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Legal Regimes for Carbon Trading in Africa: Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement
No full textThis chapter critically examines decolonisation approaches in south carbon trading, focusing on African participation through the lens of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. While both agreements offer mechanisms for market-based climate mitigation, they have been critiqued for reinforcing colonial power dynamics and failing to address the structural vulnerabilities of African nations. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship and empirical studies, the chapter analyses the limitations of current carbon market regimes and proposes a decolonial framework grounded in equity and sovereignty. It also explores emerging initiatives such as the African Carbon Markets Initiative and domestic legislation in Nigeria and South Africa, emphasising their potential to operationalise African-led climate action
Effectiveness of Mandated Approaches to Increasing Board Independence in Achieving Intended Governance Outcomes: Professional Investors’ Perspective
No full textDrawing on interviews with 27 professional investors and proceeding from a resource dependence theoretical lens, this study investigates how professional investors perceive the effectiveness of mandated approaches to increasing board independence in achieving intended governance goals in the Nigerian banking sector. We inductively identify three distinct effectiveness categories for board independence approaches: quixotic, symbolic, and practical. We further unpack seven contextual factors that influence these perceptions, namely person-specific utility; board cronyism; loss of independence over time; disconnection with business realities despite their technical competence; non-executive directors’ (NEDs’) concern for business survival; NEDs’ subservience to the major shareholder; and NEDs’ reputational standing. We provide insights that demonstrate that the mandated approaches to increasing board independence are not universally effective in achieving intended governance goals and must instead be evaluated within their institutional and contextual realities
Family and Clinician Perspectives About How Autism and Extremism Intersect
No full textIntroduction:Research exploring the contextual factors influencing the rare instances of autistic people engaging with extreme ideologies is limited. This article explores factors that affected autistic people who engaged with extreme ideologies, from the perspectives of close contacts and clinicians.Methods:This article presents findings from interviews with two participant groups: family and friends, and clinicians. We recruited participants through a gatekeeper, professional networks, and social media. We used reflexive thematic analysis to analyze the data.Results:Participants included seven family members and one friend in the first group and five clinicians in the second. Across both groups, we identified four themes: (1) experiences of social vulnerability; (2) autistic and neurodivergent characteristics in the context of risk; (3) negotiating a complex identity; and (4) a slippery rabbit hole. Social vulnerabilities including lack of secure attachments in childhood and social rejection led to a sense of persecution. System-level marginalization compounded the sense of exclusion. A negative autistic self-image was an important factor. Inflexible thinking, differences in social cognition, hyperfixation, and need for structure and routine were identified as neurodivergent features that could find a fit within the ideologies and practices of extremist groups. However, participants emphasized that autism itself did not fully account for this engagement. With limited engagement in prosocial real-world activities and ample idle time, internet algorithms exacerbated exposure to extreme ideologies, which offered provocative explanations for these autistic peoples’ struggles.Conclusions:Timely diagnosis, qualified and continuous support structures, neuroinclusive societies, and digital literacy are all key components to preventing autistic people from this harmful engagement
Perceived safety in childbirth: pregnancy predictors of women’s experiences during childbirth
No full textBackgroundWomen's perceived safety during childbirth contributes to their childbirth experience, which can impact mental health and the experience of future pregnancies. Unexpected birth events may predict negative experiences of childbirth, but there is limited evidence about the role of demographic, health, and psychological factors known during pregnancy. The aim of this paper was to model pregnancy predictors of women's perceived safety during childbirth.MethodsWomen (n = 313) < 20 weeks' gestation were recruited from a large maternity hospital in Melbourne, as part of the Mercy Pregnancy and Childbirth Study (MPEWS). The dependent variable was the Perceived Safety Scale score from the Childbirth Experience Questionnaire, administered at 6 months postpartum. Hierarchical linear regression was conducted to determine factors significantly associated with scores, in two steps: (1) Step 1: demographic and health factors, depression, anxiety symptoms, recalled childhood trauma, and sense of coherence in pregnancy and (2) Step 2: birth events and complications.ResultsStep 1 (p < 0.001) explained 20% and Step 2 (p < 0.001) an additional 3% of the variance in Perceived Safety scores. Higher trait anxiety (β = −0.255, p = 0.004), smoking during pregnancy (β = −0.124, p = 0.027), and emergency Caesarean births (β = −0.133, p = 0.048) predicted lower Perceived Safety. Multiparity was associated with significantly greater Perceived Safety (β = 0.116, p = 0.035).ConclusionAlthough emergency Caesarean births contribute to poorer perceived safety during childbirth, other factors, which are known during pregnancy, can also impact negatively on women's perceived safety during childbirth. Targeted support during pregnancy may therefore facilitate higher perceived safety during childbirth
A multi-criteria decision analysis for recovery, storage and transport of ultra-low-grade heat with liquid desiccant solutions in the United Kingdom
No full textUltra-low-grade heat from industrial processes remains a largely available but underutilised energy resource. If harnessed with suitable recovery and storage technologies, this otherwise wasted heat could make a significant contribution to decarbonisation. This study aims to assess whether using liquid desiccant solutions to recover heat between 25 °C and 40 °C from a manufacturing plant producing radiation detectors, store it in an absorption-based form and deliver it to an end user by truck is techno-economically viable. To test this, a comprehensive modelling framework simulating the performance of aqueous solutions of lithium chloride, calcium chloride and potassium formate under varying operating conditions and system configurations, including systems with one and two regenerators, different flow rates, storage tanks and frequencies of the transport cycles, was developed. The analysis covers 466,560 design scenarios and investigates energy storage capacity, dehumidification potential and cost-effectiveness. Results indicate that 25 % wt. aqueous calcium chloride regenerated in a system with two regenerators using a hot-solution approach offers the best overall trade-off, delivering up to 994 MWh of energy per year when heat is available at 40 °C. Multi-criteria decision analysis confirms that this configuration performs optimally for several end users, including archives and indoor swimming pools. Sensitivity analysis identifies transport cost, energy prices and cycling frequency as key economic drivers, with payback periods being highly dependent on these factors. The results demonstrate the potential of liquid desiccant-based storage for utilising ultra-low-grade thermal energy in decentralised energy networks, especially in applications where temperature and humidity control are critical
Evaluating adaptive and generative AI-based feedback and recommendations in a knowledge-graph-integrated programming learning system
Get PDFThis paper introduces the design and development of a framework that integrates a large language model (LLM) with a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) approach leveraging both a knowledge graph and user interaction history. The framework is incorporated into a previously developed adaptive learning support system to assess learners’ code, generate formative feedback, and recommend exercises. Moreover, this study examines learner preferences across three instructional modes: adaptive, Generative AI (GenAI), and hybrid GenAI–adaptive. An experimental study was conducted to compare the learning performance and perception of the learners, and the effectiveness of these three modes using four key log features derived from 4956 code submissions across all experimental groups. The analysis results show that learners receiving feedback from GenAI modes had significantly more correct code and fewer code submissions missing essential programming logic than those receiving feedback from adaptive mode. In particular, the hybrid GenAI–adaptive mode achieved the highest number of correct submissions and the fewest incorrect or incomplete attempts, outperforming both the adaptive-only and GenAI-only modes. Questionnaire responses further indicated that GenAI-generated feedback was widely perceived as helpful, while all modes were rated positively for ease of use and usefulness. These results suggest that the hybrid GenAI–adaptive mode outperforms the other two modes across all measured log features
Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts
No full textPathogen emergence and adaptation are constant, but the mechanisms underlying pathogen success as well as host susceptibility and resistance are often only observable in time series data. Ancient DNA research of pathogens and their hosts provides unique insights into past occurrences, including the changes that led to pathogen jumps between animals and humans, pandemic outbreaks, the timing of such events and the genetic, cultural and ecological factors that affect pathogen success and human survival and recovery. Recent technological improvements and the increasing number of ancient samples analysed have enabled the unprecedented investigation of pathogen evolution. Such studies are poised to benefit from the increased diversity of sequenced ancient pathogens, adoption of a broader framework that considers the entire ecosystem of host-pathogen interactions and growing collaboration with related fields. [Abstract copyright: © 2025. Springer Nature Limited.
Axion superradiance
Get PDFLight bosonic fields may suffer an instability around a rotating compact object. This process, known as superradiance, leads to the exponential amplification of the field around a black hole or neutron star, while the spin of the central object is correspondingly depleted. The discovery of a highly spinning black hole could therefore be used to constrain the existence of light bosons such as axions in a particular range of masses. These constraints apply for very low non-gravitational couplings between the boson and the Standard Model, offering a powerful search strategy for new physics. However, care must be taken to include the more complex effects of the black hole's astrophysical environment. Conversely, stellar superradiance could allow us to probe additional non-gravitational interactions between a new boson at the stellar matter. In this article, I will discuss the current status and future directions of axion superradiance
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