6,813 research outputs found

    The Fibromyalgia Decomposition Phenomenon:A Reflexive Thematic Analysis

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    Research is needed that can provide an illustration of the different biopsychosocial and environmental experiences of people with fibromyalgia to consider how healthcare professionals can best engage with the challenges that are faced. Qualitative research is well-positioned to do this. The current study used interpretive hermeneutic phenomenology situated within a pragmatic worldview, the aim being to obtain a deeper exploration of the fibromyalgia experience prior to commencing a novel intervention. A purposive sample of individuals with fibromyalgia were selected to undertake a single interview. The interviews were analysed using a thematic analysis. The themes identified key processes of the experience. A total of 16 participants (mean age: 47.1 years) took part. Three themes and 15 sub-themes were identified, together with a process linking different experiences together. The research from this small cohort provides a clear identification of multiple components influencing the experience of fibromyalgia and the decisions around lifestyle and choices made. From this, a novel decomposition/recomposition spiral has been identified, which will benefit patients and healthcare professionals alike. An earlier diagnosis and, thus, earlier and broader treatment options can help to improve functional outcomes

    UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024

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    The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    UMSL Bulletin 2022-2023

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    The 2022-2023 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1087/thumbnail.jp

    Current and Future Challenges in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning

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    Knowledge Representation and Reasoning is a central, longstanding, and active area of Artificial Intelligence. Over the years it has evolved significantly; more recently it has been challenged and complemented by research in areas such as machine learning and reasoning under uncertainty. In July 2022 a Dagstuhl Perspectives workshop was held on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. The goal of the workshop was to describe the state of the art in the field, including its relation with other areas, its shortcomings and strengths, together with recommendations for future progress. We developed this manifesto based on the presentations, panels, working groups, and discussions that took place at the Dagstuhl Workshop. It is a declaration of our views on Knowledge Representation: its origins, goals, milestones, and current foci; its relation to other disciplines, especially to Artificial Intelligence; and on its challenges, along with key priorities for the next decade

    To make the dominoes fall: A relational-processual approach to societal accountability in the Italian and Spanish anti-corruption arenas

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    In che modo le organizzazioni della società civile (OSC) contribuiscono alla lotta contro la corruzione? Come possono responsabilizzare i rappresentanti politici? La presente tesi si propone di rispondere a queste a queste domande di ricerca, unendo gli studi sulla lotta alla corruzione a quelli sui movimenti sociali e concentrandosi sul concetto di societal accountability, cioè sui meccanismi di controllo e di sanzione dei rappresentanti pubblici. Negli ultimi anni, gli studiosi della corruzione hanno enfatizzato sempre più il ruolo della società civile come antidoto contro la corruzione, a complemento dei meccanismi di accountability statali ed elettorali. Tuttavia, gli studi empirici sugli effetti anticorruzione degli interventi civici non hanno ancora prodotto risultati coerenti. Questo non dovrebbe sorprendere. Se misurare la corruzione è un compito arduo, valutare se e quanto gli scambi corruttivi vengano impediti grazie alle iniziative della società civile sembra virtualmente impossibile. Per questo motivo, il presente lavoro fa un passo indietro e problematizza lo studio della societal accountability, affrontandola non come un insieme predefinito di meccanismi o pratiche messe in atto da attori civici anticorruzione, ma come il risultato di interazioni sostenute e conflittuali tra più attori, civici e non. Per fare ciò, lo studio si ispira alle teorie dei movimenti sociali e concettualizza la societal accountability come un insieme di conseguenze dell’azione collettiva. Pertanto, questo lavoro mira a capire come e in quali condizioni le iniziative anticorruzione dal basso raggiungano risultati di accountability, quali il passaggio di nuove norme, il miglioramento dell’answerability istituzionale e potenziale sanzionatorio. Con questo obiettivo, la tesi si basa sulle evidenze esistenti negli studi sulla corruzione e sull'accountability e contribuisce ai dibattiti in corso sulle conseguenze dell'azione collettiva. Il quadro teorico si concentra sul concetto di influenza, aderendo a un approccio processuale-relazionale. L'influenza è intesa come un'istanza di causalità relazionale, una forma di potere posizionale che consente a più attori di esercitare un controllo sulle conseguenze dell’azione collettiva. Facendo da ponte tra l'approccio strategico-interazionale e i modelli di mediazione, l'analisi chiarisce le strategie seguite dalle OSC nella ricerca di posizioni di influenza, così come i meccanismi attraverso i quali i modelli relazionali producono cambiamento sociale. Il quadro analitico è applicato alle arene anticorruzione in Italia e in Spagna e si restringe a tre specifiche aree di intervento: l'introduzione di leggi sulla trasparenza, l'approvazione di leggi per la protezione dei whistleblower e lo sviluppo di progetti di monitoraggio civico. Il materiale empirico comprende 37 interviste qualitative semi-strutturate, documenti e dati network. Nel complesso, le evidenze raccolte contribuiscono alla letteratura sulla lotta alla corruzione, dimostrando che le OSC contribuiscono, direttamente e indirettamente, alla lotta contro la corruzione ottenendo cambiamenti nelle politiche, aumentando l’answerability del sistema e innescando sanzioni formali e informali quando necessario. Tuttavia, l’analisi comparata dei casi italiano e spagnolo evidenziano differenze rilevanti. In particolare, l'indagine empirica contribuisce agli attuali dibattiti sullo studio della società della social accountability, dimostrando che l'integrazione con le élite politiche può aumentare la probabilità di ottenere di ottenere un cambiamento delle politiche, mentre l'integrazione orizzontale tra gli attori civici può aumentare il loro potenziale sanzionatorio. In definitiva, questo lavoro dimostra come gli approcci processuali-relazionali possano integrare modelli strategici e di mediazione per comprendere meglio il modo in cui gli attori collettivi influenzano il cambiamento politico e sociale. Le osservazioni conclusive sostengono che le interazioni e le relazioni costruite dagli attori nel corso del tempo e in diverse arene fungono da canali di mediazione a livello micro, meso e macro. Complessivamente, ciò dimostra che i singoli attori, i modelli di relazione nelle e tra le arene e le idee sulle relazioni mediano tra le strategie dei attori collettivi, aumentando o limitando così la loro influenza sulla lotta alla corruzione.How do civil society organizations (CSOs) contribute to the struggle against public corruption? How can they hold their political representatives accountable? This thesis aims to answer these wide-ranging research questions, bridging anti-corruption and social movement studies by focusing on societal accountability, i.e., grassroots mechanisms for controlling and sanctioning powerholders. Over the last few years, corruption scholars have increasingly emphasized the role of civil society as an antidote against corruption, complementing state and electoral accountability mechanisms. However, empirical studies on the anti-corruption effects of civic interventions have yet to yield consistent results. This should hardly come as a surprise. If measuring corruption is a challenging task, assessing the extent to which corrupt deals are prevented due to civil society initiatives appears virtually impossible. Hence, this work takes a step back and problematizes the study of societal accountability, approaching it not as a pre-given set of mechanisms or practices deployed by anti-corruption civic actors but as the result of sustained and contentious interactions between multiple players. To do so, the study draws on social movement theories and conceptualizes societal accountability as a set of consequences of collective action efforts. Therefore, this work aims to understand how and under what conditions bottom-up anti-corruption initiatives achieve accountability results such as legal claim attainments, answerability, and sanctioning potential. With this goal in mind, the thesis builds upon existing evidence from corruption and accountability studies and contributes to ongoing debates on the consequences of collective action. The theoretical framework focuses on the concept of influence, subscribing to a processual-relational approach. It understands influence as a relationally emergent instance of causality, a form of positional power that enables multiple players to exert control over the consequences of collective struggles. By bridging the strategic-interaction approach and mediation models; the analysis elucidates the strategies followed by CSOs in seeking positions of influence, as well as the mechanisms through which relational patterns produce social change. The analytical framework is applied to the anti-corruption arenas in Italy and Spain and is narrowed down by focusing on three specific campaigns in each country: introducing transparency laws, passing whistleblowers' protection acts, and developing civic monitoring projects. The empirical material comprises 37 semi-structured qualitative interviews, documents, and network data retrieved through Action Organization Analysis. The corpus of data is analyzed by combining thematic analysis, frame analysis, and a theory-building process tracing through a qualitative network approach. Overall, the evidence collected contributes to the literature on anti-corruption, demonstrating that CSOs, directly and indirectly, contribute to the anti-corruption struggle by achieving policy change, increasing the system's answerability, and triggering formal and informal sanctions when necessary. However, the Italian and Spanish cases' comparative accounts highlight relevant differences. In particular, the empirical investigation contributes to current debates on the study of societal accountability, showing that integration with political elites may increase the likelihood of obtaining policy change, whereas horizontal integration among civic actors may enhance their sanctioning potential. Ultimately, this work shows how processual-relational approaches can help integrate strategic and mediation models to understand better how change-oriented collective actors influence political and social change. The concluding remarks maintain that the interactions and relations built by players over time and across different arenas serve as mediation channels at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. Overall, this demonstrates that individual players, patterns of relations in and across arenas, and ideas about relationships mediate between players' strategies, resources, or frames and their contextual conditions, thereby increasing or constraining their influence over the anti-corruption struggl

    An Exploration of the Attitudes, Role, and Self-Efficacy of Primary School Teaching Assistants and Their Practice in Supporting Childrenā€™s Mental Health.

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    In recent years, increasing responsibility has been placed on schools to promote and support the mental health of children. However, research indicates that school staff hold different perceptions of this role, and their practice may be impacted by factors including stigma, confidence, training and capacity. Increasingly, school staff have reported the pressures that they are experiencing and the impact that this is having on their role and practice. Existing research in this area predominantly explores the role, views and experiences of teachers; however, research suggests that teaching assistants have an important, and often distinctive, role in supporting childrenā€™s mental health. Therefore, the overall aims of this research were to explore teaching assistant attitudes, views and experiences, and the factors that impact on their practice in supporting childrenā€™s mental health. Within Phase One, a quantitative survey was used to explore the attitudes of teaching assistants to mental health, their role in supporting childrenā€™s mental health and their perceived self-efficacy within this role. 62 teaching assistants who worked in mainstream primary schools in the South West of England completed this survey. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Key findings indicated that teaching assistants saw themselves as having a key role in supporting childrenā€™s mental health, although also demonstrated a lack of clarity around the relationship between mental health and mental illness. Self-efficacy measures also indicated that teaching assistants had higher perceived self-efficacy for tasks related to mental health promotion than direct mental health support. Furthermore, factors such as time, access to mental health-related training and experience all impacted upon teaching assistant self-efficacy. In Phase Two, key findings from Phase One were explored further through semi-structured interviews with seven teaching assistants who worked in mainstream primary schools in England, and analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Findings highlighted the perceived causes and impacts of poor mental health in children, and the way in which teaching assistants saw childrenā€™s mental health as different to adults. Key themes related to the teaching assistant role included relationships, practical support, a distinctive role, and aspects of support that were beyond the teaching assistant role. A variety of individual, school and educational factors that impact on teaching assistant practice were also highlighted. These included teaching assistant status, systemic factors such as the external pressures on schools, and discrepancies between the sources of knowledge and skills for teaching assistants. Overall, this research highlights the key and distinctive contribution of teaching assistants in supporting childrenā€™s mental health, and the factors that impact upon this. It also highlights the way in which many of the factors that impact on the pedagogical practice of teaching assistants also impact on their role in supporting childrenā€™s mental health. This has important implications for Educational Psychologists, schools and policymakers as to how TAs can be best supported and empowered within their role in supporting childrenā€™s mental health

    Pulmonary arterial hypertension in repaired congenital heart disease: a multicentre study

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    This doctoral thesis aims to investigate the demographics, treatment patterns and prognosis of paediatric pulmonary hypertension (PH) and the emerging group of children and adults with PH in the setting of repaired congenital heart disease (CHD). I have conducted three studies, each with a distinct focus. The first is a retrospective, longitudinal study of ten CHD centres across the UK that assesses the clinical characteristics and treatment patterns of adults with a Fontan-type circulation receiving pulmonary vasodilators. I have compared treated patients with a matched cohort of Fontan patients who are not receiving pulmonary vasodilator therapy, complemented by an expert survey to determine current practice and the goals of therapy. In the second study, I created a 20-year national UK registry of paediatric PH and derived estimates of incidence and prevalence for all groups of paediatric PH in different age categories. I determined the natural history of paediatric PH and performed survival analysis. I then focused on patients with CHD and described the changes in demographics, with a substantial increase in patients with previously repaired CHD, who now form the largest PAH-CHD subgroup. The third study focuses on this latter group of repaired PAH-CHD. I highlighted the heterogeneity in terms of severity and onset of PAH. I identified prognostic markers and variables associated with PH resolution and developed a novel risk score for predicting adverse clinical outcomes in this group. This score will form the basis for the risk stratification of this high-risk population, to inform prognostication and guide treatment.Open Acces

    Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion. Collected Works, Volume 5

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    This ļ¬fth volume on Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion collects theoretical and applied contributions of researchers working in different ļ¬elds of applications and in mathematics, and is available in open-access. The collected contributions of this volume have either been published or presented after disseminating the fourth volume in 2015 in international conferences, seminars, workshops and journals, or they are new. The contributions of each part of this volume are chronologically ordered. First Part of this book presents some theoretical advances on DSmT, dealing mainly with modiļ¬ed Proportional Conļ¬‚ict Redistribution Rules (PCR) of combination with degree of intersection, coarsening techniques, interval calculus for PCR thanks to set inversion via interval analysis (SIVIA), rough set classiļ¬ers, canonical decomposition of dichotomous belief functions, fast PCR fusion, fast inter-criteria analysis with PCR, and improved PCR5 and PCR6 rules preserving the (quasi-)neutrality of (quasi-)vacuous belief assignment in the fusion of sources of evidence with their Matlab codes. Because more applications of DSmT have emerged in the past years since the apparition of the fourth book of DSmT in 2015, the second part of this volume is about selected applications of DSmT mainly in building change detection, object recognition, quality of data association in tracking, perception in robotics, risk assessment for torrent protection and multi-criteria decision-making, multi-modal image fusion, coarsening techniques, recommender system, levee characterization and assessment, human heading perception, trust assessment, robotics, biometrics, failure detection, GPS systems, inter-criteria analysis, group decision, human activity recognition, storm prediction, data association for autonomous vehicles, identiļ¬cation of maritime vessels, fusion of support vector machines (SVM), Silx-Furtif RUST code library for information fusion including PCR rules, and network for ship classiļ¬cation. Finally, the third part presents interesting contributions related to belief functions in general published or presented along the years since 2015. These contributions are related with decision-making under uncertainty, belief approximations, probability transformations, new distances between belief functions, non-classical multi-criteria decision-making problems with belief functions, generalization of Bayes theorem, image processing, data association, entropy and cross-entropy measures, fuzzy evidence numbers, negator of belief mass, human activity recognition, information fusion for breast cancer therapy, imbalanced data classiļ¬cation, and hybrid techniques mixing deep learning with belief functions as well
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