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Semi-coherent and coherent nanoprecipitation induced superior strength-ductility combination in additively manufactured CoCrMoW alloy
No full textThe interface coherence between precipitates and the matrix—whether coherent, semi-coherent, or incoherent—significantly impacts both the strength and ductility of metallic materials. Achieving an optimal balance between these properties can be realized through manipulation of the precipitate/matrix interface. In this study, 1 wt.% and 2 wt.% TiN nanoparticles were introduced into a laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) fabricated CoCrMoW alloy as a reinforcing phase. Compared to the unreinforced alloy, the alloy with 1 wt.% TiN exhibited substantial improvements in yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and fracture elongation, increasing from 876 MPa, 1190 MPa, and 15% to 1071 MPa, 1421 MPa, and 17%, respectively. Although the addition of TiN nanoparticles did not significantly affect the average grain size, it inhibited the formation of fine grains at the fusion line and influenced the overall grain size distribution. More importantly, the incorporation of TiN nanoparticles during the LPBF process led to the in-situ formation of semi-coherent precipitates rich in Ti and N, as well as coherent precipitates rich in Ti, N, and O. The semi-coherent precipitates, which exhibit well-defined orientation relationships and periodic misfit dislocations, enhanced strength by blocking stacking faults and ε laths. They also preserved plasticity by promoting self-relaxation through twinning at intersected areas, thus preventing crack nucleation at the interface. Furthermore, the chemical inhomogeneity between the coherent phase and the matrix increased resistance to dislocation cutting of the precipitates, thereby improving the material’s strength without compromising ductility
Green human resource management in the Nigerian oil and gas industry: Context and implementation
No full textResearch on Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) largely emphasises internal drivers, with limited attention to external institutional influences. This study examines how institutional pressures shape the adoption of GHRM practices in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, drawing on insights from 25 professionals working in the upstream (56 per cent), midstream (36 per cent), and downstream (8 per cent) sectors. Findings reveal that coercive and normative pressures, more strongly influence GHRM practices, such as recruitment, training, and performance management than mimetic pressures. Evidence of decoupling emerged, with gaps between policy and practice, means and ends, structure and implementation, highlighting discrepancies between formal adoption and substantive enactment. By extending institutional theory to a developing-country extractive sector, the study underscores the contextual nature of isomorphic pressures and the multi-level manifestations of decoupling, offering fresh insights into how external institutional constraints drive reactive rather than proactive GHRM adoption
Should I stay or should I go? Insights from a global survey on chefs' intention to leave
Full text linkThis report presents findings from a global study examining chefs’ intentions to leave their current roles and, in many cases, the profession altogether. Conducted in collaboration with The Burnt Chef Project, the study draws on survey responses from 460 chefs working primarily in the UK and other English-speaking markets, across independent restaurants, national and multinational chains, contract catering, and institutional settings. The findings provide one of the clearest quantitative and qualitative accounts to date of the drivers of attrition in professional kitchens.
The results confirm that intention to leave among chefs is exceptionally high. Nearly seven in ten respondents (69%) report that they often or always consider leaving their job, with a further 27% doing so at least sometimes, indicating that exit thinking is near universal. These intentions are reflected in behaviour: two-thirds actively search for alternative employment, and more than four in ten do so frequently. Over half of respondents also consider starting their own business, often viewing self-employment as the only viable route to autonomy and sustainable working conditions.
Work-family conflict emerges as a central driver of these intentions. Almost 70% of chefs report moderate or strong interference of work with home and family life, with a further fifth experiencing some interference. Similar patterns appear across indicators relating to disrupted personal plans, difficulty meeting family responsibilities, and emotional or physical exhaustion at home. The findings suggest that it is not only long hours that drive dissatisfaction, but the persistent intrusion of work into personal life.
Despite these pressures, the data reveal ambivalence rather than rejection of the profession. Many chefs remain passionate about cooking, their teams, and the creative and social value of their work, yet feel that the prevailing employment model is no longer sustainable.
Qualitative responses from over 150 chefs give depth to these patterns. Respondents describe toxic and abusive management cultures, including bullying, harassment, and gaslighting, across both independent and corporate settings. They report unpaid overtime, wage theft, chronic understaffing, and expectations of 60–80 hour working weeks. The mental health consequences are severe, with accounts of burnout, anxiety, depression, and, in some cases, suicidal ideation. Women chefs additionally highlight systemic sexism and limited organisational understanding of gender-specific health needs.
At the same time, chefs point to examples of progress. Some organisations demonstrate that supportive leadership, better rota design, shorter working weeks, and paid closures can significantly improve wellbeing and retention, showing that change is possible.
The report concludes that chefs’ intention to leave is a structural issue rather than a failure of individual resilience Addressing it will require redesigned roles and rotas, fair and transparent pay practices, stronger people-management capability, and targeted support for vulnerable groups. Without meaningful change, chefs will continue to seek sustainable careers elsewhere
On the slow train: tourists’ experiences of deceleration
Full text linkThis paper examines slow mobility and deceleration in the context of tourism. It focuses on a heritage railway in Romania, which travels through mountainous scenery at an average speed of 17 km/hour. Using methods from mobile ethnography and go-along interviews it explores passengers’ experiences of travelling slowly. Passengers did not appear to be deliberately participating in slow travel as an act of countercultural opposition to the prevailing cult of speed. Instead, motives for taking the journey were more about curiosity and trying something different while on holiday. While they were not necessarily seeking deceleration, many passengers found the slow journey enjoyable and rewarding, allowing them to disconnect from everyday pace and rhythms. Passengers responded to the slow pace in various ways, including avoiding their mobile phones, paying greater attention to the environment surrounding the train, and engaging in various forms of introspection (including nostalgia). However, some passengers found the experience of deceleration challenging and unwelcome. The slow train journey did not exist in isolation but was interlocked with other forms of (mostly faster) movement, both on the day of travel and during the wider holiday in the region
Advances in the measurement and interpretation of intervertebral motion in the lumbar spine
Full text linkBackground: Intervertebral motion is a fundamental aspect of spinal biomechanics, crucial for understanding lumbar spine function, pain mechanisms and surgical out-comes. Various methods exist for measuring and interpreting it, each with its own ad-vantages, limitations and specific applications. However, a comprehensive and standard taxonomy of study types for the measurement and interpretation of in vivo interverte-bral motion in the lumbar spine is lacking. Objectives: This review aimed to systemati-cally identify, characterize and categorize the diverse study types deposited in the lit-erature. Eligibility criteria: Only studies in English and of lumbar spine intervertebral motion in living subjects were considered and only those that employed objective measurement of motion sequences were included. Sources of evidence: A comprehen-sive literature search was performed in PubMed, CINAHL and SCOPUS for articles published between January 2000 and October 2025. Charting methods: After removal of duplicates, all studies were subjected to Title and abstract screening, followed by Full-text screening of potentially eligible studies. Data selected were charted into tables under the headings: Author, year, country, purpose, technology, participants, meas-urement, interpretation, radiation dosage and significance of findings. Results: For-ty-nine studies were abstracted and are described under 11 study types. These formed a taxonomy constituting the following 6 categories: Normal biomechanical mechanisms, Pathological and injury mechanisms, Direct kinematic measurement, Spinal stabiliza-tion, Dynamic radiography and Clinical markers. The resulting taxonomy will serve as a resource for researchers, clinicians and policymakers by facilitating a more coherent understanding of the field and promoting standardization in research design and re-porting
‘Shrink to the stars’: exploring therapeutic broadcast talk on BBC Radio 4’s In the Psychiatrist's Chair
Full text linkIn the Psychiatrist’s Chair (BBC Radio 4, 1982–2001) featured extended interviews presented by psychiatrist Antony Clare, in which public figures were invited to reflect on their emotional lives. This article argues that the programme functioned as a hybrid broadcast form, combining elements of therapeutic encounter with the conventions of public service interviewing. Drawing on archived episodes, it examines how format, interviewing style and institutional context shaped the programme’s authority and reception. The article shows how emotionally intimate talk was legitimised through BBC public service values, and how listeners were positioned as ethical participants in the encounter. It situates the series within the history of confessional broadcasting and debates around therapeutic culture, expertise and media intimacy
Strengthening evidence synthesis for health policymaking in Nepal: a new fellowship initiative
Full text linkBalancing Acts – Striving towards independence after early discharge: Lived experiences of older adults and their relatives
Full text linkBackground: Early hospital discharge is rising internationally. Hence, homecoming is a signifcant event that has a severe impact on the well-being of older adults and their relatives. Evidence suggests that adapting to this unfamiliar situation requires a concerted efort to strive towards independence. This study describes the meaning of striving
towards independence as experienced by older adults and their close relatives during the frst month after early discharge from hospital to home and examines how this process relates to their experiences of well-being.
Methods: Data was gathered through 18 dyadic phenomenological in-depth interviews with ten older adults discharged from three hospitals in Austria and their relatives.
Results: The essential meaning of striving towards independence after early discharge is characterised by being at ease and further articulated in the three constituents: walking a tightrope between push and support, steady improvement as an opportunity for new possibilities and returning to cherished habits as a source of joy in life.
Conclusion: Our study highlights the dynamic process of striving towards independence, which encompasses acceptance, trust and identifcation with the condition, and is intertwined with existential dimensions of temporality, inter-subjectivity and identity. Facilitating trust in the future between the older adult and their carers, as well as helping them regain former habits, supports the strive towards independence after early hospital discharge and contributes to the experiences of well-being of older adults and relatives
Predicting real-world navigation performance from a virtual navigation task in older adults.
Full text linkVirtual reality environments presented on tablets and smartphones offer a novel way of measuring navigation skill and predicting real-world navigation problems. The extent to which such virtual tests are effective at predicting navigation in older populations remains unclear. We compared the performance of 20 older participants (54-74 years old) in wayfinding tasks in a real-world environment in London, UK, and in similar tasks designed in a mobile app-based test of navigation (Sea Hero Quest). In a previous study with young participants (18-35 years old), we were able to predict navigation performance in real-world tasks in London and Paris using this mobile app. We find that for the older cohort, virtual navigation performance predicts real-world performance for medium difficulty, but not for the easy or difficult environments. Overall, our study supports the utility of using digital tests of spatial cognition in older age groups, while carefully adapting the task difficulty to the population
Research and fellowship funding perspectives: A collective NIHR experience of a community of pre- and post-doctoral radiographers.
Full text linkOBJECTIVES: This paper harnesses a comprehensive overview and the collective experience of a community of pre- and post-doctoral Radiographers in successfully securing grants to demonstrate what is required as part of an NIHR fellowship application. KEY FINDINGS: Developing a research fellowship application requires individuals to expose themselves to critique to improve the content, design and structure of the proposed piece of work. The scale of the project should be carefully considered when developing applications, with the research plan accurately and realistically proposing a suitable amount of work to be undertaken within the timeframe. All fellowship applications comprise several key elements which must be meticulously crafted to address the requirements of the specific call. This is critical because every section of the application undergoes scrutiny by review panels to ensure the funding achieves its maximum impact. The key elements requiring detailed information are themed around Project, Person, Place, Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE), the surrounding People, and a training plan. However, a golden thread highlighting inclusive research that is people-centred is required to run through the entire application. CONCLUSION: NIHR fellowships are an important pathway to enable dedicated clinically relevant research projects for patient/family benefit to be combined with the advancement of an individual's clinical and academic skills. These dedicated funding streams are tailor-made to enable a wide range of healthcare professionals, including Radiographers, to develop into research leaders of the future. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Maximising research training opportunities, including research fellowships for the Radiography profession, will offer the completion of clinically relevant research projects alongside the development of the research leaders of the future