Physiological correlates of a simple saccadic-decision task to extended objects in superior colliculus

Saccadic eye movements direct gaze to objects of interest. Human studies show that saccade initiation latency depends on the size of the saccade target (the “size-latency effect”), perhaps reflecting a tradeoff between the cost of making a saccade and the expected information gain. Here, we investigated the neuronal correlates of the size-latency effect in macaque superior colliculus (SC). Analysis of saccade latencies within a stochastic accumulator framework predicted a steeper increase in activity for smaller targets compared to larger ones, and, surprisingly, an increase in saccade initiation threshold for smaller targets. We found that SC activity is in close agreement with these predictions. We also found evidence that these effects may be a consequence of the visual responses of SC neurons to targets of different sizes. The results shed new light on the sources of delay within the saccadic system, a system that we heavily depend upon for visuo-motor tasks

Post-event Summary Report: Social Prescribing In Secondary Care Roundtable

The Social Prescribing in Secondary Care Roundtable took place on 13th May 2025 at University Square Stratford, hosted by the, Institute for Connected Communities at the University of East London. The event, chaired by Professor Marcello Bertotti, aimed to foster dialogue around social prescribing initiatives taking place within hospital and tertiary care settings (hospital-initiated social prescribing) across different global contexts. It formed part of a broader effort to consolidate learning and contribute to a forthcoming publication on the evidence base for social prescribing in secondary care

Effectiveness of blog writing intervention for promoting subjective well-being, resilience, and post-traumatic growth of palliative care nurses

Introduction: Nurses in palliative care (PC) and end-of-life care settings are at increased risk for trauma, distress, and suffering leading to poor resilience and well-being outcomes. The recent pandemic further exposed PC nurses to experience poor mental, emotional, and existential health and well-being resulting in increased turnover, poor retention, and job satisfaction among nurses in clinical and community practice settings around the globe. Expressive writing interventions are shown to promote self-reflection, personal growth, and resilience when facing adverse life events and disaster situations. This study aims to test the effectiveness of a self-reflexive blog writing intervention to promote subjective well-being, resilience, and post-traumatic growth of nurses in palliative care settings within the US during the pandemic. Methods: A pre-and post-test design was used to test and evaluate the acceptability, utility, and effectiveness of the reflexive blog writing intervention guided by SOPHIE (Self-exploration on Ontological, Phenomenological, Humanistic, Ideological, and Existential) approach in promoting resilience, post-traumatic growth, and subjective well-being among palliative care nurses. Fifty-seven nurses working in palliative and hospice care settings participated in the study. Pre-and-post online Qualtrics surveys were completed before and after administering the intervention. Participants in the intervention group were asked to write weekly blogs for four weeks using an online SOPHIE-guided blog-writing template. Descriptive statistics and t-test were used to describe the study sample and compare the means while ANCOVA; was used to control study covariates that might influence the study outcomes. and compare the means of outcome variables such as subjective well-being, resilience, and post-traumatic growth in both groups. Results: A significant difference was seen in the mean scores of subjective well-being and resilience among the participants in the blog writing intervention group. We did not see any significant changes in post-traumatic growth post-intervention. Post-survey analysis of descriptive data revealed that most participants found blog writing intervention helpful and a supportive tool to express their anxiety, trauma, and distress. Conclusions: The reflexive blog writing intervention guided by SOPHIE foster self-reflection and was found to be useful and effective in improving subjective well-being and resilience among nurses in palliative care settings during the pandemic. The particular intervention can be used among nurses in both clinical and community palliative care settings. Organizational policies and practices should encourage and implement similar initiatives to improve coping and wellbeing that can eventually increase job satisfaction and retention rates among nurses. Future studies are needed to test the intervention on a larger scale to further test its effectiveness and applicability in palliative care settings

Ground waste glass as a supplementary cementitious material for concrete: sustainable utilization, material performance and environmental considerations

This review paper delves into the role, potential and peculiarities of ground waste glass as both a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) and a filler in concrete. Motivated by the increasing emphasis on sustainable construction practices, the paper explores the potential of ground waste glass in enhancing concrete performance while addressing environmental concerns associated with traditional materials. The comprehensive review encompasses the properties of ground waste glass as an SCM, its global availability, its influence on various concrete properties, compatibility with cementitious systems, optimisation techniques, challenges, and practical applications. Key considerations such as particle size distribution, replacement levels, and chemical activation in optimising recycled ground waste glass incorporation are also highlighted. This comprehensive review underscores the potential of ground waste glass as a sustainable additive in concrete, enhancing both environmental responsibility and structural performance

Valorization of Incinerated Biomedical Waste Ash in Cementitious System: A Comprehensive Review

Disposing of incinerated biomedical waste ash (IBWA) contaminated with heavy metals (e.g., Cr, Zn, Pb) poses significant environmental and public health concerns, necessitating innovative and sustainable management strategies. Cement-based solidification emerges as a promising approach to repurpose IBWA by effectively immobilizing heavy metals and mitigating their ecological footprint. However, broader industrial and societal acceptance of IBWA as a substitute for cement and sand remains constrained owing to limited quantification of IBWA availability and safety concerns. In this perspective, the current paper presents a global database on IBWA availability and maps the geographic distribution of biomedical waste incinerators in India. It also comprehensively reviews IBWA’s potential in mortar/concrete, focusing on its physico-chemical, leachability, hydration, mechanical, durability, and microstructural properties. The study further highlights the importance of a cradle-to-gate and gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to holistically assess the environmental performance of IBWA-incorporated mortar systems, promoting circular economy principles and resource efficiency in the construction sector. IBWA, with its high SiO₂ and CaO content (> 50%), exhibits latent hydraulic properties suitable for construction applications. The porous cellular structure of IBWA can lead to increased porosity and water absorption in concrete. Leachate analysis demonstrated the effective stabilization of heavy elements within the cement hydration matrix (C-S-H, C-A-S-H, etc.), meeting US EPA regulatory standards. LCA interprets that IBWA utilization of up to 10% cement replacement material and 30% sand replacement material could curtail the carbon footprint and energy demand by ~ 25–35% and 15–25%, respectively, compared to conventional cement-based mortar systems. These findings highlight IBWA’s potential to transform the construction sector, aligning it with global sustainability goals and reducing its dependence on non-renewable resources

Antiracism in Early Childhood Education: Theory and Practice

This book explores racism and antiracist practice in early childhood education (ECE), exploring how different theoretical lenses can enable students and practitioners to consider the complexity of race and racism in early childhood and education and the impact it has on young children's lives. Written by academics and practitioners based in the USA and the UK, the chapters cover a range of Issues and theories including, race and play, decolonial approaches in ECE, Marxism, critical pedagogy, child-centered pedagogy, pro-Black pedagogies, Black feminist perspectives, critical race theory and immigration. Throughout the book, new conceptualisations of race and anti-racist praxis emerge that have the potential to transform children's lives not only in day to day practice but also one's way of being in the world

Beyond Nearest-Neighbor Connections in Device-to-Device Cellular Networks

Device-to-device (D2D) communication enhances network efficiency by enabling direct, low-latency links between nearby users or devices. While most existing research assumes that D2D connections occur with the nearest neighbor, this assumption often fails in real-world scenarios-such as dense indoor environments, smart buildings, and industrial IoT deployments-due to factors like channel variability, physical obstructions, or limited user participation. In this paper, we investigate the performance implications of connecting to the n-th nearest neighbor in a cellular network supporting underlay D2D communication. Using a stochastic geometry framework, we derive and analyze key performance met-rics, including the coverage probability and average data rate, for both D2D and cellular links under proximity-aware connection strategies. Our results reveal that non-nearest-neighbor associations are not only common but sometimes necessary for maintaining reliable connectivity in highly dense or constrained spaces. These findings are directly relevant to IoT-enhanced localization systems, where fallback mechanisms and adaptive pairing are essential for communication resilience. This work contributes to the development of proximity-aware and spatially adaptive D2D frameworks for next-generation smart environments and 5G-and-beyond wireless networks

Exploring relationship between digital dexterity, supply chain quality management, agility and performance – Empirical evidence from Indian B2B manufacturers

The advent of cutting-edge digitalization has introduced a range of organizational capabilities that have been proposed to assist business-to-business (B2B) manufacturers in attaining a strategic advantage within the intensely competitive global landscape. Nevertheless, the process of digitization poses multiple roadblocks in its execution, leading to a sense of scepticism among manufacturers in the B2B sector about its adoption for the purpose of enhancing their quality management and agility across the supply chain. The current research is a pioneering effort in examining the interplay between digital dexterity (DigDex), supply chain quality management (SCQM), supply chain agility (SCAG), and supply chain performance (SCP) within the distinctive sphere of B2B manufacturing. In order to gain a deeper comprehension of the efficacy of the interplay between various functional capabilities, this study investigates the effectiveness of regulatory governance in providing assistance to B2B manufacturers. This examination is conducted through empirical analysis utilizing data collected from a sample of 291 B2B manufacturers based in India. The research advances the understanding of the mechanisms by which DigDex, SCQM, and SCAG interact for bettering SCP. Practically, these findings guide practitioners to optimize digital capabilities judiciously, tailoring regulatory governance approaches for comprehensive supply chain enhancement in the dynamic B2B manufacturing landscape

Understanding the Informal Economy: Theories, Measurement techniques: Informal Economy in ten Balkan countries (1996-2014)

This book provides an in-depth exploration of the informal economy across ten Balkan countries, analysing its key drivers, measurement techniques, and broader economic implications. Drawing on a wide range of empirical studies, it examines the methodologies used to estimate the size of informal activities, with a particular focus on the MIMIC (Multiple Indicators, Multiple Causes) model. Spanning the period from the mid-1990s to 2014, the study traces the evolution of informal economic activity across Serbia, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey. Due to data limitations, Kosovo and Montenegro are excluded, reflecting the challenges of assessing economic trends in newly independent states. By bridging theoretical frameworks with empirical research, this book offers valuable insights into the role of the informal sector in the region's economic landscape. It serves as an essential resource for scholars, policymakers, and anyone interested in understanding the complexities of informal economies in transition economies

Edge computing in big data: challenges and benefits

Edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the network edge, enabling improvements in response times and bandwidth utilization. It offers potential privacy benefits by facilitating local data processing, thereby reducing the need to transmit sensitive data to centralized cloud systems. This technology is particularly beneficial for big data applications. We analyze the transformative benefits of edge computing in big data systems, such as reduced latency, bandwidth optimization, and near-real-time decision making, alongside the potential for enhanced data control when processing occurs locally. Despite its potential, the integration of edge computing with big data analytics introduces significant technical challenges. We examine these challenges, including data consistency, fault tolerance, energy efficiency, and notably, the new security and privacy concerns arising from the distributed nature of edge devices, managing decentralized data access, and securing computation on potentially vulnerable edge infrastructure. While acknowledging the potential of current approaches, this paper identifies their limitations and proposes key future research directions and fully realize the potential of edge computing in big data analytics in the coming years. Edge-cloud computing, AI-driven orchestration, 6G networks, and quantum edge computing, as well as bio-inspired computing, represent key areas of technological advancement