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Provision of online digital courses individual licences to Palestinian students
Get PDFA publication of the RSE's report on Scottish higher education sector’s support for conflict settings.This report, commissioned by the RSE in its role as a convening body, addresses the timely and pressing question: How can the Scottish higher education sector support colleagues and institutions in conflict settings?Through desk research and interviews with key stakeholders across HEIs in Scotland, the report offers an overview of the current initiatives supported by Scottish HEIs and practical advice for next steps. It aims to support and inform the Scottish higher education sector to address gaps in coordination, funding, and information around current educational support provision to conflict settings
Resistance Exercise Therapy After COVID-19 Infection: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Get PDFImportance: Long COVID presents an unmet therapeutic need.Objective: To determine the effects of a resistance exercise intervention on exercise capacity, health status, and safety among adults after COVID-19 infection.Design, Setting, and Participants: A 2-arm, multicenter, randomized clinical trial including 233 adults with a hospital or community diagnosis of COVID-19 infection in the preceding 12 months was undertaken from June 1, 2021, to April 26, 2024. The intervention group comprised 117 individuals, and the control group comprised 116 individuals. A total of 224 individuals at baseline and 193 individuals at 3 months completed Incremental Shuttle Walk Tests.Exposures: The intervention group received the personalized resistance exercise intervention for 3 months, and the control group received treatment as usual.Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was the distance achieved (in meters) in the Incremental Shuttle Walk Test undertaken 3 months after randomization. Secondary outcome measures included health-related quality of life (measured by the European Quality of Life 5-Dimension 5-Level Instrument [EQ-5D-5L]), anxiety and depression (measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire), and grip strength.Results: A total of 233 adults (median age, 53.6 years [IQR, 43.8-60.8 years]; 146 women [62.7%]; 91 [39.1%] hospitalized with COVID-19 infection) were randomized (117 [50.2%] to the intervention group and 116 [49.8%] to the control group). The median percentage adherence with the exercise intervention was 71.0% (IQR, 47.8%-96.8%), equivalent to performing the exercises 5 days per week. The mean (SD) distance achieved in the Incremental Shuttle Walk Test was 328 (225) m for 224 individuals at baseline and 389 (249) m for 193 individuals at follow-up. The mean (SD) change in Incremental Shuttle Walk Test distance at 3 months compared with baseline was 83 (118) m in the intervention group (n = 94) and 47 (95) m in the control group (n = 98) (adjusted mean difference, 36.5 m [95% CI, 6.6-66.3 m]; P = .02). By 3 months, compared with the control group, greater improvements in the intervention group were also observed for the health-related quality of life utility score (EQ-5D-5L) (0.06 [95% CI, 0.01-0.11]; P = .02), Patient Health Questionnaire category (0.5 [95% CI, 0.2-0.8]; P = .01), and handgrip strength (2.6 kg [95% CI, 0.9-4.2 kg]; P = .002).Conclusions and Relevance: In this randomized clinical trial, a 3-month program of resistance exercise among adults after COVID-19 infection appeared to improve walking distance, health-related quality of life, anxiety, depression, and grip strength. This pragmatic intervention may be a generalizable therapy for individuals with persisting physical symptoms after COVID-19 infection.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0490096
The Design Matters Lab Programme Book
No full textThe echoes of the industrial revolution still resonate in our lives today, shaping our consumption, environment, and even our culture’s challenges. Design Matters Lab here asks a crucial question: What if we could disrupt the banality of the industrial model and forge alternative production systems that truly champion sustainability, not just the impacts on the environment and consumerism, but also in harmony with the local cultures? This programme showcases the inspiring journeys of selected ten product and material designers from Europe and Indonesia as they grapple with this very question. Working alongside five micro-factories as innovation labs, these designers have embarked on a collaborative exploration with locality as the cornerstone of the practice. Through profound online dialogue and immersive residencies, they haveunearthed shared challenges in Europe and Indonesia to pioneer innovative solutions to commercially viable outcomes. You are invitedto delve into the stories and processes behind five distinct projects, witness how sustainability transcends mere theoretical conceptsand takes tangible form through practical application.Discover how accessible knowledge and appropriate technologies — not always sophisticated or driven by high-profile figures — can empower anyone to contribute to a better future.This programme is a testament to the power of collaborative design, local ingenuity, and the potential for a more harmonious relationship between industry, culture, and our planet. Join us as the future of industrialization is reshaped
Variation in Ectotherm Thermal Tolerances With Elevation and Temperature Across Biological Scales
Get PDFAimVariation in thermal tolerances along environmental gradients is assumed to follow similar patterns across different biological scales, including within and between species, and across communities. However, this assumption has yet to be tested using comprehensive datasets collected through standardised methodologies.LocationSouthern Asia.Time Period2017–2019.Major Taxa StudiedAnts, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders.MethodsWe quantified the associations between thermal tolerance traits and elevation or temperature at three biological scales (community, broad taxonomic group, and species) along two distinct elevational transects in Southern Asia. In total, we measured thermal tolerances of over 15,000 individuals from 114 arthropod species belonging to four invertebrate taxa (ants, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders). We compared the relationships at each scale using mixed-effects models.ResultsAt the community scale, across all individuals of all species, we found a consistent decline in the values of three thermal tolerance traits (upper tolerance, lower tolerance, and tolerance breadth) with elevation along the Himalayan transect but an increase in the values of upper and lower tolerance along the Sulaiman transect. The relationships of thermal tolerance traits and elevation/temperature varied among the groups and species between the Himalayan and Sulaiman transects. This suggests that factors beyond elevation, including vegetation composition, microclimate, landscape features, and local adaptation, drive observed variation in thermal tolerance traits among and within species.ConclusionOur study highlights the interplay between thermal physiology and the environment across different habitats and biological scales. Our findings indicate that predicting biodiversity responses to environmental change based on thermal tolerance–environment relationships requires careful consideration of group- and species-level variation. This is essential for improving the accuracy of climate change impact assessments on biodiversity
Outer Hebrides – Visitor Data Report 2025
No full textThe following objectives are addressed in this report:1) Gather, align, compare and analyse existing data sets relevant to the islands’ visitor industry therefore adopting a new approach which makes best use of already available data.2) Identify gaps in visitor data not currently captured and aim to fill these with original survey recommendations.3) Create models for this analysis and survey work which can be more easily replicated going forward, allowing OHT and partners to regularly update visitor insights without having to commission new projects every time4) Return both an up-to-date, accurate information report about current visitor volume, value and activity and projected information that estimates what direction the local sector is headed in, therefore enabling more accurate policy and project planning
Supply side sentiments and international travel: a novel dynamic simulation of policy options for business and investor sentiments
No full textThe tourism literature widely documents how emotions, mood and optimism drive the demand for tourism. However, the literature is mute on whether sentiment plays a role in the supply side. We use a forward-looking forecasting model to investigate the interplay between various sentiment measures and travel. The simulation robustly accounts for the effect of trade, real GDP, and foreign direct investment on travel services. The result shows a long-term relationship between travel services and customer sentiment, hence, an increase in the bull-bear spread (BBS), in the short run, has a negative influence on travel services, but this link fades in the long run. Consumer confidence, on the other hand, has a positive impact on travel services in both the short and long run. Our findings advocate the consideration of sentiments when modelling travel services export. The forecasting model also reveals that travel services will decline in the future
‘They gave me an opportunity, and I took it’: motivations and concerns of adult apprentices
Get PDFIn the UK context of an ageing population, degree apprenticeships represent a new opportunity to study for a degree while working. Apprentices are full-time employees granted time to study for a degree with a significant workplace learning component. The aim of this study was to focus on whether degree apprenticeships are working for adult apprentices (aged 26 and up in this context). New apprentices (n=162) in six universities in Scotland, UK were surveyed to gain a better understanding of background, prior work and study experience, motivations and expectations. Results show that adult apprentices join apprenticeship programmes with significant work experience and workplace metaskills, together with a consolidated sense of self as a professional. Adult apprentices aimed to gain a degree while remaining in work, thus increasing skills in situ. The main barrier identified was the challenge of achieving work-study-life balance. The findings can be used to more closely align apprenticeship provision with adult apprentices’ skills needs while reducing barriers to accessing and succeeding in apprenticeships. We make recommendations for more flexibility in terms of advanced entry and Masters-level apprenticeships, with better recognition of prior experience, motivations and anticipated challenges
Transition-aware human activity recognition using an ensemble deep learning framework
No full textUnderstanding human activities in daily life is of utmost importance, especially in the context of personalized and adaptive ubiquitous learning. Although existing HAR systems perform well-identifying activities based on their inter-spatial and temporal relationships, they lack in identifying the importance of accurately detecting postural transitions that not only enhance the activity recognition rate and reduced the error rate but also provides added motivation to explore and develop hybrid models. It's in this context we propose an ensemble approach of 1D-CNN and LSTM for the task of postural transition recognition, facilitated by wireless computing and wearable sensors. The proliferation of achieving ubiquitous learning will ultimately lead to the creation of adaptive devices enabled by various data analysis and relation learning techniques. Our approach is one of the methods that can be incorporated to enable seamless learning and acquire correlations with adaptive learning techniques. The experimental results on testing datasets including newly produced HAPT (Human Activities and Postural Transitions) show better classification accuracy than existing state-of-the-art HAR approaches (97.84% for transitional activities and 99.04% for dynamic human activities) indicating the capability of the model in ubiquitous learning scenarios and personalized and adaptive human learning environments
Intelligent Digital Twin Communication Framework for Addressing Accuracy and Timeliness Tradeoff in Resource-Constrained Networks
Get PDFThe accuracy and timeliness tradeoff prevents Digital Twins (DTs) from realizing their full potential. High accuracy is crucial for decision-making, and timeliness is equally essential for responsiveness. Therefore, this tradeoff in DT communication must be addressed to achieve DT synchronization. Previous studies identified the issue but considered the problem as maximizing data transfer, which is infeasible due to resource constraints. To facilitate this, we quantify accuracy and timeliness as E and ϕ and define the problem as joint minimisation. We then introduce the Intelligent DT Communication (IDTC) Framework to solve the problem, which includes machine learning-based Predictive Synchronization (PS) and DT synchronization management (DTSYNC) protocol. Here, PS uses imputation and forecasting to generate future values, which are utilized to update DT at the projected time points. This mechanism of PS enables lowering E and ϕ of the communication. Subsequently, we utilize the DTSYNC to control synchronization and optimise the twining frequency ft. We evaluate the proposed framework using a public dataset and compare its performance with several state-of-the-art studies in a real-world scenario. Evaluation results indicate that IDTC outperforms the existing methods by 80% for E and 84% for ϕ while enabling ft adjustment, resulting in 3.8 times goodput improvement
Seasonal Variation in Vascular Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Recommendations for Future Research
Get PDFVascular function serves as a prognostic marker for cardiovascular disease and may exhibit seasonal variations due to lifestyle and environmental factors. Our systematic review aimed to determine whether seasonal variations in vascular function are present. We conducted a search of five databases (MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Biomed Central) to identify evidence of seasonal variations in vascular function. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they assessed vascular function in adult humans during two or more seasons and were published in English. Of the 20,420 studies screened, 12 were eligible and none were excluded due to bias. Nine studies reported significant seasonal variations in vascular function, whereas three studies found no significant seasonal variations. The seasonality of vascular function remains unclear. However, current literature indicates that vascular dysfunction may exhibit a seasonal pattern, with vascular function reduced in the winter. Seasonal variations in endothelial function necessitate further exploration, particularly concerning factors such as exercise, temperature, light exposure, and air pollution. Future research should adopt standardised protocols, involve diverse and larger populations, employ longitudinal designs to minimise confounding factors, systematically measure and adjust for environmental variables, and accurately assess the impact of seasonal variation on vascular function
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