Indigenous Health – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - Laying Claim to a Future that Embraces Health for Us All.

Improving the health of all peoples has been a call across the globe for many decades and unfortunately remains relevant today, particularly given the large disparities in health status of peoples found around the world. Rather than differences in health, or health inequalities, we use a different term, health inequities. This is so as mere differences in health (or inequalities ) can be common in societies and do not necessarily reflect unfair social policies or practices. For example, natural ageing implies older people are more prone to illness. Yet, when differences are systematic, socially produced and unfair, these are considered health inequities. Certainly making judgments on what is systematic, socially produced and unfair, reflects value judgments and merit open debate. We are making explicit in this paper what our judgments are, and the basis for these judgment

International Group for Indigenous Health Measurement: Recommendations for best practice for estimation of Indigenous mortality

AIM: To provide a best practice guide on Indigenous mortality reporting based on recommendations from the International Group for Indigenous Health Measurement. METHOD: A workshop of the International Group for Indigenous Health Measurement was held in Montreal in 2013 during which best practices in determining Indigenous mortality were discussed. A subsequent discussion paper and draft recommendations were further refined at a meeting in Vancouver in 2014. A working group finalized this best practice guide in follow-up to the two meetings. OUTCOME: Ten final recommendations are made regarding identification, community engagement and ownership, data linkage, uncertainty in official statistics and a timeline for implementation. In this paper we review and discuss these recommendations drawing on examples of best practice in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America and highlighting some shortcomings in the current practices of official statistical agencies

LegalBench: A Collaboratively Built Benchmark for Measuring Legal Reasoning in Large Language Models

The advent of large language models (LLMs) and their adoption by the legal community has given rise to the question: what types of legal reasoning can LLMs perform? To enable greater study of this question, we present LegalBench: a collaboratively constructed legal reasoning benchmark consisting of 162 tasks covering six different types of legal reasoning. LegalBench was built through an interdisciplinary process, in which we collected tasks designed and hand-crafted by legal professionals. Because these subject matter experts took a leading role in construction, tasks either measure legal reasoning capabilities that are practically useful, or measure reasoning skills that lawyers find interesting. To enable cross-disciplinary conversations about LLMs in the law, we additionally show how popular legal frameworks for describing legal reasoning—which distinguish between its many forms—correspond to LegalBench tasks, thus giving lawyers and LLM developers a common vocabulary. This paper describes LegalBench, presents an empirical evaluation of 20 open-source and commercial LLMs, and illustrates the types of research explorations LegalBench enables

LegalBench: A Collaboratively Built Benchmark for Measuring Legal Reasoning in Large Language Models

The advent of large language models (LLMs) and their adoption by the legal community has given rise to the question: what types of legal reasoning can LLMs perform? To enable greater study of this question, we present LegalBench: a collaboratively constructed legal reasoning benchmark consisting of 162 tasks covering six different types of legal reasoning. LegalBench was built through an interdisciplinary process, in which we collected tasks designed and hand-crafted by legal professionals. Because these subject matter experts took a leading role in construction, tasks either measure legal reasoning capabilities that are practically useful, or measure reasoning skills that lawyers find interesting. To enable cross-disciplinary conversations about LLMs in the law, we additionally show how popular legal frameworks for describing legal reasoning -- which distinguish between its many forms -- correspond to LegalBench tasks, thus giving lawyers and LLM developers a common vocabulary. This paper describes LegalBench, presents an empirical evaluation of 20 open-source and commercial LLMs, and illustrates the types of research explorations LegalBench enables.Comment: 143 pages, 79 tables, 4 figure

Sedimentology, provenance, and salt-sediment interaction in the Ediacaran Pound subgroup, Flinders Ranges, South Australia

Much of our understanding of the sedimentary character and stratigraphic architecture of subsurface sedimentary deposits is derived from field-based studies of similar depositional systems exposed in outcrop. In South Australia, excellent surface exposures in the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Adelaide Rift Complex provide a unique opportunity to examine a series of clastic sediments deposited in an ancient fluvial-deltaic to deep marine setting. Through extensive field and laboratory work, this study documents the sedimentology, stratigraphy, provenance, facies distribution and salt-sediment interaction of the upper Bonney Sandstone and Billy Springs Formation. These sediments formed part of the margin of the Australian subcontinent during the Ediacaran, a key time in Earth history just prior to the development of multicellular life. Field investigations reveal that the Bonney Sandstone is primarily comprised of sands and shales, often in progradational parasequences that become progressively sand-dominated upward. The formation thickens significantly to the north through the preservation of additional sediments that contain abundant fluvial features, suggesting a northern depocentre in the basin. Zircon data indicate that sediments may be sourced from the distant Musgrave Province and enter the basin from a large deltaic system in the northwest. These results provide substantial new information as to the palaeogeography of South Australia during this time, and are the product of interpretation using multiple lines of evidence and the study of numerous localities. Throughout the Adelaide Rift Complex, salt diapirs penetrated the basin fill and formed adjacent rim synclines (minibasins) due to withdrawal of underlying salt. Salt-tectonized, passive-margin settings are significant components of hydrocarbon systems in some of the world’s most productive regions, yet these features are rarely exposed in outcrop as they are here. In the far northern Flinders Ranges, the Umberatana Syncline is interpreted as a salt-withdrawal minibasin that formed in a deeper-water setting. The map-view exposure of the structure allows the depositional processes and products in the minibasin interior to be studied in a way not possible elsewhere; deepwater minibasins are very rarely exposed at the surface. Field and petrographic work reveals a mud-dominated minibasin fill containing mass-flow deposits of varying stages of maturity, ranging from clastbearing convolute-laminated slumps to sandy turbidites. In a more proximal setting, numerous measured sections along the margin of the Mt Frome minibasin clearly show that sediment character is influenced by diapir activity and the shedding of diapir-derived clasts. Lateral facies variability is controlled by growth faulting and diapir topography, with increased abundance of diapiric material near faults and highs, as well as thinning, onlap, and rotation of sediment blocks. These results, as well as those from elsewhere in the basin, are highly applicable to the prediction of reservoir, source, and seal quality in similar geologic settings in the subsurface.Thesis (Ph.D.) (Research by Publication) -- University of Adelaide, Australian School of Petroleum, 201

He whakaturanga mo te hauora tamariki : a picture of child health : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Maori Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This research investigated the use of a self administrated health assessment questionnaire by children, and the significance of the translation from the source instrument (in English) into te reo Maori. The translation of a child health questionnaire was undertaken to produce a health survey tool that could be completed by a child over the age of 8 years in English or in te reo Maori. The questionnaire was pre-tested then used in a survey to determine both reliability and validity. The parents and caregivers of the children surveyed were also interviewed. The parent’s responses were compared with those of their children. The research undertaken has provided a new opportunity for children to take a central role in research into their own health. Children contributed as key experts, focus group participants and translators of the child questionnaire, alongside adults in some cases. Children provided a new perspective of their health and well-being by translating the questionnaire. This child-centred process added depth to the research of questionnaire validation and testing. The questionnaire was shown to perform adequately as a survey tool. New research is required in order to theorise beyond the questionnaire’s original two-factor conceptual model and to develop clinical and public health applications using a child-centred research process. The translation provided by the children demonstrated they are informed participants, who have an interest in their own health, are reliable and understand their health in a different manner to adults. This thesis argues that the direct and full involvement of participants in research that is designed to investigate their health is critical if new knowledge is to emerge. It also concludes the self administered questionnaire can be useful tools to understand the health of Maori speaking children

Improving health data for indigenous populations: The international group for indigenous health measurement

Health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations exist in many countries, including those with well-developed statistical systems. The need to improve the measurement and understanding of Indigenous health disparities led to the formation of the International Group for Indigenous Health Measurement (IGIHM), composed of Indigenous and non-Indigenous, government and non-government, statisticians, researchers and health professionals. Since its founding in 2005, the IGIHM has pursued activities to improve health measurement, which in turn have been used for improving the health of Indigenous populations and enhancing Indigenous health knowledge and data

Rethinking health services measurement for Indigenous populations

Indigenous people around the world experience shorter life expectancy, poorer health outcomes, and on average have less social capital, than non-Indigenous people in their respective countries. While national goals are to lower mortality and morbidity rates of Indigenous people, much evidence exists that indicates there is almost no Indigenous involvement in data collection, policy development, program implementation and development and measurement of services. A more holistic and culturally relevant framework is presented to improve services and outcomes for Indigenous populations

A Model of Patients’ Attitudes in E-health

Changing patterns of healthcare delivery, which emphasize the use of multi-disciplinary teams, mean that there is an increasing need for healthcare professionals to exchange information about patients and their treatment, which is being facilitated by the use of electronic communications systems and e-health systems. Despite the increasing recognition of the importance of patients’ views about these changes, especially about their concerns about the implications for their personal privacy, there is a lack of theoretical modelling of their perspective. This paper evaluates the application of the model of trust and risk-taking within organisations which was developed by Mayer et al. (1995) to explain the empirical findings of a national survey of New Zealanders’ attitudes to e-health systems

Indigenous health - Australia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United States - laying claim to a future that embraces health for us all: world health report (2010) background paper, no 33

[extract] Improving the health of all peoples has been a call across the globe for many decades and unfortunately remains an elusive goal today as the large disparities in health status of peoples found around the world have not diminished, and have arguably increased. Rather than referring to absolute differences in health, or health inequalities, we use a different term throughout this paper. We use the term health inequities because mere differences in health (or inequalities ) can be common in societies and do not necessarily reflect unfair social policies or practices. Report reproduced with the permission of the publisher