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AI-driven multi-agent reinforcement learning framework for real-time monitoring of physiological signals in stress and depression contexts
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Effective patient monitoring is crucial for timely healthcare interventions and improved outcomes, especially in managing conditions influenced by stress and depression, which can manifest through physiological changes. Traditional monitoring systems often struggle with the complexity and dynamic nature of such conditions, leading to delays in identifying critical scenarios. This study proposes a novel multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework to address these challenges by monitoring vital signs and providing real-time decision-making capabilities.
Methods
Our framework deploys multiple learning agents, each dedicated to monitoring specific physiological features such as heart rate, respiration, and temperature. These agents interact with a generic healthcare monitoring environment, learn patients’ behavior patterns, and estimate the level of emergency to alert Medical Emergency Teams (METs) accordingly. The study evaluates the proposed system using two real-world datasets-PPG-DaLiA and WESAD-designed to capture physiological and stress-related data. The performance is compared with baseline models, including Q-Learning, PPO, Actor-Critic, Double DQN, and DDPG, as well as existing monitoring frameworks like WISEML and CA-MAQL. Hyperparameter optimization is also performed to fine-tune learning rates and discount factors.
Results
Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed multi-agent DRL framework outperforms baseline models in accurately monitoring patients’ vital signs under stress and varying conditions. The optimized agents adapt effectively to dynamic environments, ensuring timely detection of critical health deviations. Comparative evaluations reveal superior performance in metrics related to decision-making accuracy and response efficiency, highlighting the robustness of the framework.
Conclusions
The proposed AI-driven monitoring system offers significant advancements over traditional methods by handling complex and uncertain environments, adapting to varying patient conditions influenced by stress and depression, and making autonomous, real-time decisions. While the framework demonstrates high accuracy and adaptability, challenges related to data scale and future vital sign prediction remain. Future research will focus on extending predictive capabilities to further enhance proactive healthcare interventions
Shorter Telomeres and Faster Telomere Attrition in Individuals With Five Syndromic Forms of Intellectual Disability: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Get PDFBackground: People with intellectual disability suffer complex challenges due to adaptive functioning limitations, high rates of chronic diseases and shortened lifespans compared with the general population. Telomere shortening is a hallmark of ageing, and short telomeres are linked to neurological disorders. The main objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to identify any differences in telomere length and the rate of telomere attrition in leukocytes and fibroblasts from people with intellectual disability and controls. Methods: PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect were searched. Articles that compared telomere length in individuals with intellectual disability to apparently healthy age-matched controls were included. Risk of bias was assessed using the AXIS tool and data were analysed using CMA. Results: Fifteen studies comprised of 17 comparisons provided data and were included in meta-analyses. Compared with healthy controls (N = 481), people with intellectual disability (N = 366) from a known genetic syndrome (Cri du chat, Down, Hoyeraal–Hreidarsson, Williams or Nicolaides–Baraitser) possessed shorter leukocyte telomeres (SMD: ?0.853 [95% CI: ?1.622 to ?0.084], p = 0.03). Similarly, relative to controls (N = 16), people with syndromic intellectual disability (N = 21) possessed shorter fibroblast telomeres (?1.389 [?2.179 to ?0.599], p = 0.001). Furthermore, people with syndromic forms of intellectual disability also demonstrated a faster rate (2.09-fold) of telomere shortening. Conclusions: Consistent with epidemiological findings on mortality and morbidity risk, people with syndromic intellectual disability appear to undergo a faster rate of biological ageing compared to the general population. These findings emphasise the need for healthy ageing lifestyle (i.e., exercise and stress management) and therapeutic interventions for people with syndromic intellectual disability. © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Intellectual Disability Research published by MENCAP and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Teachers and sustainability education: exploring the views of Australian preservice and inservice teachers
Get PDFSustainability is crucial to the ongoing capability of Earth to sustain life. Although understood in several ways, such as climate change education, education for sustainable development and education for sustainability, international efforts have promoted sustainability as an important focus for education. In Australia, this focus is reflected in sustainability being embedded in the Australian Curriculum. Australian and international researchers have found that teachers generally understand sustainability and are favourably disposed toward it, but implementation remains an issue. This paper reports findings from an online survey administered to Australian preservice and in-service teachers. Echoing previous research with teachers, participants in this study had a positive attitude towards sustainability but lacked key knowledge and confidence to teach appropriate sustainability ideas within the Australian Curriculum. As such, the implementation of the sustainability cross-curriculum priority area seems inconsistent and there is a need to support teachers through curriculum resources, professional development, and ongoing mentoring
Beyond the fast and the furious: news coverage of the Robodebt scandal
Get PDFThis article explores journalists’ techniques of purposeful pausing during Australia’s political scandal, Robodebt. It draws on conceptions of journalism as a time-conscious, interpretive community to conduct a qualitative analysis of the scandal news coverage and journalists’ published comments about their reporting. This study focuses on the journalistic representations about the changing news pace, pausing and peak times during the disintegration of the welfare debt-recovery scheme that led to Federal Court challenges, a royal commission and $1.8 billion dollar payout to victims. Contemporary media coverage of scandals has often been known for churning out sensationalised clickbait, spin and insider commentaries that appear disconnected from the public. This study finds that journalists increasingly affirmed the value of reflective inquiry, disrupted stereotyped spin and spent time to publicise self-criticism about ethical lapses in the watchdog role during the seemingly slow days and frenzied firestorms of the scandal reporting. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
4th International Conference on Innovations in Computing Research (ICR’25)
No full textFake news has been a noticeable issue in the last few decades after the presence of the Internet. Many news channels, networks, and social media platforms provide us with news from around the globe. These news resources can also be used to share malicious and fake news. Therefore, detecting and handling this fake news is crucial since the world’s view is based on this information. Verifying news individually by a human being is completely unfeasible. Thus, we proposed an artificially intelligent Naïve Bayes prediction model that can help classify news and detect if a given news is fake or real. The proposed model used the Naïve Bayes classifier, which gives great results in text classifications such as spam filtering. This paper also includes an analysis of results and performance measurement
Exploring effective indicators of modern slavery risk: On-site audit insight
No full textThe pervasive issue of modern slavery, encompassing forced labour, child labour, debt bondage, and deceptive recruitment practices, continues to afflict an estimated 50 million individuals globally. In response, the Australian government has enacted the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), which mandates eligible entities to identify and mitigate risks within their supply chains, as well as to issue publicly available Modern Slavery Statements. The 2023 independent review of the Australian Modern Slavery Act highlighted the need to strengthen reporting entities’ supply chain due diligence. There has been heated debate about what effective risk-based approach can be adopted. The existing literature examining indicators of modern slavery risk based on empirical case studies remains limited and has primarily focussed on conceptual frameworks and theoretical approaches. This study aims to present the prevalent trends and common issues that have been identified via over 100 on-site audits, particularly in the context of China, where Australia’s significant reliance on manufacturing and production raises salient human rights considerations. The most prevalent major non-compliances include deficiencies in emergency and fire safety, excessive working hours, and remuneration-related concerns. These critical issues serve as substantial indicators of potential modern slavery risks, which provides valuable guidance for organisations to closely monitor these indicators and implement robust strategies to identify and mitigate modern slavery risks within their supply chain
Practising preservice teachers' experiences of learning as synchronous boundary crossing
Get PDFTeacher shortages have seen preservice teachers filling paid teaching positions while continuing to complete their teaching qualifications in Australia and internationally. While responding to market logic and addressing teacher supply issues, limited research has occurred on how this impacts these paid practising preservice teachers’ experience of learning. This paper reports on six in-depth interviews with preservice teachers from Queensland, Australia, undertaking Permission to Teach and Turn to Teaching. Framed by boundary crossing and practice architectures, this study revealed cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements that influenced these preservice teachers' synchronous learning experiences across school and university contexts. On one hand, findings showed some practising preservice teachers appreciated the opportunity to enrich their learning experience through the synchronisation of practical-theoretical learning across sites. On the other hand, many deprioritised university learning engagement to manage teaching obligations and, in doing so, privileged discourse of practice-based teacher education. Findings have implications in Australia and internationally for initial teacher education where preservice teachers are employed in schools
Critical literacy: Democracy, postdigitalism and diversity
No full textThe key article, "Informed conversations as critical media literacy", discusses the importance of critically engaging students in a time in which media is saturated with information and readers need to consider truth and alternative truth, facts and alternate facts. We were intrigued by the article's advocacy for critical literacy, the need for critical discussions to inform future educational approaches, and what this means for adolescence and critical literacy in the second quarter of the twenty-first century. In our response, we wish to contribute to this conversation by describing recent critical literacy research that examined the democratic futures of middle-years students, understanding postdigital perspectives and what these perspectives mean for societies and education and the importance for educators to understand the literacy practices of young people and how their prior knowledge and dispositions can inform their critical literacy learning
Inclusion of Informal Carers in the Care of Older Adults in the Emergency Department: An Integrative Review
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To review primary research reporting the inclusion of informal carers in caring for older people in the emergency department.
Design
An integrative review employing Whittemore and Knafl's updated integrative review methodology.
Methods
A systematic search was undertaken between November 2023 and September 2024. Ten articles met the inclusion criteria of primary research reporting the inclusion of carers in the care of older adults in the emergency department. Exclusion criteria included studies conducted outside of the emergency department, not carer-related, and those not restricted to carers of older adults. The Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the quality of the articles.
Data Sources
Medline @ Ovid, EBSCO, Wiley Online Library, Cochrane, EMBASE and SCOPUS.
Results
Thematic analysis produced two reoccurring themes: Carers as advocates and Carers as outsiders. Through sharing of information and support of the older adult, carers can act as advocates. Restrictive admission policies, exclusion from decision-making processes, and failure to be heard by the healthcare professional resulted in carers feeling like outsiders.
Conclusion
Including carers is essential to support the care of vulnerable older adults in the emergency department. Care partnerships between healthcare professionals and carers can be enhanced with education on effective and respectful communication processes and support of carer well-being.
Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care
This review highlights the essential nature of care partnerships involving informal carers in the emergency department for providing high-quality care to older adults with complex care needs. An appropriate carer inclusion programme could support emergency department clinicians, carers and older adults.
Reporting Method
The PRISMA 2020 checklist was used to ensure adherence to review processes.
Patient or Public Contribution
No patient or public contribution
Assessing the turbulence: Wavelet coherence and causality analysis of energy price volatility and exchange rate instability
No full textThis study examines the dynamic relationship between energy price volatility and exchange rates in the ASEAN region from 2000 to 2023. Given ASEAN's energy dependency and diverse economic structures, understanding these interactions is essential for policy resilience against global energy market fluctuations. The study employs wavelet coherence analysis to explore the time-frequency dynamics between energy prices and currency valuation. Findings suggest that energy price volatility significantly influences global economic stability, directly impacting the exchange rates of energy-exporting nations like Indonesia and Malaysia, where rising energy prices strengthen currency values. Similarly, Singapore's exchange rate has appreciated due to its status as a financial hub. In contrast, Brunei, the Philippines, and Vietnam, as energy importers, exhibit negative coherence, reflecting vulnerability to economic shocks and commodity price fluctuations. The study also considers inflation trends using the Consumer Price Index as a moderator, finding that inflation amplifies exchange rate sensitivity to energy price volatility. Additionally, the wavelet Granger causality test enhances result robustness. These findings emphasize the need for proactive policies to mitigate the impact of energy price fluctuations on currency stability and inflation across ASEAN economies