Heriot-Watt University

Comparing Human Gaze and Vision–Language Model Saliency Predictions in Safety-Relevant Scenes

Human visual attention plays an important role in how people perceive and respond to environments containing potential risks. It is unclear whether vision–language models (VLMs) can predict where people look in such scenes. This exploratory study compares human gaze with VLM sali...

Seabirds and native vegetation drive ecosystem processes that support atoll island resilience

Ecosystem restoration is expected to enhance ecosystem resilience to climate change, but few empirical and mechanistic demonstrations of such assertions exist. Here, we explore this topic for tropical atoll systems, combining science on nutrient subsidies and geo-ecological funct...

Higher-Order Boundary Conditions for Atomistic Dislocation Simulations

Abstract. We present a higher-order boundary condition for atomistic simulations of dislocations that address the slow convergence of standard supercell methods. The method is based on a multipole expansion of the equilibrium displacement, combining continuum predictor solutions...

Separating Environmental Modulation From Source Intermittency in Methane Leakage From a Legacy Well in British Columbia

Abstract Legacy oil and gas wells are an incompletely quantified source of greenhouse gas emissions and offer leakage pathways for subsurface gas migration if inadequately isolated. We present a high‐resolution, process‐based characterization of leakage dynamics at an integrity‐c...

The Tenocyte from Atom to Cell: A Critical Multiscale Synthesis Linking Collagen Chemistry, Tissue Mechanics, Cell Mechanobiology and Mathematical Modelling

The tenocyte builds, maintains, senses and degrades one of the most mechanically demanding extracellular matrices in vertebrates, yet the chemical, physical, biological and mathematical descriptions of this system have developed in largely separate literatures. This review examin...

Ancient terrestrial forests reborn as modern marine ecosystems under shifting sea levels

Abstract Sea-level rise and coastal erosion can submerge terrestrial carbon-rich landscapes, yet the ecological fate and climate significance of such relict coastal carbon deposits remain largely unknown. We report the discovery of submerged tropical peat reefs in the shallow coa...

An ‘Empty’ [Fe 16 ] Cage and its Transformation into [Fe 17 ] and [Fe 30 ]

ABSTRACT Polymetallic clusters of Fe III constructed without organic bridging ligands are an emerging class of molecules with structures akin to iron oxide minerals, possessing large spin ground states and/or displaying spin frustration effects. All previous examples, [Fe 8 ], [F...

Development and validation of a digital application for predicting air permeability of weft knitted fabrics

Air permeability is a fundamental property of textile materials that influences their comfort, functional performance, and suitability for specific applications. It refers to the ability of air to pass through a textile structure under a defined pressure differential. In technica...

Property Recovery in Thermo-Mechanically Recycled Polyester Textiles via Virgin Material Addition and PBO Chain Extension

The textile industry generates tens of millions of tonnes of textile waste annually, a large proportion of which comprises poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibres. Although recycled PET textiles are commercially available, these materials are almost exclusively obtained from po...

Wing Structural Sizing Insights for a Large Battery-Electric Aircraft

Integrating batteries into the wing is a critical design choice in the development of battery-electric aircraft, offering significant benefits for structural weight reduction due to bending relief. To understand the influence of wing-integrated batteries on wing structures, this...

Drivers of blockchain technology adoption in construction supply chains: a systematic literature review and scientometric synthesis

Purpose Blockchain technology (BT) has attracted growing attention in construction supply chain management (CSCM), yet existing research predominantly emphasises applications, technical architectures and barriers, providing limited understanding of the pressures motivating adopti...

Drugging the Undruggable in Oncology: Structural Computation, Machine Learning, and Generative AI for Historically Intractable Targets

For four decades the central oncogenic drivers of human cancer the RAS GTPases, the transcription-factor MYC, mutant p53, and the protein-tyrosine phosphatases, fusion oncoproteins and intrinsically disordered regulators that surround them were regarded as undruggable: lacking de...

Acid Leaching for Carbon Sequestration with Prospects for Critical Metal Recovery

Abstract Reducing carbon emissions and supplying critical metals for the green energy transition are essential to limiting global warming to below 1.5 °C. Here, we propose heap leaching ultramafic material with sulfuric acid followed by sequential precipitation for nickel recover...

Stochastic dominance for linear combinations of infinite-mean risks

Abstract We establish a sufficient condition for comparing linear combinations of independent and identically distributed infinite-mean random variables under the usual stochastic order. We introduce a new class of distributions that includes many commonly used heavy-tailed model...

‘It’s not fair!’ Fathers’ perceptions of injustice in the context of pediatric chronic pain: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Recent research highlights the role of parental appraisals in pediatric pain, yet studies on injustice appraisals remain limited and largely focused on mothers. This qualitative study explores fathers' appraisals of injustice in the context of their child's chronic pain, examinin...

Push and pull factors influencing entrepreneurial entry and persistence in Ghana’s construction market: a qualitative study

Purpose This study examines the push and pull factors influencing entrepreneurial entry and persistence in Ghana’s construction industry. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative design was employed, drawing on semi-structured interviews with 20 entrepreneurs across the categori...

Aggregation framework for continuous digital health measures and application to walking activity data

Abstract No standardized procedures for aggregating continuous digital health measures exist. Using a modified Delphi approach, we developed a framework to standardize the selection of aggregations that provide clinically meaningful, stable values. This was applied to aggregate s...

Green Logistics Adoption in Malaysia: Drivers, Barriers, and Pathways to Sustainable Performance

ABSTRACT Evidence on how green drivers, barriers, and logistics practices shape sustainable performance remains mixed across industries and institutional contexts. As organizations face growing expectations to fulfill their environmental responsibilities, understanding how logist...

A Framework for Quantifying Diverse Multi‐Hazard Interactions to Enhance Climate Resilience

ABSTRACT Multi‐hazard events generate impacts exceeding those of individual hazards but remain difficult to assess due to complex interactions. This study presents a generalized framework for analyzing four interaction types—multivariate, preconditioned and triggering, spatially,...

Positive psychology interventions during pregnancy: A systematic review

Positive psychology interventions (PPI) have been applied and demonstrated evidence in various population groups. The present systematic review focused on the types and influence of PPI on the physical and psychological health of pregnant women. Studies that matched the selection...