13,707 research outputs found

    Assessing performance of artificial neural networks and re-sampling techniques for healthcare datasets.

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    Re-sampling methods to solve class imbalance problems have shown to improve classification accuracy by mitigating the bias introduced by differences in class size. However, it is possible that a model which uses a specific re-sampling technique prior to Artificial neural networks (ANN) training may not be suitable for aid in classifying varied datasets from the healthcare industry. Five healthcare-related datasets were used across three re-sampling conditions: under-sampling, over-sampling and combi-sampling. Within each condition, different algorithmic approaches were applied to the dataset and the results were statistically analysed for a significant difference in ANN performance. The combi-sampling condition showed that four out of the five datasets did not show significant consistency for the optimal re-sampling technique between the f1-score and Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve performance evaluation methods. Contrarily, the over-sampling and under-sampling condition showed all five datasets put forward the same optimal algorithmic approach across performance evaluation methods. Furthermore, the optimal combi-sampling technique (under-, over-sampling and convergence point), were found to be consistent across evaluation measures in only two of the five datasets. This study exemplifies how discrete ANN performances on datasets from the same industry can occur in two ways: how the same re-sampling technique can generate varying ANN performance on different datasets, and how different re-sampling techniques can generate varying ANN performance on the same dataset

    Consent and the Construction of the Volunteer: Institutional Settings of Experimental Research on Human Beings in Britain during the Cold War

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    This study challenges the primacy of consent in the history of human experimentation and argues that privileging the cultural frameworks adds nuance to our understanding of the construction of the volunteer in the period 1945 to 1970. Historians and bio-ethicists have argued that medical ethics codes have marked out the parameters of using people as subjects in medical scientific research and that the consent of the subjects was fundamental to their status as volunteers. However, the temporality of the creation of medical ethics codes means that they need to be understood within their historical context. That medical ethics codes arose from a specific historical context rather than a concerted and conscious determination to safeguard the well-being of subjects needs to be acknowledged. The British context of human experimentation is under-researched and there has been even less focus on the cultural frameworks within which experiments took place. This study demonstrates, through a close analysis of the Medical Research Council's Common Cold Research Unit (CCRU) and the government's military research facility, the Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment, Porton Down (Porton), that the `volunteer' in human experiments was a subjective entity whose identity was specific to the institution which recruited and made use of the subject. By examining representations of volunteers in the British press, the rhetoric of the government's collectivist agenda becomes evident and this fed into the institutional construction of the volunteer at the CCRU. In contrast, discussions between Porton scientists, staff members, and government officials demonstrate that the use of military personnel in secret chemical warfare experiments was far more complex. Conflicting interests of the military, the government and the scientific imperative affected how the military volunteer was perceived

    Building body identities - exploring the world of female bodybuilders

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    This thesis explores how female bodybuilders seek to develop and maintain a viable sense of self despite being stigmatized by the gendered foundations of what Erving Goffman (1983) refers to as the 'interaction order'; the unavoidable presentational context in which identities are forged during the course of social life. Placed in the context of an overview of the historical treatment of women's bodies, and a concern with the development of bodybuilding as a specific form of body modification, the research draws upon a unique two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, complemented by interviews with twenty-six female bodybuilders, all of whom live in the U.K. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances

    The Professional Identity of Doctors who Provide Abortions: A Sociological Investigation

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    Abortion is a medicalised problem in England and Wales, where the law places doctors at the centre of legal provision and puts doctors in control of who has an abortion. However, the sex-selection abortion scandal of 2012 presented a very real threat to 'abortion doctors', when the medical profession's values and practices were questioned in the media, society and by Members of Parliament. Doctors found themselves at the centre of a series of claims that stated doctors were acting both illegally and unethically, driven by profit rather than patient needs. Yet, the perspectives of those doctors who provide abortions has been under-researched; this thesis aims to fill that gap by examining the beliefs and values of this group of doctors. Early chapters highlight the ambiguous position of the abortion provider in Britain, where doctors are seen as a collective group of professionals motivated by medical dominance and medical autonomy. They outline how this position is then questioned and contested, with doctors being presented as unethical. By studying abortion at the macro-, meso- and micro-levels, this thesis seeks to better understand the values of the 'abortion doctor', and how these levels shape the work and experiences of abortion providers in England and Wales. This thesis thus addresses the question: 'What do abortion doctors' accounts of their professional work suggest about the contemporary dynamics of the medicalisation of abortion in Britain?'. It investigates the research question using a qualitative methodological approach: face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with 47 doctors who provide abortions in England and Wales. The findings from this empirical study show how doctors' values are linked to how they view the 'normalisation of abortion'. At the macro-level doctors, openly resisted the medicalisation of abortion through the position ascribed to them by the legal framework, yet at the meso-level doctors construct an identity where normalising abortion is based on further medicalising services. Finally, at the micro-level, the ambiguous position of the abortion provider is further identified in terms of being both a proud provider and a stigmatised individual. This thesis shows that while the existing medicalisation literature has some utility, it has limited explanatory power when investigating the problem of abortion. The thesis thus provides some innovative insights into the relevance and value of medicalisation through a comprehensive study on doctors' values, beliefs and practices

    Coloniality and the Courtroom: Understanding Pre-trial Judicial Decision Making in Brazil

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    This thesis focuses on judicial decision making during custody hearings in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The impetus for the study is that while national and international protocols mandate the use of pre-trial detention only as a last resort, judges continue to detain people pre-trial in large numbers. Custody hearings were introduced in 2015, but the initiative has not produced the reduction in pre-trial detention that was hoped. This study aims to understand what informs judicial decision making at this stage. The research is approached through a decolonial lens to foreground legacies of colonialism, overlooked in mainstream criminological scholarship. This is an interview-based study, where key court actors (judges, prosecutors, and public defenders) and subject matter specialists were asked about influences on judicial decision making. Interview data is complemented by non-participatory observation of custody hearings. The research responds directly to Aliverti et al.'s (2021) call to ‘decolonize the criminal question’ by exposing and explaining how colonialism informs criminal justice practices. Answering the call in relation to judicial decision making, findings provide evidence that colonial-era assumptions, dynamics, and hierarchies were evident in the practice of custody hearings and continue to inform judges’ decisions, thus demonstrating the coloniality of justice. This study is significant for the new empirical data presented and theoretical innovation is also offered via the introduction of the ‘anticitizen’. The concept builds on Souza’s (2007) ‘subcitizen’ to account for the active pursuit of dangerous Others by judges casting themselves as crime fighters in a modern moral crusade. The findings point to the limited utility of human rights discourse – the normative approach to influencing judicial decision making around pre-trial detention – as a plurality of conceptualisations compete for dominance. This study has important implications for all actors aiming to reduce pre-trial detention in Brazil because unless underpinning colonial logics are addressed, every innovation risks becoming the next lei para inglês ver (law [just] for the English to see)

    Machine learning based adaptive soft sensor for flash point inference in a refinery realtime process

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    In industrial control processes, certain characteristics are sometimes difficult to measure by a physical sensor due to technical and/or economic limitations. This fact is especially true in the petrochemical industry. Some of those quantities are especially crucial for operators and process safety. This is the case for the automotive diesel Flash Point Temperature (FT). Traditional methods for FT estimation are based on the study of the empirical inference between flammability properties and the denoted target magnitude. The necessary measures are taken indirectly by samples from the process and analyzing them in the laboratory, this process implies time (can take hours from collection to flash temperature measurement) and thus make it very difficult for real-time monitorization, which in fact results in security and economical losses. This study defines a procedure based on Machine Learning modules that demonstrate the power of real-time monitorization over real data from an important international refinery. As input, easily measured values provided in real-time, such as temperature, pressure, and hydraulic flow are used and a benchmark of different regressive algorithms for FT estimation is presented. The study highlights the importance of sequencing preprocessing techniques for the correct inference of values. The implementation of adaptive learning strategies achieves considerable economic benefits in the productization of this soft sensor. The validity of the method is tested in the reality of a refinery. In addition, real-world industrial data sets tend to be unstable and volatile, and the data is often affected by noise, outliers, irrelevant or unnecessary features, and missing data. This contribution demonstrates with the inclusion of a new concept, called an adaptive soft sensor, the importance of the dynamic adaptation of the conformed schemes based on Machine Learning through their combination with feature selection, dimensional reduction, and signal processing techniques. The economic benefits of applying this soft sensor in the refinery's production plant and presented as potential semi-annual savings.This work has received funding support from the SPRI-Basque Gov- ernment through the ELKARTEK program (OILTWIN project, ref. KK- 2020/00052)

    How to Be a God

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    When it comes to questions concerning the nature of Reality, Philosophers and Theologians have the answers. Philosophers have the answers that can’t be proven right. Theologians have the answers that can’t be proven wrong. Today’s designers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games create realities for a living. They can’t spend centuries mulling over the issues: they have to face them head-on. Their practical experiences can indicate which theoretical proposals actually work in practice. That’s today’s designers. Tomorrow’s will have a whole new set of questions to answer. The designers of virtual worlds are the literal gods of those realities. Suppose Artificial Intelligence comes through and allows us to create non-player characters as smart as us. What are our responsibilities as gods? How should we, as gods, conduct ourselves? How should we be gods
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