119 research outputs found
Redefining Leadership in the 21st Century: the view from cybernetics
A white paper developed by the ANU School of Cybernetics powered by The Menzies Foundation
Challenges in lifestyle and community interventions research; a call for innovation
Earlier this year the BMC portfolio was enriched by a new journal BMC Obesity. Here, we present the aims and objectives of the section on Lifestyle and Community Interventions. Innovative research is needed. Preventing or managing obesity requires addressing different determinants across multiple levels where diverse levers and stakeholders can play a critical role. Interactions of these determinants within and between systems need to be studied. How to leverage, manage and measure this complexity underlies the innovation that is needed in the next generation of obesity interventions. The ambition of the Lifestyle and Community Interventions section is to provide a space for innovative research, including research that falls outside the traditional comfort zone. We welcome studies of heterogeneous designs, including those of qualitative, quantitative, mixed and systems methodologies. Studies of interest include not only outcomes research of interventions but also process evaluation, cost-effectiveness or cost-benefit analysis, and implementation and dissemination research. Innovations that integrate diverse intervention levers or combine primary and secondary levels of prevention are particularly encouraged. The general aim of BMC Obesity’s Lifestyle and Community Interventions section is to advance our ability to decide on what combinations of approaches will be required to effectively and equitably prevent obesity
From Ancient Contemplative Practice to the App Store: Designing a Digital Container for Mindfulness
Hundreds of popular mobile apps today market their ties to mindfulness. What
activities do these apps support and what benefits do they claim? How do
mindfulness teachers, as domain experts, view these apps? We first conduct an
exploratory review of 370 mindfulness-related apps on Google Play, finding that
mindfulness is presented primarily as a tool for relaxation and stress
reduction. We then interviewed 15 U.S. mindfulness teachers from the
therapeutic, Buddhist, and Yogic traditions about their perspectives on these
apps. Teachers expressed concern that apps that introduce mindfulness only as a
tool for relaxation neglect its full potential. We draw upon the experiences of
these teachers to suggest design implications for linking mindfulness with
further contemplative practices like the cultivation of compassion. Our
findings speak to the importance of coherence in design: that the metaphors and
mechanisms of a technology align with the underlying principles it follows.Comment: 10 pages (excluding references), 4 figures. To appear in the
Proceedings of DIS '20: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 202
Challenges in lifestyle and community interventions research
Earlier this year the BMC portfolio was enriched by a new journal BMC Obesity. Here, we present the aims and objectives of the section on Lifestyle and Community Interventions. Innovative research is needed. Preventing or managing obesity requires addressing different determinants across multiple levels where diverse levers and stakeholders can play a critical role. Interactions of these determinants within and between systems need to be studied. How to leverage, manage and measure this complexity underlies the innovation that is needed in the next generation of obesity interventions. The ambition of the Lifestyle and Community Interventions section is to provide a space for innovative research, including research that falls outside the traditional comfort zone. We welcome studies of heterogeneous designs, including those of qualitative, quantitative, mixed and systems methodologies. Studies of interest include not only outcomes research of interventions but also process evaluation, cost effectiveness or cost-benefit analysis, and implementation and dissemination research. Innovations that integrate diverse intervention levers or combine primary and secondary levels of prevention are particularly encouraged. The general aim of BMC Obesity’ s Lifestyle and Community Interventions section is to advance our ability to decide on what combinations of approaches will be required to effectively and equitably prevent obesity
The effective and ethical development of artificial intelligence: An opportunity to improve our wellbeing
This project has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (project number CS170100008); the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science; and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. ACOLA collaborates with the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and the New Zealand Royal Society Te Apārangi to deliver the interdisciplinary Horizon Scanning reports to government. The aims of the project which produced this report are:
1. Examine the transformative role that artificial intelligence may play in different sectors of the economy, including the opportunities, risks and challenges that advancement presents.
2. Examine the ethical, legal and social considerations and frameworks required to enable and support broad development and uptake of artificial intelligence.
3. Assess the future education, skills and infrastructure requirements to manage workforce transition and support thriving and internationally competitive artificial intelligence industries
Innovative package for frontline maternal, newborn and child health workers in South Sudan
Improving maternal, newborn, and child health is a leading priority worldwide. It is a particularly urgent issue in South Sudan, which suffers from the world’s worst maternal mortality and among the worst newborn and child mortalities. A leading barrier to improving these health indices is limited frontline health worker capacity. In partnership with the Ministry of Health, the Division of Global Health and Human Rights (Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA) has developed and is currently implementing its novel Maternal, Newborn, and Child Survival (MNCS) Initiative throughout much of South Sudan. The purpose of MNCS is to build frontline health worker capacity through a training package that includes:1. A participatory training course2. Pictorial checklists to guide prevention, care, and referral3. Re-useable medical equipment and commodities.Program implementation began in November 2010 utilizing a training-of-trainers model. To date, 72 local trainers and 632 frontline health workers have completed the training and received their MNCS checklists and commodities. Initial monitoring and evaluation results are encouraging as further evaluation continues. This innovative training package may also serve as a model for building capacity for maternal, newborn, and child health in other resource limited settings beyond South Sudan
Dissecting the Red Sequence. IV. The Role of Truncation in the Two-Dimensional Family of Early-Type Galaxy Star Formation Histories
In the three-dimensional parameter space defined by velocity dispersion,
effective radius (R_e), and effective surface brightness (I_e), early-type
galaxies are observed to populate a two-dimensional fundamental plane (FP) with
finite thickness. In Paper III of this series, we showed that the thickness of
the FP is predominantly due to variations in the stellar mass surface density
(Sigma_*) inside the effective radius R_e. These variations represent
differences in the dark matter fraction inside R_e (or possibly differences in
the initial mass function) from galaxy to galaxy. This means that galaxies do
not wind up below the FP at lower surface brightness due to the passive fading
of their stellar populations; they are structurally different. Here, we show
that these variations in Sigma_* at fixed dynamical mass (M_dyn) are linked to
differences in the galaxy stellar populations, and therefore to differences in
their star formation histories. We demonstrate that the ensemble of stellar
population and Sigma_* variations through the FP thickness can be explained by
a model in which early-type galaxies at fixed M_dyn have their star formation
truncated at different times. The thickness of the FP can therefore be
interpreted as a sequence of truncation times. Galaxies below the FP have
earlier truncation times for a given M_dyn, resulting in lower Sigma_*, older
ages, lower metallicities in both [Fe/H] and [Mg/H], and higher [Mg/Fe]. We
show that this model is quantitatively consistent with simple expectations for
chemical enrichment in galaxies. We also present fitting functions for
luminosity-weighted age, [Fe/H], [Mg/H], and [Mg/Fe] as functions of the FP
parameters velocity dispersion, R_e, and I_e. These provide a new tool for
estimating the stellar population properties of quiescent early-type galaxies
for which high-quality spectra are not available.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures. Accepted to Ap
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