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System for communicating holistic practice
No full textCommunication is the beating heart of holistic practice through dialogue with persons and colleagues reflected in written notes to ensure consistent and congruent practice. Communication is reflexive, informing practitioners what is currently happening, evaluating what has gone before, and planning to move forward towards meeting the person's needs. To ensure communication is effective practitioners require communicative competence from both an oral and written perspective. The key to reflexive communication is dialogue. Isaacs suggests that communicating through dialogue is a culture shift from existing patterns of communication. Dialogue is the core of communicative competence that can only really be learnt through practice and reflection. The primary form of communicating practice is the reflexive narrative. Implementing narrative is a shift from previous ways of communicating. Burford practitioners had used the nursing process.</p
From behaviour-based to ecological:multi-agency partnership responses to extra-familial harm
Get PDFSummary: In the United Kingdom (UK), inquiries into the abuse of adolescents harmed in contexts beyond their families frequently document failures in multi-agency arrangements. Forms of extra-familial harm, such as criminal and sexual exploitation, often feature near-fatal violence and serious abuse. UK welfare policy has shifted towards place-based approaches to harm, leading to safeguarding partnerships forming between welfare agencies and neighbourhood crime reduction agencies. However, forming partnerships between those who have differing epistemological underpinnings raises challenges. This article explores these by drawing on a research project implementing contextual safeguarding theory and practice within five child welfare social care departments in England and Wales. Data is presented from 10 pilots (33 focus groups, 24 interviews, 59 meeting observations, 36 reviews of cases, review of 100 documents). Findings: Multi-agency partnerships prioritise safeguarding practice that targets behaviour, over addressing the social conditions of abuse. Assumptions that partnerships will automatically align means that there is little space for negotiating a shared conceptual/ideological approach. Particularly in high-risk situations, welfare agencies defer to policing methods that target individuals rather than environments. Where ecological approaches are utilised, this is experienced as ‘against the grain’ and requiring support. Applications: To advance contextual approaches to safeguarding young people, multi-agency partnerships must go beyond altering the behaviour of those who are harmed. Partnerships that engage in reflective discussion about their conceptual approach are more likely to build the awareness and trust required for ecological methods to succeed. Enhancing ecological social work leadership within partnerships responding to extra-familial harm is a key factor.</p
Examining the validity of automated speech scoring systems:insights from language testing research
No full textMental health disorders and recidivism among incarcerated adult offenders in a correctional facility in South Africa: a cluster analysis
Get PDFThe contribution of mental illness, substance use, and appetitive aggression to recidivism has significant policy and practice implications. Offenders with untreated mental illness have a higher recidivism rate and a greater number of criminogenic risk factors than those without mental illness. Previous research has demonstrated that the likelihood of appetitive aggression increases in violent contexts where individuals perpetrate aggressive acts. Using the Ecological Systems Theory, this study investigated the association between mental health disorders and recidivism among incarcerated adult offenders in South Africa, and the intervening role of appetitive aggression and substance use. Using a cross-sectional quantitative research design, a sample of 280 incarcerated male and female adult offenders aged 18-35 with no known psychiatric disorders were sampled at a correctional facility in South Africa. The re-incarceration rate, mental health disorders, substance use, and appetitive aggression symptomology were assessed using the Hopkins symptoms checklist, the CRAFFT measure of substance use, and the appetitive aggression scale. Findings indicate a 32.4% recidivism rate (n = 82). Cluster analysis indicated that the combination of anxiety, depression, substance use, and appetitive aggression increased the likelihood of recidivism. Appetitive aggression median differences between clusters 2 and 3 played a key role in distinguishing recidivism risk among recidivist and non-recidivist participants. Chi-square analysis highlighted group differences in education levels among the established clusters [x2 (3, n = 217) = 12.832, p = .005, which is < .05] as well as group differences in the type of criminal offence [x2 (3, n = 187) = 24.362, p = .000, which is < .05] and cluster membership. Combined factors that increase the likelihood of recidivism provide a typology for classifying offenders based on particular recidivism risk determinants, which offers insights for developing tailored interventions that address a combination of factors
Automated segmentation of standard scanning planes to measure biometric parameters in foetal ultrasound images–a survey
No full textAccurate foetal ultrasound (US) image segmentation facilitates advanced obstetric health care by enabling remote monitoring of expectant mothers. However, foetal US image segmentation is challenging due to distortions, motion artefacts, various imaging conditions and presence of maternal anatomy. Recent research work has proposed many methods towards increasing the accuracy of foetal US image segmentation. This paper reviews 2D and 3D foetal US image segmentation methods under four main categories; deep learning-based method, machine learning-based methods, active contour-based methods and thresholding-based methods. Each of these methods are discussed highlighting their advantages, limitations and potential in contributing to further development. In addition, the paper highlights possible prospects that would streamline the future research work.</p
Postural stability of adults with down syndrome–differences between women and men
Get PDFObjective: This study aimed to analyse differences in postural stability (PS) between adults with Down syndrome (DS) and adults without DS of the same age and to compare the PS between men and women with DS. Methods: Twenty-six individuals with DS (mean age 38.4 ± 8.7 yrs.) and 26 individuals without DS (mean age 38.8 ± 9.2 yrs.) participated in the study. Postural stability was measured using a pressure sensing platform MobileMat 3140 (Tekscan) in these modifications of the bipedal stance: a. wide base of support with the eyes open (WO); b. wide base of support with the eyes closed (WC); c. narrow base of support with the eyes open (NO). Six parameters of PS were compared in the statistical analysis: centre of pressure (COP) path length, COP excursion front-back, COP excursion left-right, COP velocity average, time to boundary (TTB) front-back, and TTB left-right. Results: Most PS variables (COP path length, COP excursion left-right, COP velocity average, TTB front-back) indicate significantly lower PS of adults with DS than that of the reference group (p < 0.05). Some PS variables (COP path length and COP velocity average in WC, COP excursion front-back and COP excursion left-right in NO) showed differences between men and women in more demanding conditions, indicating lower PS in men with DS.</p
Barriers and facilitators to genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer amongst Black African women in Luton (UK)
Get PDFEvidence suggests that although Black African women have the lowest incidence of breast and ovarian cancer, they have the highest mortality rate and low rates of uptake for cancer screening services for these conditions in the United Kingdom (UK). This study aimed to explore the perceived barriers and facilitators to genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer amongst Black African women in Luton (UK). We conducted a qualitative study that included one face-to-face and five telephone focus group discussions. Consistent with the health belief model, a focus group discussion guide was developed. A total of 24 participants, aged 23-57 who self-identified as Black African women and who were English speakers residing in Luton, took part in the focus group discussions. Purposive and snowballing sampling were used to recruit the participants for this study. The focus group discussions were recorded, transcribed per verbatim, coded and analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis approach, and the findings were classified. Nine themes emerged from the narratives obtained including six barriers and three facilitators. Barriers to genetic testing included (1) Cost and affordability, (2) Lack of knowledge, awareness, and family health history knowledge, (3) Language barrier, immigration, and distrust in western healthcare services, (4) Fear, (5) Cultural, religious, and intergenerational views and perceptions, and (6) Eligibility for genetic testing for the BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants and a lack of referral to specialist genetic clinics. Facilitators to genetic testing included (7) Availability of tests cost-free under the National Health Service (NHS) (8) Family members' health and (9) Awareness and education on genetic testing. The barriers and facilitators identified could enable policy makers and healthcare services alike to gain a better understanding of the factors influencing Black African women's decision-making process toward genetic testing. Ultimately, this work can inform interventions aiming to increase the uptake of genetic testing among this group
A federated learning framework for pneumonia image detection using distributed data
Get PDFPneumonia is one of the serious diseases affecting the lungs. Yearly, over four million people die on average. Therefore, it is essential to have an effective system for early diagnoses. State-of-the-art computer-aided Machine Learning (ML) techniques have been used for pneumonia detection. However, pneumonia X-ray images are visually heterogeneous and complex in pattern recognition. Therefore, a vast amount of dataset is required for effective ML model training. The larger data volume can be collected using the real-time dataset from hospitals and medical institutions. However, due to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA), data sharing is not allowed by the third party. This study is inspired by using real-time datasets in a privacy-preserving fashion while using the framework of federated learning (FL). We have performed experiments using state-ofthe-art ML models for medical image classification, including pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models of Alexnet, DenseNet, Residual Neural Network-50 (ResNet50), Inception, and Visual Geometry Group-19 (VGG19). The experiments are performed individually on the models and the FL framework. We compared the results using the evaluation metrics and Area Under the Curve (AUC). The preliminary results show the ResNet-50 stands out in performance on the testing dataset producing an accuracy of 93% significantly
Multifractal features and dynamical thresholds of temperature extremes in Bangladesh
Get PDFMultifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) can extract multi-scaling behavior andmeasure long-range correlations in climatic time series. In this study, with the help of multifractalDFA, we investigated the scaling behavior of daily minimum/maximum temperatures during theyears 1989–2019 from 34 meteorological stations in Bangladesh. We revealed spatial patterns, topographicimpacts and global warming impacts of long-range correlations embedded in small andlarge fluctuations in temperature time series. Meanwhile, we developed a multifractal DFA-basedalgorithm to dynamically determine thresholds to discriminate extreme and non-extreme eventsin climate systems and applied it to analyze the frequency and trends of temperature extremes in Bangladesh. Compared with widely-used percentile thresholds, the extreme climate events capturedin our algorithm are more reliable since they are determined dynamically by the climate system itself
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