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Latent diffusion for generative visual attribution in medical image diagnostics
Get PDFVisual attribution in medical imaging seeks to make evident the diagnostically-relevant components of a medical image, in contrast to the more common detection of diseased tissue deployed in conventional machine vision pipelines (due to the inherent learning nature of these latter models, they are typically not easily interpretable/explainable to clinicians). State-of-the-art techniques in visual attribution generally consist of different variants of deep neural networks, implemented as classifiers, or segmenters. However, they have not thus far included an explicit linguistic component.
We here present a novel generative visual attribution technique, one that leverages latent diffusion models in combination with domain-specific large language models, in order to generate normal counterparts of abnormal images. The discrepancy between the two hence gives rise to a mapping indicating the diagnostically-relevant image components. To achieve this, we deploy image priors in conjunction with appropriate conditioning mechanisms in order to control the image generative process, including natural language text prompts acquired from medical science and applied radiology. We perform experiments and quantitatively evaluate our results on the COVID-19 Radiography Database containing labelled chest X-rays with differing pathologies via the Frechet Inception Distance (FID), Structural Similarity (SSIM) and Multi Scale Structural Similarity Metric (MS-SSIM) metrics obtained between real and generated images.
The resulting system also exhibits a range of latent capabilities including super-resolution and zero-shot localized disease induction, which are evaluated with real examples from the cheXpert dataset
An introduction to blockchain-based dispute resolution: the emergence of new procedural designs
Get PDFThe recent rapid growth of the cryptocurrency and cryptoasset markets utilsing blockchain technology is generating a growing number of related disputes. These disputes may be resolved through state court litigation, through conventional arbitration, or through blockchain-based arbitration. The focus of this article is on this last form of dispute resolution, analysing what blockchain-based arbitration or dispute resolution is by examining the procedural design of blockchain-based dispute resolution, analysing the reasons behind the design of this type of dispute resolution, and exploring the extent to which blockchain-based dispute resolution has been applied in practice and legally recognised by national courts. Finally, it considers the impact of the procedural design of this mechanism on traditional arbitration
Leading and managing change- Improving the progression and retention of nursing students
Get PDFFor current senior leaders in Health and Social Care education, a key performance indicator is to ensure that recruitment to pre-registration nursing courses achieves an ever-increasing target as a response to government policy and that student progression is maintained.
This mixed methods research project explores the complex issue of attrition which is a significant problem here in the UK along with the reasons why some pre-registration nursing students leave their course within the first year and why others in the same cohort stay to complete their course. As a result, Health and Social Care educational leaders are recommended to put measures in place to mitigate this complex problem. Data were collected over a three-year period from university records (n=1957) and exit interview paperwork (n=117) from a single institution, based in Southeast England, and included interviews with (n=3) members of staff involved in the recruitment and selection of students as well as (n=25) nursing students who left their course and (n=10) students who remained and completed their course. Deeper interrogation of the data through triangulation allowed a more detailed understanding of the complex issue of student attrition to emerge.
Students were recruited from three cohorts who commenced their studies in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Of the 35 students interviewed, (n=25) left the course for a variety of reasons such as financial issues, personal reasons, health or academic failure and (n=10) completed their nursing courses. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using Creswell’s 5-step approach. Data collected from both data sets were triangulated and showed that the causes of attrition are multifactorial and that not one factor was responsible. However, the following factors: age, being male, and having undertaken a Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) qualification compared to A Levels prior to commencing the course, were all significant factors linked to attrition. Poor academic preparation, financial hardship, and the need to work to survive on the course were also factors that were highlighted. For the students who completed their courses issues such as support both family and academic, persistence, fear of failure and tenacity where highlighted. Recommendations are made as to possible interventions that not only support students but enable them to progress to the end of their course
Return to Synagogal values? The Didache’s religious purpose
No full textDoes the Didache favor a return to synagogal values? The scholarly stalemate surrounding the Didache requires a new set of interpretive questions. Scholarship lacks the empirical evidence of the provenance of the Didache creating uncertainty regarding its composite or unified nature. This, in conjunction with the decades long argument around the Didache’s relationship with Matthew have all led to the current scholarly quagmire. This project examines the potential for the Didache to have an unexpected voice in the early church.
The goal of this study is to examine the potential that the Didache accessed Matthew to disagree and return to synagogue. This research will establish viable intertextual links between Matthew and the Didache in response to the differing scholarly views. These intertexts will show the Didache’s propensity for Jesus’ teachings in Matthew. Reading the Didache as one unified document, this research will consider early Christianity (30-100 CE) as it parted ways with Judaism.
Taking into consideration the implied author/audience of the Didache while addressing the text’s speech acts will reveal the reasons for the Didache’s use of Matthew. This utilization of Matthew reveals a complex Christology in the Didache stopping short of recognition of Jesus’ salvific actions. While Jesus in Matthew teaches a decentralization of the community relating with God, the Didache relegates Jesus’ mission in favor of recentralizing. The Didache assumes the narrative world of the Matthean Jesus as it utilizes his five teaching discourses.
While this study is not the first to address Didache’s relationship to Matthew, distinct in this research is the Didache’s circumventing Matthew to promote institutionalization of the church. The Didache functions as a hinge between the first and second century as Christianity separated from Judaism. This subversion of Matthew by Didache leads to a re-synagogalization of the community instead of the decentralization as Jesus intended
Acting strategically during change: A process and dwelling world-view approach
Get PDFStrategic change processes are characterized by high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty. Responding to these changes requires a dynamic approach with a wider set of skills and coping mechanisms. In this article, we argue for a broad focus on change that considers the tacit elements of strategising. We adopted a dwelling worldview as well as a strong process ontology combined with a practice perspective to capture the complexity and richness of a strategic change process with a focus on identity and legitimacy dynamics. This article reports on an emerging process model of how individuals in non-managerial positions respond to and make sense of planned strategic change. The study followed a longitudinal, processual approach using a South African business school as the research setting. The findings of the study contribute towards a deepened understanding of the dynamics that occur within strategic change processes, showing that strategising is a dynamic process involving instinct, adjustment and phronetic action. Understanding how individuals respond, adapt and cope during strategic change processes provides potentially helpful insight into how strategic change is enabled or constrained, which could have future implications on how change processes are designed or implemented
A life in social entrepreneurship: exploring my learning, beliefs and my future through autoethnographical, institutional, motivational and critical lenses
Get PDFThis Doctoral submission uses an autoethnographic approach alongside the academic frameworks of Bricolage Theory and Hybridity Theory (a branch of Institutional Theory) to reappraise a trio of my public works as a ‘social entrepreneur’ over a period of 25 years. This reappraisal depicts me as an archetypal ‘bricoleur’, or handy-person, improvising with the resources to hand, successfully synthesising resources from the disparate worlds of the business, public and third sectors. Exploring both my formative drives and the external contexts in which I built my public works, I suggest how I may have acquired my sense of identity and motivation - my particular way of seeing, interpreting and relating to the world. As I delve into the selected public works, I draw upon literature on Institutional Hybridity to examine the operational and cultural tensions that inevitably arise in businesses that interlace a social mission and a commercial approach. I characterise the finding of creative ways to manage and these tensions over time as a defining attribute of social entrepreneurship in all its forms. I also explore the strategies available to lessen or offset these tensions over time using examples of how my own public works were operationally and culturally re-calibrated over extended periods to in an attempt to rebalance social and commercial objectives over time. To support my analysis, I utilise autobiographical accounts of my own actions and interactions during the development of my own public works. I splice this with a rich body of formal research on bricolage and hybridity in social enterprise plus occasional insights from critical approaches. I conclude with a discussion of what this means for both my next public work and for tomorrow’s social entrepreneurs and I make suggestions for fruitful areas for further academic research
Auswirkungen von Cloud-basierten Enterprise-Resource-Planning- Systemen auf die bedeutendsten Erfolgsfaktoren von KMU in der deutschen Wohnungswirtschaft unter Berücksichtigung der Digitalisierungspraxis und der betriebswirtschaftlichen Geschäftsprozessneustrukturierung
No full textThis paper examines the impact of cloud-based enterprise resource planning systems on the key success factors of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the housing industry, whilst taking into account the digitalisation practice and restructuring of business management processes. The research shows that the Federal Republic of Germany has a high digitalisation backlog compared to other European countries and this issue is also reflected in the German real estate industry. The focus of this thesis is cloud-based ERP systems which have not yet been examined in detail due to this relative lag in technological progress in the industry. As a result of the lack of insights from the use of cloud-based ERP systems in the housing industry, this thesis shall consider the impact on the key success factors of SMEs in the German housing industry, including the digitalisation practice and restructuring of business processes within the industry.
The thesis is based on case studies that highlight the key success factors of German housing companies. The focus of the work is evident in the research gap on the impact of cloud ERP systems on the three key success factors of SMEs in the housing industry. This includes a consideration of the associated digitalisation practice and restructuring of business processes. The research project is implemented with the help of qualitative-explorative research, supported with the survey instrument of guideline-based expert interviews and a qualitative content analysis as an evaluation method. To obtain a holistic view of the topic, the thesis includes interviews with professionals and experts within the German housing industry whose insights include a broad consideration of digitalisation in the industry.
This dissertation presents the results in different categories, combined to identify the impact on the restructuring of business processes and the three most important success factors of SMEs in the German housing industry providing a new understanding of the impact of cloud-based ERP systems for SMEs on such restructuring and success factors. At the same time, strategic action-item recommendations for the housing industry are derived from the findings, enabling SMEs to make further assessments and evaluations in the context of digitalisation
Mental illness stigma in Bangladesh: Findings from a cross-sectional survey
Get PDFBackground
Mental illness stigma is universally prevalent and a significant barrier to achieving global mental health goals. Mental illness stigma in Bangladesh has gained little attention despite its widespread impact on seeking mental health care in rural and urban areas. This study aimed to investigate mental illness stigma and the associated factors in rural and urban areas of Bangladesh.
Methods
The study areas were divided into several clusters from which 325 participants (≥18 years) were recruited with systematic random sampling. The Bangla version of the Days’ Mental Illness Stigma Scale was used to collect data. Independent-samples t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression were performed.
Results
Results suggest that gender, age, geographical location, socioeconomic status, and occupation significantly differed across subscales of stigma. Age, gender, seeking treatment of mental illness, having knowledge on mental health, and socioeconomic status were predictive factors of mental illness stigma. The results also showed a high treatment gap in both rural and urban areas.
Conclusion
This study supports that mental illness stigma is prevalent in Bangladesh, requiring coordinated efforts. Results can inform the development of contextually tailored mental health strategies to reduce stigma and contribute to the promotion of mental health of individuals and communities across Bangladesh
Intervocal figures: a classed and queered voicing-dancer in Instant Composition
Get PDFThis paper uses the idea of ‘intervocality’ (Cahill and Hamel) with reference to a voicing-dancing figure to examine how acts of voicing are shaped and re-shaped in the context of improvisatory dance-based performance. Drawing on my practice-led research in Instant Composition (IC), I will explore voicing as a series of movement events performed in multiple registers that are ever-shifting according to socially and culturally constructed identities. Voicings are performed by bodies that are never abstract but always in material co-production — embedded in, yet unfixed by complex gendered, physiological, and ideological histories and subjectivities (Thomaidis). Firstly, I want to consider how ‘intervocality’ might usefully reveal the voicing-dancing figure as differentiated from the improvising actor. Unlike ‘theatre improv’ where the effort to take on characters in scenario-based structures often demands an audible marking of vocal transformation that occupies fictional space, in IC, when improvisers produce vocal material as part of their instantly composed choreography, there is quite often a ‘characterless’ (Delgado-García) quality to the vocal conjuring that calls into question the very issue of transformation. Arguably, the voicing-dancing figure occupies an autobiographical space where intervocalities are revealed in particular ways. Secondly, I am curious about how such considerations might usefully interrogate issues of class and queerness within an intersectional frame of identity. Both as an academic and improviser, I speak through myriad intervocal transfigurations, having passed through a working-class upbringing towards more middle-class destinations. My ever-changing 50-year-old voice also resonates with the embedded echoes of my pasts - my child’s voice and its broad (Lancashire) tones, my teenage estuary (Essex) accent, my adult (acting-schooled) Received Pronunciation and all the while shaped by a confidence infused by queer anxiety and class-based uprootedness (Hoggart). This paper therefore takes account of intervocality as a volatile and mercurial feature of classed and queered revelatory processes that has implications for how a voicing-dancing figure might be (re)considered within the context of IC
Co-creation of a virtual interactive teaching package for auditors of healthcare placements - towards assurance of quality of health care traineeships
Get PDFTo provide medical and allied health professionals students with the best clinical learning environments, quality processes must be in place, and these require innovation to assure audit material resources that are fit for purpose, can work well within the situation and provide the correct teaching and learning to train auditors. HEALINT4ALL ERASMUS+ Strategic partnership provides medical education and allied health professionals with an audit system to facilitate quality assurance of EU clinical learning environments by mapping and innovatively adapting a newly established audit protocol and support tools to suit the Higher Education needs for wider application to medicine and professionals allied to medicine. The project conducted a literature scoping review followed by interviews and focus groups across all 6 European partners of clinicians, students and educators of service needs and best practice, resulting to map standards and requirements for clinical learning environments and develop a protocol to assess the quality of placements. Next, it developed a digital interactive platform for European and national placements appraisal following user-centred design to allow the collaboration between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and HEIs and placements. In order the application of the HEALINT4ALL protocol within the digital interactive tool to be beneficial, the auditors of the healthcare placements should have the necessary competences to perform the audits utilising the HEALINT4ALL a digital interactive platform. An online or blended learning approach is preferred to fit with the clinical academics' needs that will undertake the role of auditor. Thus, HEALINT4ALL co-created a Virtual Interactive Teaching Package for Training the Auditors of Healthcare Placements. It followed a modified ASPIRE framework to develop the package. The ASPIRE framework stands for Aims, Storyboarding, Population, Implementation, Release and Evaluation. This work describes the co-creation journey that engaged stakeholders in 6 different countries in order to co-design the resources, experts in the field that reviewed the content to ensure its high quality, the development that followed and the first pilot's evaluation from experts. While some efforts have been made towards the standardisation of auditing clinical placements, to the best of our knowledge this is the first attempt to develop a short curriculum to training the auditors of healthcare placements and implemented as a virtual interactive teaching package