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Challenges and opportunities in direct-to-consumer hearing healthcare service delivery: a scoping review
Get PDFDespite the rising prevalence of hearing loss worldwide, underutilization of hearing aids persists. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) hearing services have emerged as a potential solution to address barriers in conventional audiology services. This scoping review investigates the challenges and opportunities associated with direct-to-consumer service delivery in audiology. This review followed the Arksey and O’Malley and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A systematic search of four databases and gray literature identified 12,034 records. Studies published in English between January 2015 and October 2024 were included if they explored challenges or opportunities in DTC hearing care service delivery from the perspectives of users aged 18 years or older with hearing loss or healthcare providers. After the screening and full-text review, 24 studies were included. the identified barriers included lack of professional guidance, safety concerns, limited user awareness and trust issues. Opportunities included improved accessibility, cost-effectiveness, integration of DTC into audiological practice, interprofessional collaboration, patient education and research comparing DTC and traditional service models. While DTC models can enhance access to hearing healthcare, overcoming challenges such as user education, trust, and professional involvement is crucial. Task shifting to other healthcare providers has emerged as a crucial strategy for enhancing service efficiency. The findings emphasise the need for a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to optimize DTC service delivery and inform future policy and practice. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION• Direct-to-consumer hearing service delivery can help to address the current barriers in traditional hearing care• the involvement of audiologists and other healthcare professionals in this service delivery is important to ensure an effective and safe use of the devices• Understanding the perspectives of both patients and providers can help design a user-centred and accessible hearing service
Transformer autoencoder framework for estimating core temperature of lithium-ion battery from pulse discharge dynamics
Get PDFThis study presents a non-invasive, data-driven approach for estimating the core temperature of lithium-ion batteries using a transformer-based autoencoder model. Pulse discharge data were collected from a Panasonic NCR18650B cell at three different C-rates (0.5C, 1C, and 2C) to train and evaluate the model. The transformer autoencoder leverages its ability to capture long-range temporal dependencies, efficiently reconstructing multivariate battery signals while compressing them into latent representations that serve as proxies for core temperature. Additionally, two-dimensional visualisation using Principal Component Analysis and t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding of the latent space revealed well-separated and structured clusters, further confirming the model's ability to encode relevant thermal dynamics effectively. These latent features were used as inputs to a random forest regressor, which was trained to predict temperature and validated against a physical-based thermal model. The proposed method achieved high accuracy across all discharge rates, physics-based model, and drive cycle analysis, with R2 scores of >0.99 outperforming previously reported studies. These results demonstrate the transformer autoencoder's superior ability to extract meaningful temporally structured representation and its robustness in dynamic operating conditions
HitHire: The future of ethical, fair, and sustainable AI recruitment – A governance framework
Get PDFArtificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming recruitment but remains susceptible to algorithmic bias and environmental inefficiencies. This paper presents HitHire, a pilot fairness- and sustainability-aware AI hiring platform tailored to the Saudi Arabian context and aligned with Vision 2030 goals. HitHire integrates large language models (LLMs), adversarial debiasing, Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP), and real-time carbon tracking to ensure transparent and equitable candidate ranking. Evaluated on 350 anonymized CVs across four job roles (web development, finance, human resources, and data science) using a 70/20/10 train/test/validation split, HitHire achieves notable improvements in fairness metrics—Statistical Parity Difference (SPD) for gender = 0.0156 and Disparate Impact (DI) for nationality = 1.2387—while maintaining strong predictive performance (F1 = 0.96 compared to a baseline of 0.80). The system achieves over a 40% reduction in operational CO emissions, with inference energy consumption of 0.003 kWh per query. In a three-month pilot study involving 23 HR professionals within a large Saudi organization, 87% of participants rated system trust at 4 out of 5 or higher. These findings contribute to national digital ethics strategies such as the Saudi Green Initiative, which emphasizes carbon neutrality and sustainable innovation
Spatial and temporal interaction patterns of spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias)
Get PDFAggregative behaviour is an important strategy for many fish species, especially for chondrichthyans that depend on close physical interactions between male and female conspecifics for mating and internal fertilization to occur. The Vulnerable spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias Linnaeus, 1758), a temperate water demersal shark, is known for its aggregative behaviour where individuals tend to move in groups based on sex and/or size. Investigating their aggregative behaviour can be a tool to identify life history events such as mating, which is important for species management and habitat protection. We combined acoustic telemetry with network analysis to investigate co-occurrence aggregations among spiny dogfish in a complex fjord network in western Norway between October 2022 and April 2024. Data from 74 sharks tagged with acoustic transmitters equipped with depth sensors were analysed to conduct a four-dimensional co-occurrence network analysis. The analysis revealed that spiny dogfish showed a high centrality degree, interacting with many conspecifics, whereby male-male interactions were strongest. Time had similar effect on interaction patterns for the three interaction types (male-male, female-female, and female-male), while depth had a positive effect on same-sex interactions and a stronger effect on female-male interactions. There was a higher number of interactions between males and females in August and September, and in more confined spatial areas than in other months, potentially indicating mating periods and areas used by spiny dogfish. Protecting spiny dogfish populations, especially when and where mating occurs, is crucial for ensuring sustainable populations and appropriate management measures to prevent future dramatic population declines
Kinetics of Elastic Recoil in the Wings of the cicada, Dundubia rufivena
Get PDFIn this paper, we quantitatively characterise the kinetics of elastic recoil in the wings attached to the cicada Dundubia rufivena. We use high-speed videography to deduce the velocities of recoil motion in both bending (B) and torsion (T), in downstroke and upstroke modes of flapping. Elastic recoil is faster in downstroke (DS) than it is in upstroke (US), reaching average velocities, ̄ í µí±£ , 244 • ⋅ s − 1 in DS-B versus 6434 • ⋅ s − 1 in US-B, and 5887 • ⋅ s − 1 in DS-T versus 4545 • ⋅ s − 1 in US-T. Our results also therefore evidence that bending velocities during elastic recoil are higher than the velocities in torsion, and conclude that this is a result of the necessary geometrical distances that need to be covered over a stroke. The wings do not act alone as biological springs, but rather, we find that the stiffnesses of the wings (1.7-3.6 GPa) are higher when attached to the cicada body than they are when detached. This evidences thoracical involvement as part of the biological spring enabling elastic recoil, indicating that elastic recoil of flapping wings should be approached from a systems perspective, rather than solely through a localised understanding of wing mechanics
Academic Editors: Fahad Ahmad and Defining Quantum Agents: Formal Foundations, Architectures, and NISQ-Era Prototypes
Get PDFQuantum computing offers potential computational advantages, yet its integration into autonomous decision-making systems remains largely unexplored. This paper addresses the need for a unified framework that systematically combines quantum computation with agent-based artificial intelligence. We examine how quantum technologies can enhance the capabilities of autonomous agents and, conversely, how agentic AI can support the advancement of quantum systems. We analyze both directions of this synergy and present conceptual and technical foundations for future quantum-agentic platforms. Our work introduces a formal definition of quantum agents and outlines architectures that integrate quantum computing with agent-based systems. As concrete proof-of-concept implementations , we develop and evaluate three quantum agent prototypes: (i) a Grover-based decision agent for quantum search-driven action selection, (ii) a variational quantum reinforcement learning agent for adaptive policy learning in a multi-armed bandit setting, and (iii) an adaptive quantum image encryption agent that autonomously selects encryption strategies based on entropy-driven feedback. These prototypes demonstrate practical realizations of quantum agency in decision-making, learning, and security contexts under NISQ-era constraints. Furthermore, we discuss application domains including quantum-enhanced optimization, hybrid quantum-classical orchestration, autonomous quantum workflow management, and secure quantum information processing. By bridging these fields, we introduce a structured theoretical and architectural framework for quantum-agentic systems , providing formal definitions, system models, and early operational prototypes that illustrate the feasibility of quantum-enhanced agency under NISQ constraints
Addressing intersectional bias in AI recruitment using HITHIRE model: a fair, ethical, green AI and transparent hiring solution for Saudi Arabia’s diverse workforce in line with vision 2030
Get PDFArtificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming recruitment by allowing organisations to employ data-driven hiring decisions. However, AI-powered tools are prone to reinforcing biases instead of eliminating them, posing ethical and fairness concerns. Since AI-powered tools are critical in hiring, this study introduces HITHIRE, an AI-driven recruitment model designed to enhance transparency, fairness, and inclusivity within the diverse workforce of Saudi Arabia, which aligns with Vision 2030. A baseline model was first evaluated using Llama 3.1, BERT, and regular NPL techniques. However, the baseline model revealed significant biases in gender and nationality-based hiring, making it inappropriate for the Saudi Arabian diverse hiring environment. The Llama 3.1 model was enhanced through data augmentation, sentence transformers, standard scoring, and transparency mechanisms, resulting in the HITHIRE model. Fairness analysis demonstrated improvements across gender and nationality dimensions, with reduced Statistical Parity Difference (SPD) and Disparate Impact (DI) scores. The findings highlight the potential of ethical AI integration in recruitment, ensuring unbiased, accountable, and transparent hiring practices. HITHIRE sets a precedent for AI-driven fairness in recruitment, contributing to HR policies and ethical AI discourse globally
Balancing diversity and control: Top management team faultlines, CEO power, and innovation persistence in family enterprises
Get PDFThis study examines how Top Management Team (TMT) faultlines influence innovation persistence in Chinese family firms, with particular attention to the moderating role of CEO power. Using a panel dataset of family-owned enterprises listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2008 to 2022, we find a nonlinear, inverted U-shaped relationship between TMT faultlines—both social and task-related—and innovation persistence. Furthermore, CEO power significantly moderates this relationship, amplifying the effects of TMT dynamics on sustained innovation outcomes. The effect is especially pronounced in first-generation family firms. Our findings contribute to the literature on innovation and corporate governance by highlighting how internal team composition and leadership structures jointly shape long-term innovation strategies in emerging market contexts. The results offer practical implications for enhancing innovation persistence through effective TMT configuration and CEO leadership alignment
Play on! Towards an understanding of sports officials’ entry to officiating and talent development
Get PDFThis commentary paper discusses key considerations for researchers and practitioners to build our understanding of effective sport officials’ recruitment practices. The identification, development and retention of sport officials is a key management agenda for sporting organisations, with low officiating numbers often reported in different sports, worldwide. While there has been a strong (and worthwhile) research focus on understanding attrition factors of officials and their experiences while in the talent development environment, there is limited understanding of how officials are identified and recruited. The recruitment is a crucial period that has implications on developmental trajectories and potential officiating talent that enter the sport system. Greater understanding of officials’ entry to officiating, including their motivations, sampling pools, specialisation age and other early experiences requires more investigation to provide evidence-based recommendations for key officiating stakeholders in the sport industry. To understand officials’ sport entry and initial pathway progression we can draw on concepts from athlete research and potentially adapt them to the realities of officiating communities. This commentary aims to provide context related to the recruitment of sports officials and inform targeted research into effective recruitment strategies and optimal early developmental climates for sports officials
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