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Software Engineering by and for Humans in an AI Era
No full textThe landscape of software engineering is undergoing a transformative shift driven by advancements in machine learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and autonomous systems. This roadmap article explores how these technologies are reshaping the field, positioning humans not only as end users but also as critical components within expansive software ecosystems. We examine the challenges and opportunities arising from this human-centered paradigm, including ethical considerations, fairness, and the intricate interplay between technical and human factors. By recognizing humans at the heart of the software lifecycle - spanning professional engineers, end users, and end user developers - we emphasize the importance of inclusivity, human-aligned workflows, and the seamless integration of AI-augmented socio-technical systems. As software systems evolve to become more intelligent and human-centric, software engineering practices must adapt to this new reality. This article provides a comprehensive examination of this transformation, outlining current trends, key challenges, and opportunities that define the emerging research and practice landscape, and envisioning a future where software engineering and AI work synergistically to place humans at the core of the ecosystem.</p
Environmental framing and left-wing political orientation promote sustainability in a US-based common-pool resource dilemma
No full textLittle research has explored whether framing effects differ based on political orientation in a Common-Pool Resource (CPR) dilemma. In this research, American Democrats and Republicans (N = 266 individuals recruited via Prolific Academic) played an online CPR game, FISH, framed either as an Environment Game (environment framing) or a Fishing Game (neutral framing). In groups of four, participants harvested fish from a shared ocean over eight seasons earning $.10 per fish caught. Unbeknownst to the participants, their three groupmates were in fact computerised players (bots). The interaction between political orientation as a dichotomous model (Democrat versus Republican) and framing condition was not significant. However, those playing the Environment Game were significantly more cooperative in the first season of play and across all seasons played than those playing the Fishing Game. Additionally, Democrats cooperated significantly more than Republicans in the first season, but not across all seasons played. Exploratory analyses show that the strength of a participant's political orientation affected cooperation to some degree, with strong Democrats playing the Environment Game cooperating at significantly higher rates than both strong Democrats playing the Fishing Game and strong Republicans in both framing conditions. Moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans cooperated comparably across all framing conditions.</p
The Development of GHG Emissions Calculation Platform for Postal Supply Chain
No full textTransportation and logistics activities along the supply chain significantly contribute to global GHG emissions. To effectively reduce these emissions, it is crucial to accurately measure and monitor current levels using reliable methodologies and tools, enabling targeted interventions. Calculating GHG emissions along the transport chain is complex, requiring sophisticated modeling, accurate data collection, and collaboration across multiple stakeholders. Supply chain digitization, a key aspect of Industry 4.0, is a major contemporary trend. Developing a logistics platform that employs advanced IT to monitor GHG emissions is crucial and has proven effective in developing business sustainability strategies for global logistics providers. This trend pressures all logistics providers, including local companies, to improve their IT solutions to support sustainability strategies. This study aims to develop a web-based application platform for collecting operational data in logistics, calculating, and reporting GHG emissions throughout the transportation chain. The platform is tailored to the operational context of an end-to-end parcel supply chain in Thailand. Consequently, the platform accurately captures practical scenarios and organizational use cases, enabling the quantification and reporting of accounting and logistics emissions to stakeholders influencing decarbonization strategy decisions.</p
Transition Dominance in Domain-Independent Dynamic Programming
No full textDomain-independent dynamic programming (DIDP) is a model-based paradigm for dynamic programming (DP) that enables users to define DP models based on a state transition system. Heuristic search-based solvers have demonstrated strong performance in solving combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we formally define transition dominance in DIDP, where one transition consistently leads to better solutions than another, allowing the search process to safely ignore dominated transitions. To facilitate the efficient use of transition dominance, we introduce an interface for defining transition dominance and propose the use of state functions to cache values, thereby avoiding redundant computations when verifying transition dominance. Experimental results on DP models across multiple problem classes indicate that incorporating transition dominance and state functions yields a 5 to 10 times speed-up on average for different search algorithms within the DIDP framework compared to the baseline.</p
Conceptualizing and operationalizing prompt literacy for English language learners
No full textRecent developments in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies have had significant implications for English language education worldwide, opening up new opportunities and challenges. Both researchers and practitioners are increasingly exploring the necessary capabilities that English language learners should possess in relation to GenAI. Prompt literacy, or a combination of multiple capabilities required to engage in dynamic and iterative interaction with GenAI, is often seen as essential because the quality of prompts directly impacts the relevance, accuracy, and creativity of the AI-generated output. However, little is known about how teachers can scaffold prompt literacy in English language learning contexts where learners have specific needs. This discussion article addresses this gap by exploring how the Four Resources Model of literacy can be used for teaching prompt literacy in language learning contexts, alongside some practical examples that can be used to guide teaching practices.</p
Are recessions bad for loneliness?
No full textLoneliness is a pressing public health concern with significant economic, health and social consequences. This paper examines the impact of economic downturns, particularly unemployment and job loss perception, on loneliness in Australia. Using a fixed-effects panel regression applied to 19 waves of data, we find that unemployment is significantly linked to an increased likelihood of experiencing loneliness and other dimensions of social health, with the effects of unemployment on loneliness persisting for several years. Perceived job insecurity also contributes to social health deterioration, further emphasising the psychological impact of economic instability. Our estimates point towards the effects being especially strong among individuals with chronic health conditions or mental disorders, who may face added health-related costs and other stressors that exacerbate loneliness. These findings highlight the need to consider policies and programs that support social well-being during economic downturns, particularly for those at heightened risk.</p
Co-Producing Patient-Reported Experience Measures With People With Intellectual Disability to Improve Healthcare Quality and Outcomes:The ‘Listen to Me’ Project Protocol
No full textIntroduction: Intellectual disability, defined by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour with onset during the developmental period, affects an estimated 2% (108 million) of people worldwide. People with intellectual disability experience major health inequity, poor health outcomes and premature deaths, with mortality rates that are 7–12 times higher than the general population. Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are used worldwide to target improvements in healthcare delivery. Yet, systematic review evidence confirms that people with intellectual disability are excluded from PREMs due to a lack of suitable measurement instruments and supports. To improve healthcare quality and outcomes, people with intellectual disability and their supporters, and academic and clinician researchers will together Coproduce PREMs for, and with, this population apply the PREM in hospitals and use the data to inform local quality improvement projects. Methods and Analysis: Our 3-year project employs a multi-method design using coproduction, underpinned by an implementation science framework. We will coproduce PREMs that will be applied to improve healthcare quality and outcomes for people with intellectual disability whilst engaging in co-research with people with lived experience of having an intellectual disability and their carers, clinicians and academic researchers. Study 1 will coproduce PREMs for use by people with intellectual disability to report their experiences of inpatient hospital care. Study 2 will use the co-produced PREMs to capture the experiences of people with intellectual disability as inpatients in Australian hospitals; determine PREMs reliability and validity; and costs associated with use. Study 3 will develop the required capability to translate our PREMs into hospitals across Australia. Study 4 will apply PREMs data via continuous quality improvement in partnering hospitals to reduce preventable healthcare associated harm, hospitalisation, and prolonged length of stay experienced by people with intellectual disability. Study 5 will provide a process evaluation of our co-research approach. Quantitative and qualitative analysis will be undertaken, and results will be examined against the project aims. Ethics and Dissemination: Ethical approval has been obtained (520241735259588; X24-0366; 115771). This study is being conducted with partner health agencies and services nationally in Australia to support achievement of the research aims and translation of findings into practice. Targeted outputs with research dissemination will be guided by, and in collaboration with, the project Consumer Leadership Group, consumer and health system stakeholders, with governance from the Project Steering Group. Patient or Public Contribution: The Listen to Me project has been designed and planned to ensure the involvement of people with a broad range of abilities, including those with profound intellectual disability who will be able to contribute along with their support person/s. The governance structure of Listen to Me is innovative and inclusive, with consumers providing leadership across all elements of the project. This is co-research conceptualised and conducted with a Consumer Leadership Group (CLG) comprising eight people with lived experiences of intellectual disability; two of whom have an intellectual disability and six of whom are parents or siblings who support family members with intellectual disability. The CLG were involved in the design of the research proposal, reviewing and contributing to the ethics protocols, and the writing of this protocol as authors. The CLG will direct and contribute to all aspects of the research as part of the research team. An easy read summary of this protocol is provided in Supplementary file 1.</p
Donor preferences for recipient control of international development aid
No full textMore than 90 % of health aid remains tied to projects that reflect donor rather than recipient priorities. This has a material impact on aid effectiveness and is inconsistent with the stated aims of development partners to ‘decolonise aid’ and prioritise ‘locally led development’. Relatively little attention has been given to constraints that might account for this divergence between donor rhetoric and action. The present study considers whether the preferences of donor country citizens (donors) are consistent with recipient control of aid programs. Using Indonesia as the recipient country setting, we conducted a discrete choice experiment amongst 1523 Australians aged 18+ to describe donor preferences for recipient control and nine other characteristics of Australia's health aid program. We found that donors have a strong aversion to recipient control and are unwilling to cede control of either aims or implementation. Despite evidence of pervasive preference heterogeneity, we were unable to identify a class or preference ‘type’ with a preference for recipient control. Importantly, donor resistance to decolonisation was pervasive under experimental control for the institutional quality of recipient governments, suggesting that preferences for donor control are unlikely to reflect an attempt to compensate for political instability and government ineffectiveness in recipient countries. The implications of these findings are significant. This fundamental misalignment challenges international commitments to locally led development. For governments aiming to reflect their constituencies’ preferences, emphasizing donor control over aid objectives may garner greater public support, but risks undermining international commitments to increase recipient ownership and decolonise aid.</p
Generative AI, learning, Buddhism and Nietzsche:developing a philosophical approach
No full textIn this conceptual article, I investigate the philosophical intersections between generative AI technologies in education and Buddhist thought, offering a framework for navigating AI's transformative impact on learning. As generative AI simultaneously disrupts and enhances educational practices, it fundamentally challenges traditional notions of agency, creativity, and knowledge acquisition. This article examines how Buddhist philosophical concepts provide unique insights for educators navigating this technological transition. Through the lens of dukkha (suffering/dissatisfaction), I consider the anxiety and resistance accompanying AI integration while recognizing opportunities for transcending educational limitations. The concept of anatta (non-self) offers a perspective for reconceptualizing student and teacher agency as relational rather than autonomous in AI-enhanced environments. Karma (intentional action with consequences) provides a framework for ethical implementation, emphasizing mindful integration rather than deterministic adoption. Connections are also drawn to Nietzschean perspectives on creative destruction and the will to power. I explore how AI might catalyze educational change while respecting human dignity and purpose. This philosophical approach moves beyond binary perspectives of AI as either educational savior or threat, instead offering a middle path that acknowledges impermanence and interdependence as fundamental educational principles in developing literacy practices that meaningfully incorporate generative technologies while preserving educational values and human connection
An examination of the leadership and governance responses of Australian Jewish community peak body leaders to Institutional Child Sexual Abuse (ICSA)
No full textMinimal research has been undertaken into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse (ICSA) within Jewish communities. Internationally, scrutiny has predominantly considered the ultraorthodox sector of the community. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse likewise focused upon the ultra-orthodox within their Jewish community reviews. No research to date has considered the far larger, mainstream Australian Jewish community leadership, nor their leadership practices, though it is broadly acknowledged, that institutional child safety is embedded in institutional leadership, governance and culture. This is the first study to address this section of the Australian Jewish community regarding ICSA. It examines the responses of Australian Jewish community peak body leaders, regarding their leadership and governance relating to ICSA, between 2012-2024. This qualitative study utilised a deductive process; data was analysed thematically, from which findings were developed. Results indicated leadership and governance deficiencies including minimal awareness of institutional child sexual abuse or communal concerns for survivors. Impacts of poor conflicts of interest practices, failure to drive changes to promote child safety and advance survivor support across the community were highlighted. The importance of greater communal support for survivors of late, has been noted. Findings suggest the need to reform leadership and governance policy and practice within Australian Jewish peak bodies, including through enhanced internal governance and child safety education at a leadership level, to provide improved child safety and greater survivor support across the community. Outcomes were found to be applicable to additional communities and cultures, including for example the Catholic church