4,570 research outputs found

    An examination of the verbal behaviour of intergroup discrimination

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    This thesis examined relationships between psychological flexibility, psychological inflexibility, prejudicial attitudes, and dehumanization across three cross-sectional studies with an additional proposed experimental study. Psychological flexibility refers to mindful attention to the present moment, willing acceptance of private experiences, and engaging in behaviours congruent with one’s freely chosen values. Inflexibility, on the other hand, indicates a tendency to suppress unwanted thoughts and emotions, entanglement with one’s thoughts, and rigid behavioural patterns. Study 1 found limited correlations between inflexibility and sexism, racism, homonegativity, and dehumanization. Study 2 demonstrated more consistent positive associations between inflexibility and prejudice. And Study 3 controlled for right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, finding inflexibility predicted hostile sexism and racism beyond these factors. While showing some relationships, particularly with sexism and racism, psychological inflexibility did not consistently correlate with varied prejudices across studies. The proposed randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention to reduce sexism through enhanced psychological flexibility. Overall, findings provide mixed support for the utility of flexibility-based skills in addressing complex societal prejudices. Research should continue examining flexibility integrated with socio-cultural approaches to promote equity

    Resilience and food security in a food systems context

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    This open access book compiles a series of chapters written by internationally recognized experts known for their in-depth but critical views on questions of resilience and food security. The book assesses rigorously and critically the contribution of the concept of resilience in advancing our understanding and ability to design and implement development interventions in relation to food security and humanitarian crises. For this, the book departs from the narrow beaten tracks of agriculture and trade, which have influenced the mainstream debate on food security for nearly 60 years, and adopts instead a wider, more holistic perspective, framed around food systems. The foundation for this new approach is the recognition that in the current post-globalization era, the food and nutritional security of the world’s population no longer depends just on the performance of agriculture and policies on trade, but rather on the capacity of the entire (food) system to produce, process, transport and distribute safe, affordable and nutritious food for all, in ways that remain environmentally sustainable. In that context, adopting a food system perspective provides a more appropriate frame as it incites to broaden the conventional thinking and to acknowledge the systemic nature of the different processes and actors involved. This book is written for a large audience, from academics to policymakers, students to practitioners

    The political economy of peri-urban transformations in Zimbabwe under globalisation - a case study of Harare

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    The bulk of urban studies in sub-Saharan Africa has, hitherto, focused on the impacts of structural adjustment programmes on urban productivity and citizen welfare. However, little is known about the dynamics (Mbiba & Huchzermeyer, 2002: 114) of the structural gaps between the stated policy prescriptions and implementation practices, on one hand, and on the other, between the policy practices and lived experiences of ordinary residents in the marginalised urban spaces in developing countries that neoliberal economic structural reforms have engendered. Meanwhile the dominant perspectives on the nature and meaning of “‘peri-urban’” have intensified instead of stemming the crises of managing increasingly contested urban frontiers in the poorer countries (Mbiba & Huchermeyer, 2002: 114; Simon, et al., 2004; Lombard, 2016). Using Harvey’s (2003) revised and extended Marxist perspective of “primitive accumulation by dispossession” on jambanja, the study critically engages with the “multiple realities” (Giddens, 1984) of radically transformed peri-urban landscapes in a case study of Harare. The study deploys a mixed method strategy to capture multiple data sets through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and biographical accounts (Creswell & Brown, 1992; Mouton, 2003: 196) across different contexts of the ‘peri-urban’ in Harare. These contexts range from Zimbabwe’s abandoned neoliberal structural reform programme (Bond & Manyanya, 2003; Mbiba, 2017a: 8-9) to the country’s elitist policy projects of jambanja and Operation Murambatsvina (Moyo, 2013a; 2013b) post-2000. Drawing on the lived experiences of purposively selected town planners and ordinary peri-urban residents, the study builds conceptual blocks to bridge the gaps between the official policy prescriptions and the everyday life experiences of intended beneficiary ordinary residents. The study concludes that the emerging palimpsest peri-urban interface in sub Saharan Africa can be productive sites for understanding the dynamics of informalised The bulk of urban studies in sub-Saharan Africa has, hitherto, focused on the impacts of structural adjustment programmes on urban productivity and citizen welfare. However, little is known about the dynamics (Mbiba & Huchzermeyer, 2002: 114) of the structural gaps between the stated policy prescriptions and implementation practices, on one hand, and on the other, between the policy practices and lived experiences of ordinary residents in the marginalised urban spaces in developing countries that neoliberal economic structural reforms have engendered. Meanwhile the dominant perspectives on the nature and meaning of “‘peri-urban’” have intensified instead of stemming the crises of managing increasingly contested urban frontiers in the poorer countries (Mbiba & Huchermeyer, 2002: 114; Simon, et al., 2004; Lombard, 2016). Using Harvey’s (2003) revised and extended Marxist perspective of “primitive accumulation by dispossession” on jambanja, the study critically engages with the “multiple realities” (Giddens, 1984) of radically transformed peri-urban landscapes in a case study of Harare. The study deploys a mixed method strategy to capture multiple data sets through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and biographical accounts (Creswell & Brown, 1992; Mouton, 2003: 196) across different contexts of the ‘peri-urban’ in Harare. These contexts range from Zimbabwe’s abandoned neoliberal structural reform programme (Bond & Manyanya, 2003; Mbiba, 2017a: 8-9) to the country’s elitist policy projects of jambanja and Operation Murambatsvina (Moyo, 2013a; 2013b) post-2000. Drawing on the lived experiences of purposively selected town planners and ordinary peri-urban residents, the study builds conceptual blocks to bridge the gaps between the official policy prescriptions and the everyday life experiences of intended beneficiary ordinary residents. The study concludes that the emerging palimpsest peri-urban interface in sub Saharan Africa can be productive sites for understanding the dynamics of informalised The bulk of urban studies in sub-Saharan Africa has, hitherto, focused on the impacts of structural adjustment programmes on urban productivity and citizen welfare. However, little is known about the dynamics (Mbiba & Huchzermeyer, 2002: 114) of the structural gaps between the stated policy prescriptions and implementation practices, on one hand, and on the other, between the policy practices and lived experiences of ordinary residents in the marginalised urban spaces in developing countries that neoliberal economic structural reforms have engendered. Meanwhile the dominant perspectives on the nature and meaning of “‘peri-urban’” have intensified instead of stemming the crises of managing increasingly contested urban frontiers in the poorer countries (Mbiba & Huchermeyer, 2002: 114; Simon, et al., 2004; Lombard, 2016). Using Harvey’s (2003) revised and extended Marxist perspective of “primitive accumulation by dispossession” on jambanja, the study critically engages with the “multiple realities” (Giddens, 1984) of radically transformed peri-urban landscapes in a case study of Harare. The study deploys a mixed method strategy to capture multiple data sets through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and biographical accounts (Creswell & Brown, 1992; Mouton, 2003: 196) across different contexts of the ‘peri-urban’ in Harare. These contexts range from Zimbabwe’s abandoned neoliberal structural reform programme (Bond & Manyanya, 2003; Mbiba, 2017a: 8-9) to the country’s elitist policy projects of jambanja and Operation Murambatsvina (Moyo, 2013a; 2013b) post-2000. Drawing on the lived experiences of purposively selected town planners and ordinary peri-urban residents, the study builds conceptual blocks to bridge the gaps between the official policy prescriptions and the everyday life experiences of intended beneficiary ordinary residents. The study concludes that the emerging palimpsest peri-urban interface in sub Saharan Africa can be productive sites for understanding the dynamics of informalised party-state institutions, political patronage and violence in reproducing urban space. Thus, a reimagining of the peri-urban interface in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa should harness the multiple voices, struggles and experiences in everyday life of residents towards broadening urban theory.College of Agriculture and Environmental SciencesPh. D. (Geography

    Social equity is key to sustainable ocean governance

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    Calls to address social equity in ocean governance are expanding. Yet ‘equity’ is seldom clearly defined. Here we present a framework to support contextually-informed assessment of equity in ocean governance. Guiding questions include: (1) Where and (2) Why is equity being examined? (3) Equity for or amongst Whom? (4) What is being distributed? (5) When is equity considered? And (6) How do governance structures impact equity? The framework supports consistent operationalization of equity, challenges oversimplification, and allows evaluation of progress. It is a step toward securing the equitable ocean governance already reflected in national and international commitments

    Anwendungen maschinellen Lernens fĂŒr datengetriebene PrĂ€vention auf Populationsebene

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    Healthcare costs are systematically rising, and current therapy-focused healthcare systems are not sustainable in the long run. While disease prevention is a viable instrument for reducing costs and suffering, it requires risk modeling to stratify populations, identify high- risk individuals and enable personalized interventions. In current clinical practice, however, systematic risk stratification is limited: on the one hand, for the vast majority of endpoints, no risk models exist. On the other hand, available models focus on predicting a single disease at a time, rendering predictor collection burdensome. At the same time, the den- sity of individual patient data is constantly increasing. Especially complex data modalities, such as -omics measurements or images, may contain systemic information on future health trajectories relevant for multiple endpoints simultaneously. However, to date, this data is inaccessible for risk modeling as no dedicated methods exist to extract clinically relevant information. This study built on recent advances in machine learning to investigate the ap- plicability of four distinct data modalities not yet leveraged for risk modeling in primary prevention. For each data modality, a neural network-based survival model was developed to extract predictive information, scrutinize performance gains over commonly collected covariates, and pinpoint potential clinical utility. Notably, the developed methodology was able to integrate polygenic risk scores for cardiovascular prevention, outperforming existing approaches and identifying benefiting subpopulations. Investigating NMR metabolomics, the developed methodology allowed the prediction of future disease onset for many common diseases at once, indicating potential applicability as a drop-in replacement for commonly collected covariates. Extending the methodology to phenome-wide risk modeling, elec- tronic health records were found to be a general source of predictive information with high systemic relevance for thousands of endpoints. Assessing retinal fundus photographs, the developed methodology identified diseases where retinal information most impacted health trajectories. In summary, the results demonstrate the capability of neural survival models to integrate complex data modalities for multi-disease risk modeling in primary prevention and illustrate the tremendous potential of machine learning models to disrupt medical practice toward data-driven prevention at population scale.Die Kosten im Gesundheitswesen steigen systematisch und derzeitige therapieorientierte Gesundheitssysteme sind nicht nachhaltig. Angesichts vieler verhinderbarer Krankheiten stellt die PrĂ€vention ein veritables Instrument zur Verringerung von Kosten und Leiden dar. Risikostratifizierung ist die grundlegende Voraussetzung fĂŒr ein prĂ€ventionszentri- ertes Gesundheitswesen um Personen mit hohem Risiko zu identifizieren und Maßnah- men einzuleiten. Heute ist eine systematische Risikostratifizierung jedoch nur begrenzt möglich, da fĂŒr die meisten Krankheiten keine Risikomodelle existieren und sich verfĂŒg- bare Modelle auf einzelne Krankheiten beschrĂ€nken. Weil fĂŒr deren Berechnung jeweils spezielle Sets an PrĂ€diktoren zu erheben sind werden in Praxis oft nur wenige Modelle angewandt. Gleichzeitig versprechen komplexe DatenmodalitĂ€ten, wie Bilder oder -omics- Messungen, systemische Informationen ĂŒber zukĂŒnftige GesundheitsverlĂ€ufe, mit poten- tieller Relevanz fĂŒr viele Endpunkte gleichzeitig. Da es an dedizierten Methoden zur Ex- traktion klinisch relevanter Informationen fehlt, sind diese Daten jedoch fĂŒr die Risikomod- ellierung unzugĂ€nglich, und ihr Potenzial blieb bislang unbewertet. Diese Studie nutzt ma- chinelles Lernen, um die Anwendbarkeit von vier DatenmodalitĂ€ten in der PrimĂ€rprĂ€ven- tion zu untersuchen: polygene Risikoscores fĂŒr die kardiovaskulĂ€re PrĂ€vention, NMR Meta- bolomicsdaten, elektronische Gesundheitsakten und Netzhautfundusfotos. Pro Datenmodal- itĂ€t wurde ein neuronales Risikomodell entwickelt, um relevante Informationen zu extra- hieren, additive Information gegenĂŒber ĂŒblicherweise erfassten Kovariaten zu quantifizieren und den potenziellen klinischen Nutzen der DatenmodalitĂ€t zu ermitteln. Die entwickelte Me-thodik konnte polygene Risikoscores fĂŒr die kardiovaskulĂ€re PrĂ€vention integrieren. Im Falle der NMR-Metabolomik erschloss die entwickelte Methodik wertvolle Informa- tionen ĂŒber den zukĂŒnftigen Ausbruch von Krankheiten. Unter Einsatz einer phĂ€nomen- weiten Risikomodellierung erwiesen sich elektronische Gesundheitsakten als Quelle prĂ€dik- tiver Information mit hoher systemischer Relevanz. Bei der Analyse von Fundusfotografien der Netzhaut wurden Krankheiten identifiziert fĂŒr deren Vorhersage Netzhautinformationen genutzt werden könnten. Zusammengefasst zeigten die Ergebnisse das Potential neuronaler Risikomodelle die medizinische Praxis in Richtung einer datengesteuerten, prĂ€ventionsori- entierten Medizin zu verĂ€ndern

    Perceptions and Practicalities for Private Machine Learning

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    data they and their partners hold while maintaining data subjects' privacy. In this thesis I show that private computation, such as private machine learning, can increase end-users' acceptance of data sharing practices, but not unconditionally. There are many factors that influence end-users' privacy perceptions in this space; including the number of organizations involved and the reciprocity of any data sharing practices. End-users emphasized the importance of detailing the purpose of a computation and clarifying that inputs to private computation are not shared across organizations. End-users also struggled with the notion of protections not being guaranteed 100\%, such as in statistical based schemes, thus demonstrating a need for a thorough understanding of the risk form attacks in such applications. When training a machine learning model on private data, it is critical to understand the conditions under which that data can be protected; and when it cannot. For instance, membership inference attacks aim to violate privacy protections by determining whether specific data was used to train a particular machine learning model. Further, the successful transition of private machine learning theoretical research to practical use must account for gaps in achieving these properties that arise due to the realities of concrete implementations, threat models, and use cases; which is not currently the case

    Faludi Blogging

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    “Chasing Territorialism” gathers short texts by Emeritus Professor Andreas Faludi, originally written as blog posts over a period of two years. In Andreas’ words: “Stimulated by an, albeit brief, encounter with Albania celebrating Europe Day, I began blogging about the continuing relevance of criticising territorialism, as I’d done in The Poverty of Territorialism (Faludi 2018; Edgar Elgar), in particular - but not exclusively - in relation to European integration.” Here, territorialism stands for states claiming a monopoly on controlling their territories much as they try to control the loyalty of their citizens. As such, territorialism is a fundamental principle of political organisation. Continued reflection on the poverty of this principle has acquired urgent overtones with the resurgence of armed conflict in Europe and elsewhere. If anything, the general reaction to this and other continental and even global crises seems to be to further enforce territorialism. But, what if territorialism is the cause of, rather than the solution to our problems? If so, would heeding the call for determined state action not become a case of: ‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire’? This book does not give an answer. What it hopefully does is stimulate debate about what the answer should be
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