457 research outputs found

    “So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy

    Get PDF
    Transformative artificially intelligent tools, such as ChatGPT, designed to generate sophisticated text indistinguishable from that produced by a human, are applicable across a wide range of contexts. The technology presents opportunities as well as, often ethical and legal, challenges, and has the potential for both positive and negative impacts for organisations, society, and individuals. Offering multi-disciplinary insight into some of these, this article brings together 43 contributions from experts in fields such as computer science, marketing, information systems, education, policy, hospitality and tourism, management, publishing, and nursing. The contributors acknowledge ChatGPT’s capabilities to enhance productivity and suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the banking, hospitality and tourism, and information technology industries, and enhance business activities, such as management and marketing. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, disruptions to practices, threats to privacy and security, and consequences of biases, misuse, and misinformation. However, opinion is split on whether ChatGPT’s use should be restricted or legislated. Drawing on these contributions, the article identifies questions requiring further research across three thematic areas: knowledge, transparency, and ethics; digital transformation of organisations and societies; and teaching, learning, and scholarly research. The avenues for further research include: identifying skills, resources, and capabilities needed to handle generative AI; examining biases of generative AI attributable to training datasets and processes; exploring business and societal contexts best suited for generative AI implementation; determining optimal combinations of human and generative AI for various tasks; identifying ways to assess accuracy of text produced by generative AI; and uncovering the ethical and legal issues in using generative AI across different contexts

    Epidemiological methods to evaluate the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Full text link
    The early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic represented a major challenge for health systems and local Governments, with no drugs or vaccines available to provide a pharmaceutical response. In the absence of formal reporting, data gaps and repression by authorities, real-time open-source data can be mined for risk assessment and response early on. In this thesis, open-source and survey generated data was synthesized in novel ways to develop new epidemiological insights into the COVID-19 pandemic and advise public health policy. There were also controversies in areas where no data on risks associated with cruise ship travel, healthcare workers, aged-care, and mass gatherings was available. This thesis analyzed a range of these issues in the first year of the pandemic. In chapter 1, I summarized the literature on the COVID-19 pandemic and identified gaps in using open-source data for early responses to pandemics. In chapter 2, I assessed the impact of cruise ship travel on the transmission of COVID-19 both globally and in Australia. In chapter 3, in the absence of any reported data on healthcare workers, I estimated the burden of COVID-19 on Australian healthcare workers and the health system, by analyzing national healthcare worker infections and their occupational risk of COVID-19. Similarly, with no formal reporting on Australian COVID-19 aged-care infections and outbreaks, I estimated the burden of COVID-19 on Australian aged-care and aged-care workers in 2020, in chapter 4. With the controversy surrounding the May-June 2020, Black Lives Matter protests and COVID-19 associated risks, I estimated mask use and COVID-19 associated risks of these protests. In chapter 6, with the controversial mask mandates in Australia, I evaluated mask attitude and government and state sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sydney and Melbourne. This thesis highlights the value of open-source, and survey data, which provides good insights into population attitudes around public health issues and practice and can enhance routine surveillance, early warning, and response. With many countries now minimizing COVID-19, the use of this data is even more important as prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic requires both long-term public health and epidemiology measures

    Childhood Cancer in Ethiopia: Treatment Abandonment Rate and the Cost and Cost-Effectiveness of Service Delivery

    Get PDF
    Bakgrunn: I motsetning til mange typer kreft hos voksne og eldre, kan kreft hos barn ofte helbredes, selv i land med begrensede ressurser, hvis kreften diagnostiseres tidlig og behandles riktig. Et barns diagnose med kreft kan bety en god prognose for helbredelse eller nesten sikker død avhengig av hvor i verden barnet bor. I gjennomsnitt overlever åtte av ti barn med kreft i høyinntektsland, mens bare to til tre av ti overlever i lav- og mellominntektsland. Denne drastiske forskjellen i overlevelsesrater kan forklares med lav tilgjengelighet av pediatriske onkologiske tjenester, utilstrekkelig trent personell, dårlig kvalitet, suboptimal tilgjengelighet av støttebehandling, sen presentasjon, mangel på sosial støtte og høy andel behandlingsavbrudd. For å endre dette har mange store organisasjoner oppfordret til å gi kontroll av barnekreft høyere prioritet på globalt og landnivå. I den nylig reviderte etiopiske grunnleggende helsetjenestepakken er intervensjoner for kontroll av barnekreft (som diagnose og behandling) gitt middels og lav prioritet, et stort tilbakeslag for arbeidet med å kontrollere barnekreft i Etiopia. Denne avhandlingen har som mål å fremskaffe ny kunnskap om kostnadene og effekten av barnekreftomsorg i Etiopia, for å informere revisjonen av den grunnleggende helsetjenestepakken, og gi ny kunnskap om omfanget og risikofaktorene for behandlingsavbrudd. Avbrutt behandling er en av de viktigste årsakene til behandlingssvikt og dårlig overlevelse i lavinntektsland. Metoder: Vi gjennomførte tre studier for å nå målene med denne avhandlingen. Den første studien (artikkel I) vurderte omfanget av og risikofaktorene for behandlingsavbrudd i Etiopia fra et helsepersonell perspektiv. Denne tverrsnitts studien ble utført fra i 2021 i tre av de fire pediatriske onkologisentrene i Etiopia på tidspunktet for datainnsamlingen. Vi brukte et validert, semi-strukturert spørreskjema utviklet av International Society of Pediatric Oncology Abandonment Technical Working Group og inkluderte alle helsepersonell (leger, sykepleiere og sosialarbeidere) (N = 38) ved disse sentrene som hadde mer enn ett år erfaring med tjenesteyting innen barnekreft. Den andre studien (artikkel II) estimerte kostnadene ved å drive en pediatrisk onkologienhet fra et helsetjenesteperspektiv ved å undersøke den første og mest etablerte pediatriske onkologienheten i Etiopia: Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH) i Addis Abeba, hovedstaden. Vi brukte historiske årlige kostnadsdata fra TASH fra perioden 8. juli 2018 til 7. juli 2019 og estimerte kostnadene for hele den pediatriske onkologiske enheten ved å bruke en kombinert beregningsmetode av som tar hensyn til makrokostnad (ovenfra og ned) og mikrokostnad (nedenfra og opp). De direkte kostnadene til den pediatriske onkologiske enheten (helsepersonell, legemidler, forsyninger, medisinsk utstyr), kostnader i andre relevante kliniske avdelinger og overheadkostnaden ble lagt sammen for å estimere de totale årlige kostnadene ved å drive enheten. Videre estimerte vi enhetskostnader for spesifikke barnekreftformer. I den tredje studien (Artikkel III), basert på kostnadsstudiens funn samt effektestimater fra land som ligner, estimerte vi den totale kostnadseffektiviteten ved å drive en pediatrisk onkologisk enhet ved TASH. Vi bygde en beslutningsanalytisk modell – et beslutningstre – for å estimere kostnadseffektiviteten ved å drive en pediatrisk onkologisk enhet sammenlignet med et gjøre-ingenting-scenario (ingen pediatrisk onkologibehandling) fra et helsetjeneste perspektiv. Vi diskonterte både kostnader og effekter til nåverdi med en diskonteringsrente på 3 %, og valgte en livstidshorisont for effekt og behandlingsvarighet to år for kostnader. Det primære resultatet var inkrementelle kostnader i amerikanske dollar per avverget sykdomsjustert leveår (DALY), og vi brukte en betalingsvillighet (WTP)-terskel på 50 % av etiopisk BNP per innbygger (477 amerikanske dollar i 2019) ). Usikkerhet angående studiens resultater ble utforsket ved hjelp av standard sensitivitetsanalyser. Resultater: Den gjennomsnittlige behandingsavbruddsraten i Etiopia, vurdert av helsepersonell, var 34 % (standardfeil: 2,5 %). Risikoen for å avbryte behandlingen var avhengig av typen kreft (f.eks. høy for beinsarkom og hjernesvulst), behandlingsfasen og behandlingsresultatet. Den høyeste risikoen ble observert under perioder med vedlikeholdsbehandling, ved behandlingssvikt eller tilbakefall for akutt lymfatisk leukemi og under pre- eller postkirurgisk fase for Wilms tumor- og beinsarkom. De viktigste risikofaktorene i Etiopia inkluderte høye omsorgskostnader, brukernes lave økonomiske status, lange reisetider til behandlingssentre, lange ventetider, tro på at kreft er uhelbredelig og lav offentlig oppmerksomhet om barnekreft. Faktorene som ble funnet å spille en viktig rolle i å påvirke behandlingsavbrudd inkluderer underernæring, bivirkninger og toksisitet av behandlingen, smertefulle diagnostiske og terapeutiske prosedyrer, utilstrekkelig kommunikasjon fra helsepersonell, en preferanse for komplementær og alternativ medisin, og sterk religiøs tro. Den estimerte årlige totale kostnaden for å drive en pediatrisk onkologisk enhet (2019-dollar) var 776 060 amerikanske dollar (tilsvarer 577 dollar per behandlet barn) og varierte fra 469 til 1085 dollar per behandlet barn i den scenariobaserte sensitivitetsanalysen. Legemidler og rekvisita og helsepersonell utgjorde henholdsvis 33 % og 27 % av totalkostnaden, mens poliklinikken og døgnavdelingen sto for henholdsvis 37 % og 63 % av kostnadene. Den årlige kostnaden per behandlet barn varierte fra 322 til 1313 dollar avhengig av type barnekreft. Den inkrementelle kostnaden og DALYs avverget per barn behandlet i TASHs pediatriske onkologiske enhet var henholdsvis 876 dollar og 2,4 DALYs, sammenlignet med ingen pediatrisk onkologisk behandling. Det inkrementelle kostnadseffektivitetsforholdet ved å drive en pediatrisk onkologisk enhet var 361 dollar per DALY avverget, og det var kostnadseffektivt i 93 % av 100 000 Monte Carlo-simuleringer ved en WTP-terskel på 477 dollar. Konklusjoner: Den opplevde behandingsavbruddsraten i Etiopia var høy, og risikoen for avbrudd varierte avhengig av krefttype, behandlingsfase og behandlingsresultat. De viktigste risikofaktorene for å avbryte behandling i Etiopia er høye omsorgskostnader, lav økonomisk status for husholdninger, lang reisetid til behandlingssentre, lange ventetider, tro på at kreft er uhelbredelig og lav offentlig bevissthet om barnekreft. Selv om andre studier rapporterer liknende funn, er det rapporterte nivået for flere av risikofaktorene forskjellige i Etiopia sammenliknet med andre liknende land. Tiltak for å redusere behandlingsavbrudd bør bygge på kunnskap om identifiserte risikofaktorer og tiltakenes effekt, gjennomførbarhet og realistiske kostnadsrammer. Tilbudet av krefttjenester for barn ved bruk av en spesialisert onkologisk enhet er sannsynligvis kostnadseffektive og innenfor realistiske kostnadsrammer i Etiopia, i det minste for krefttyper som er lett å behandle i sentre med minimal til moderat kapasitet. Vi anbefaler å revurdere prioriteringsnivået for behandling av barnekreft i gjeldende grunnleggende helsetjenestepakke.Background: Unlike adult cancer, childhood cancer is highly curable, even in resource-constrained settings, if diagnosed early and treated effectively. However, a child’s diagnosis with cancer can mean a good prognosis of cure or almost certain death depending on where in the world the child lives. On average, the overall survival of children with cancer is eight out of ten in high-income countries, while only two to three of ten survive in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This drastic difference in survival rates can be explained by the unavailability of pediatric oncology services, inadequately trained personnel, poor service quality, suboptimal availability of supportive care, late presentation, lack of social support, and high treatment abandonment rate in LMICs. To change this reality, a global call and solidarity movement has emerged to make childhood cancer control a major public health priority at the global and country levels. In the recently revised Ethiopian Essential Health Services Package (EHSP), however, childhood cancer control interventions (such as diagnosis and treatment) are given medium and low priority, a major setback to efforts to control childhood cancer in Ethiopia. Therefore, this thesis aims to inform the revision of the EHSP by providing evidence on the cost and cost-effectiveness of childhood cancer care (diagnosis and treatment) in Ethiopia and by assessing the magnitude and influencing risk factors of treatment abandonment, which is the major cause of treatment failure and poor survival in low-income countries. Methods: We conducted three studies to pursue the aims of this thesis. The first study (Paper I) assessed the magnitude and influencing risk factors of childhood cancer treatment abandonment in Ethiopia from the health care provider perspective. This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 5–22, 2021 in three of the four pediatric oncology centers in Ethiopia at the time of the data collection. We used a validated, semi-structured questionnaire developed by the International Society of Pediatric Oncology Abandonment Technical Working Group and included all health care professionals (physicians, nurses, and social workers) (N = 38) at these centers who had more than one year of experience in childhood cancer service provision. The second study (Paper II) estimated the cost of running a pediatric oncology unit from a provider perspective by examining the first and better-established pediatric oncology unit in Ethiopia at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH) in Addis Ababa, the capital. We used TASH’s historical annual cost data from 8 July 2018 through 7 July 2019 and estimated the cost of running the pediatric oncology unit using a mixed costing approach of macro-costing (top down) and micro-costing (bottom up). The direct costs of the pediatric oncology unit (HR, drugs, supplies, medical equipment), costs in other relevant clinical departments, and the overhead cost share were aggregated to estimate the total annual cost of running the unit. Furthermore, we estimated unit costs for specific childhood cancers. In the third study (Paper III), building on the costing study’s findings (Paper II) as well as effectiveness estimates from similar settings, we estimated the overall cost-effectiveness of running a pediatric oncology unit at TASH. We built a decision-analytic model—a decision tree—to estimate the cost-effectiveness of running a pediatric oncology unit compared to a do-nothing scenario (no pediatric oncology care) from a health care provider perspective. We discounted both costs and effects to their present value at a 3% discount rate, taking a lifetime time horizon for effect and the treatment duration (two years) for costs. The primary outcome was incremental cost in US dollars (USD) per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted, and we used a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of 50% of the Ethiopian GDP per capita (USD 477 in 2019). Uncertainty regarding the study’s results was explored using one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Results: The perceived mean abandonment rate in Ethiopia was 34% (standard error: 2.5%). The risk of treatment abandonment depended on the type of cancer (e.g., high for bone sarcoma and brain tumor), the treatment phase, and the treatment outcome. The highest risk was observed during maintenance, treatment failure, or relapse for acute lymphoblastic leukemia and during the pre- or post-surgical phase for Wilms tumor and bone sarcoma. The major influencing risk factors in Ethiopia included high cost of care, users’ low economic status, long travel times to treatment centers, long waiting times, belief in the incurability of cancer, and poor public awareness of childhood cancer. The factors that were found to play an important role in influencing treatment abandonment include undernourishment, the adverse effects and toxicity of treatment, painful diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, insufficient communication by health care professionals, a preference for complementary and alternative medicine, and strongly held faith or religious beliefs. The estimated annual total cost of running a pediatric oncology unit (8 July 2018–7 July 2019) was USD 776,060 (equivalent to USD 577 per treated child) and ranged from USD 469 to USD 1,085 per treated child in the scenario-based sensitivity analysis. Drugs and supplies and HR accounted for 33% and 27% of the total cost, respectively, while the outpatient and inpatient departments accounted for 37% and 63% of the cost, respectively. The annual cost per treated child ranged from USD 322 to USD 1,313 depending on the type of childhood cancer. The incremental cost and DALYs averted per child treated in TASH’s pediatric oncology unit were USD 876 and 2.4, respectively, compared to no pediatric oncology care. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of running a pediatric oncology unit was USD 361 per DALY averted, and it was cost-effective in 90% of 100,000 Monte Carlo simulations at a USD 477 WTP threshold. Conclusions: The perceived abandonment rate in Ethiopia was high, and the risk of abandonment varied according to type of cancer, phase of treatment, and treatment outcome. The major influencing risk factors for treatment abandonment in Ethiopia are the high cost of care, low economic status of households, long travel time to treatment centers, long waiting times, belief in the incurability of cancer, and poor public awareness of childhood cancer. Although other studies report a great similarity of influencing risk factors, the reported level of influence for some risk factor differs in Ethiopia from that in similar settings. Therefore, mitigation strategies to reduce the abandonment rate should identify specific risk factors and prioritize strategies based on their level of influence, effectiveness, feasibility, and affordability. The provision of pediatric cancer services using a specialized oncology unit is most likely cost-effective and affordable in Ethiopia, at least for easily treatable cancer types in centers with minimal to moderate capability. We recommend reassessing the priority level of childhood cancer treatment in the current EHSP.Doktorgradsavhandlin

    Handbook Transdisciplinary Learning

    Get PDF
    What is transdisciplinarity - and what are its methods? How does a living lab work? What is the purpose of citizen science, student-organized teaching and cooperative education? This handbook unpacks key terms and concepts to describe the range of transdisciplinary learning in the context of academic education. Transdisciplinary learning turns out to be a comprehensive innovation process in response to the major global challenges such as climate change, urbanization or migration. A reference work for students, lecturers, scientists, and anyone wanting to understand the profound changes in higher education

    Development of an Interpersonally Grounded Construction Management Curriculum Foundation Model

    Get PDF
    Purpose: Education is the driving force of higher education institution(s) (HEIs) globally and is critical for student employability and practitioner recruitment. Yet, against this backdrop, research in the field is limited and hitherto, investigations into construction management curriculum development are scant. This research presents a foundational design specification for construction management programme curriculum development and aims to engender wider polemic debate as well as stimulate new insight into current higher education employability preparation practice. Methodology: The overarching epistemology adopts interpretivist, pragmatic and post-positivist philosophical stances to critically analyse extant literature, secondary data and primary data on the foundational skills/competencies of construction management education. Abductive reasoning forms the overarching basis of a new emergent curriculum model that maps interpersonal skills and highlights the critical foundational skills and competencies necessary. Findings: Research findings illustrate that construction management curriculum development lacks a cohesive community of practice and curriculum agenda. Importantly, it appears that although the modern construction manager needs an appreciation of digital technologies under the umbrella of Industry 4.0, their interpersonal skills and competencies were observed to far outweigh and exceed these. Premised upon these findings, the curriculum foundation model developed delineates the four key interpersonal skills and competencies construction management programmes should utilise for developing their curriculum. Originality: This novel research unearths the lack of a cohesive curriculum agenda within construction management education, highlights the importance of interpersonal skills and competencies within the role of construction manager and based upon this, presents a curriculum foundation model

    Machine Learning Algorithm for the Scansion of Old Saxon Poetry

    Get PDF
    Several scholars designed tools to perform the automatic scansion of poetry in many languages, but none of these tools deal with Old Saxon or Old English. This project aims to be a first attempt to create a tool for these languages. We implemented a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) model to perform the automatic scansion of Old Saxon and Old English poems. Since this model uses supervised learning, we manually annotated the Heliand manuscript, and we used the resulting corpus as labeled dataset to train the model. The evaluation of the performance of the algorithm reached a 97% for the accuracy and a 99% of weighted average for precision, recall and F1 Score. In addition, we tested the model with some verses from the Old Saxon Genesis and some from The Battle of Brunanburh, and we observed that the model predicted almost all Old Saxon metrical patterns correctly misclassified the majority of the Old English input verses

    Ultrasound Guidance in Perioperative Care

    Get PDF

    “So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy

    Get PDF
    Transformative artificially intelligent tools, such as ChatGPT, designed to generate sophisticated text indistinguishable from that produced by a human, are applicable across a wide range of contexts. The technology presents opportunities as well as, often ethical and legal, challenges, and has the potential for both positive and negative impacts for organisations, society, and individuals. Offering multi-disciplinary insight into some of these, this article brings together 43 contributions from experts in fields such as computer science, marketing, information systems, education, policy, hospitality and tourism, management, publishing, and nursing. The contributors acknowledge ChatGPT's capabilities to enhance productivity and suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the banking, hospitality and tourism, and information technology industries, and enhance business activities, such as management and marketing. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, disruptions to practices, threats to privacy and security, and consequences of biases, misuse, and misinformation. However, opinion is split on whether ChatGPT's use should be restricted or legislated. Drawing on these contributions, the article identifies questions requiring further research across three thematic areas: knowledge, transparency, and ethics; digital transformation of organisations and societies; and teaching, learning, and scholarly research. The avenues for further research include: identifying skills, resources, and capabilities needed to handle generative AI; examining biases of generative AI attributable to training datasets and processes; exploring business and societal contexts best suited for generative AI implementation; determining optimal combinations of human and generative AI for various tasks; identifying ways to assess accuracy of text produced by generative AI; and uncovering the ethical and legal issues in using generative AI across different contexts

    Aiding the conservation of two wooden Buddhist sculptures with 3D imaging and spectroscopic techniques

    Get PDF
    The conservation of Buddhist sculptures that were transferred to Europe at some point during their lifetime raises numerous questions: while these objects historically served a religious, devotional purpose, many of them currently belong to museums or private collections, where they are detached from their original context and often adapted to western taste. A scientific study was carried out to address questions from Museo d'Arte Orientale of Turin curators in terms of whether these artifacts might be forgeries or replicas, and how they may have transformed over time. Several analytical techniques were used for materials identification and to study the production technique, ultimately aiming to discriminate the original materials from those added within later interventions
    • …
    corecore