11237 research outputs found
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<b>The Transcendence of Problem-Based Learning in Higher Education</b>
No full textProblem-Based Learning (PBL) represents a transformative pedagogical approach that transcends traditional educational paradigms, finding significant application in higher education. PBL shifts the focus from passive reception of knowledge to active student engagement, where learning is driven by complex, real-world problems. This abstract explores the intrinsic properties of PBL and examines its original aspects of linked pedagogies within the context of higher education.This exploration adopts a doctrinal and socio-legal methodological approach. It critically analyses legal frameworks, educational policies, and pedagogical theories related to PBL and other based learning pedagogies, providing a comprehensive understanding of its impact on higher education. Through this lens, the study examines how PBL et al principles are integrated into educational practices and how they influence student learning outcomes.Based learning fosters critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-directed learning among students. It encourages learners to engage deeply with the material, collaborate with peers, and apply theoretical concepts to practical scenarios. These attributes align seamlessly with the goals of higher education, where the development of independent, analytical thinkers is paramount.The originality of based learning lies in its dynamic and student-centered nature. Unlike traditional lecture-based instruction, based learning requires students to take an active role in their learning journey, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility. This approach not only enhances knowledge retention but also prepares students for the complexities of professional environments.Reflections on based learning practices within higher education reveal several key insights. Students report increased engagement and motivation, attributing this to the relevance and immediacy of problem-solving tasks. Educators note that based learning facilitates a deeper understanding of course material, as students must synthesize information and apply it in meaningful ways.This abstract aims to illuminate the transformative potential of PBL in higher education, highlighting its properties and original contributions to student learning. The discussion will explore how PBL not only enhances academic outcomes but also equips students with the skills necessary for lifelong learning and professional success.</p
Re-Shaping Landscapes, Moving the Coordinates
No full textThis paper examines Re-Shape-Land-Scape, a dance theatre piece premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2024 that engages with eco-performance by exploring how we inhabit landscapes impacted by climate change. Addressing an ecological inquiry into the role of performance in environmental challenges, it investigates dance as a medium for fostering ecological consciousness and action. Drawing on dance, ecology, and posthumanist philosophy, the analysis explores the narratives of ecological consciousness, emphasizing the interconnectedness of bodies, places, and ecosystems. By situating the body within shifting geographies—specifically the disappearing coastlines of Norfolk, UK, the abandonment of a church in Kyrenia, Cypruss and the devastating flooding in Hong Kong—this project offers a framework for understanding movement as a means to reshape the landscapes we leave in. Utilising digital technologies, film, and movement practices, Re-Shape-Land-Scape encourages audiences to engage and empathise with affected spaces, creating a common movement language that serves to inhabit those changing landscapes.</p
A deep learning framework for heart disease prediction with explainable artificial intelligence
No full textHeart disease remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide, emphasizing the urgent need for reliable and interpretable predictive models to support early diagnosis and timely intervention. However, existing Deep Learning (DL) approaches often face several limitations, including inefficient feature extraction, class imbalance, suboptimal classification performance, and limited interpretability, which collectively hinder their deployment in clinical settings. To address these challenges, we propose a novel DL framework for heart disease prediction that integrates a comprehensive preprocessing pipeline with an advanced classification architecture. The preprocessing stage involves label encoding and feature scaling. To address the issue of class imbalance inherent in the personal key indicators of the heart disease dataset, the localized random affine shadowsampling technique is employed, which enhances minority class representation while minimizing overfitting. At the core of the framework lies the Deep Residual Network (DeepResNet), which employs hierarchical residual transformations to facilitate efficient feature extraction and capture complex, non-linear relationships in the data. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model significantly outperforms existing techniques, achieving improvements of 3.26% in accuracy, 3.16% in area under the receiver operating characteristics, 1.09% in recall, and 1.07% in F1-score. Furthermore, robustness is validated using 10-fold cross-validation, confirming the model’s generalizability across diverse data distributions. Moreover, model interpretability is ensured through the integration of Shapley additive explanations and local interpretable model-agnostic explanations, offering valuable insights into the contribution of individual features to model predictions. Overall, the proposed DL framework presents a robust, interpretable, and clinically applicable solution for heart disease prediction.</p
A comparative analysis of dementia strategies of seventeen European Countries in the context of Glasgow Declaration and WHO’s Global Action Plan
No full textDementia prevalence across the globe is in alarming proportion and it is even expected to rise in the future. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared dementia as a health priority, way back in 2009 and had recommended then, that at least high-income countries develop a dementia action plan, and other countries develop a national dementia strategy (NDS). Later in 2014, European Countries came together to sign the Glasgow Declaration and agreed to develop their respective NDSs. Yet, a few countries still do not have their NDS. Moreover, some countries do not have their NDS in English. This study attempts to compare the dementia strategies of 17 European countries, which has a comprehensive NDS in English language. The study further examines how well these NDSs comply with the Glasgow Declaration and the WHO’s Global Action Plan guidance. Cluster analysis is undertaken to classify NDSs of these countries in terms of similarity in the content. Word clouds are used to get an overall idea about the clusterwise contents of the NDSs, and then an algorithmic approach to content analysis is applied for identifying the clusterwise key focus areas of these dementia strategies. A comparative analysis of these NDSs in the perspective of dementia prevalence, demographic profile, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and predominant healthcare financing model. The findings suggest that irrespective of the prevalence, country’s demographic profile, GDP per capita or the predominant financing model, dementia strategies primarily focus on “care”, implying the compliance of post-diagnostic support. Germany addresses almost all the fundamental rights of the Glasgow Declaration. Countries differ in their compliance with the key action areas of the WHO’s GAP, though post-diagnostic support is addressed by the dementia strategies across the clusters, whereas 3 out of 7 KAAs are not addressed by dementia strategies in any of the clusters.</p
Exploring the implementation of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) 2018 standards in nursing education: a mixed-methods study protocol
No full textFollowing stakeholders’ consultation and to enhance the monitoring and evaluation of nursing and midwifery students all around the United Kingdom, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) developed the 2018 Standards for Student Supervisor and Assessment (SSSA). These criteria marked a major shift from past mentoring systems, moving towards a tripartite arrangement including academic assessors, practice supervisors, and practice assessors. Improving role clarity, strengthening objectivity in student assessment, and increasing student readiness for safe, efficient clinical practice (NMC, 2018) were three main goals of this approach.</p
Assessing Research Involving Inclusion Health Communities
No full textThis is one of five new guides designed to support Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in reviewing health research involving diverse inclusion health communities.
The collection includes one overarching guide and four specialist guides focused on research with Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, Showmen and Boater communities, people seeking asylum or with refugee status, people who are unhoused and individuals with impaired capacity.
Written and reviewed by experts, including people with lived experience, the guides offer practical tips, checklists, and best practice advice for panel members.</p
Injustice flows along Itaya River: capabilities from living with river rhythmicity in Bajo Belén, Iquitos, Peru
No full textIn riverine contexts shaped by seasonal fluctuations, communities cultivate ways of living with water that reflect deep social and ecological entanglements. This study focuses on Bajo Belén, a peri-urban community along the Itaya River in the Peruvian Amazon, where residents live with vaciante (dry season) and creciente (flood season) through practices that sustain their livelihoods. Using a braided approach by weaving living with river rhythmicity, the Capabilities Approach, and Environmental Justice, we analyze 41 storytelling sessions (2022–2024). Our findings show drought and flood processes; and how community capabilities are built through living with the river, yet remain unrecognized in state responses such as forced relocation. This non-recognition leads to non-inclusive procedures and an unequal distribution of blame and responsibility. We argue for governance that respects plural ways of living and supports community-defined aspirations. Situating care, recognition, and capability within river governance offers new pathways for more just, relational, and adaptive responses to environmental uncertainty.</p
The effects of uncertainty on economic conditions across US states: the role of climate risks
No full textWe analyze the impact of uncertainty on the Economic Conditions Index (ECI) of the 50 US states in a panel data set‐up, over the weekly period of the 3rd week of April 1987 to the 4th week of March 2023. Using impulse response functions (IRFs) from a linear local projections (LP) model, we show that uncertainty, as captured by the stochastic volatility (SV) of the ECIs, negatively impacts ECI in a statistically significant manner. More importantly, using a nonlinear LP model, the IRFs reveal that the adverse effect of uncertainty is significantly stronger under the high‐regime of climate risks when compared to the low‐regime of the same. Understandably, our results have important policy implications. JEL Classification: C23, D80, E32, Q54</p
Long-term impact of physical activity on mortality in adults with multimorbidity: a 12-year cohort longitudinal study from the Survey on Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe
No full textBackground: While physical activity (PA) is known to reduce mortality in the general population, this relationship in individuals with multimorbidity (≥ 2 chronic conditions) is unclear. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate whether there is a long-term association between PA levels and mortality rates over a 12-year period in adults with multimorbidity.Methods: Data were obtained from eight waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), from 28 European countries. PA levels were self-reported via computer-assisted personal interviews. Mortality during the follow-up period was assessed using data obtained from caregivers through end-of-life interview. Multimorbidity was identified based on the presence of two or more 15 self-reported chronic diseases/conditions. Cox's regression analysis, adjusted for potential confounders, was used to assess the association between PA level and mortality. p-values were calculated using the Jonckheere–Terpstra test for continuous variables and the Mantel–Haenszel Chi-square test for categorical variables, stratified by PA level.Results: The study included 9216 participants with multimorbidity (mean age 69 ± 10.1 years; 58.7% were women). Among those with multimorbidity, individuals with high PA level were significantly younger, more frequently men, less impaired in activities of daily living, less educated and less frequently obese than those with very low level of PA (p Conclusions: Findings from the present study suggest that people with multimorbidity who had lower levels of PA were three times more likely to die prematurely after 12 years than adults with multimorbidity and higher levels of PA at baseline. These findings underscore the importance of promoting physical activity in adults with multimorbidity to reduce the risk of premature mortality. Future longitudinal research is required to confirm/refute our findings. Further, intervention studies are needed to understand whether increasing levels of physical activity in this population subsequently reduces mortality risk.</p
Optical modelling of ocular parameters in eyes of varying refractive errors
No full textThis study used optical modelling to investigate ocular parameters in eye with varying refractive states and also explored accommodation. Three different lens models were used: equivalent refractive index lens, shell lens, and gradient index lens. The study also investigated the impact of various eye parameters, such as corneal radius (CRC), axial length (AL), lens refractive index, and lens thickness, on refractive errors and accommodation. Refractive error maps were conducted, and the axial length and corneal radius (AL/CRC) ratio were investigated.Eye models not intended for simulating refractive errors may be used for small ray incident angles. High refractive errors change almost linearly, while with low refractive errors (from -2 D to +2 D), results depend on the simulation method and the models used. A comparative analysis between the eye models and the literature data, shows that eye models do not behave in the same way with parameters from different ethnic groups. This indicates the need for a new approach to modelling, as there is a lack of eye models for different ethnicities. Additional simulations of AL/CRC and refractive error maps were conducted. These two parameters with refractive error maps provide more information about the similarities between different groups, such as age, sex, or ethnicity, than just the AL/CRC ratio. This information can help control the potential risk of refractive error changes for both groups and individuals as it can predict the development of refractive error.</p
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