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Chain-of-trust: a progressive trust evaluation framework enabled by generative AI
Get PDFIn collaborative systems with complex tasks relying on distributed resources, trust evaluation of potential collaborators has emerged as an effective mechanism for task completion. However, due to the network dynamics and varying information gathering latencies, it is extremely challenging to observe and collect all trust attributes of a collaborating device concurrently for a comprehensive trust assessment. In this paper, a novel progressive trust evaluation framework, namely chain-of-trust, is proposed to make better use of misaligned device attribute data. This framework, designed for effective task completion, divides the trust evaluation process into multiple chained stages based on task decomposition. At each stage, based on the task completion process, the framework only gathers the latest device attribute data relevant to that stage—leading to reduced trust evaluation complexity and overhead. By leveraging advanced in-context learning, few-shot learning, and reasoning capabilities, generative AI is then employed to analyze and interpret the collected data to produce correct evaluation results quickly. Only devices deemed trustworthy at this stage proceed to the next round of trust evaluation. The framework ultimately determines devices that remain trustworthy across all stages. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves high accuracy in trust evaluation
A Comparison of Shear Wave Velocity Interpretation Methods and Application of a Framework for Quantification of Uncertainty in Marine Seismic Cone Penetration Testing
No full textNo abstract available
Comparative and international educations: histories, ideologies, contestations, and the IRE
No full textBased on readings from the archives of the past 70 years of the International Review of Education (IRE), this article considers how some of the divisions in the field of comparative and international education (CIE) have played out in its pages. It focuses on questions of purpose, methodology and discipline, and of context, coloniality and power. The article draws on the concept of epistemic communities to map
some of the dividing lines, and it situates these contestations in a wider discussion of the current nature of CIE as a field. It considers how IRE both reflects and illuminates these debates, and how its particularities as a journal might have shaped this role
Optimisation of a sexual health and healthy relationships intervention for Further Education in England and Wales (SaFE)
No full textBackground: Adverse sexual health, dating and relationship violence, and sexual harassment are significant public
health concerns, especially among young people. Sexually transmitted infection rates are at a 10-year high, and
dating and relationship violence affects nearly half of young people. Further education provides a population-wide
setting for delivering dating and relationship violence and sexual health interventions, but only a few interventions
have been shown to be effective in further education.
Objectives: To optimise intervention materials and identify refinements for the Sexual Health and Healthy
Relationships for further education (SaFE) intervention, an intervention to improve sexual health and reduce dating
and relationship violence and sexual harassment among young people attending further education. Optimised
materials were used in a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial of SaFE. SaFE had three components: (1) onsite
access to sexual health and relationship services in further education settings provided by sexual health nurses
for 2 hours, 2 days per week; (2) publicity about onsite services and (3) further education staff training on how to
promote sexual health and recognise and respond to dating and relationship violence and sexual harassment. This
paper reports on the optimisation of the SaFE intervention materials.
Design and methods: A multistage iterative process was used to optimise further education staff training and
publicity materials. This involved a series of consultation and focus group feedback sessions.
Setting and participants: In Stage 1, feedback was collected from the SaFE Trial Management Group. Stage
2 involved: (1) two focus groups; one with four further education staff and one with three further education
students at one further education institution and (2) stakeholder consultation with seven experts. Stage 3 saw
consultation with the Trial Steering Committee who had independent oversight of the study. The operational
feasibility of the training was evaluated in Stage 4 through a trial run with further education safeguarding and
well-being teams. Stage 5 comprised a final review of intervention material by the Trial Management Group.
Stage 6 gained online feedback from a young people’s advisory group. The study was conducted in England
and Wales. Results: In Stage 1, Trial Management Group reviewers recommended improving clarity and factual accuracy,
reducing the length of slide decks and adding content on sending explicit images. Stage 2 feedback from further
education staff and students focused on training content addressing comprehensiveness, structure and visual design
and training delivery addressing preferred training formats and opportunities for scenario-based learning. The Trial
Steering Committee in Stage 3 advised on managing participant disclosures and reordering content. Stage 4’s trial run
with further education staff identified redundancy in content, the incorporation of task-based exercises and varied
learning approaches. Stage 5’s Trial Management Group review led to the integration of multimedia elements and
case studies. Stage 6 feedback from young people improved clarity and accessibility in publicity materials.
Limitations: Low participation and self-selection in focus groups may limit the generalisability of the findings. The
move to online engagement during COVID-19 may have hindered the depth of interaction. Recruiting from a single
institution could introduce sampling bias.
Conclusions: Fully optimised staff training and publicity materials were produced that were considered acceptable
and consistent with the theory of change as agreed by the research team, Trial Steering Committee, stakeholder
advisory group and further education students staff and young people.
Future work: After the optimisation phase, the SaFE intervention was delivered in a pilot cluster randomised
controlled trial with high fidelity to six further education settings in England and Wales. Future work could
explore strategies to evaluate the effectiveness as well as improve scalability and sustainability of interventions
like SaFE
Experimental Aerodynamic and Aeroelastic Characterisation of a Propeller in Stalled Conditions
No full textA wind tunnel investigation to characterise the aerodynamic performance and aeroelastic response of a tiltrotor blade
set operating in propeller mode is presented. A custom blade set was instrumented with fully bridged axial strain
gauges to monitor the flap bending and torsional strain at several radial locations. Propeller thrust and torque measurements
were acquired using a custom six component Rotating Shaft Balance. Measurements of blade tip deflection
were obtained via stereoscopic Digital Image Correlation. Testing was performed at a range of rotational frequencies,
blade pitch angles and advance ratios to assess the blade aerodynamic performance and aeroelastic response in both
attached and stalled operating conditions. Strain measurements were shown to identify stall and blade eigenmode frequencies,
where flap bending bridges show a more reliable capture of stalled flow than torsional bridges. Furthermore,
blade tip deflection measurements were shown to reduce with increased advance ratio and excessive values of advance
ratio resulted in negative thrusting at the blade tip
Closing gender equality gaps in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
Get PDFAfghanistan faces numerous challenges relating to gender equality and humanitarian crises despite collective efforts by local and international actors. Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the regime has continued to implement several discriminatory policies such as the ban of girls from going to school, and women from going to work which violates the fundamental human rights of women and girls. These actions significantly hinder the progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality) and its targets. Beyond the gender equality concern, these restrictive policies not only erode global efforts to empower women but have significant negative implications for the health, education, inclusion, and quality of life of women and girls in Afghanistan. This article highlights the gender equality gaps affecting women and girls in Afghanistan since the reemergence of the Taliban regime in 2021. It proposes pragmatic approaches and strategies to address these gaps
Narrow-linewidth monolithic topological interface state extended laser with optical injection locking
Get PDFNarrow-linewidth lasers are essential for coherent optical applications, including communications, metrology, and sensing. Although compact semiconductor lasers with narrow linewidths have been demonstrated, achieving high spectral purity generally necessitates passive external cavities based on photonic integrated circuits. This study presents a theoretical and experimental demonstration of a monolithic optical injection locking topological interface state extended (MOIL-TISE) laser. By monolithically integrating a TISE laser with a micro-ring resonator on an AlGaInAs multiple quantum-well platform, the proposed device achieves efficient photon injection and linewidth narrowing. Experimental characterization indicates stable single-mode operation over a wide injection current range (65 to 300 milliamperes), exhibiting a side-mode suppression ratio exceeding 50 decibels. The laser’s Voigt linewidth was reduced from 2 megahertz to 4.2 kilohertz, with an intrinsic linewidth of 983 hertz extracted from power spectrum density, underscoring the MOIL-TISE laser’s promise for coherent communications and modulation-free quantum key distribution applications
Chromosomal genome assembly resolves drug resistance loci in the parasitic nematode Teladorsagia circumcincta
Get PDFThe parasitic nematode Teladorsagia circumcincta is one of the most important pathogens of sheep and goats in temperate climates worldwide and can rapidly evolve resistance to drugs used to control it. To understand the genetics of drug resistance, we have generated a highly contiguous genome assembly for the UK T. circumcincta isolate, MTci2. Assembly using PacBio long-reads and Hi-C long-molecule scaffolding together with manual curation resulted in a 573 Mb assembly (N50 = 84 Mb, total scaffolds = 1,286) with five autosomal and one sex-linked chromosomal-scale scaffolds consistent with its karyotype. The genome resource was further improved via annotation of 22,948 genes, with manual curation of over 3,200 of these, resulting in a robust and near complete resource (96.3% complete protein BUSCOs) to support basic and applied research on this important veterinary pathogen. Genome-wide analyses of drug resistance, combining evidence from three distinct experiments, identified selection around known candidate genes for benzimidazole, levamisole and ivermectin resistance, as well as novel regions associated with ivermectin and moxidectin resistance. These insights into contemporary and historic genetic selection further emphasise the importance of contiguous genome assemblies in interpreting genome-wide genetic variation associated with drug resistance and identifying key loci to prioritise in developing diagnostic markers of anthelmintic resistance to support parasite control
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