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The practicalities of Thai Buddhist temples in the UK
No full textThere are 31 Thai Buddhist temples in the UK. Those who establish and run them face a double challenge of complying with both Thai and UK government regulations. Obstacles such as visas, building control, people and property management, public health, finances, and other matters lead to the apparent paradox of Buddhist monks, with their reputation for world renunciation and religious service, requiring administrative expertise much as we might expect of civil servants or business managers. Using institutional theory and extensive engagement with the Thai Theravada communities in the UK, this study elucidates how they balance these while fulfilling expectations tied to both Thai and convert temple culture.Chapter 1 examines the role of Thai temples in Thailand itself, the ways that they are governed under Thai law. Chapter 2 focuses on Thai parent temples that have branches in the UK and the nature of their internationalisation, including traditional royal temples, the Thai Forest tradition and the Dhammakaya temple, whose branches together dominate the UK landscape. Chapter 3 provides six in-depth case studies of temples in the UK, each with its own history, management style and recruitment methods. Chapter 4 investigates the processes monks must undergo in order to leave Thailand, how they establish temples and the myriads of procedures and challenges they must navigate to maintain them. Chapter 5 explores the life of those who live at Thai temples in the UK, including the absence of mae chi nuns, but the adaptation of ordination for women at Thai Forest temples. The final chapter examines lay support. It assesses the effect of the Thai immigration patterns to the UK, with a majority of female migrants, and the important contribution of women entrepreneurs. It also examines the importance of conflict avoidance and resolution, with failure leading to the past closure of temples
A soft robotic glove providing proprioceptive feedback for grip force regulation training
No full textInadequate regulation of grip force during tennis strokes may contribute to wrist and elbow overuse injuries. Although force transducer technologies such as strain gauge and piezoelectric sensors can quantify grip force, training feedback has largely been limited to visual feedback. The potential benefit of proprioceptive haptic feedback in grip force regulation training remains unclear.This study presents a soft robotic training system integrating a strain gauge embedded in a tennis racket for grip force sensing and an pneumatic actuator that provides proprioceptive haptic feedback. A pilot study was conducted in one novice tennis player to evaluate system feasibility and demonstrate its functionality. A passive force regulation experiment first verified the actuator’s ability to deliver physical haptic guidance. Then, during the active force regulation training, differences in learning curve and retention were observed between visual and haptic feedback conditions. Learning improvement, quantified as error reduction from pre- to post-training, reached 39% of the target force under visual feedback and 37% under haptic feedback. In retention trials, the root mean square error (RMSE) was 23.6% following visual feedback training and 20.0% following haptic feedback training. These preliminary findings suggest potential differences in training efficiency between feedback modalities. Further studies with larger samples are required to determine the generalizability of these observations and to further evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed soft robotic training system
Managing maternity: Moving care, not patients, using artificial intelligence ( AI ), internet‐of‐things ( IOT ) and point‐of‐care testing ( POCT ) devices
No full textThe integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare is accelerating and maternity care is at a pivotal moment for the strategic implementation of these technologies. This article explores how AI‐assisted women's health innovations, often termed “FemTech,” may transform pregnancy care by addressing long‐standing disparities: enhancing diagnostic precision and supporting the obstetric workforce. We outline three domains in which AI is poised to drive change: where women are cared for, how they are cared for, and who delivers their care. First, decentralized AI combined with Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices can extend prenatal monitoring into homes, reducing reliance on clinic visits and expanding access for underserved populations. Second, predictive and reinforcement learning algorithms enable personalized, adaptive care across the reproductive continuum, from preconception to postpartum, moving beyond static risk models and uniform treatment approaches. Third, AI has the potential to augment the maternity workforce by offering generative tools for patient engagement, clinical decision support and automation of ultrasound imaging, while ensuring clinician oversight remains central. Future adoption will depend on global economic and geopolitical dynamics, with the USA and China currently leading in patents, publications, and model development. Equitable integration will require explainable AI, transparent validation, multinational benchmark datasets, and robust governance on safety and consent. Ultimately, AI‐powered technologies should complement, not replace human expertise, embedding digital innovation within a model of maternity care that preserves empathy and clinical judgment
Backtracking AdS flux vacua
No full textWe introduce an algorithm (dubbed “flux backtracking”) to reverse-engineer the brane picture from an AdS flux vacuum. Given an AdS flux vacuum as input, the algorithm outputs a singularity in 10 or 11 dimensions. This singularity has the property that when probed with the appropriate stack of branes (and after taking the near-horizon limit), one recovers the initial AdS vacuum. After testing the procedure on a number of known AdS/CFT pairs, we apply it to AdS flux vacua without known holographic dual, notably the scale-separated DGKT solution. In this case, flux backtracking produces a certain strongly coupled singularity in massive IIA; we conjecture that the worldvolume CFT of D4-branes probing this singularity should be the holographic CFT dual to DGKT (if it exists). Applying the procedure to the DGKT-related scale-separated AdS4 solutions without Romans mass, we find instead a conical and weakly coupled singularity. We also comment on the results and limitations of applying the procedure to KKLT
Translating scientific evidence into effective policies for health and technology requires care: World Happiness Report 2026: Chapter 4
No full textSocial media use and wellbeing in the Middle East and North Africa: World Happiness Report 2026: Chapter 9
No full textSociodemographic disparities in primary care management of back pain in children and young people: a population-based cohort study
No full textResearch on the primary care management of back pain in children and young people (CYP) is scarce. Sociodemographic factors may influence presentation and management, potentially contributing to disparities in care and outcomes. This study aimed to describe the management of back pain in CYP and examine associations with sociodemographic characteristics. Data were extracted from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum for 425,000 randomly sampled CYP aged 8–18 years with a new musculoskeletal pain episode between 2005 and 2021. Analgesia prescriptions, referrals and imaging within 6 months of an index consultation for back pain were extracted. Adjusted risk ratios (aRR) were calculated for age, gender, deprivation, ethnicity, region and index year. Of 51,335 CYP presenting with back pain, 78% had symptom-based codes for back pain or low back pain, and 12% had more specific diagnostic codes such as spinal deformities. 19% patients reconsulted for back pain in the 6 months following the index date. Analgesia was prescribed to 36% with higher prescribing rates among older CYP and those from more deprived areas (aRR most vs. least deprived 1.64; 95% CI 1.56, 1.72). Referrals (28%) and imaging (13%) were more common in older adolescents but less frequent among more deprived and minority ethnic groups. Prescribing declined over time (46% in 2005–2009 to 16% in 2020–2021), whereas referrals increased (17% to 40%). Back pain in CYP often recurs and is primarily managed with analgesia and referrals. Socioeconomic and ethnic disparities in management highlight the need for equitable access to specialist care and consistent, evidence-based approaches
The Diremption of Meaning
No full textExamining work by Rowan Williams, this essay explores what he often refers to as the ‘difficulty’ of writing theology. The difficulty of theology lies in engaging the ruse of having ultimate answers to ultimate questions. The stakes are high: ‘God‐talk’ must concern itself with truth, with reality. But theology knows that truth is always a work of grace and understanding always involves a cost. While it is intellectual understanding that is pursued, it is not merely intellectual understanding that we are aiming for, but rather a spiritual understanding through faith. This involves a diremption of meaning. The essay argues that theological ‘difficulty’ must wrestle with communication and intelligibility with respect to human language, on the one hand, and Christology on the other. The tragic always waits in the wings of such an endeavour and that has pastoral consequences
Differential captivity and experiential conditions and its impact on the behaviour and cognition of Picasso triggerfish ( Rhinecanthus aculeatus )
No full textIn this study, we compared performance across four behavioural tasks in the same fish species (Rhinecanthus aculeatus), with one group held in long-term laboratory captivity and the other recently caught and temporarily housed at a field station laboratory. The aims of this study were twofold: first, to test whether captivity conditions influence performance in commonly used behavioural and cognitive assays; and second, to evaluate whether any of these tasks could serve as a practical tool for screening behavioural changes over time. The four tests used were a Novel Object Test, Puzzle Preference Test, Emergence Test, and Cylinder Test. We found that recently caught fish were generally more exploratory and more responsive to novel stimuli; however, their responses were object-specific, with increased neophobia towards some objects. Long-term captive fish were more variable in their responses across all tests. In the Emergence Test, long-term captive fish emerged faster but showed greater individual variability. In the Cylinder Test, all recently caught fish failed to swim around a transparent cylinder, whereas several long-term captive individuals showed possible evidence of inhibitory control. Our results demonstrate that captivity conditions can influence performance in behavioural tests at both group and individual levels. These findings have important implications for comparative cognition studies, particularly when interpreting results collected across different laboratory settings or captivity durations, even when working with the same species. Of the tasks used, the Emergence Test was identified as the most practical assay for tracking the effects of captivity on behaviour, as it was highly sensitive to individual differences and straightforward to run and analyse