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Customized batch fabrication of highly sensitive thin capacitive soft sensors based on high dielectric constant composite polymers
No full textSoft capacitive sensors are essential for emerging technologies in soft robotics, wearable electronics, and human-machine interfaces. However, scalable, customizable, and cost-effective fabrication methods remain a challenge. In this work, we present a novel batch fabrication approach for producing thin, highly sensitive soft capacitive sensors using high-dielectric-constant composite elastomers. Our method enables the rapid production of large-area sensor sheets that can be precisely patterned into arbitrary geometries using laser cutting, eliminating the need for complex microstructuring or lithography. These sensors are composed entirely of soft layers, including carbon nanofiber-based electrodes and dielectric layers enhanced with barium titanate (BTO) or titanium dioxide (TiO2). We demonstrate a gauge factor of 2.83 and a sensitivity of 0.55 kPa⁻¹, with low hysteresis and broad
pressure range. Furthermore, we present the integration of these sensors into a tactile array for wearable pressure sensing, highlighting their potential in soft robotics and health monitoring systems. This work offers a scalable and versatile platform for next-generation soft sensing technologies
CUXC: A Collaborative User Experience Curve for Evaluating Digital Technologies Over Time
No full textEvaluating long-term user experience (UX) presents methodological challenges, particularly when multiple technologies intersect with complex processes. Retrospective approaches are vulnerable to memory biases and often rely on individual recall. This paper introduces the Collaborative UX Curve (CUXC), a three-phase method designed to address these limitations by combining constructive and value-account recall with cue-dependent anchors, transactive memory, and collaborative cross-cueing. The method was evaluated in a palliative care setting, where three groups of practitioners applied the CUXC across two processes: pain management and psychological well-being. Participants identified technologies through collaborative discussion, plotted individual experiences over a 3-year timeline, and collaboratively reviewed outputs. Across groups, 14 technologies were identified, 92 experiences annotated, and 9 themes generated. The collaborative format enhanced recall, reduced memory biases, and enabled evaluation of multiple technologies within complex processes. The method was efficient, with three groups completing the process in 4.5 hours, producing rich and contextualized data
Conclusion
No full textThe damage, harm, losses, and problems caused by the occurrence of a natural or other disaster including the death and destruction it wrought can take up significant human, psychological, physical, community, environmental, infrastructural, technological, and financial/economic attention, resources, time, and energy. It is therefore necessary to develop scholarship that can assist in the development of alternative scenarios, approaches, and models that may be more effective, efficient, and satisfactory to disaster-affected persons (DAP)
Lovers’ creativity sparks under stress: fNIRS hyperscanning evidence of dating couples’ creative problem-solving under stress
No full textIn an age flooded with pressure, lovers’ resilience under stress and ability to creatively solve problems are highly valued. It is hoped that stress could become the crucible that forges lovers’ creative sparks. Understanding the associations among romantic love, stress and advanced cognitive functions is highly topical. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning, the current study investigated dating couples’ creative problem-solving performance under the effect of acute stress and the corresponding underlying neural mechanism. Results indicated that when faced with stressful situations, couples showed higher fluency and flexibility in creative problem-solving than those under non-stressful conditions. In addition, the couples showed greater synchronization in the frontopolar region under stress, with the direction from males to females, unveiling a distinct cooperative pattern of males leading and females receiving. Furthermore, interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) mediated the effects that both salivary cortisol and heart rate level had on dating couples’ creativity. These findings provide evidence supporting an integrative view for understanding relationships under adverse conditions, highlighting the different roles played by different genders in coping with stress
Remembering Barbara, learning from Professor Czarniawska
No full textThrough a reflective dialogue between two Polish women academics living and working in the United Kingdom, this article explores the intellectual legacy of Professor Barbara Czarniawska. The dialogue focuses, on the one hand, on Barbara’s role as a mentor and champion of women in academia, particularly those navigating higher education systems in countries in which they are foreigners. On the other, it highlights Professor Barbara Czarniawska’s outstanding contribution to the field of management and organisation studies (MOS), emphasising her methodological and theoretical innovations, as well as her interdisciplinary approach to studying and building knowledge about organisations. We also draw attention to the importance of Professor Barbara Czarniawska’s legacy as a source of inspiration for future generations of students, educators, and researchers, encouraging them to follow Barbara as a role model for all those who wish to approach the study of organisations with curiosity, creativity and commitment to making a meaningful contribution to society
294 Thoracic Umbrella Radiotherapy Study in stage IV NSCLC: TOURIST
No full textIntroduction
Palliative thoracic radiotherapy is widely used in stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Historical fractionation studies demonstrated effective symptom control and improved survival at higher doses, but these were conducted before the advent of modern systemic therapies. Advances in radiotherapy planning and delivery now permit higher doses with reduced toxicity, yet no studies have evaluated the optimal timing, dose, or fractionation of palliative radiotherapy. To address this evidence gap, the NIHR-funded TOURIST platform study has been established. It will deliver a series of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) across scenarios where palliative radiotherapy is used in stage IV NSCLC. Two candidate-specific trials (CSTs) are currently open: PRINCE and QUARTZ LUNG.
Methods
TOURIST is a pragmatic, multi-centre, phase III platform trial design. It incorporates multiple CSTs, each conducted as a randomised controlled trial within the overarching framework. The design allows rapid initiation of new CSTs via amendment, leveraging pre-approved infrastructure and existing open sites. This structure facilitates systematic evaluation of multiple scenarios, including integration with systemic therapies, higher doses, and fractionation schedules. Endpoints across CSTs include quality of life (QoL), toxicity, overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS). Importantly, the Radiotherapy Trials Quality Assurance (RTTQA) Group provides oversight, facilitating radiotherapy approval and ensuring consistent treatment delivery across participating centres. Future Directions Several additional candidate-specific trials are currently in work-up, driving further development of the platform. Ideas are welcome, and collaborators are encouraged to contact the study team for further information. Newlung cancer radiotherapy trial proposals, including qualitative or quantitative and translational will be considered for inclusion in the TOURIST platform.
Disclosure
No significant relationship
Current approaches to measuring high-intensity locomotor actions in adult male professional soccer. A scoping review
No full textHigh-intensity locomotor actions (HILAs) including high-speed running (HSR), sprinting, accelerations, and decelerations are critical to performance and injury risk in professional soccer. Rapid technological and methodological developments since 2021 necessitate an updated synthesis of how these actions are quantified and interpreted in applied settings. A scoping review was conducted following PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Five databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, Academic Search Complete, Web of Science) were searched for English-language studies published between 22 March 2021 and 22 February 2025. Eligible studies included adult male professional soccer players and quantified HILAs in training and/or matches using Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Local Positioning Systems (LPS; sampling frequency > 10 Hz), or digital video-based tracking. Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria. Most used 10 Hz GPS units (n = 16) and applied absolute thresholds (n = 16) (e.g., HSR > 19.8 km · h−¹, sprinting > 25.2 km · h−¹, accelerations/decelerations > 3 m · s−²/ < −3 m · s−²), with only four adopting relative thresholds. Data filtering procedures were often nderreported, and temporal normalisation was uncommon. Tactical (e.g., formation, playing style), temporal (e.g., match phase), and positional (e.g., role, field zone) contexts were rarely considered, and only one study integrated GPS with video analysis. Training typically under-replicated match demands, particularly for non-starters. Considerable methodological heterogeneity limited cross-study comparability. In conclusion, current monitoring practices for HILAs in professional soccer remain dominated by GPS and absolute thresholds, with limited individualisation and contextual integration. Future research should prioritise standardised threshold definitions, transparent data processing, and integration of video and GPS technologies to enhance ecological validity and applied impact
Flippin’ switches and floatin’ boats: nurturing the conditions for learning to thrive
No full textA supervisory relationship is a living thing, it needs to be fed. With highs and lows for the candidate and supervisor alike, this account will highlight some magic moments of discovery in doctoral learning, ‘when the lights came on’, set alongside more complex and demanding challenges I have navigated on the path towards PhD with some of my candidates. Many of these have been staff colleagues, which has presented interesting situations for building and sustaining supervisory relationships. Showing confidence in a colleague’s ability to become ‘doctoral material’ is key to gaining their trust, especially in a candidate who is prepared to expose their vulnerabilities as a learner, which, beware, can occur at any part of
the PhD journey. I have also physically floated boats to facilitate group PhD supervision on canoe journeys, forming valuable social bonds for sharing learning experiences. From these events, relationships between candidates have endured because I created the conditions for them to take root. The candidates brought the magic, I just got the boats
Institutional Child Abuse: The Role of Disclosure, Risk and Protective Factors in Understanding Trauma Responses
Get PDFThe research examined negative impacts of and factors aiding recovery from institutional child abuse. It adopts a multi-study, multi-method approach to achieve this. The research comprised 10 institutional abuse victims, a Rapid Evidence Assessment of 28 institutional child abuse case reviews, and 384 adults reporting either institutional child abuse (n = 93), at home abuse (n = 191) or no abuse (n = 100). The location of participants was not recorded in order to protect anonymity. However, the child abuse reviews were all UK based. Multi-methods employing a qualitative study, Rapid Evidence Assessment and quantitative study of victims were included.
Qualitative analysis demonstrated a focus on negative impacts, and the importance of disclosure. Factors aiding recovery were discussed less than negative factors. Impacts of abuse were comparable across settings, with institutional abuse directly associated with PTSD symptoms, and resilience with reduced PTSD symptoms. There was an indirect effect of institutional abuse on PTSD symptoms mediated by personality dysfunction but not strength factors or resilience. The research highlights the importance of disclosure and concludes by integrating findings into a preliminary conceptual model, the Integrated Model of Institutional Child Abuse impacts (IMICA), to potentially support practice and future research
Stellar Populations in Satellite Galaxies in Close Pairs
No full textSatellite galaxies that are near to massive primary galaxies in close pairs can have stellar population ages that are more similar to their primaries than expected. This is one way in which close pairs of galaxies show galactic conformity, which is thought to be driven by assembly bias. Such conformity is seen in ages, morphologies and star formation rates in different samples. This paper revisits a high signal-to-noise SDSS spectroscopic sample, by spectral fitting of new stellar population models, to investigate satellite galaxy properties of age, metallicity and alpha-element abundance. We find the clear signature of age conformity, as previously seen, but no clear evidence for conformity in metallicity or abundance ratios. The offsets showing age conformity are not caused by age-metallicity degeneracies. There is a suggestion in these data that lower velocity dispersion satellites have increased [alpha/Fe] compared to a control sample of passive galaxies, however this needs further observations to be verified. Our results also suggest an intriguing turnover in the age trends of the satellites at the highest velocity dispersion, perhaps reflecting the onset of environment-related processes in the most massive groups