169 research outputs found
Automated Essay Writing: An AIED Opinion
No full textThis opinion piece emerged from research for the book, Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers, by Mike Sharples and Rafael Pérez y Pérez, published by Routledge. While thinking of ways to promote the book, I realised that students could employ AI story generators to write essays. That led me to research automated essay writing, write a Twitter thread that has garnered 43,000 engagements, and author a blog article (Sharples, 2022). The current piece is a revised and expanded version of that article
Why the inflation in legislation on women’s bodies
No full textThis dissertation argues that historical patriarchal theories have crept into the world’s legal systems to date, and as a result this has led to inflation in legislation upon women’s bodies. The author seeks to prove that patriarchal theories have become part of our social and legal institutions to date, resulting in unnecessary controls placed upon women’s bodies to the point that, women’s attempt to assert autonomy over their own bodies have been criminalised or placed under heavy civil penalties. The author suggests that this has been particularly so because, women have been relegated to the private sphere and as such, are underrepresented within the legislature, political arenas, the process passing legislation and the legal profession in general. As well as analysing the structure of the various social, legal and political institutions as they relate to the causes of inflation in legislation upon women’s bodies, the author investigates the medicalisation of women’s bodies which has led to over legislation with regards to: legislation and women’s attire, Indecent exposure and the breast, the treatment of military women with regards to their bodily autonomy and pregnancy
Multi-State Models for Panel Data: The msm Package for R
No full textPanel data are observations of a continuous-time process at arbitrary times, for example, visits to a hospital to diagnose disease status. Multi-state models for such data are generally based on the Markov assumption. This article reviews the range of Markov models and their extensions which can be fitted to panel-observed data, and their implementation in the msm package for R. Transition intensities may vary between individuals, or with piecewise-constant time-dependent covariates, giving an inhomogeneous Markov model. Hidden Markov models can be used for multi-state processes which are misclassified or observed only through a noisy marker. The package is intended to be straightforward to use, flexible and comprehensively documented. Worked examples are given of the use of msm to model chronic disease progression and screening. Assessment of model fit, and potential future developments of the software, are also discussed.
The impact on work-related stress of mental health teams following team-based learning on clinical risk management
No full textRisk management is viewed as a systematic process based on multiprofessional and multi-agency decision-making. A learning pack was developed as part of a team-based learning project aiming to encourage and develop collaborative working practice. This brought different professionals and agencies working in mental health together to learn. There is little doubt that mental health practice is a source of stress for practitioners. Apart from the stress associated with managing 'risky' situations, risk management is also a relatively new concept. This can increase stress around ability to cope, both on an individual practitioner level and in teams. This article reports the impact that the learning pack had on team members' stress, specifically work-related stress. A range of scales were used to measure change in stress and results demonstrated reduced work-related pressure in a number of areas following the learning. The implications for team learning in relation to clinical risk management are discussed in light of the findings
Estimating the Cross-Shelf Export of Riverine Materials: Part 1. General Relationships From an Idealized Numerical Model
No full textRivers deliver large amounts of terrestrially derived materials (such as nutrients, sediments, and pollutants) to the coastal ocean, but a global quantification of the fate of this delivery is lacking. Nutrients can accumulate on shelves, potentially driving high levels of primary production with negative consequences like hypoxia, or be exported across the shelf to the open ocean where impacts are minimized. Global biogeochemical models cannot resolve the relatively small-scale processes governing river plume dynamics and cross-shelf export; instead, river inputs are often parameterized assuming an "all or nothing" approach. Recently, Sharples et al. (2017), https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005483 proposed the SP number-a dimensionless number relating the estimated size of a plume as a function of latitude to the local shelf width-as a simple estimator of cross-shelf export. We extend their work, which is solely based on theoretical and empirical scaling arguments, and address some of its limitations using a numerical model of an idealized river plume. In a large number of simulations, we test whether the SP number can accurately describe export in unforced cases and with tidal and wind forcings imposed. Our numerical experiments confirm that the SP number can be used to estimate export and enable refinement of the quantitative relationships proposed by Sharples et al. We show that, in general, external forcing has only a weak influence compared to latitude and derive empirical relationships from the results of the numerical experiments that can be used to estimate riverine freshwater export to the open ocean.Atmospheric Remote Sensin
Relationship between the EQ-5D index and measures of clinical outcomes in selected studies of cardiovascular interventions
No full textThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: The EuroQoL 5D (EQ-5D) has been widely used in studies of cardiac disease, but its measurement properties in this group are not well established. The study aimed to quantify the relationship between measures commonly used in studies of cardiac disease and the EQ-5D index across different levels of disease severity.Methods: Patient-level data from 7 studies of cardiac interventions were used, which included randomised trials and observational studies. Relationships between the EQ-5D index and commonly used cardiac measures, Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) angina severity class, treadmill exercise time (ETT) and scales of the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) were examined. Mixed effects linear regression was used to assess these relationships, with the EQ-5D index as the response.Results: Study sample sizes ranged from 68 to 2419. Mean baseline EQ-5D index ranged from 0.77 in patients at diagnosis (95% CI 0.75, 0.78) to 0.43 in patients with advanced disease (95% CI 0.39, 0.48) and differed significantly across studies (p < 0.001). There was evidence of a ceiling effect in patients at diagnosis. The minimum clinically important difference of a one minute increase in ETT was associated with a 0.019 (95% CI 0.014, 0.025) increase in EQ-5D index. One class increase in CCS was associated with a 0.11 (95% CI 0.09, 0.13) decrease in EQ-5D index. A 10 unit increase in SAQ scales was associated with increases between 0.04 and 0.07 in EQ-5D index (95% CIs 0.03, 0.05 and 0.05, 0.08). Tests of heterogeneity indicated the EQ-5D-covariate relationships were consistent across levels of disease severity for ETT and the treatment satisfaction scale of the SAQ, but heterogeneous for age, gender, CCS angina class and other scales of the SAQ.Conclusion: The EQ-5D index varies with coronary disease severity. The relationship between the EQ-5D index and an outcome measure used in cardiac intervention studies, ETT, was consistent across disease severity levels, but the relationship between demographic variables, CCS angina class and most of the SAQ scales and the EQ-5D index was heterogeneous for patients with different levels of coronary disease. Differences in the EQ-5D index associated with clinically important differences in cardiac measures can be quantified and vary between three important examples - angina class, ETT and SAQ.EuroQoL group funded this project
The Application of Critical Discourse Theory: A Criterion-Referenced Analysis of Reports Relating to Language Revitalisation in Australia and New Zealand
No full textThe discipline of language policy and planning (LPP) is often proposed as a viable tool for language revitalisation. However, the conventional paradigm upon which LPP is based is inadequate for such an inherently political, contentious and problematic area of social policy, and does not address the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourse that is at the very core of language revitalisation efforts. It is therefore argued here that LPP needs to be explicitly underpinned by critical discourse theory (CDT) if it is to be of genuine use to those involved in language revitalisation efforts, particularly to grass roots language activists. Following an introductory chapter which provides a background to the research and a rationale for it (Chapter 1), there is a critical review of selected literature on LPP and CDT, a review which ends by proposing a list of criteria which, it is argued, can be used to determine the extent to which discourse that is intended to be counter-hegemonic adheres to the principles of effective counter-hegemonic discourse as outlined in the literature on CDT (Chapter 2). In the following three chapters (Chapters 3, 4 & 5), these criteria are applied to the analysis of three recent reports that have a direct bearing on indigenous language revitalisation in Australia (Our Land Our Languages) and New Zealand (Ko Aotearoa Tēnei and Te Reo Mauriora). The first of these reports is found to adhere very closely to the criteria; the second less so; the third almost not at all. The different ways in which each of these reports has been received would tend to support the hypothesis that, other things being equal, the more closely a text of this type conforms to the criteria - that is, the more closely it is aligned to the fundamental principles of effective counter-hegemonic discourse as outlined in CDT - the more likely it is to be positively received and, therefore, to represent an effective challenge to the existing hegemony. The overall conclusion is that CDT can not only assist language activists by providing a basis for determining how successful counter-hegemonic discourse is likely to be in achieving its aims but has the potential to provide LPP with a secure theoretical foundation (Chapter 6)
Optimising the airflow performance of ventilators for natural ventilation in buildings.
No full textVentilation is essential if an adequate environment in buildings is to be provided. Natural ventilation is a sustainable method commonly used to achieve this. Natural ventilation can occur from random flow of air through unintentional (adventitious) openings, commonly referred to as infiltration, or can be facilitated through purpose-provided openings - commonly called controlled natural ventilation. Stringent national and international regulations have led to building structures becoming more and more air-tight so that ventilation is confined to airflow through intentionally provided openings only. These purpose-provided openings typically consist of one or a combination of basic components such as louvers, insect-screens or noise baffles. An extensive literature review indicated that the airflow performance of combinations of such components has neither been thoroughly determined nor fully understood, making it difficult to accurately predict their building performance. This investigation set out to answer some of these questions by employing experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) parametric studies. For the experimental study, a test rig was designed and constructed in accordance with European Standard BS EN 13141-1: 2004. The text rig was designed with sufficient flexibility to enable individual components and combinations of various components to be investigated. Components tested ranged from ordinary slots fabricated from pine wood to commercial ventilators and mesh-screens as are commonly found in natural ventilation applications. The results of this investigation indicate that the overall airflow properties of a ventilator are influenced by the combination of constituent components, the manner in which the components are incorporated into a ventilator and also the direction of airflow through it. A CFD study utilising three-dimensional models of some of the components tested during the experimental phase, and employing the k - ? turbulence representation was facilitated by a commercial software package (FLOVENT). Comparisons between CFD results and experimental data were reasonable and acceptable. A new mathematical approach, based up on experimental results, to analyse the airflow properties of combinations of ventilator components is introduced in this thesis. The proposed equations enable relative assessments of the impacts of each component on the overall airflow performance of a ventilator to be made. Comparisons between results from the proposed equations and those obtained experimentally showed good agreement. Although more work could be done to understand the physical meaning of the equations proposed, the author believes that this investigation has set a foundation for a generic representation of ventilator airflow performance. As such, refinements to the proposed equations would inevitably result if further research into this task is undertaken
The Export Enhancement Program: Prospects Under the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990
No full textAccording to provisions of the 1990 U.S. farm bill, the export enhancement program (EEP) will continue to be an important instrument in promoting U.S. agricultural exports and in challenging subsidizing competitors, like the European Community (EC), with funding levels set at a minimum of $500 million annually through 1995. This research, whose purpose is to evaluate the likely effectiveness of the wheat EEP through 1995, reaches several conclusions: (1) the EEP will have a significant effect on U.S. wheat exports, but will be subject to diminishing returns at levels higher than the annual minimums; and (2) the EC will only be marginally affected by the EEP, that is, it can effectively counter the effects of the EEP at low cost.export subsidies, export enhancement program, agricultural trade, simulation model, wheat, coarse grains, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,
Prevalence of traumatic brain injury amongst children admitted to hospital in one health district : a population-based study
No full textThere is a dearth of information regarding the prevalence of brain injury, serious enough to require hospital admission, amongst children in the United Kingdom. In North Staffordshire a register of all children admitted with traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been maintained since 1992 presenting an opportunity to investigate the incidence of TBI within the region in terms of age, cause of injury, injury severity and social deprivation. The register contains details of 1553 children with TBI, two thirds of whom are male. This population-based study shows that TBI is most prevalent amongst children from families living in more deprived areas, however, social deprivation was not related to the cause of injury. Each year, 280 per 100,000 children are admitted for ≥24 hours with a TBI, of these 232 will have a mild brain injury, 25 moderate, 17 severe, and 2 will die. The incidence of moderate and severe injuries is higher than previous estimates. Children under 2 years old account for 18.5% of all TBIs, usually due to falls, being dropped or non-accidental injuries. Falls account for 60% of TBIs in the under 5s. In the 10-15 age group road traffic accidents were the most common cause (185, 36.7%). These findings will help to plan health services and target accident prevention initiatives more accurately
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