t of fluid from an oil and gas reservoir (containing approximately 85 % water and 15 % crude oil spilt from a fractured pipeline beneath Ower Bay creek, entering Poole Harbour (Dorset, UK). This event provided a unique opportunity to investigate the impacts of hydrocarbon contamination on microbial communities in-situ in a temperate coastal, shallow, fine sediment environment. Our aims were to quantify hydrocarbon concentrations (via gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC–MS)) and effects on microbial community structure and functional potential (via metagenomic sequencing) to understand the capacity for microbial biodegradation across the impacted region. Hydrocarbon contamination was localised to the Spill Site (approximately an area of 1500 m2) at the head of the creek, with minimal impact at the Mid Point (164 m from the Spill Site) and End Point (387 m from the Spill Site) and with no indication of contamination at Brownsea Island located in the heart of the harbour. By October 2023, n-alkane and 4–5 ring PAH concentrations had declined to background levels, highlighting the combined effects of the remediation response and natural hydrocarbon biodegradation at the Spill Site. Clear changes in bacterial community structure were observed in the seven months following the spill, with notable hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria i.e. Anaerolinea, Thiobacillus and Dechloromonas favouring the Spill Site, suggesting a significant increase in anaerobic biodegradation occurred as a result of significant increase in assA (anaerobic alkylsuccinate synthase), abcA (anaerobic benzene carboxylase) and ahyA (anaerobic alkane hydroxylase) genes. Overall, 24 alkane and aromatic hydrocarbon degradation genes, from both aerobic and anaerobic degradation pathways, were identified from contigs throughout the study site, being present within 48 out of 221 Metagenome-Assembled Genomes (MAGs), highlighting the sites capacity for hydrocarbon biodegradation under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions
Consent, Coercion, Colonialism: A Manifesto for Digital Rights from the Left
Full text linkDigital transitions, involving the widespread adoption of biometric, algorithmic, and AI systems across public and private sectors, are often framed as inevitable and necessary for progress. However, these transitions are not neutral. They are shaped by coercive data extraction practices of digitalisation, which consolidate corporate power, and reproduce colonial social relations. At the center of this process is the erosion of meaningful consent, alongside the expansion of surveillance infrastructures that restructure subjectivity without recognition or accountability. Dominant rights frameworks, including liberal notions of personhood and existing legal protections, fail to confront these harms. Regulatory frameworks overlook relational dynamics, systemic misrecognition, and the asymmetries of digital colonialism. Coercion is overtaking consent in the digital realm. A new political struggle is needed to reclaim subjectivity and argue for a manifesto of digital rights from the left