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Sociotechnical digital twin: public policy evaluation and a research roadmap for the digital society
No full textThis talk will introduce the notion (and definition) of a sociotechnical digital twin and its increasing importance in the realms of public policy formulation. The paper draws upon a programme of research conducted with colleagues at TCS Research Labs and Aston University.
A lightweight method will be presented and a use of this is formulated to outline how sociotechnical digital twins can specified using the principle of a boundary object. Sociotechnical digital twins come with specific questions and challenges. These challenges feed into a research roadmap for Digital Twins and their role in policy formulation. The roadmap is in the context of UK policy in Science and Engineering
Interpretable chronic kidney disease risk prediction from clinical data using machine learning
Get PDFChronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a major cause of illness and death worldwide, with over 2 million cases diagnosed in the U.K. and potentially up to 1.8 million undiagnosed. However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies on CKD in India, resulting in limited data on its prevalence. CKD is often asymptomatic until 70% of the kidneys are severely damaged, and once this occurs, there is no cure. Patients may require dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive. Detecting the risk of CKD early is therefore crucial. In developing countries like India, many people cannot afford regular laboratory blood tests. This study aims to develop machine learning models to predict the likelihood of CKD using limited blood test results collected in India, including blood pressure, albumin, red and white blood cell count, blood urea, serum creatinine, HbA1Cs, and other biomarkers. Decision Trees and Logistic Regression classification algorithms were used, with hyperparameter tuning, achieving an F-score of 1. These promising results suggest that state-of-the-art results may be achievable with just six laboratory tests
Factors influencing zooplankton communities in small freshwater lochs
Get PDFThe work contained here examined the zooplankton of small freshwater lochs in Highland Scotland. Investigations focused on zooplankton community composition based upon environmental factors and the viability of these lochs as ‘canaries’ of climate change. Sampling occurred at 30 sites which were divided into three types based upon predicted allochthonous nutrients; altitude lochs, with no input, bird lochs with loafing and roosting sites, and stock lochs located in pastoral lands. Sites were further split by fish presence and absence, yielding six terminal subtypes. Physical and chemical analysis confirmed differences between subtypes, notably salinity, conductivity, pH, area, and altitude. Of these sites, 26 were analysed for community composition; 675 Rotifers, Cladocerans and Copepods, of 68 species were identified. Zooplankton community structure and diversity were examined to determine relationships with nutrient status and to establish baseline data from which future monitoring may derive. Findings supported previous research indicating a complex fish community produces a richer assemblage than a non-complex or fishless community. The stock lochs were the only ‘type’ supported by analytical data, though it was insufficient to support the hypothesis that nutrient chemistry alone was a significant predictor of zooplankton community composition. Owing to issues with sequencing, metabarcoding techniques were unable to support morphological data, and total N was missing from the final analyses. This work recorded zooplankton communities previously uncharacterised including several indicators of warming temperature, meso- and eutrophy which may be indicative of a shift in community in response to climate change. Further investigation is necessary to establish ‘canary’ status including more thorough chemical analysis and temporal biomonitoring
Martyrological fulfilment: the process of reform in the publication of late sixteenth-century printed Italian martyrologies, c. 1568 - 1583
No full textThroughout the first half of the sixteenth century, Catholic martyrologies were printed in Italy based on the martyrology of Usuard. These martyrologies directly transcribed the majority of the entries in his martyrology, added their own eulogia and changed the title to identify it with the Romana Curia. This was done in an attempt to universalise the liturgy through the creation of a universal martyrology for the Catholic Church. This is what we term “martyrological fulfilment”. This effort began in the last two decades of the fifteenth century and continued into the sixteenth century with the numerous editions of Bellino de Padua. Not only did his editions remain almost identical in their content, but they all held a title that associated itself with the Romana Curia. It was Bellino’s martyrology that was the leading and most widely used martyrology in the first half of the sixteenth century. However, after the conclusion of the Council of Trent, there appeared a distinct effort at reforming what multiple martyrological authors believed to be erroneous in the martyrology, mainly on a historical basis. This effort was first seen in Francisco Maurolico’s martyrology, who was then followed by Pietro Galesinio, Stephani Salmántico’s, and Pope Gregory XIII and the Martyrologium Romanum 1583. The primary goal of this martyrological reform was the same as it was with Bellino: to universalise the liturgy through the creation of a universal martyrology for the Catholic Church. This thesis analyses the post-Trent martyrologies, between 1568 and 1583, to trace and demonstrate the presence of the desire for martyrological fulfilment through the efforts of martyrological reform. We have demonstrated that through the continuing process of reform in these martyrologies, being primarily influenced by the Council of Trent, martyrological fulfilment was first achieved by the Martyrologium Romanum 1583, making it the first “ecclesial martyrology” of the Catholic Church
Reflections on partnership and co-creation in an EU project: GNurseSim Intercultural Simulation for Caring for Elderly Patients
Get PDFReflection within practice-based professions such as nursing allows for personal introspection and critical analysis of situations in order to make sense of practice and ultimately to improve it. It is a core tenet of nurse education to enable sensemaking of actions, emotions, consequences and ultimately, learning. Practice healthcare environments, patients (elderly or otherwise) and staff co-exist in an extremely broad and complex way. Navigating and developing these environments involves reciprocal relationships between professionals, people using services, and communities to enhance care. The term ‘knowledge mobilisation’ is used in the healthcare literature to describe the active, iterative and collaborative process of creating, sharing and using research evidence (Melville-Richards et al 2019). This involves a range of ‘co’-approaches which are used interchangeably within literature i.e. co-production, co-creation and co-design. In this case-based study, a key influence was ‘co-creation’, where students are considered as equal partners rather than consumers of education and where teachers and learners challenge their assumptions as well as perceptions of their respective roles in education. A successful learner-teacher partnership is defined as ‘a collaborative, reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same way, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualization, decision-making, implementation, investigation, or analysis’ (Cook-Sather et al, 2014, pp 6–7). This EU funded project (GNurseSim Intercultural Simulation for Caring for Elderly Patients) provided a practical opportunity to work in partnership with students and shape their own, peers’ and teachers’ learning and clinical practice perspectives
Kiasu: being afraid to lose, the evolution of personal and professional agency
No full textKiasu is a colloquial word prevalent in the Chinese Hokkien dialect of Singapore, my country of birth but not my ethnic heritage. It means ‘afraid to lose’ or ‘being afraid of losing out’1. Through a critique of my public works, this thesis explores the contextual relevance of my heritage and the shifting of my interpretation of kiasu from its original, literal interpretation of afraid to lose (money, status) to what it is we should be afraid to lose and on the evolution and development of agency generally, and my agency personally and professionally from its source to its continuous shaping. I examine how complex factors inform the mindset that is kiasu and the interplay between structure and agency serving as an enabler, inhibitor, and a constructive and destructive influence over the individual’s cognitive and emotional behaviours. I consider how it can exist as an influencer, to a lesser or greater extent, on human beings generally from fearing losing one’s job; potential; status; financial security; emotional security; health; life to the fear of losing the beauty of nature and indeed the planet. Kiasu can touch all aspects of our being. Rarely is it openly considered in business and yet it interpenetrates personal, proxy and collective agency2 in significant ways and can be an important driver subtly intimated, and harnessed tacitly, and perhaps somewhat irresponsibly, by the corporate to relentlessly increase sales and growth. Through this critique of my own works I propose how kiasu can both energise highly focused agency leading to economic success and serve to inhibit agency and negatively impact on other life areas, such as relationships, health and wellbeing. This is evidenced by and contextualised through my three selected Public Works (one of which is an emerging work) and how kiasu has influenced their creation and continues to influence the evolution of the continued development of my agency and how this concept has served as a positive lens on the grey areas of my core industry and tribe - the world of money and wealth creation commonly known as financial services. I am supported in this through the critical lens of autoethnography which has facilitated the emergence of new insights and which have been helpful to my own practice and hopefully contribute to the culture shifts that are now happening in many sector organisations. I conclude with gathering these valuable insights into explicit frameworks which align responsibility and commitment with values and integrity and lead to a shifting from what kiasu is traditionally attached to, to an empowerment to think more freely and ethically for the self. I contend this can lead to liberation through transformation, and to personal and social fulfilment and prosperity
Italians doing local theology: a multisite empirical inquiry in Piedmont towns with special reference to Antonio Gramsci
Get PDFFrom whom and how Christians apprehend their Christian confession of faith, metabolising the Gospel where they live is a thorny issue in the discipline of Mission Studies, which has primarily addressed it under the rubric of contextualization. The discourse on Doing Local Theology (DLT) started in the mid-1970s and shares some characteristics with the adjacent contextualization discourse, which began in the same period. Each represents a response to the domino effect of upheavals in the world during the 1960s and 1970s. My introduction to the DLT discourse motivated me to implement a methodology featuring work in texts and the field to investigate the question: ‘How can Italian Evangelical leaders and laypersons in Piedmont towns move toward one another to do local theology communally and co-responsibly in their local churches?’. To answer this question, I scrutinized the birth and development of the DLT discourse and analysed the pertinence to DLT activity of Antonio Gramsci’s interrelated theories of the organic intellectual, senso comune and buon senso, and conceptions of the world. I also conducted a multisite empirical inquiry in two distinct phases of fieldwork with 64 contributors in nine Piedmont towns. I conclude that DLT-style local theologies are the products of deliberate (even methodical) guided and co-responsible processes of doing theology. A body of Christians, often native to where they reside and implement their theological insights, articulates them. DLT is a tool available to ecclesial groups who want to learn the art of theological discussion and pursue reciprocity between their leaders and laypersons. Though not a cure-all, DLT can stimulate ecclesial groups to renew their minds, metabolize the Gospel, and acquire shared clarity on vital everyday issues pertinent to their Christian witness
Exploring betweenness: an autoethnographic journey into the experience of twinship and its therapeutic implications
Get PDFWith the pronounced increase in twin births since the 1980s, a corresponding need has arisen to better understand the intricacies of twinship and the aspects that may help and hinder twins throughout their lives. This is especially important for counselling psychologists and psychotherapists, yet at present they face a problematic knowledge gap; although a substantial body of psychological research exists on twins, the voices of twins themselves remain largely absent. In response to this, using an autoethnographic methodology this study reclaims a representational space in psychology research for the unheard and sometimes marginalised voices of twins, who are often unknowingly managing the complex situation of existing within and between the ‘twin-world’ and the ‘non-twin world.’ Three twins were invited to discover and articulate their experience of twinship and of being a client in psychological therapy through reflexive dyadic interviews, which are presented as a series of stories of twinship, along with the author’s own account. Analysis of these narratives using the Listening Guide method elicited themes for discussion, organised under five superordinate thematic categories: spatial contexts of twinship; twin bodies; twin-bond and attachment; being in the non-twin-world, and from harmony to estrangement. Practice-based implications and considerations for clinical work with twins are subsequently proposed, with the psychotherapeutic situation identified as a potentially helpful and healing ‘between world’ for twins. The ways in which twins react differently from singletons to counselling and psychotherapy is just beginning to be understood with clarity and seriousness of purpose. This study offers a much-needed contribution to the existing literature on this subject by foregrounding the subjective experience of twins themselves
How autistic adults experience bereavement: an interpretative phenomenological study
Get PDFBereavement is a stressful life event that disrupts a person’s world on relational, practical, and spiritual levels. The aim of this study is to elucidate what it is like for autistic individuals, who characteristically desire predictability and continuity, to experience the death of a loved one. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 5 autistic adults and the transcripts analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four inter-related group experiential themes are presented: ‘Impacts of change, loss and uncertainty’, ‘Marginalisation: the sociocultural context of autistic grief’, ‘Adapting to change and loss: meaning and connection’, and ‘Stories and scripts: making sense of it all’. Consistent with existing grief literature, participants’ grief reactions included affective, physiological, cognitive, and behavioural changes and were individual and varied with each loss. Participants also reported autism related grief reactions such as changes in sensory processing, increased masking, and an increase in autistic inertia, shutdown, and meltdown. The findings provide preliminary data on how the demands of bereavement, including the burden of minority stress, may increase the risk of autistic burnout for autistic survivors. Bereavement instigated a narrative reconstruction of the autistic survivors’ life stories and identities. This process was social, including talking about the deceased, reflecting on their biography and legacy, and creating a sense of continued connection and relationship with the deceased in their ongoing lives. The findings are discussed in relation to extant literature and implications for psychotherapy and Counselling Psychology are raised
Giving alone: towards an understanding of the practices and motivations of American Evangelical Millennial philanthropy
Get PDFThe giving of financial resources by American Evangelical Christians to further the development of the church and society has been a defining characteristic of this group for many generations. However, that legacy appears to be in jeopardy as the rising Millennial generation, those born in the 1980s and 90s, are giving less to the church and other charitable work. The objective of this thesis is to examine the giving practices and motivations of Evangelical Millennials and identify why they are giving differently. The study utilizes a mixed-methods approach within the qualitative research paradigm. The findings identify three major motivational factors (proximity to need, community of practice, active accountability) that contribute to the development of a moral reasoning framework leading to a moral imagination critical for sustained charitable financial giving. However, the majority of the Millennial research subjects displayed proclivity toward privatization, resulting in a physical and emotional distance from social need, and a belief structure disconnected from behaviour. The conclusions from this study suggest that Evangelical Millennials may lack in ability and disposition for making giving choices or exercising practical moral judgement in line with proximate and ultimate ends. In addition, the agency of the local church was not seen to be compelling for most Evangelical Millennials as a way to effect change. And since the church is one of very few public communities of practice for sustained charitable giving, Evangelical Millennials seem to be left only hoping to affect change in a virtually connected, but physiologically solitary giving environment. This research points to several areas for further scholarly reflection, especially within a broader set of faith traditions. Local congregations and faith-based non-profits will benefit from a richer understanding and connection to Evangelical Millennials, thereby increasing the level of stewardship and informed generosity, potentially making a global difference for the Church and the common good