Reflections on the ‘Reimagining the Teaching of Criminal Law’ Workshop

A report on the September 2014 CEPLER Workshop, which brought together representatives of higher education institutions with practitioners to consider the place, content and structure of criminal law courses and the need to adapt to the changing demands of fee paying students through regular review of the content, aims and outcomes of our modules. Given the increasing external regulation and the contentious issue of 'core modules' in the context of discussions regarding the value of a law degree, this is even more pertinent for those who teach criminal law

Assessing the Efficacy of the ELECTRA Pre-Trained Language Model for Multi-Class Sarcasm Subcategory Classification

Sarcasm detection remains a challenging task in the discipline of natural language processing, primarily due to the large levels of nuance, subjectivity, and context-sensitivity in expression of the sentiment. Pre-trained large language models have been employed in a variety of sarcasm detection tasks, including binary sarcasm detection and the classification of sarcastic speech subcategories. However, such models remain compute-hungry solutions and thus there has been a recent trend towards attempting to mitigate this through the creation of more lightweight models- including ELECTRA. This dissertation seeks to assess the efficacy of the ELECTRA pre-trained large language model, known for its computational efficiency and performant results in various natural language processing tasks, for multi-class sarcasm subcategory classification. This research proposes a partial fine-tuning approach to generalise on sarcastic data before the model is applied in several manners to the task while employing feature engineering techniques to remove overlap between hierarchical data categories. Preliminary results yield a macro F1 Score of 0.0787 for 6-class classification and 0.2363 for3-class classification, indicating potential for further improvement and application within the field

Circulating Serum Exosomal miRNAs As Potential Biomarkers for Esophageal Adenocarcinoma

Author version made available in accordance with publisher policy.Abstract Background The poor prognosis and rising incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma highlight the need for improved detection methods. The potential for circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) as biomarkers in other cancers has been shown, but circulating miRNAs have not been well characterized in esophageal adenocarcinoma. We investigated whether circulating exosomal miRNAs have potential to discriminate individuals with esophageal adenocarcinoma from healthy controls and non-dysplastic Barrett’s esophagus. Methods Seven hundred fifty-eight miRNAs were profiled in serum circulating exosomes from a cohort of 19 healthy controls, 10 individuals with Barrett’s esophagus, and 18 individuals with locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma. MiRNA expression was assessed using all possible permutations of miRNA ratios per individual. Four hundred eight miRNA ratios were differentially expressed in individuals with cancer compared to controls and Barrett’s esophagus (Mann-Whitney U test, P<0.05). The 179/408 ratios discriminated esophageal adenocarcinoma from healthy controls and Barrett’s esophagus (linear regression, P0.7, P<0.05). A multi-biomarker panel (RNU6-1/miR- 16-5p, miR-25-3p/miR-320a, let-7e-5p/miR-15b-5p, miR- 30a-5p/miR-324-5p, miR-17-5p/miR-194-5p) demonstrated enhanced specificity and sensitivity (area under ROC=0.99, 95 % CI 0.96–1.0) over single miRNA ratios to distinguish esophageal adenocarcinoma from controls and Barrett’s esophagus. Conclusions This study highlights the potential for serum exosomal miRNAs as biomarkers for the detection of esophageal adenocarcinoma

What Does the Non-Party Sector Think About Far-Right Political Parties? Understanding the Place of Parties in the Australian Far Right

Far-right political parties form an integral component of the broader far-right landscape globally. While these parties have received extensive scholarly attention, less is known about how they are perceived within the wider far-right milieu – a relationship with significant implications for understanding movement-party dynamics in contemporary democracies. This article investigates the relationship between far-right political parties and the non-party sector through a mixed-methods approach, combining keyword frequency analysis, sentiment analysis, and qualitative content analysis. Drawing on large-scale data sets from Telegram, X (formerly Twitter), 8kun, and far-right alternative media outlets in Australia, we explore two key research questions: How does the non-party sector perceive far-right parties and politicians? And what role do these parties play within the broader far-right ecosystem? Our findings reveal a complex and often contradictory relationship, with non-party actors expressing views that reflect deeper ideological, organisational, and strategic divisions within far-right movements. These patterns of conditional support, strategic adaptation, and ideological tension offer insights applicable beyond Australia, contributing to theoretical understanding of how extra-parliamentary actors evaluate electoral politics across democratic settings

Estimation of blood volume and blood loss in primary total hip and knee replacement:An analysis of formulae for perioperative calculations and their ability to predict length of stay and blood transfusion requirements

INTRODUCTION: Blood loss continues to be a common surgical risk in total hip (THR) and knee replacements (TKR). Accurate prediction of blood loss permits appropriate counselling of risks to patients, target optimisation and forecasting future transfusion requirements. We compared blood volume formulae of Moore and Nadler, and blood loss formulae of Liu, Mercuriali, Bourke, Ward, Gross, Lisander and Meunier, to assess associations between calculated values with length of stay and transfusion requirements and determine which are useful in contemporary practice. METHODS: We retrospectively studied patients undergoing primary THR and TKR. We collected data on patient demographics, surgical interventions, pre- and postoperative haemoglobin and haematocrit values, length of stay and blood transfusion requirements. Spearman correlation tests and least squares multiple linear regression were performed. RESULTS: 149 THRs and 90 TKRs in 239 patients were analysed over four months. There was a very strong correlation between blood volume formulae. There were multiple very strong and strong associations between blood loss formulae. Bourke correlated significantly to length of stay, and Liu, Mercuriali, Lisander and Meunier correlated for incidence of transfusion. CONCLUSION: Accurate estimation of perioperative blood loss is increasingly important as demand for joint replacement surgery increases in an ageing population. If the primary interest is the association of blood loss and length of stay, Bourke's formula should be preferred. If the primary interest is calculating risk of transfusion, the formulae of Liu or Meunier should be preferred. The formulae of Mercuriali and Lisander are becoming redundant in contemporary practice

Optical Herding of Swarms:Toward Universal Control Algorithms for Microscopic Collectives

Directed light beams are a promising means of control for microscopic agents, whether they are microrobots or phototatic microorganisms such as Volvox and ciliates. Given the simple reactive behaviors common to most microagents, there is likely to be a certain universality in light-beam algorithms that can usefully `herd' such collectives around. Here, we develop three light-beam control algorithms to herd light-sensitive agents around a two-dimensional environment, each making varying assumptions about agent behavioral capacities. We test them with small swarms of Kilobot robots, which are about 3cm in size. These robots are convenient macro-scale demonstrators of possibilities at the micro-scale. The algorithms are tested in simulation and found to achieve the desired herding goals. Waypoint following missions were implemented using single robots and multiple robots to demonstrate more complex trajectories and highlight the effects of multiple robots interacting. One of the algorithms was tested with real robots and is shown to perform well, owing to good robustness to projection inaccuracies. Future swarm engineers could refer to a common toolbox of broadly effective light-based swarm control algorithms, which can be selected according to agent capabilities

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Public innovation: building capacity in Europe’s city governments

This new report, led by LSE Cities and developed in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and Eurocities, is based on a Eurocities Pulse survey of 65 European cities and seven deep-dive case studies. It maps the landscape of government innovation capacity in Europe’s cities, and asks what’s working, what can cities learn from each other, and where they need more support to meet the challenges of the 21st century through city government innovation. Cities across Europe, like those around the world, are grappling with unprecedented challenges – whether it’s addressing the climate crisis, managing disruptive technologies, fostering more inclusive economies, or supporting rapidly ageing populations. The scale and urgency of these challenges mean cities are confronted, as perhaps never before, with the need to innovate. Public sector innovation – from mission-driven policies to citizens’ assemblies or new cross-sector leadership roles – is increasingly being recognised as a necessity rather than a ‘nice-to-have’. But innovation in city governments does not happen by magic. City governments must build up their innovation muscles – their capacity to generate new ideas, test them and learn the lessons. Building on work by the OECD and others, this report identifies four key components that make up a city’s capacity to innovate: leadership capabilities, organisational capabilities, analytical capabilities, partnership capabilities. This report describes how European cities are working to build their innovation capacity across these four components