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Empowering stakeholders with participatory auditing of predictive AI : perspectives from end-users and decision subjects without AI expertise
No full textArtificial intelligence (AI) applications have become ubiquitous in their impact on individuals and society, highlighting a crucial need for their responsible development. Recent research has called for participatory AI auditing, empowering individuals without AI expertise to audit AI applications throughout the entire AI development pipeline. Our work focuses on investigating how to support these kinds of auditors through participatory AI auditing tools and processes. We conducted a series of co-design workshops, using two health-related predictive AI applications as examples. Our results show that participants wanted to be part of AI audits, and were insightful in identifying the potential impacts of applications, but needed to be assisted in conducting audits, especially how to measure impacts. Importantly, participants provided examples of impacts not considered in current risk/harm taxonomies. Our findings provide implications for the design of tools and processes to empower everyone to contribute to responsible AI development in the future
Scribble-supervised multi-organ segmentation via epistemic-driven hardness-adaptive focusing
Full text linkScribble supervision reduces annotation costs in multi-organ segmentation. However, its sparsity results in insufficient supervision for most regions and inadequate feature learning in hard areas (e.g., organ boundaries). These hard areas cause model confirmation bias and high epistemic uncertainty, which existing methods fail to address. To overcome these core challenges, we propose an epistemic-driven hardness-adaptive focusing framework. This framework establishes a self-improving loop: quantified epistemic uncertainty guides hard sample generation, while hard sample learning and feature alignment jointly reduce epistemic uncertainty. Specifically, we first propose a phase-adaptive hardness-aware loss function to quantify epistemic uncertainty and generate dynamic hardness maps during training. Based on these maps, we employ a distribution-divergence-aware copy-paste operation to create hard samples, which are progressively incorporated into learning to reduce epistemic uncertainty. Furthermore, we introduce feature distribution alignment to mitigate bias and epistemic uncertainty by aligning organ-specific hard regions with global features. Extensive experiments on multi-organ CT and ultrasound datasets demonstrate the competitiveness and effectiveness of our method. The framework’s generalizability and robustness are further validated under cross-dataset and noise-corrupted scenarios. This work offers a practical solution for clinical applications where annotation efficiency is critical
Modelling heat and fluid flow during heating of a water filled mine shaft
No full textDecarbonising heat in combination with energy storage can be a key component on the way to achieving net zero. Hundreds of thousands of flooded, post-closure coal mine shafts are estimated to exist based on relevant mining authority databases across industrialised countries and we are proposing they should be considered an unused asset for large scale thermal energy storage. These numerous, pre-existing structures are often situated close to high population density areas and surrounded by insulating bedrock. There have been no completed Mine Shaft Thermal Energy Storage (MSTES) pilot studies to-date; as a result, its feasibility and performance as a heat storage system for district heating networks remains untested. The objective of this study is to conduct a CFD simulation of heat storage in a flooded Scottish mine shaft with a vertical closed loop heating system suspended in the top 50 m of the mine shaft to gain a better understanding of: temperature distribution in the shaft and surrounding environment, as well as any buoyancy-induced mixing with deeper mine shaft water below the heating system. The presented simulations focus on the heating phase of an MSTES operation over 10 days. In this scenario an unstratified shaft, selected for a MSTES pilot study, is heated from a small closed loop pipe with varying temperatures and heat transfer coefficients from the pipe to the water. The result provide assurance that a pilot test at the site can be delivered safely, and opens the possibility of future full-commercial scale projects
Accuracy of the Wiener-Hopf solution when based on sample statistics
Full text linkThis letter addresses the problem of an adaptive linear combiner when using sample statistics. In this case, the Wiener-Hopf solution can be based on sample covariance matrices and cross-correlation vectors. Despite these estimates being inaccurate, the calculated, approximate solution can be very precise. We explore why this is so by interpreting the Wiener-Hopf solution as coming from a least squares problem. We compare this solution to the case where we exploit knowledge about some of the statistics. Surprisingly this has very limited benefits and often is detrimental. We also show why it is disadvantageous to separately estimate the two statistics
‘Helping people with literally everything under the sun.' : Exploring the work and information behaviours of constituency caseworkers
No full textIntroduction. This study explores the work conducted by constituency caseworkers in Scotland with a focus on their information behaviours. Caseworkers act as information intermediaries, finding and sharing information with constituents on behalf of elected political representatives. As yet they have not received much examination in information science. Method. 20 constituency caseworkers across Scotland were interviewed. In semi- structured interviews, participants discussed their role and responsibilities, revealing a variety of different information behaviours. Analysis. Interviews were transcribed then subjected to thematic analysis, identifying and categorizing recurring phenomena. Results. Findings showcase caseworkers’ role as information intermediaries with a wide range of information behaviours. These include information elicitation, information tailoring, and information signposting. Networking was also found to be crucial to the role to keep informed and find critical information for clients. Conclusion. Gaining a deeper understanding of unexplored information intermediaries contributes to the information behaviour field as well as providing practical implications for governments to motivate greater support for caseworkers, who are given little training for their critical role
On the well-posedness of stochastic partial differential equations with locally Lipschitz coefficients
Full text linkWe consider the stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE), ∂tu = ½∂ 2x u + b(u)+σ(u)W, where u = u(t,x) is defined for (t,x)∈(0,∞)×ℝ, and W denotes space-time white noise. We prove that this SPDE is well posed solely under the assumptions that the initial condition u(0) is bounded and measurable, and b and σ are locally Lipschitz continuous functions having at most linear growth with regularly behaved local Lipschitz constants. Our method is based on a truncation argument together with moment bounds and tail estimates of the truncated solution. The novelty of our method is in the pointwise nature of the truncation argument
The role of child impact assessments in supporting children and young people impacted by parental imprisonment
Full text linkChildren and young people with a parent in contact with the justice system rarely receive the support they need; many are judged and stigmatised. Child Impact Assessments were developed by the Prison Reform Trust in collaboration with 28 children and young people from across the United Kingdom with experience of parental imprisonment, who said in interviews, focus groups, and an online survey that they want to be seen, listened to, and considered at all stages of a parent’s journey through the justice system: arrest, court, and sentencing, prison or community sentence, and prior to a parent’s release. They want to be supported, and they want to be included in decisions about that support. This paper lays out why Child Impact Assessments are needed; what they are; and crucially how they can be used in practice to ensure the right support is offered to meet a child’s needs at the earliest opportunity. The paper will provide evidence of how Child Impact Assessments can improve children’s wellbeing and will give an overview of recent developments to the resources. The authors will also explore future developments, including adapting the resources to understand the impact on unborn babies, babies, and very young children (the first 1001 days) when a pregnant woman or mother is in contact with the justice system
Pleats // Seedlings
Full text linkIn his poem “Seedings,” Jerome Rothenberg presents a cat whose face is that “of death,” whose mind we might enter to understand how “it moves through space & time” (6). This cat can pass between realms; this cat is a line of fl ight between life and its aftermath. Is the cat a witness or a conduit to what happens on either side? No one can really be in the “cat’s mind” and so the cat too “becomes a distant echo” (6). Death fl ickers through the impossible mind of the cat. It slinks, enjambed, in space. Rothenberg sets out the problem of knowing death through intuition or experience: “but death abolishes / all space & time ... like the cat’s mind / where no there is” (6). Where “no” – the negative – is – there. Presence repeats itself in absence as insistence. The aporia I instinctively feel when trying to relate to the cat is a pirouette into elsewhere, or perhaps a reversal. How to gather back in? How can we know what’s “beyond us” (7)? Where, if anywhere, is “there”? The cat leads me to an open fi eld of déjà vu. What is this “memory of garden” the cat takes into death (7)? Do I know it? Do you? Does it need tending, or collected like fl owers? My sense of “gathering” commences from the dreamwork of seeding set out in this poem
Influence of CFD modelling parameters on air injection behaviour in ship air lubrication systems
Full text linkIn response to the International Maritime Organization’s strengthened regulations on carbon emissions, the introduction of novel eco-friendly technologies for ship operators has become necessary. In this context, various energy saving devices such as wind-assisted propulsion systems (e.g., wing/rotor sails), propeller-rudder efficiency enhancers (e.g., pre-swirl stators or ducted propellers), and the gate rudder system have been proposed. Among various energy-saving technologies, the air lubrication system has been widely investigated as an effective means of reducing hull frictional resistance through air injection beneath the hull. The performance of air lubrication systems can be evaluated through experimental testing or computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. However, accurately simulating air lubrication systems in CFD remains challenging. Therefore, this study aims to quantitatively evaluate the influence of numerical parameters on the CFD implementation of air lubrication systems. To evaluate these influences, CFD simulations employing the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) method were conducted to investigate air layer formation and sweep angle on a flat plate. The numerical predictions were systematically compared with experimental results by varying key numerical parameters. These quantitative estimations of the effects of numerical variables are expected to serve as a useful benchmark for CFD simulations of air lubrication systems
Developing AWaRe-ness in primary care across low- and middle-income countries : a vital challenge for antibiotic stewardship programs
Full text linkAntimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a growing global public health challenge, particularly among low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). AMR is exacerbated by high levels of inappropriate prescribing and dispensing of antibiotics among LMICs. To address this, the World Health Organization and others have launched several initiatives. These include the Global Action Plan, promoting the AWaRe classification and guidance as well as encouraging antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASPs). There have also been initiatives to reduce the prevalence of substandard and falsified antibiotics. More co-ordinated activities are needed though to reduce rising AMR among LMICs and the consequences. However, key challenges remain. These include current variable knowledge of antibiotics, AMR and ASPs among all key stakeholder groups, including patients, and variable antibiotic resistance surveillance in primary care. In addition, issues of affordability encouraging the informal sector. Interlocking activities include encouraging increased awareness of AWaRe and guidance among all key groups, implementing ASPs in primary care along with quality indicators based on AWaRe, and encouraging greater co-ordinated activities to reduce the extent of substandard and falsified antibiotics. Overall, multiple activities are needed to improve antibiotic access and use in primary care, including promoting AWaRe-ness and ASPs. Working together, AMR can be reduced and health improved
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