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The 2025 M w 7.7 Mandalay, Myanmar, earthquake reveals a complex earthquake cycle with clustering and variable segmentation on the Sagaing Fault
Get PDFWe use remote sensing observations to document surface deformation caused by the 2025 Mw7.7 Mandalay earthquake. This event is a unique case of an extremely long (~510 km) and sustained supershear rupture probably favored by the rather smooth and continuous geometry of this section of the structurally mature Sagaing Fault. The seismic rupture involved the locked portion of the fault over its entire depth extent (0 to 13 km) with a remarkably uniform slip distribution that averages 3.3 m, and an average stress drop of 4.7 MPa. No shallow-slip deficit is observed. The rupture extent challenges usual scaling laws relating earthquake magnitude, fault length, and slip. The fault ruptured along a known seismic gap that last ruptured in 1839 and tailed off into sections that ruptured during large earthquakes in 1930 and 1946. The amplitude and spatial distribution of fault slip in the 2025 event conform only approximatively to the slip-predictable model and the segmentation inferred from the fault geometry and past ruptures. Plausible sequences of earthquakes with variable magnitude, segmentation, and return periods, including events similar to the 2025 earthquake are produced in quasidynamic simulations using a simplified but nonplanar fault geometry. Based on this simulation, Mw>7.5 events return irregularly with an interevent time of ~141 y on average and a SD of ~40 y. The simulation is consistent with the historical seismicity and with the maximum magnitude ~Mw7.9 and return period (~250 y) derived from moment conservation. Data assimilation into such simulations could provide a way for time-dependent hazard assessment in the future
From Followers to Fillers: Exploring Transformative Service Research and Ethical Social Media Marketing in the UK Non-Surgical Cosmetic Market
Get PDFThe UK’s non-surgical cosmetic procedures market is booming with year-on-year growth. While social media marketing (SMM) fuels demand, it also raises concerns about consumer safety and wellbeing, in addition to exposure of unregulated practitioners. Limited research has explored ethical marketing from the practitioners’ perspective. This study aims to address this gap, examining SMM techniques and the impact on consumer wellbeing through the lens of transformative service research, providing insights for safer, more informed SMM practices
MRUF-Net: A U-Net Based Retinal Vessel Segmentation with Retinex Contrast Enhancement and Focal-Weighted loss Function
Get PDFThe retinal vessel network can provide valuable information about both ocular and systemic health problems. Therefore, accurate segmentation of the retinal vessels has been a central focus of researchers. However, due to the complex, varied, and heterogeneous structure of vessels, it remains a significant challenge. Despite advancements in deep learning approaches, many state-of-the-art approaches in this domain rely heavily on architectural innovations, while neglecting the important role of image processing techniques such as contrast enhancement and model training guidelines such as loss function design. This paper proposes a comprehensive solution, called MRUF-Net, integrating multiscale Retinex with colour preservation (MSRCP) for contrast enhancement, U-Net deep model with both standard and lightweight (with half-depth) configurations, and a hybrid loss function that combines focal loss with weighted binary cross-entropy (WBCE) for retinal vessel segmentation. Experimental segmentation results on three benchmark retinal datasets of DRIVE, CHASE_DB1, and STARE demonstrate that the proposed approach consistently outperforms existing techniques, even with reduced model complexity, underscoring the effectiveness of targeted image preprocessing and optimized loss formulations in enhancing retinal vessel segmentation performance
Performance Art as Lifestyle: Art in Action for Health Promotion
Get PDFPerformance art is both a visual arts practice and kinaesthetic approach to place-based health. The perspective of this commentary is to promote the attributes of performance art to showcase its capacity to extend people into new configurations of cultural engagement with beneficial effects. Performance art is an opportunity to engage both mind and body in actions that transform predictability and encourage wellness within the context of people’s life studios (their everyday lives). Wellness is defined here in relation to connection, capacity, curiosity and a commitment to shaping lived environments with mental and physical agency. This is the performance of flexible minds and bodies which assert vitality in terms of purposeful living and social connectivity. This perspective article will showcase how a collaboration between a Northern Ireland performance art group (Bbeyond) and the Belfast School of Art for the Being Human Festival situated civic society as a scene for healthy living. The aim of this proposal is to consider how performance art may contribute to the promotion of public health as a form of civic art making that moves people
The Brockley Axe head Three Dimensional Replica
Get PDFThe Brockley Axe 3D replica, is an authentic replication of the worlds largest known, unfinished porcellanite axehead in both digital and 3D printed form. The original axe head dates back to 2,500-4,000 years old (Cooney et al. 2013) and was found on Rahtlin Island, off the North coast of Ireland, by the Green Family. The largest polished Axe heads on record are the Malone Hoard, measuring 20-38cm long and tool large and heavy for practical use (Sheridan, 1986). It has been handed down through recent generations and has been lost and found twice. It represents the origins of craft and repair culture on the island and is irreplaceable. This design-led research aims to replicate the tangible factors of the Brockley Axe head as a publicly accessible artefact. It measures 310mm x 105mm x 80mm with a weight of 2.962kg. PHOTOGRAMMETRY PROCESS:The replica was 3D scanned using photogrammetry with the aid of a lightbox, LED lighting and a turntable. Three scans were attempted with the third being highly successful. A Nikon D5300 DSLR camera with a 50mm prime lens was used. The F-Stop was set at f/16 (aperture 1:6), ISO100, exposure bias set to -0.3 step with an exposure of 1/5 second. The scan comprised of 116 photographs. Each image was 6000x4000 pixels at 300 DPI, 24 Bit. Files were saved as sRGB JPG and NEF formats. Reality Capture (now RealityScan) and Agisoft Metascape was used for stitching. 3D PRINT MODEL PROCESS:The photogrammetry scan was scaled within Autodesk 3DSMAX (2024) to correct the model to real-world scale, using a tolerance of three decimal places within the software restraints minimizing any digital scaling errors from this manual process. The first single volume print, was very successful in its geometric form, but its light weight felt artificial. The second iteration embedded real world weight characteristics embedding lengths for cylindrical brass informed by volume calculations from Columbia Metals online materials calculator (https://columbiametals.com/technical/weight-calculator/). The scanned model was modified using Boolean subtractions to insert the estimated brass inserts. Within Bambu Studio, the 3D print material density digitally calculated as 198.27g for part A and 194.92g for part B. A process of iteration was conducted before final printing of a precise model. The model was constructed in two sections for assembly and the physical artefact verified using digital scales.GREEN CONSIDERATIONS:The The digital artefact file was processed using Jawset Postshot and generated as a Gaussian Splat interactive 3D model as an end user interactive experience. Gaussian Splat rendering first emerged as 'SPLATting' (Westover, 1991) but only came into effective use in 2023. It is an emerging technology that we discovered has significant carbon footprint efficiencies. In the case of hte Brockley Axe, a high definition Gaussian Splat is 13.7mb which is 14% of the energy/carbon footprint of its textured .obj counterpart (96.0mb).The 3DP artefact was printed using 100% Re-Worked PLA 1.75mm Filament, mixed colour manufactured in the UK, resulting in a dark grey similar to the original axe base colour of porcellanite.DISSEMINATION:One replica is within the permanent collection of the Boathouse Museum, Rathlin Island, while the original remains with the Green family. It was first made public at the National Museums of Northern Ireland Late Night (21st Aug 2025: Ulster Museum) and at BEYOND2025, Manchester (24th - 276th Nov. 2025: The Lowry) as a physically interactive artefact making authentic heritage more accessible. The digital artefact is featured within a VR game that replicates the original crafting process of the Axe, co-produced with co-investigator partner, Yellow Design. This was demonstrated at BEYOND2025, NMNI Late Night (2025), NI Science Festival 2024, and Rathlin Sound Festival 2024
Association of Vision Impairment and Hearing Impairment with Encounters in the Criminal Justice System among Children and Young People: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Get PDFBackgroundMore than 250,000 children <18 years were incarcerated globally in 2020, and 1.5 million cycle through custody annually. We reviewed studies reporting associations of vision/hearing impairment with the criminal justice encounters among young people aged 10–24 years.MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, legal and social science data bases to identify studies that describe vision impairment/eye disease and hearing impairment/ear disease among incarcerated youth from inception to 1 June 2025. We included studies of any design assessing criminal justice system contacts among young people with such impairments. Study selection, data extraction and evaluation of bias and quality were done by two reviewers. We performed narrative summaries of prevalence due to high heterogeneity and provided a meta-analysis for odds of vision/hearing impairment among incarcerated youth compared to controls. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022319876.FindingsWe identified 94 eligible full-texts for screening among 10070 assessed. Twenty-three studies (median year of publication 1989) including 34,993 participants (mean age 15.8 years, range 10.2–20.9) were included in analyses. The reported prevalence of vision impairment among incarcerated youth ranged from 1.35% to 66.0% (16 studies), hearing impairment from 1.36% to 50.4% (11 studies). In meta-analysis of four studies providing control samples, odds of hearing impairment were increased among incarcerated youth compared to controls (Odds Ratio [OR] 4.20, 95% CI 1.79–9.86; p < 0.001, I2 = 48.4%). Six studies on vision impairment reported a pooled OR of 1.60 (95% CI 0.95–2·70; p = 0.08, I2 = 69.9%); leave-one-out meta-analysis found removal of a single outlying study left a highly significant OR (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.65–2.19; p < 0.001).InterpretationThe prevalence of vision and hearing impairment are higher among incarcerated youth than the general population, although highly variable. These results highlight the need for screening and treatment of vision and hearing conditions at reception into prisons and follow up on release.FundingCo-first author Mapa Prabhath Piyasena was funded by the Wellcome Trust United Kingdom (Grant No: 222490/Z/21/Z) from year May/2022 to April/2024. Co-author Thomas Hampton is supported by the Wellcome Trust United Kingdom (Grant No: 203919/Z/16/Z). Co-author Dr Rolvix Patterson is supported by the NIH NIDCD training grant R25DC020172, NIH Fogarty International Center Grant D43TW009340, and the Duke Hubert Yeargan Center for Global Health
Sustainability and Organizational Scaling: A Systematic Review of Antecedents, Processes, and Outputs
Get PDFOrganizational scaling is an increasingly studied subject with an emerging body of scholarly literatures reviewing the definitions, antecedents, processes, and outputs of scaling organizations, yet the literature remains fragmented. This paper focuses on organizational scaling, defined as the "organizational process whereby managers rapidly expand a firm’s outputs by transforming the internal organization and leveraging digital resources without a corresponding ex-ante increase in inputs" (Coviello et al., 2024, p. 2). Existing research looks at scaling from a generalized perspective, and the need for context-specific scaling research is crucially important (Greene and Rosiello, 2020). Notably, there is limited empirical research on how scaling intersects with sustainability (Kim and Kim, 2022; Palmié et al., 2023; Tippman et al., 2023). Despite the numerous organizational and economic benefits that scaling organizations can generate, several questions remain unanswered, including the relationship between scaling and sustainability, as well as the empirical evidence supporting this connection. Palmié et al. state that “scaling is crucial to conserve our planet, reduce social inequalities, and have companies contribute to the transition toward a more sustainable and more just economy” (2023, p. 10).”This paper examines organizational scaling through a sustainability lens, addressing a critical gap in the literature concerning the relationship between scaling activities and economic, social, and environmental outputs. While prior studies have explored the mechanics of scaling, limited attention has been paid to how antecedents, processes, and outputs align with broader sustainability objectives. To address this, we conducted a systematic review of 53 peer-reviewed articles using a PRISMA approach, focusing on how antecedents, processes, and outcomes of scaling intersect with sustainability. The findings reveal inconsistencies between the stated sustainability focus of scaling studies and the extent to which sustainability is empirically measured. In response, the paper proposes a framework that clarifies the mechanisms through which firms scale and the extent to which scaling delivers sustainable outcomes. This synthesis contributes a more integrated conceptual understanding of business scaling and pinpoints where future research should explore the trade-offs and synergies between growth, replication, and impact. Our work offers guidance for scholars and practitioners seeking to align scaling strategies with the urgent need for sustainable development
Psychology and Research Assessment in the United Kingdom
Get PDFWhat can we learn about psychology research in the UK, and its perceived quality, from examining manuscripts submitted to the psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience subpanel of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021)? Using a latent Dirichlet allocation topic modelling approach, we identified 33 topics which collectively summarised the content of the journal articles returned to the subpanel. We found that the composition of submissions to the subpanel, in terms of these topics, explained a large proportion of the variance in the quality assessments they received from the expert peer review subpanel. Our model identified topics which were typically associated with receiving higher and lower unit-level quality assessments. In our discussion we pay particular attention to the fate of qualitative research, and discuss possible accounts for why units who returned a large amount of qualitative work tended to receive lower quality assessments than those who did not
Morphine for chronic breathlessness (MABEL) in the UK: a health economic evaluation of a multisite, parallel-group, dose titration, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial
Get PDFObjectives: To compare costs and health consequences and to assess the cost-effectiveness of using low-dose oral long-acting morphine in people with chronic breathlessness. Design: Within-trial planned cost-consequences and cost-effectiveness analysis of data from a multisite, parallel-group, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of low-dose, long-acting morphine. Setting: 11 hospital outpatients across the UK. Participants: Consenting adults with chronic breathlessness due to long-term cardiorespiratory conditions. Intervention: 5–10 mg two times a day oral long-acting morphine with a blinded laxative for 56 days. Primary outcome measures: Mean and SD of healthcare resource use (HRU) by trial arm; mean differences and 95% CI of costs between trial arms.Secondary outcome measures: Mean differences in 28- and 56-day quality-adjusted life years (QALYs based on EuroQol five-dimension five-level score), Short Form-six dimensional scores and ICEpop CAPability-Supportive Care Measure scores; cost-utility of long-acting morphine for chronic breathlessness. Results: 143 participants (75 morphine and 67 placebo) were randomised; 140 (90% power, males 66%, mean age 70.5 (SD 9.4)) formed the modified intention-to-treat population (participants receiving at least one dose of study medication). There were more inpatient and fewer outpatient services used by the morphine group versus the placebo. In the base-case analysis at 56 days, long-acting morphine was associated with similar mean per-patient costs and QALYs. There was an increase of £24 (95% CI −£395 to £552) and 0.002 (95% CI −0.004 to 0.008) QALYs. Hospitalisations were the main driver of cost differences. The corresponding incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was £12 000/QALY, with a probability of cost-effectiveness of 54% at a £20 000 willingness-to-pay threshold. In the scenario analysis that excluded costs of adverse events considered unrelated to long-acting morphine by site investigators and researchers, the probability of cost-effectiveness increased to 73%. Conclusion: Oral morphine for chronic breathlessness is likely to be a cost-effective intervention provided adverse events are minimised, but the effect on outcome is small and cautious interpretation is warranted. Trial registration number: ISRCTN87329095
Spanish translation, cultural adaptation and validation of the Person-Centred Practice Inventory-Student (PCPI-ST): A tool for advancing person-centred care education
Get PDFAim To cross-culturally adapt the Person-Centred Practice Inventory-Student (PCPI-ST) into Spanish and to evaluate its psychometric properties in healthcare students. Background Person-centred practice (PCP) is a cornerstone of global healthcare emphasising patient empowerment, communication skills and self-management. However, preparation approaches for healthcare students vary and assessment methods often fail to capture its multidimensional nature. The PCPI-ST, grounded in an internationally recognised mid-range theory, provides a comprehensive measure of students’ self-reported PCP Design Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric validation study design. Methods A two-stage approach: (1) translation and cultural adaptation following ‘the Translation and Cultural Adaptation of Patient Reported Outcomes Measures-Principles of Good Practice guidelines’; (2) cross-sectional survey assessing the instrument psychometric properties (internal consistency, test-retest reliability and factor analysis). Results A total of 337 Spanish university students (180 medicine and 157 nursing) were included. The process ensured cultural equivalence and accurate assessment of clarity (scale content validity index average [S-CVI/Ave] = 0.94) and relevance (S-CVI/Ave = 0.96), achieving excellent results in the content validity. The expert panel deemed the questionnaire to be easy to understand and comprehensive. Psychometric evaluation revealed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.64–0.89). Test-retest reliability confirmed temporal stability. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a three-dimensional structure consistent with the PCP framework. Fit indices improved after model refinements, achieving CFI= 0.87 and RMSEA= 0.052. Conclusions This Spanish version of the PCPI-ST, transculturally adapted and validated in healthcare students, promotes its integration into undergraduate curricula to assess PCP readiness and evaluate the efficacy of person-centred educational strategies