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An Applied Active Inference Group Practice for Transdisciplinary Collaboration - 5th Applied Active Inference Symposium
No full textTransdisciplinary projects often falter not because of technical gaps, but because of difficulties in communication, alignment, and meaning-making across mixed domains. This session introduces a structured group practice, inspired by therapeutic traditions including Circling which has recently been developed by Guy Sengstock and John Vervaeke. Such group work encourages perspective-taking, and reflective listening. Participants explore the “here-and-now” of interaction through paraphrasing and impact-checking with the goal of improving shared understanding and collective insight around possibilities for transdisciplinary collaboration. We propose that this type of group practices can be understood as a form of applied Active Inference. With…Generative model alignment - Participants continually update their beliefs about others’ intentions and perspectives.Precision calibration (relevance realization) - The practice highlights which signals deserve confidence and which need revisiting.Epistemic action - Asking clarifying questions and mirroring are ways of actively sampling to reduce uncertainty.Shared anticipations - Over time, the group develops coordinated protention and a collective salience landscape.In this session, participants learned the basics of this group practice, experience short, facilitated practices, and reflect on how such methods can support transdisciplinary teams in industry.</p
A Scoping Review of UK Immigration and Asylum Laws: The Endless Cycle of ‘Migration Fix’
No full textHistorically, the number of United Kingdom (UK) emigrants has exceeded the number of immigrants, but this trend began to change in the early 1970s. The UK government has been enforcing strict immigration controls to reduce the number of immigrants, especially asylum seekers. The country even left the European Union to better control its borders and consider new arrivals based on their skills. However, despite tighter immigration policies, long-term international migration to the UK has continued to grow. The ongoing, and to some extent gendered and racialised, migration fix has not provided a sustainable solution for the country. Instead, it has increased the vulnerability and anxiety of refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants. Informed by a scoping review and the concept migration fix, this article examines UK immigration policies since World War II. This article is important for understanding the migration fix in UK immigration and asylum policies and their effects on asylum seekers, refugees, and other migrants.</p
Worthwhile waiting – feasibility of social prescribing prehabilitation for hip and knee orthopaedic primary care patients
No full textPurpose: Personalized prehabilitation for surgery can be delivered through social prescribing. Worthwhile Waiting (WW) is a novel health and wellbeing coaching prehabilitation primary care intervention for patients referred for hip and/or knee orthopaedic procedures. This study aimed to determine the feasibility, suitability and acceptability of WW.Design/methodology/approach: This mixed-methods single-arm feasibility design study had two components: a trial component of patients recruited from five sites and undertaking WW. Outcome measures were completed at baseline and 3 months. Trends in descriptive statistics and effect sizes for outcome measures were evaluated, and a power calculation was performed. A qualitative component comprised semi-structured interviews (n = 12) with patients and staff about WW. Qualitative data were thematically analysed. Findings were evaluated against success criteria.Findings: Thirty four participants (n = 34) were recruited. All success criteria were met. An average of five participants were recruited per month. A WW champion to engage staff and a written plan or taster sessions were recommended. Positive trends were observed for most outcome measure and a sample size was calculated for a full trial. Good relationships with partner organisations and understanding their services made WW feasible. Activities needed to be accessible to be suitable. Interventions were acceptable; patients valued activity participation and conversations and access to information which the staff provided.Originality/value: Social prescribing by health and wellbeing coaches in primary care for patients waiting for hip and/or knee orthopaedic procedures is feasible, suitable and acceptable in this study.</p
A systematic review of gaming effects on driving related skills
No full textBackgroundRoad traffic accidents (RTAs) rank as the twelfth leading cause of death globally. While several factors contribute to RTAs, diminished visual and cognitive abilities remain an often-overlooked cause, negatively affecting driving performance. The “learning to learn” hypothesis suggests that playing games enhances general learning abilities and executive control mechanisms, enabling to transfer acquired-skills across real-world tasks. Considering this potential, this review investigates existing research on the connection between playing different types of games and driving behaviour.MethodsFollowing PRISMA guidelines, a narrative synthesis was conducted with an effect size analysis using R. Studies were categorised based on game type, intervention duration, and outcome measures related to driving skills.ResultsThe review analysed the findings from three interventional and nine observational studies. Effect size analysis of observational studies revealed a positive association between gaming experience on computerised driving tasks (g = 0.96, 95 % CI: 0.63, 1.28). Interventional studies suggested that driving racing games, when played for 8–10 h in total, can improve short-term performance in computerised and on-road driving tasks.ConclusionsAvailable evidence suggests a significant positive association between gaming and computerised driving task outcomes. Furthermore, driving-specific gaming interventions have a significant effect on simulator tasks and on-road skills. However, to establish gaming interventions, further research is needed to analyse the effect of different gaming genres on different skills that are necessary for driving.ApplicationStandardising interventional methodologies and driving variables are essential for providing reliable evidence. Developing evidence-based gaming interventions requires well-defined protocols and game selection criteria.</p
A three-dimensional behavior model of environmentally responsible sustainability bridging psychology, ethics, and environment
No full textThe continuous growth of the tourism industry has made the issue of tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior (ERBR) an urgent issue in both academic and policy terms. This research aims to develop a conceptual model through the integration of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Norm Activation Model (NAM), and environmental factors to analyze the mechanisms that influence tourists’ intentions and behaviors to be environmentally responsible. Data were collected from 400 Thai tourists and analyzed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. The results indicate that the research model can comprehensively explain tourists’ behaviors. Internal mechanisms such as attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and personal norms all have significant influences on environmentally responsible behavioral intention and environmentally responsible behaviors. In particular, the norm internalization process shows that subjective norms can be systematically transformed into internal ethical values, which is key to fostering long-term sustainable behavior. This model provides a comprehensive theoretical understanding of environmentally responsible tourism behavior and can be used to effectively design policies and proactive activities to promote environmentally responsible tourist behaviors in the long term.</p
Expert‐led priorities for a response diversity research agenda in ecology
No full textResponse diversity describes variation in ecological responses to environmental change. Response diversity is expected to drive ecological stability since a wider variety of responses to one or more environmental factors should stabilise fluctuations of ecosystem functions. However, uptake of empirical response diversity research has been slow. Here we assess current thinking around response diversity by conducting a targeted expert survey of response diversity researchers. Our survey revealed that one barrier to a unified research agenda on response diversity is the lack of agreement among respondents on the definition of response diversity, and to which dimension(s) of ecological stability response diversity might relate. When asked to select the temporal, spatial and biological scales at which response diversity may be most relevant for ecological stability, respondents chose a wide range of scales indicating differences in how experts view response diversity's stabilising effect. Respondents considered studies incorporating both biotic interactions and abiotic environmental responses to be especially challenging. So too were those thinking about responses to multiple environmental changes simultaneously. Moreover, respondents thought inconsistencies in the definitions of, and methods for measuring response diversity were a major challenge facing the field. Despite these barriers, experts expressed strong support for globally coordinated research efforts on response diversity through syntheses, workshops, and distributed experiments. However, they also cautioned that imposing a single standardised metric across use‐cases would be too restrictive. Our findings suggest we can shift response diversity from a loose collection of conceptual studies and inconsistent empirical applications towards a coordinated research programme mechanistically linking biodiversity and ecological stability. As such, we are launching a research community interested in the science and application of response diversity – the Response Diversity Network – whose activities we hope will benefit both individual studies of response diversity and globally coordinated research efforts.</p
A multi-stage backdoor detection (MSBD) Framework
No full textBackdoor attacks represent a serious challenge to robust deployment of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models in safety- and mission-critical fields. In a backdoor attack, an adversary injects a hidden trigger so that the model behaves normally when the inputs are clean but consistently produces attacker-chosen outputs when the trigger is present. Existing defences generally work at a single stage in the ML lifecycle—on data, on the model, or at inference time—and are thus susceptible to adaptive attackers that intentionally evade their underlying assumptions. This paper proposes Multi-Stage Backdoor Detection (MSBD), which provides a defence-in-depth structure that combines multiple mechanisms in the training, post-training model inspection, and deployment-time monitoring. MSBD has four stages: influence-based screening of training samples (Stage A), optimisation-based trigger inversion (Stage B), neuron activation graph analysis for detection of suspicious subnetworks (Stage C), as well as calibrated runtime detection with integration of trigger signatures and perturbation-based consistency checks (Stage D). The platform is intended to function under realistic defender conditions with limited access to both data and models, and for offline validation and online monitoring. We evaluate MSBD on three benchmark datasets (MNIST, CIFAR-10, GTSRB) under a strong BadNets-style backdoor attack and compare it against five representative defences (STRIP, Neural Cleanse, Activation Clustering, Spectral Signatures, and Fine-Pruning). Across all datasets, we find an average F1-score of 99.0% for MSBD, which is consistently better than STRIP’s, with a practical runtime overhead, showing that multi-stage, cross-layer defences can significantly improve robustness over single-stage defences.</p
Physical activity and “exercise snacks”: a small step toward big gains in severe mental illness
No full textA recent meta-analysis by Rodríguez et al. published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine makes an important contribution to the understanding of “exercise snacks”— defined as brief, structured bouts of exercise for ≤5 minutes in duration, performed multiple times per day at moderate or vigorous intensity (e.g. bodyweight exercises). It showed that exercise snacks in people with low levels of physical activity can improve cardiorespiratory fitness, which is one of the strongest predictors of premature mortality. Importantly, very high adherence and compliance rates for exercise snacks, far exceeding traditional exercise clinical trials, was reported. Results concurred with a previous meta-analysis of exercise snacks, which reported significant improvements in maximal oxygen uptake, peak power output, and significant reductions in total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. However the quality of this evidence ranged from moderate to very low. Of note, none of the included trials across both reviews included populations with mental health conditions. The objective of this editorial is to present the potential value and feasibility of exercise and physical activity snacks in persons with severe mental illness (SMI).</p
Vegetal matters in Thomas Hardy and Olive Schreiner: literary representations of the ontological, philosophical, and material plant
No full textThis thesis examines the representation of the vegetal in the writings of Thomas Hardy and Olive Schreiner. I argue that the vegetal has a prominent presence in their work and that they represent it as a location of vitality, change, process, and agency. In extending this to its participation in networks of causality and meaning, I demonstrate how they decentre humanity and situate meaning, knowing, and agency in wider networks that encompass all lifeforms. Developing current work within the plant humanities, this interdisciplinary study brings together the philosophical botany of Arthur Schopenhauer and Michael Marder and, recognising the vegetal as the epitome of materiality, the New Materialism of Jane Bennett and Karen Barad. I assert that although Hardy and Schreiner emphasise the evolutionary material connectivity across all lifeforms, they also represent the vegetal as ‘other’, using it to examine human modes of being. Through such comparison, they problematise the mind, viewing it as engendering a focus on self and the short-term, and through its dominance, suggesting that humanity fails to recognise the role of the body in perception and motivation. I explore their extension of literary form to embed long-term evolutionary frameworks, recognising Schreiner’s innovative and experimental form as ontologically vegetal. Schreiner conceptualises humanity as a long-term continuous body, analogous to that of the vegetal, the individual having an ethical responsibility to contribute to its progress. Hardy uses vegetal settings to establish a long-term stability while the unceasing growth of vegetation also continuously transforms and re-creates place. Bringing these two late nineteenth-century/early twentieth-century writers into conversation, I examine how their work participates in debates between material and metaphysical notions of reality; Hardy using the material vegetal to challenge metaphysical views while Schreiner incorporates these two epistemologies into models of reality. This productive vegetal approach creates new post-human ecological readings of Hardy and Schreiner, in which life is seen as a continuum, meaning is relocated to material existence, and relationships are key.</p
The exploitative psychopathic personality: a conceptual outline
No full textPurpose
This short conceptual paper aims to alert future contributors of research papers concerning exploitation to the uniquely exploitative nature of psychopathic people, including in their management and leadership roles. The paper offers guidance to researchers in the field of economic exploitation and inequality, suggesting that they should not overlook the personality-based explanations for such behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
A search within the search engine “Google Scholar” for papers linking psychopathy to exploitation and exploitativeness was made in August 2025. This revealed five relevant papers. To achieve methodological robustness and ensure a comprehensive search was undertaken, a similar search was conducted within one of the current author's own databases, which contained 4,143 papers. This author is an acknowledged world leader in corporate psychopathy research, and keeps up to date with the relevant literature, and so this database should contain the most relevant papers. Twenty-five additional papers were thus identified and are discussed herein.
Findings
Potential and actual links between psychopathy and varied forms of exploitation, such as environmental exploitation, workforce mistreatment, exploitation of host populations within tourist destinations, illegal drug distribution, human trafficking, coercive pornography production, and gambling, are discussed. Areas for further research are suggested.
Practical implications
People with psychopathic personalities may be involved in a wide variety of exploitative activities, perhaps in conjunction with other antecedents of exploitation. Future research should take this association into account in designing further studies concerning exploitation.
Originality/value
In an academic environment where personality can be downplayed in favour of group and organisational dynamics, this paper reminds academic research colleagues of the important role the psychopathic personality can play in all forms of exploitation.</p
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