414 research outputs found

    Alʔilbīrī’s Book of the rational conclusions. Introduction, Critical Edition of the Arabic Text and Materials for the History of the Ḫawāṣṣic Genre in Early Andalus

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    [eng] The Book of the rational conclusions, written perhaps somewhen in the 10th c. by a physician from Ilbīrah (Andalus), is a multi-section medical pandect. The author brings together, from a diversity of sources, materials dealing with matters related to drug-handling, natural philosophy, therapeutics, medical applications of the specific properties of things, a regimen, and a dispensatory. This dissertation includes three different parts. First the transmission of the text, its contents, and its possible context are discussed. Then a critical edition of the Arabic text is offered. Last, but certainly not least, the subject of the specific properties is approached from several points of view. The analysis of Section III of the original book leads to an exploration of the early Andalusī assimilation of this epistemic tradition and to the establishment of a well-defined textual family in which our text must be inscribed. On the other hand, the concept itself of ‘specific property’ is often misconstrued and it is usually made synonymous to magic and superstition. Upon closer inspection, however, the alleged irrationality of the knowledge of these properties appears to be largely the result of anachronistic interpretation. As a complement of this particular research and as an illustration of the genre, a sample from an ongoing integral commentary on this section of the book is presented.[cat] El Llibre de les conclusions racionals d’un desconegut metge d’Ilbīrah (l’Àndalus) va ser compilat probablement durant la segona meitat del s. X. Es tracta d’un rudimentari però notablement complet kunnaix (un gènere epistèmic que és definit sovint com a ‘enciclopèdia mèdica’) en què l’autor aplega materials manllevats (sovint de manera literal i no-explícita) de diversos gèneres. El llibre obre amb una secció sobre apoteconomia (una mena de manual d’apotecaris) però se centra després en les diferents branques de la medicina. A continuació d’uns prolegòmens filosòfics l’autor copia, amb mínima adaptació lingüística, un tractat sencer de terapèutica, després un altre sobre les aplicacions mèdiques de les propietats específiques de les coses, una sèrie de fragments relacionats amb la dietètica (un règim en termes tradicionals) i, finalment, una col·lecció de receptes mèdiques. Cadascuna d’aquestes seccions mostren evidents lligams d’intertextualitat que apunten cap a una intensa activitat sintetitzadora de diverses tradicions aliades a la medicina a l’Àndalus califal. El text és, de fet, un magnífic objecte sobre el qual aplicar la metodologia de la crítica textual i de fonts. L’edició crítica del text incorpora la dimensió cronològica dins l’aparat, que esdevé així un element contextualitzador. Quant l’estudi de les fonts, si tot al llarg de la primera part d’aquesta tesi és només secundari, aquesta disciplina pren un protagonisme gairebé absolut en la tercera part, especialment en el capítol dedicat a l’anàlisi individual de cada passatge recollit en la secció sobre les propietats específiques de les coses

    Designing a mobile health smokeless tobacco cessation intervention in Odisha, India: User and provider perspectives

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    OBJECTIVE: There is limited evidence on the development of mobile health (mHealth) interventions for smokeless tobacco (SLT) cessation, despite its widespread use in South Asia. This formative qualitative study explored the perceptions of tobacco users and healthcare providers (HCPs) regarding developing a mHealth intervention for SLT cessation. METHODS: This was a qualitative study using in-depth interviews (IDIs) with tobacco users (n = 26) and primary care physicians (PCPs) (n = 5) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with counsellors (n = 2) in four urban primary health centres (UPHCs) in Berhampur, Odisha from February to March 2020. The data were coded and analysed by two researchers using a framework analysis method. The discussion guides and initial codes were developed based on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behaviour change. RESULTS: The results were elaborated under four themes: (1) Current scenario of SLT use; (2) Barriers and facilitators for quitting SLT; (3) Barriers and facilitators for mHealth counselling; and (4) Design and delivery of the proposed intervention. SLT use was prevalent in the community regardless of sociodemographic factors. Peer factors accounted for both tobacco consumption as well as considering cessation. Participants considered mobile message counselling helpful and acceptable. Not having a mobile phone and illiteracy were identified as barriers while ease of access and rising popularity of social media applications were considered facilitators to the use of mHealth for quitting tobacco. Participants preferred messages that were pictorial, short and simple, in the local language, and tailored to individual's needs. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study that provides evidence within the Indian context that the text messaging platform may be used for delivering an SLT cessation intervention. The integration of a theoretical basis and research findings from target users can guide future intervention development

    Songs of life from fluvial worlds: A river, the state and Bengali Muslim char-dwellers in Assam, India

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    This dissertation looks at state-society relations of marginalized people living in liminal and (now) vulnerable ecologies. It is set in the fluvial and unstable landscapes called Chars or river-islands in Assam, a northeastern state in India. Using ethnography and archival sources, it looks at the historically marginalized Bengali Muslims living in these ‘chars’ and their interactions and experiences with a post-colonial majoritarian state, not just in the background of ‘jatiyotabaad’ or Assamese nationalism but also the rise and consolidation of a Hindutva regime both in India and Assam. This narrative of state-society relations between Bengali Muslim char-dwellers and a majoritarian state is complicated by the fluvial and unpredictable ecological processes and Assam being a borderland state, sharing boundaries with other nations. Thus, as much as this dissertation understands char-dwellers’ relationship with the state through their everyday interactions, it also evaluates this relationship through events such as the ‘anti-immigration’2 Assam Movement or the more recent citizenship project called the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This dissertation thus, in its quest to understand state-society relations, has been informed by and makes commentary on concepts such as violence, fluvial environment, immigration, citizenship, bureaucracy, affect, among others. Using the works of Baruch Spinoza (2002), Gilles Deleuze (1994, 1997) Pierre-Félix Guattari (1987 co-authored with Deleuze) and Sara Ahmed (2014), this dissertation finds affect to be rhizomatic which is a principle guiding both this dissertation’s methodology and as it will be established, the state-society relations in this context. Thus, while it evaluates the violence that is characterized of this state-society relationship, the thesis will show that it is marked by beyond violence. What are the varied dimensions, the other elements that characterize this state-society relation in a borderland state that historically has grappled with ‘anti-immigration’ sentiments but now also faces a fascist Hindu regime, while a river erodes and floods even more violently? That is the story that this dissertation aims to understand

    What Makes a Family: How an Empowerment-Based Health Care Delivery Model Employs Family Planning to Positively Impact Families in Rural Maharashtra: A Study in Jamkhed, Ahmadneger

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    The paper examines how an empowerment-based health care delivery model employs family planning services to positively impact families in rural Maharashtra. Family planning services provide those with the ability to become pregnant the option to control their own reproductive lives, whether they choose in favor of or against having children. Contraceptive use advances people’s human rights to choose whether they want to bear children and how many children they want, and people should have the choice of their preferred contraceptive method. The paper examines this issue within the framework of the Comprehensive Rural Health Project’s Jamkhed Model. Through the Jamkhed Model, Village Health Workers (VHWs), the Mobile Health Team (MHT), and Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) leadership work together to provide necessary primary health care in underserved village populations. The paper approaches analysis through a mix of literature review and interviews with relevant stakeholders. Around the world, healthcare has become a topic of business rather than a topic of how healthcare providers can best serve their patient populations – I hope that this paper will bring to attention the need we have as healthcare providers to help our patients feel comfortable, empowered, and supported in their healthcare experience

    Understanding aesthetic aspects of cross-cultural food preferences with online recipe platforms

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    Food recommender systems offer the potential to provide meal suggestions that account not only for user preferences, but also reflect ideals, such as healthfulness and sustainability. Predicting user food preferences is, however, a challenging problem given the diverse factors that influence what an individual likes to eat. Culture is known to be one of the factors. Food across cultures shows differences in many aspects, for example, in aesthetics. This doctoral work investigates the aesthetic aspects, particularly in terms of visual appearance and flavour, of food. Focusing on how food looks and tastes in different cultures and how human food choices are related to these, this work aims at analysing and interpreting human food aesthetic preferences across cultures. Based on these observations, I show implications for the development of food recommender systems. Online recipe platforms from three distinct cultures, including China, US and German, serve as data resources for this research, as there are a large amount of data representing the corresponding food cultures (e.g., online recipes) and user food preferences (e.g., ratings, bookmarks). Computer science techniques are employed to extract the aesthetic information, including visual features from the online recipe images and flavour compounds of the ingredients, allowing for successively classification and prediction tasks to be performed on these data by means of machine learning approaches. The algorithmic results show that online recipes differ in visual appearance and flavour across recipe portals. This, together with the findings from the follow-up user study demonstrating how culture biases human interpretation of online recipe images, highlights the impact of culture in human food choices. The algorithms also confirm that human online food preferences are aesthetically driven within each culture. Furthermore, stable patterns in aesthetic food preferences across cultures can be identified, which is supported and justified by means of further user study and exploratory analyses. The research presented in this doctoral work increases the understanding of human cross-cultural food preferences. Moreover, findings from this thesis emphasise the merit of considering the synthetic impact of culture and aesthetics into food recommendation and provide a promising perspective for the development of food recommender systems by incorporating stable patterns in cross-cultural aesthetic food preferences

    "Weltbeziehung": The Study of our Relationship to the World

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    Die Soziologie der Weltbeziehungen untersucht, wie Menschen sich in der Welt verorten und mit ihr in Verbindung treten. Auf welche Weise dieser Ansatz für unterschiedliche Disziplinen fruchtbar gemacht werden kann, zeigt dieser Band. Dabei widmen sich die Autor:innen einer Analyse grundlegender Konzepte der westlichen Moderne - etwa den Praktiken des Teilens und Tauschens. Darüber hinaus eröffnen sie eine historisch sowie global vergleichende Perspektive anhand vielfältiger Themen, etwa dem Verständnis von Markt und Eigentum in China oder der Dekolonisierung von Forschung in Indien. Hieran anschließend formulieren sie konkrete Vorschläge zu einer Neuausrichtung der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften

    Preemie Care: A Co-designed Digital Tool to Improve Communication Between Health Personnel and Parents of Preterm Infants

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    Communication between parents and health providers is essential in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) settings to ensure both parties collaborate in infant care. However, in most NICUs, the interaction between parents and NICU staff is strained, thus hindering communication. These communication challenges are due to language, medical vocabulary and cultural barriers between NICU staff and mothers. These challenges create communication gaps, which disempower parents and frustrate health staff. To bridge NICU communication gaps, several researchers have deployed digital health interventions. However, although the existing NICU technologies have effectively improved NICU communication, most parents struggle to interact with these interventions because they do not fit parents' technical and literacy capabilities. These design gaps arise because parents were not fully included in the design process of the existing NICU digital interventions. In this research, we sought to address the communication gaps within the NICU environment by employing a co-design approach to develop a digital intervention that supports infant care journey in a low-resource NICU setting. The co-design process included six research phases that spanned over 32 months. We engaged mothers of premature infants and NICU staff throughout this process while focusing on identifying how best to involve NICU stakeholders in a codesign process to ensure that the final intervention was usable and useful. The co-design process led to the development of MoM connect workflow which was disqualified by mothers and NICU staff because it did not meet mothers' needs. We further engaged NICU stakeholders in the co-design process and agreed on developing Preemie Care (PMC) system, an educational resource tool that disseminated digital health videos in multiple languages and through multiple technologies to empower parents and NICU staff to work together and advocate for their preterm infants. PMC system was deployed at Groote Schuur NICU for eight months where we interacted with users and monitored it usage logs to evaluate its efficacy. Our empirical evidence revealed that access to health information improved parents and their social networks medical vocabulary, thus empowering them to engage with their peers and NICU staff. We also learned that sharing health information in multiple languages does not resolve the language barriers among multilingual NICU parents. Instead, our results show that bilingual parents prefer accessing health information in multiple languages to improve their medical vocabulary and understandability, thus empowering them to engage in their infants' health care and decision-making. Hence, this research provides the design mechanisms for a NICU intervention to bridge communication gaps between bilingual parents and NICU staff. This work contributes to the field of Human-Computer Interaction(HCI) by highlighting the ethical and methodological considerations to engage NICU stakeholders interacting in a sensitive NICU setting in a collaborative co-design process. We also contribute to HCI knowledge by providing design mechanisms for a NICU intervention meant to bridge communication gaps between bilingual parents and NICU staff in a low-resource setting and design features of a digital NICU intervention that enhance family-centred care in the NICU setting

    Applied Mathematics to Mechanisms and Machines

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    This book brings together all 16 articles published in the Special Issue "Applied Mathematics to Mechanisms and Machines" of the MDPI Mathematics journal, in the section “Engineering Mathematics”. The subject matter covered by these works is varied, but they all have mechanisms as the object of study and mathematics as the basis of the methodology used. In fact, the synthesis, design and optimization of mechanisms, robotics, automotives, maintenance 4.0, machine vibrations, control, biomechanics and medical devices are among the topics covered in this book. This volume may be of interest to all who work in the field of mechanism and machine science and we hope that it will contribute to the development of both mechanical engineering and applied mathematics

    Randomized Control Trials in the Field of Development

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    In October 2019, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer jointly won the 51st Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." But what is the exact scope of their experimental method, known as randomized control trials (RCTs)? Which sorts of questions are RCTs able to address and which do they fail to answer? This book provides answers to these questions, explaining how RCTs work, what they can achieve, why they sometimes fail, how they can be improved and why other methods are both useful and necessary. Chapters contributed by leading specialists in the field present a full and coherent picture of the main strengths and weaknesses of RCTs in the field of development. Looking beyond the epistemological, political, and ethical differences underlying many of the disagreements surrounding RCTs, it explores the implementation of RCTs on the ground, outside of their ideal theoretical conditions and reveals some unsuspected uses and effects, their disruptive potential, but also their political uses. The contributions uncover the implicit worldview that many RCTs draw on and disseminate, and probe the gap between the method's narrow scope and its success, while also proposing improvements and alternatives. This book warns against the potential dangers of their excessive use, arguing that the best use for RCTs is not necessarily that which immediately springs to mind, and offering opportunity to come to an informed and reasoned judgement on RCTs and what they can bring to development
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