Architecture for the Atypical: Architectural Diffusion

The study of phenomenology within architecture is rooted in the emphasis of the experience of the human body. The ability to understand how a human inhabits a space is crucial; through the study of the human experience, we are able to study phenomenology within architecture. But what happens when the human body doesn’t react the way that we, as architects, desire? Since the reliance on vision is the most prominent sense for a phenomenological experience of a space, taking away that sense seems to lessen the impact. As a result, this privileging of vision leads to missed opportunities within design. Thus, by using the process of visual diffusion, the emphasis of an architectural journey is no longer prominently put onto the visual sense, rather the other senses are able to be enhanced

Howard Henry Chen Interview

@font-face { font-family: Calibri ; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Times New Roman ; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Artist Bio Howard Henry Chen is an artist that is interested in the ideas of migration, assimilation, hybridization, the global system of change, and the way wealth affect the developing world. He was born in Vietnam in 1972 and left in 1975 with his parents to United States. He grew up in the east coast, Pennsylvania. He attended Boston University where he studied journalism and political science. After graduating, he worked as a journalist for a couple of years at newspapers. Howard mainly covered the issues from the television industry the demographics of the American South. He later went out to study photography at Duke University when he met a couple of photographers during the time he was a journalism who then encourage him to pursue photography and art. He met a professor that taught him photography functions socially and politically. Howard Chen does not only work with photography. He works with all different kinds of mix media. He believes that his art practice changes, and the main focuses is not particularly the mix media but the message and the issue the art piece represents. He has done photography as well as installations. He has done a couple of exhibitions. His work has been found in the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Illinois, Center for Documentary Studies in Durham, North Carolina, and Gallery Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Also he had received the first Fulbright Fellowship for Photography in 1999 and the Silver Eye 2006 Fellowship Award. In 2000 he spent the next six years going back and forth from Vietnam to America working on his artwork to document the changes in Vietnam’s society. He currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. Artist Statement: As a photographer working in Vietnam (2000), I witnessed firsthand the long-term effects of the war, the changing social and political sensibilities, and the reach of economic and cultural globalism. However, I wanted to make photographs that could balance the frenetic, news-driven images. As a Vietnamerican, I wanted to create a new set of pictures that could site somewhere in between the images of Vietnam to which the world has grown accustomed, and use a new visual grammar with which we can talk about Vietnam. I was constantly looking for images that bolstered the self-satisfied loneliness I felt as a returning refugee. For more information visit

Improving Peer Feedback Prediction: The Sentence Level is Right

Recent research aims to automatically pre-dict whether peer feedback is of high qual-ity, e.g. suggests solutions to identified problems. While prior studies have fo-cused on peer review of papers, simi-lar issues arise when reviewing diagrams and other artifacts. In addition, previous studies have not carefully examined how the level of prediction granularity impacts both accuracy and educational utility. In this paper we develop models for predict-ing the quality of peer feedback regard-ing argument diagrams. We propose to perform prediction at the sentence level, even though the educational task is to la-bel feedback at a multi-sentential com-ment level. We first introduce a corpus annotated at a sentence level granularity, then build comment prediction models us-ing this corpus. Our results show that ag-gregating sentence prediction outputs to label comments not only outperforms ap-proaches that directly train on comment annotations, but also provides useful infor-mation for enhancing peer review systems with new functionality.

Health Disparities in Children and Adolescents Living in LMIC During COVID-19 Pandemic

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the pediatric global health issue focusing on health disparities emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents living in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). RECENT FINDINGS: As the COVID-19 pandemic ensues, children and adolescents living in LMIC have been disproportionately affected by socio-economic and mitigation practices, leading to widening disparities in health and the social determinants of health that influence their well-being. SUMMARY: This pediatric global health issue brings to bare the extent, range, and nature of these health disparities, integrated with expert viewpoints, to prompt critical dialogue to address these complex problems

Global Community of Practice: A Means for Capacity and Community Strengthening for Health Professionals in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

BACKGROUND: Low- and middle-income countries face distinct challenges in providing health care services and training. The community of practice (CoP) has been described as a method of facilitating much-needed connections and conversations on this topic and has been adapted over time to include virtual CoPs. We describe the development and evaluation of a global Clinical Lead Forum (CLF) using a CoP framework to structure informal continuing professional development (CPD) and enhance the capacity of health care professionals in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) and its network of affiliated, independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide paediatric and maternal health care for vulnerable populations around the world. We established virtual sessions across the network to discuss clinical topics, which evolved based on the need to include a COVID-19 series. We collected demographic, participation, participant and facilitator assessments, as well as leadership notes from each session as part of an educational quality improvement study. We developed and evaluated the program using the Logic Model and used the Kirkpatrick Model to assess learning outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 299 unique participants engaged in sessions, representing a total of 10 disciplines. There were a total of 1295 participants who joined for the 11 sessions in the regular CLF series and the 23 sessions in the COVID-19 series. Survey responses were overall consistent with a value-added intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The CLF, via both the regular sessions and the COVID-19 series, served as an impactful global health CoP for CPD. By focusing on creating a safe and inviting space, ensuring equity and inclusion, activating champions, fostering engagement, and promoting innovation and adaptability, this program decreased professional isolation, strengthened peer relationships, and enhanced the knowledge and practices of health care professionals. Our model may be scaled to other systems across the world to bridge divides and create similarly meaningful communities

Influenza vaccines really work? Keeping apart the true from the false

A yearly seasonal flu vaccine is the best preventive method we have against influenza at this time. Even then, vaccination adoption is hampered by on-going discussions about safety and effectiveness. In order to dot the I's and cross the T's at the fifth ESWI influenza conference, a dedicated SPI track focused on these important aspects of influenza vaccination

Disparities in Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Rights Among Adolescents and Young People During COVID-19 Pandemic: Culture, Economic, and Gender Perspectives

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: As the world grapples with the health systems\u27 challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the needs of the already vulnerable adolescents and young people is vital. This narrative synthesis is aimed to highlight the current gender, cultural, and socioeconomic dynamics fueling inequalities to accessing sexual, reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services among adolescents and young people in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). RECENT FINDINGS: The COVID-19 pandemic has in most countries exacerbated already existing inequalities due to economic, gender, cultural, and legal aspects. Strategies implemented by most governments to mitigate the spread of the virus have also had a negative impact on the access to SRHR services, some of which are long term. Few published studies have assessed the extent to which the pandemic has fueled each of these paradigms regarding access to SRHR, especially among adolescents and young people (AYP). Additionally, there is paucity in data on the same in most countries, as the systems to track such effects were not available at the inception of the pandemic. SUMMARY: Despite efforts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on this population, deficits remain and a multi-stakeholder approach is needed to achieve the intended goals, especially where cultural and gender values are deeply rooted. Further research is needed to quantify how the pandemic has fueled economic, gender, and cultural aspects to influence access to SRHR services among AYP especially in LMIC

COVID-19 Impact on Disparity in Childhood Immunization in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Through the Lens of Historical Pandemics

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The COVID-19 pandemic, since 2020, has affected health care services and access globally. Although the entire impact of COVID-19 pandemic on existing global public health is yet to be fully seen, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global childhood immunization programs is of particular importance. RECENT FINDINGS: Disruptions to service delivery due to lockdowns, challenges in vaccination programs, vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, and political and social economic inequalities all posed a threat to existing childhood immunization programs. These potential threats were especially critical in LMIC where childhood immunization programs tend to experience suboptimal implementation. SUMMARY: This review provides an overview of childhood immunizations and discusses past pandemics particularly in LMIC, factors contributing to disparities in childhood immunizations, and reviews potential lessons to be learned from past pandemics. Vaccine hesitancy, social determinants of health, and best practices to help lessen the pandemic\u27s influence are also further elaborated. To address current challenges that hindered the progress made in prevention of childhood illnesses through vaccination campaigns and increased vaccine availability, lessons learned through best practices explored from past pandemics must be examined to mitigate impact of COVID-19 on childhood immunization and in turn conserve health and improve economic well-being of children especially in LMIC

Can a business simulation game provide support and address learning and assessment criteria?

The paper addresses the debate surrounding the business simulation game (BSG) as an educational tool. Theoretical perspectives such as motivation (Aldrich, 2003), analytical skills (Chakravorty, 2005), decision making and adaptable learning (Aldrich, 2005) and behavioural (Sherpereel, 2005) are considered. Using a BGS as pedagogical learning aid presents challenges for both staff and students (Clarke, 2009) and this paper presents an overview of current research investigating the impact of the implementation of a BSG with both UK and overseas postgraduate students from a range of business and management disciplines in a post 1992 university. The paper will present: • how staff selected an appropriate BSG, • where it was used to obtain maximum impact whilst addressing programme learning objectives, • how effective the BSG was as an assessment tool, • an evaluation of its effectiveness as a pedagogical tool in an international context