The concept of chipless radio frequency identification (CRFID) multiparameter tag sensors is fairly new and nowadays has gained importance among researchers for their ability to identify objects and sense multiple parameters at once without requiring integrated chips (ICs), onboard power sources, and active components. This article presents a comprehensive review of such tag sensors, emphasizing its current stage of development, performance comparisons, and existing research gaps. This study provides a detailed classification of resonator structures, identification (ID) and sensing mechanisms, sensing functions and factors, and smart/sensitive materials (SMs), establishing a new unified taxonomy. Furthermore, it provides details on the sensing mechanism and physics behind it, maps resonator types to their design principles with their sensing functions, alongside their corresponding smart/sensitive materials (SMs), and reveals their multiparameter decoupling and selectivity techniques. It also comments on the substrates used and the adopted printing process. A critical quantitative evaluation follows based on key ID [coding capacity (CC), spectral density (SD), and spatial density (SPD)] and sensing metrics [sensitivity, dynamic range (DR), and read range (RR)]. Finally, this article discusses current challenges such as limited CC, short RR, absence of dedicated readers and standards, and issues with selectivity and suggests future directions, including artificial intelligence (AI) integration and scalable deployment for the Internet of Things (IoT), smart logistics, environmental monitoring, and industrial automation.
This paper explores how lecturers manage the emotional and structural demands of supporting non-traditional students in a UK higher education (HE) context. Non-traditional students are understood here as students who are under-represented in HE, including mature students, returning learners, and those from widening participation backgrounds, and who often experience intersecting disadvantages, including financial insecurity, limited academic confidence, and competing family or work commitments. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 32 lecturers, the analysis integrates emotional labour theory and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to illuminate how staff navigate these pressures through emotional regulation, coping strategies, and boundary management within institutional constraints. The findings show that lecturers engaged in genuine empathy and sustained emotional engagement, including forms of "deep acting", in response to students' complex needs. Three key themes are identified: (1) complex needs and associated time and emotional demands, (2) gaps in personal tutoring and workload allocation models, and (3) copying strategies and boundary management. The study makes two key contributions. Theoretically, it demonstrates the value of integrating emotional labour and JD-R perspectives to explain the sustainability of academic care work. Empirically, it foregrounds the experiences of lecturers supporting non-traditional students, showing how emotional labour operates at the intersection of individual coping and institutional constraint. The paper concludes by arguing for institutional reform of workload and personal tutoring systems, alongside enhanced training, recognition, and resourcing, to transform pastoral care from hidden labour into sustainable and equitable academic practice.
In the realm of technological advancement, like many sectors, the financial sector swiftly embraced digital transformation to help facilitate financial transactions, especially remittance receipts. The digitalisation of the banking sector has made transfers and access to funds quite easier, faster, and more economical by reducing transaction costs. This paper examines the impact of digital banking on remittance flows using the World Bank's Global Findex (2014, 2017, and 2021) surveys and panel macroeconomic data for 53 developing countries. Applying the panel corrected standard errors and instrumental variable two-stage least square (IV-2SLS) estimation techniques, the findings suggest a non-linear (inverted U-shaped) relationship between digital banking and remittances, that is these private (external financial) flows initially increase at low levels of digital banking while at the higher level of digitalisation, remittances start decreasing. Controlling the heterogeneity and endogeneity, in addition, the results suggest that exchange rate depreciation (of the home country's currency) increases remittance inflows. Moreover, remittance receipts increase with (the development of) human capital and (per capita) income of developing countries.
Use-dependent plasticity, induced by voluntary movement, shares neural mechanisms with stimulation-based approaches but lacks a defined dose-response profile. We tested whether sequential bouts of lower-limb visuomotor training modulates corticospinal excitability, and whether a threshold exists beyond which further training triggers homeostatic downregulation. Fourteen healthy participants performed two bouts of a force tracking task targeting the knee extensors, separated by 60 min. A control condition matched the experimental timeline without active training. Corticospinal excitability (MEP amplitude), corticospinal inhibition (silent period), short interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), and spinal excitability (LEP) were measured at baseline and at four post-task time points. Motor performance was assessed via force steadiness. Force steadiness improved across the session (P < 0.05), indicating motor skill learning. No significant changes were observed in MEP amplitude, SICI, or LEP (all P > 0.05). A delayed increase in silent period duration was noted at the final time point (P = 0.032). No session*time interactions were found. Findings suggest that repeated bouts of visuomotor training do not facilitate corticospinal output in the knee extensors. Despite behavioural improvement, neurophysiological markers remained unchanged. The lack of neurophysiological effect may reflect a task-or muscle-specific threshold for inducing plasticity, or a ceiling imposed by homeostatic mechanisms. Contrasting upper-limb protocols, lower-limb motor tasks may require greater intensity/novelty to engage plastic processes. We conclude that, under the conditions tested, the dose of voluntary movement was insufficient to alter corticospinal excitability. Going forwards, researchers should assess whether adaptive responses can be enhanced through modified task parameters or multimodal stimulation.
Over-the-counter prefabricated offloading relief insoles with removable modular cells for customisation have not been extensively studied in literature, and no studies have examined designs specifically intended for calluses and corns. This study examined the immediate effects of such insole prototype on the users. Foot pressure distribution was measured by in-shoe F-Scan system during normal walking cycles under four conditions: walking with normal footwear (C1), with prototype insoles inside the footwear (C2), with a cavity under the second metatarsal-phalangeal joint on the left or right side of the prototype insole (C3), and with cavities on both sides on the prototype insoles (C4). Subjective data were also collected in terms of insole fitting, comfort rating and balance feeling. Overall, the prototype insoles designed to offload focal pressure via removing modular cells showed significant immediate effects (all P ≤ 0.002). Averaged across both sides, average peak pressure (PP) of C2, C3 and C4 reduced from C1 by 19
