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Hermite Interpolation Technique-Based Performance Assessment of Coir-Polypropylene Hybrid Fiber-Reinforced Concrete
No full textConcrete is widely used in construction because of its exceptional moldability, low cost, and compressive strength. Fibers are added to concrete to improve its tensile strength and structural performance. The current study focuses on improving the ductility and strength of concrete by using a hybrid blend of synthetic and natural fibers, namely polypropylene (PP) and coir. A fixed 0.2% of the volume is made up of coir and PP fibers in the proportions, 0/100, 25/75, 50/50, 75/25, and 100/0, respectively, to evaluate the developed fiber-reinforced concrete's ductility, strength, and durability. The 75/25 ratio resulted in increased water absorption, whereas the 0/100 ratio displayed improved acid resistance, which is attributed to the biodegradable nature of coir. The specimens with a composition of 0.2-0/100 and 0.2-100/0 demonstrated minimal strength degradation when subjected to temperatures of 70°C and 110°C for a duration of 2 h. This was corroborated by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, which confirmed the successful bonding of these fibers even under elevated temperature. The Hermite interpolation approach, in conjunction with functional analysis of variance (ANOVA), is employed to model and analyze the test results. Overall, an enhancement of the strength and durability properties of concrete has been observed due to hybridization. The test findings indicate that the combination of 0.2-50/50 is the most optimal in terms of strength, durability, and ductility
Patients’ attitudes towards deprescribing disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in rheumatoid arthritis
No full textObjectivesPeople living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may be taking one or more medications that they no longer need. The objective of this study was to determine the attitudes and beliefs regarding Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drug (DMARD) use and RA patients' willingness to have their medications deprescribed.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included adults aged ≥ 18 years with a diagnosis of RA and were currently taking methotrexate and/or hydroxychloroquine. Participants completed a self-administered survey, adapted from the validated revised Patients' Attitudes Towards Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire, tailored to patients living with RA. Additional sociodemographic and clinical data were collected to explore factors associated with participants' willingness to deprescribe their DMARDs.ResultsA total of 87 participants were recruited with median age of 66 years (IQR 57.5-73), and 57 (65.5 %) were female. The majority of RA patients (84 %) agreed they would be willing to stop one of their RA medicines if their rheumatologist said it was possible. Participants expressed greater concerns with ceasing their DMARDs compared to their other medications. No factors were found to be significantly associated with willingness to deprescribe DMARDs.ConclusionWhilst people with RA are satisfied with their current therapy, most would be willing to have one or more of their DMARDs deprescribed if their rheumatologist supports it.Practice implicationsClinicians should be encouraged to initiate deprescribing discussions, especially in stable rheumatoid arthritis, however, shared decision-making should involve identifying and addressing concerns patients have about deprescribing their DMARDs
The role of the higher education educator in times of conflict in Myanmar
No full textPublished online: 03 Jun 2025The education system in Myanmar has long been marked by centralised control and limited academic autonomy. The 2021 military coup exacerbated these issues and impacted educators’ professional growth. This research investigates the coup’s effects on Myanmar’s higher education educators, focusing on complex challenges both professionally and personally. Using Windschitl’s (2002) four constructivist dilemmas as a theoretical framework, the research analyses the challenges faced by educators post-coup. A case study methodology was used, including semi-structured interviews with four educators directly impacted by the coup. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis method was employed to analyse the interview data, revealing themes related to oppression, displacement, and emotional distress that affected these educators and their families. Despite these challenges, educators have shown they uphold their commitment to equal rights and opportunities. The research discusses implications for future policy and practice to promote educational equity in times of political crisis.Rozi Binte Rahmat, Tom Porta, Kay Thwe Phy
Petra Molnar, The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (The New Press, New York, 2024) xix + 277 pp, ISBN 978-1-62097-836-8 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-62097-867-2 (ebk)
No full textBook review
OnlinePublIn The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Petra Molnar critically studies the contemporary technologies used to track, intercept, and control forced migrants crossing international borders in search of safety and life opportunities. As an anthropologist and migration lawyer, Molnar openly states that The Walls Have Eyes is not an objective chronicling of border technologies. Instead, its analysis centres the experiences of travellers and those who help travellers—humanitarian workers, lawyers, journalists, and ordinary people—many of whom assist people on the move at great personal risk. In foregrounding these accounts, Molnar positions her book as ‘an act of resistance’ performed by witnessing the violent outcomes of border technology. This violence, so often ignored in other scholarly work, is a welcome shift away from the usual focus on state action.Louis Everus
Facial Expression and Predicting and Monitoring Response to Depression Treatment: A Systematic Review
No full textIntroduction: The identification of biomarkers for treatment response in major depression is critical to the further development of personalized treatment. There is a recognized relationship between facial expression and depression of mood, and previous literature also indicates that facial expression is associated with treatment outcomes in depression. This suggests that facial expression may have use as a biomarker for treatment response. There is no previous synthesis of related research to drive the development of new digital approaches. Methods: We conducted a systematic review using three databases (MEDLINE, Scopus, and PsycINFO), identifying English-language publications (journal articles or books) that assessed either facial muscle activity or expression as predictors of treatment response or correlates of treatment outcome in depression. Risk of bias was assessed using a National Institutes of Health quality assessment tool. Results: We identified 12 studies, involving a total of 389 participants, which used a variety of different assessment methods and thus assessment outcomes, including electromyography, observer-related assessments (including Facial Action Coding System), and automated tools of facial expression assessment. Depression treatment response correlated with an increase in facial expressivity. Greater activity in the corrugator and zygomatic muscles, and lower levels of lip tightening and downward lip movement, may predict treatment response. Conclusions: Included studies were limited by heterogeneity in facial expression assessment tools and outcomes, along with demographic homogeneity. The findings of the review suggest that facial expression analysis may offer an avenue for biomarkers of depression status and treatment response prediction
Cancer and dementia incidence are strongly correlated worldwide: evidence from cross-national regression analyses
No full textPublished online: 22 Dec 2025Background: Cancer and dementia are two major global health challenges influenced by population aging and socioeconomic transitions. Both impose substantial burdens, yet their relationship at the population level is insufficiently explored. This study investigated the global association between cancer incidence and dementia incidence, while accounting for developmental, demographic, and healthcare-related factors. Methods: Data were obtained from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Covariates included economic affluence, urbanization, reduced selection opportunity, and life expectancy e(60). Analyses across 204 countries employed correlations, partial correlations, principal component analysis, and multiple linear regression (enter and stepwise). Subgroup analyses were stratified by income level, development status, WHO regions, and geopolitical groupings. Results: Cancer incidence was strongly correlated with dementia incidence worldwide (r = 0.873; ρ = 0.938, p < 0.001). Associations remained consistent across regions, particularly in upper-middle-income and developing countries. Partial correlations showed the relationship persisted after adjustment, with cancer explaining 59.8% of dementia variance. Regression models revealed that socioeconomic and demographic factors explained 51.7% of the variance, rising to 80.1% with cancer included. Conclusion: Cancer incidence is a dominant independent predictor of dementia incidence globally, surpassing traditional factors. Findings highlight shared determinants and emphasize the importance of integrated chronic disease strategies, especially in low-resource settings.Wenpeng You, Brendon J Coventry, and Maciej Henneber
Environmental activism and authoritarianism in Myanmar: interrogating assemblages across three political epochs
No full textOnlinePublAfter a decade of semi-democracy, the 2021 coup returned much of Myanmar to military rule. This development provides an opportunity to understand the (re-)configuration of environmental activism assemblages across three distinct political epochs. Under the pre-2011 military junta, rhizomic environmental activism assemblages, characterised by ideologies of resistance under conditions of military rule and resource extraction, territorialised in remote ethnic minority borderlands. During the reformist interregnum, new scalar centralised assemblages territorialised in urban centres, under neo-corporatist institutional engagement and economic diversification. The assemblages deterritorialised because of the coup and territorialised into smaller-scale assemblages, driven by the exteriority of heightened state surveillance, civil conflict and unconstrained natural resource extraction. We argue that under particularly repressive conditions of exteriority – including Myanmar’s post-coup era – evolving ideological interiority in some environmental activism assemblages contributes to violence being seen as a necessary expressive constituent for achieving environmental justice.Adam Simpson, Thomas Kean & Susan Par
Long-term cardiac surgery outcomes in kidney transplant and dialysis patients: A national registries analysis
No full textObjectives: Whether patients with kidney failure who undergo cardiac surgery have a survival advantage with previous kidney transplantation is unclear. This study evaluated long-term outcomes after cardiac surgery for kidney transplant recipients and patients dependent on dialysis using national registries. Methods: Probabilistic data linkage was undertaken between registries for the period 2010-2019. Time-to-event analyses were used to estimate the risk after cardiac surgery of (1) survival for kidney-replacement therapy recipients (n = 1250), and (2) graft survival for kidney transplant recipients (n = 225). Using cardiac surgery as a time-varying covariate, kidney graft survival was compared among the national contemporary kidney transplant population (n = 7934). Results: Five-year survival probabilities after cardiac surgery for patients with kidney transplants and receiving dialysis were 70% (95% confidence interval [CI], 61%-76%) and 49% (95% CI, 45%-53%), respectively. The benefit for kidney transplantation persisted in a multivariable Cox regression model (reference: facility hemodialysis; adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.53; 95% CI, 0.37-0.74; P < .001). Fiveyear kidney graft survival probability after cardiac surgery was 60% (95% CI, 52%-68%) and was lower with stage 3 acute kidney injury (reference: none; adjusted HR, 2.61; 95% CI, 1.32-5.16; P = .006). Among the national contemporary kidney transplant recipient population, cardiac surgery was associated with an increased risk of graft loss (adjusted HR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.07-2.74; P = .026). Conclusions: Among adults with kidney failure undergoing cardiac surgery, kidney transplant recipients experienced a long-term survival advantage compared with patients dependent on dialysis. Transplant recipients undergoing cardiac surgery had greater risk of graft loss than the national contemporary kidney transplant population. (JTCVS Open 2026;29:101535)Dominic Keuskamp, Christopher E. Davies, Robert A. Baker, Kevan R. Polkinghorne, Christopher M. Reid, Julian A. Smith, Lavinia Tran, Jenni Williams-Spence, Rory Wolfe, and Stephen P. McDonal
The Family Law Amendment Act 2024: Have the changes to property settlement law missed the mark?
No full textThis article outlines the recent changes made to the property adjustment regime in Pt VIII (for married couples) and corresponding Pt VIIIAB (for de facto couples) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). It focuses on the main changes affecting the court’s decision-making process when adjusting the property of separated parties: the ‘clarification’ of the decision-making pathway, new definitions of economic and financial abuse, express requirements to consider the effect of any family violence, and the inclusion of new ‘current and future circumstances’ of material wastage, liabilities and housing of children.Miranda Kaye, Lisa Young and Michelle Fernand
Mix design optimisation for concrete with alternative binders and aggregates incorporating environmental, mechanical and durability performance
No full textThe design of environmentally efficient concretes remains challenging due to the conflicting requirements of reducing embodied carbon while maintaining durability and mechanical performance, particularly when recycled aggregates and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are used. This study presents a performance-based optimisation framework that integrates mix design variables, service-life prediction, and life-cycle assessment (LCA) to minimise global warming potential (GWP) while meeting durability requirements. The framework combines artificial neural networks (trained on 4828 experimental mixes), phenomenological chloride diffusion modelling, and a cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessment, optimised using genetic algorithms to minimise global warming potential and natural aggregate usage while meeting chloride diffusion requirements. Results show that switching from GWP minimisation to natural aggregate conservation requires a reduction in water-to-binder ratio (w/b) by 8–30 % and an increase in binder-to-aggregate ratio (b/a) by 40–114 %, which consequently raises GWP. Among SCMs, GGBFS achieves up to 48 % lower GWP, followed by silica fume (47 %) and fly ash (35 %). Multi-objective analysis indicated that incorporating recycled aggregate at approximately 30 % balances durability, resource efficiency, and emissions, whereas full replacement significantly increases GWP unless offset by the use of large volumes of SCMs. Service-life modelling revealed that high-diffusivity concretes required up to 58 kg CO₂₋ₑq/m² additional emissions through increased cover depths, while SCM-enhanced mixes consistently achieved target service-lives with minimal cover penalties. By combining material optimisation with performance-based cover design, the framework identifies mix designs that balance durability, environmental efficiency, and resource conservation, supporting long-lasting, low-carbon concrete elements.A. Razmi, T. Bennett, T. Xie, P. Visinti