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The Last Line of Defense: Cyber Continuity Engineering
No full textWhat will happen after a disastrous software failure or destructive cyberattack to your systems? Will service be restored quickly; can damage to stakeholders and customers be limited; will your organisation learn from the experience? We make a case for software professionals to engineer for ‘cyber continuity’ in addition to cybersecurity and reliability: identifying functionality and process improvements that, for appropriately low upfront cost, will limit the damage in the event of a disaster. We explore relevant literature and analyze how existing EU legislation is starting to require this of professionals. Using short case study examples, we propose four principles for software designers as first elements in a framework for cyber continuity engineering
Navigating power and neoliberal logics : critical reflections on implementing gender equality plans in higher education institutions
No full textPurpose Higher education institutions (HEIs) continue to be structured around gendered hierarchies that intersect with neoliberal logics, perpetuating systemic inequalities. This paper aims to explore how power dynamics and networking practices shape the implementation of Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) within HEIs, both challenging and being challenged by existing structures. It further examines how gender equality can be effectively advanced within the constraints of neoliberal academic environments. Design/methodology/approach Authors’ research method integrates autoethnography (AE) with critical reflexivity to examine the complexities of implementing GEPs across four business schools within an EU project consortium. By embracing AE, they leverage their personal experiences to explore institutional structures, while engaging in critical reflexivity enables them to challenge underlying assumptions and question power dynamics, providing a more nuanced understanding of how gender equality initiatives unfold within hierarchical and performance-driven academic environments. Findings Their findings highlight how power and networking practices, as well as the navigation of underlying neoliberal logics, vary across their consortium’s business schools. By situating their personal experiences within broader institutional structures, they critically examine how power operates at multiple levels and uncover the tensions between transformative gender equality efforts and neoliberal academic cultures. Originality/value This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how power relations and neoliberal influences intersect to impact gender equality interventions in HEIs
DGL-RSIS : Decoupling global spatial context and local class semantics for training-free remote sensing image segmentation
No full textThe emergence of vision language models (VLMs) bridges the gap between vision and language, enabling multimodal understanding beyond traditional visual-only deep learning models. However, transferring VLMs from the natural image domain to remote sensing (RS) segmentation remains challenging due to the large domain gap and the diversity of RS inputs across tasks, particularly in open-vocabulary semantic segmentation (OVSS) and referring expression segmentation (RES). Here, we propose a training-free unified framework, termed DGL-RSIS, which decouples visual and textual representations and performs visual-language alignment at both local semantic and global contextual levels. Specifically, a Global–Local Decoupling (GLD) module decomposes textual inputs into local semantic tokens and global contextual tokens, while image inputs are partitioned into class-agnostic mask proposals. Then, a Local Visual–Textual Alignment (LVTA) module adaptively extracts context-aware visual features from the mask proposals and enriches textual features through knowledge-guided prompt engineering, achieving OVSS from a local perspective. Furthermore, a Global Visual–Textual Alignment (GVTA) module employs a global-enhanced Grad-CAM mechanism to capture contextual cues for referring expressions, followed by a mask selection module that integrates pixel-level activations into mask-level segmentation outputs, thereby achieving RES from a global perspective. Experiments on the iSAID (OVSS) and RRSIS-D (RES) benchmarks demonstrate that DGL-RSIS outperforms existing training-free approaches. Ablation studies further validate the effectiveness of each module. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first unified training-free framework for RS image segmentation, which effectively transfers the semantic capability of VLMs trained on natural images to the RS domain without additional training
Mechanical instabilities in epithelial monolayers : viscoelasticity, line tension, and wetting-driven fingering
Full text linkEpithelial fingering emerges when the free edge of a collectively migrating monolayer becomes mechanically unstable. Inhomogeneous line tension and spatial differences in adhesion energy relative to cell–cell cohesion guide cells toward mechanically favorable regions at finger tips. This edge-directed migration locally disrupts adherens junctions, promotes leader cell formation, and amplifies protrusive instabilities. Because fingering breaks edge continuity, it perturbs coordinated migration, weakens mechanical coherence, and compromises epithelial integrity during wound closure, morphogenesis, and barrier maintenance. Preventing fingering is therefore essential for preserving directional migration and tissue cohesion. Monolayer viscoelasticity critically regulates this behaviour. Time-dependent redistribution of residual stresses controls energy storage and dissipation and modulates effective edge line tension. Spatial variations in cell packing density generate isotropic or anisotropic migration patterns that shape in-plane stress gradients and trigger local wetting or de-wetting. Formation of a continuous supracellular actin cable increases line tension and stabilizes the edge, thereby suppressing fingering. Together, these mechanisms provide a theoretical framework linking spatial heterogeneity, viscoelastic stress redistribution, and edge mechanics to the emergence and control of epithelial fingering
Spatialising Security, Securitising Space : Ways into the Politics of the Middle East and North Africa
No full textSituating Securitisation Theory (ST) in Security Studies and reflecting on several conundrums that have animated debates within ST, this Special Issue advances a critique of how integrating ‘space’ into ST enables empirically grounded modes of theorising and analysing ‘non-Western’/Global South contexts. Each contribution approaches security and space as always-becoming processes that shape, and are embedded in, relations. It is not only that relationality and processuality are ontological attributes through which security and space are understood; they are also mutually co-constitutive. This relational, processual and co-constitutive interplay between security and space is accompanied by a shared interest amongst the contributors in interrogating ‘the political’ through this lens. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region offers an especially productive vantage point for unpacking the entanglements of ‘the political’ across notions, domains and scales of security and space. In particular, the study of the MENA contributes to developing an understanding of security and space beyond Western-centric, state-centric and methodologically nationalist assumptions in Security Studies and International Relations
Glucagon Like Peptide-1 (GLP‑1) Receptor Agonists : There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Full text linkMechanical behaviour of third-generation steel subjected to strain path changes
No full textThe development of new steel grades is essential to meet the evolving demands of vehicle manufacturing and to understand their mechanical behaviour under complex loading paths is critical to ensuring reliable and effective forming operations. This study investigates the response of a third-generation advanced high-strength steel subjected to reverse shear loading and two-step uniaxial tension tests, with reloading at 0°, 45°, 55° and 90° relative to the initial prestrain direction. Under reverse shear loading, the material exhibits a pronounced transient Bauschinger effect that stabilizes after approximately 20 % prestrain. No hardening stagnation is observed, and permanent softening occurs at higher prestrain levels. In the two-step tension tests, a transient Bauschinger effect is observed at 90° from the rolling direction, with no latent hardening present for cross-loading. A dislocation-based crystal plasticity model is employed to simulate the material response under non-proportional loading, and its predictions are compared with experimental results to assess the model’s accuracy in capturing strain-path sensitivity in third-generation steel
The lived experiences of hospice healthcare workers caring for adolescents and young adults with advanced cancer : An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Full text linkObjective: To understand the lived experience of healthcare workers who provide palliative care to adolescents and young adults living with advanced cancer. Methods: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was the design of this study. Hospice healthcare workers from four pediatric hospices across Canada were recruited through purposive sampling. Semistructured in-person interviews were conducted. Results: Eighteen hospice healthcare workers participated. Two superordinate themes were identified. First, balancing on the tightrope of uncertainty wherein hospice healthcare workers strive to do their best while aiming to take the path of least regret. This theme was underscored by a notion of doing for the adolescents and young adults. Second, acting as a proxy revolves around the importance of fostering relationships with adolescents and young adults through honesty and transparency. The cycle of protection between adolescents and young adults, families, and healthcare providers was emphasized. Conclusions: An action-focused orientation when supporting adolescents and young adults was shared by the healthcare workers. The need to do for adolescents and young adults and the need to protect not only the people they care for but also themselves. More exploration is needed on how healthcare workers who care for adolescents and young adults can be supported while better understanding coping mechanisms
“… I still need to learn some things” : an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experience of extended residential youth care in Denmark
No full textYouth residential home care is, in many countries, terminated at 18 years of age. However, current research suggests that leaving care at 18 is associated with several negative or suboptimal outcomes. Denmark has, in response to this, established an extension of care which can continue until the age of 23 years. This study aimed to provide a detailed understanding of the experiences of living in the Danish extended care program. This qualitative study explored the experiences of eight young adult residents (4 men and 4 women). Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the residents’ accounts which constructed three group experiential themes: (1) “It was me; I just didn’t want to listen:” The experience of the transition to adulthood while in residential care. (2) “I still need to learn some things:” The experience of maturation in extended care. (3) “They don’t come running to me every day anymore:” The experience of preparing to transition out of extended care. This study has important implications for practice given the sample’s perceived inability to live independently outside of care at 18 years of age. The findings support current arguments for establishing an extended care system in countries which currently only offer juvenile residential care
'[E]ven in our fear […] we wanted to do this' : feminist organising for abortion in Africa as palimpsestic
No full textActivism for abortion rights and access in Africa is a vibrant and diverse movement that has become more prominent in recent years. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with members and allies of the MAMA network (an African transnational pro-abortion activist network), this article explores the evolving landscape of feminist abortion rights activism in Africa, examining how activists navigate and reshape this complex terrain influenced by enduring historical, socio-cultural and political legacies. Employing the concept of the palimpsest as a lens, we examine how feminist organising for abortion rights and access unfolds in a context where historic scripts that limit African womens'-and African feminists'-agency have been imperfectly erased. We argue that activists record their experiences, strategies, successes and challenges on the societal landscape, creating a cumulative and evolving record, similar to a palimpsest, in which each contribution builds upon and reinterprets the layers that precede it. By foregrounding the interconnectedness of past and present struggles, the article contributes to deeper understanding of the complexities of feminist abortion activism in Africa, showing how these efforts contribute to broader struggles for gender and reproductive justice across the continent