Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD: 2024

Hodges' model is a conceptual framework to support reflection and critical thinking. Situated, the model can help integrate all disciplines (academic and professional). Amid news items, are posts that illustrate the scope and application of the model. A bibliography and A4 template are provided in the sidebar. Welcome to the QUAD ...

Friday, November 15, 2024

'Emperor' - Aphasia

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES              
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   
|
group
'Physical
Reality'

Social Reality

'Political
Reality'?!

See also:
Mammary Mountain

Impulse

Faber, T. Lessons in empathy, Life&Arts, FT Weekend, October 5-6, 2024, p.13.

Podcast: Local green spaces and mental health

Dear CHAIN member,

We would like to draw your attention to the following NIHR alert. Please pass on as appropriate. Thank you.

NIHR

Local green spaces are linked with better mental health

Podcast: Local green spaces and mental health

In this podcast, Helen Saul, Editor in Chief of NIHR Evidence, and study author Sarah Rodgers, Professor of Health Informatics, University of  Liverpool, discuss the impact of local green spaces on people's mental health.

Researchers analysed data on more than 2 million people in Wales over 10 years to explore the impact of green spaces on mental health. They linked information about people’s mental health with information about the greenness of their home’s immediate surroundings and how close they lived to green or blue spaces (such as parks, lakes, and beaches). They found that people had a lower risk of anxiety and depression if:

· their home’s immediate surroundings (within 200-300 metres) were greener
· they could access green and blue spaces nearby.

The researchers say that local authorities could improve the mental health of their community by increasing the greenery in their towns and cities and improving access to green and blue spaces.

Read more at: https://evidence.nihr.ac.uk/alert/local-green-spaces-are-linked-with-better-mental-health/?source=chainmail

Regards,

Irina Johnston
CHAIN Administrative Assistant

(and my source.)

Previously: 

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Simplifying universal health coverage to achieve political action

'The narrative on universal health coverage should be centred around four core elements: universality, equity, adequate financing, and preparedness in public health emergencies, write Katri Bertram and Justin Koonin'.
Bertram K, Koonin J. Simplifying the universal health coverage narrative can help to achieve political action BMJ 2024; 387 :q2441 doi:10.1136/bmj.q2441

A RESPONSE* 

Can this be true? Why, this is absolutely marvellous! I?
Yes! Me

I do count! I'm seen, heard and included in the health care system and can have a voice in the service's development (1.). 

Not only that, but everyone in my - our community - has access - too (2.) ...

client - person - individual - self - patient - citizen
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES              
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   
|
couple - family - group - community - village/town - city
1. UNIVERSALITY

4. PREPAREDNESS


2. EQUITY

3. ADEQUATE FINANCING

... Now that health and social care are properly funded, they've finally done it! They've taken the key step to include education. This is crucial, critical to preventing poor health. Whenever possible we want people to self-care. The mother of all us has always whispered of the safety net. Now she shouts and rages. We all must listen to the stories of old.  Children should be brought up to be health and media... literate and recognise for them as an individual, the merit, the joy of health and well-being.

At last - the power's-that-be are addressing policy. Not just policy on paper, but implementing it, to assure the quality and cost of food, baby-formula, the air and water (3.).

What does this mean?^ It means health budgets can be better managed. Being prepared does not mean we reach immediately for the technical solution, write the prescription (for antibiotics). No. Being prepared means wising-up too. Together, we are ready to face each other, and right across the world: S-N and E-W. Now we can look to the future, climate change and Gaia: as ONE (4-5).


^O’Connell T, Rasanathan K, Chopra M. What does universal health coverage mean? Lancet 2014;383:277-9. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60955-1 pmid:23953765

(Cited by Bertram & Koonin)

5. Spiritual.

*A response, that is both too simple and too complex. Discuss.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Call for Papers “THE CULTURAL EXPLOSION OF AI: ...

Navigating the Intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Society, and Culture”


Artificial intelligence has burst into the cultural space with the speed of an explosion. As with any powerful explosion, its initial impact is a spectacular blinding flash, followed by a shock wave with real effects. Perhaps we are still at the very beginning, but often the intensity of the blinding flash is proportional to the real effect that follows, both in terms of sweeping away existing forms and as long-term cultural “radiation”.

According to Lotman, a cultural explosion is a period of transformation when rapid and large-scale changes occur in cultural systems, leading to a significant increase in the creation of new information. It is estimated that artificial intelligence produces as much cultural text in one year as humanity has produced throughout its millennia-long history until the advent of the digital age. More interestingly, this new textual production is entering its most productive phase with the invention of Transformer architecture, which is almost a literal algorithmic realization of Lotman's concept of translation — the main mechanism of semiotic metabolism in the Semiosphere.

Training Large Language Models (LLMs), which is the foundation of AI, suspiciously resembles the way Umberto Eco models culture in the structure of a rhizome, which computer scientists call a "neural network." His encyclopedic model is based precisely on what LLMs extract from huge arrays of existing text—the statistic constancy of sign usage. In a polemic with textual immanentists, Eco postulates as part of the reader's encyclopedic competence the ability to inferentially reproduce the possible contexts of sign usage that make up the text. For many, the “magic” of artificial intelligence in its current form lies in its understanding of our questions to it, achieved with the Attention Mechanism, which, as a principle of cooperation between author and reader, is quite literally described in "The Role of the Reader" (1994).

The hardest to find were a fruitful correspondences between generative semiotics and generative media like Chat GPT, as paradoxical as that may sound, but surely there are such correspondences, and they are likely to be discovered in the future. In any case, as a theory of meaning generation on the one hand and an endless machine for creating meaningful texts on the other, the cultural explosion of AI will not leave this breed of semioticians unemployed.
We welcome contributions on the following key topics, but not limited to them:

- Semiotic models of AI generated cultural content
- Semiotic analysis of AI texts generation
- Semiotic theory of generative media
- Socio-cultural consequences of AI's advent
- Transdisciplinary collaboration between semiotics and informatics
- AI in creative practices in the arts
- AI in creative practices in marketing and advertising
- AI in research and education
- Cultural-economic implications of AI
- AI in pop culture
- AI in videogames and XR

Send here your proposal for papers (200-300 words): DigitASC AT nbu.bg

Deadline for the abstracts : 31 January 2025;

Deadline for full papers: 15 June 2025;

Deadline for the final revised papers: 31 August 2025;

Publication: December 2025

Digital Age in Semiotics & Communication, a journal from the Southeast European Center for Semiotic Studies at the New Bulgarian University and founded by Prof. Kristian Bankov, explores the new forms of knowledge, social and linguistic interaction, and cultural phenomena generated by the advent of the Internet and information technologies.

A topic is chosen for each issue by the editorial board, but the topics will be always related to the issues of the digital environment. The working language of the journal is English. It uses double-blind review, meaning that both the reviewer’s and the author’s identities are concealed from each other throughout the review process.

Link to the archive of the first six issues: https://ojs.nbu.bg/index.php/DASC/issue/archive

For more information and submission of papers: DigitASC AT nbu.bg

My source:
--




Departamento de Filosofia, Comunicação e Informação
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra
3004-530 Coimbra, Portugal

E-mail: iestudosfilosoficos AT gmail.com
Sítio Web: http://www.uc.pt/fluc/ief
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@uidief
Academia: https://coimbra.academia.edu/ief

Monday, November 11, 2024

ii "Nye" | Full Show [now ended] | National Theatre at Home

Watching yesterday on YouTube, I enjoyed NYE and was challenged by it personally and as a grandfather, son, nurse and tax-payer.

It wasn't all sweetness and light regards Aneurin "Nye" Bevin's character. Politically, he clearly pushed boundaries in response to the values he carried on his sleeve. As the family's of many health care professionals may recognise, needs outside the family can be prioritised at the family's cost. The theory-practice gap is expressed in so many ways. 

Whether by intent, or accident, the play points to the timeless challenge of social care and women's role in delivery of this care. This strikes home in the drama not just as care of the elderly, but being confronted (alone) with the slow, painful dying of a loved-one; and the reality of occupational diseases - 'black lung'. Women are exploited as carers, their hearts and feet may as well be bound; in the same way the mine owners exploited the workers. There was a stark reminder for me, of how continuity of care is often lacking today.

Nye becomes personal, as even up to 1970s working class parents would have worried, did worry about the prospect of their (invariably male - with some exceptions?) offspring going down the pit, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Watching and listening to this you can appreciate how education was seen a passport to alternative white-collar work. My paternal grandfather worked in a slate quarry. I recall many invites to punch him in the 'stomach': a slate wall. He walked quite a few miles to work and wasn't that old when he died; although he (soon) followed grandma J.

For quite a while I've been drawn to the theatre. Aged 15 I was Francis Nurse - yes, the irony - in the school play, Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. It was Miss Smith, a drama teacher who first brought my attention to the idea of 'social awareness'. I recall Miss Clayton too who was a student teacher. On visits to London I've been struck by the relevance of Ibsen today. 

If there were to be a play in me, perhaps 'Axes and Crosses' must be-up-there as a working title? For  my father the 11+ exam was the icon to ward off the evil that was work down a mine; or lying under a an excavator / crane at 0400 to get the machine fixed for the shift due to start. The 11+ and need to pass this has provided its own anxiety, burden, and it must be said - motivation not just for me, but many more senior adults. I can see this now. So thank you Tim Price, National Theatre and Nye (2025!) for many further insights into stagecraft. 

See also:
https://www.bohs.org/media-resources/press-releases/detail/deadly-lung-disease-in-uk-kitchen-worktop-workers-is-avoidable/

September 2024: 'The Lightest Element'
https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2024/the-lightest-element/

Previously:
What wright to care?

drama (theatre), arts

Saturday, November 09, 2024

Nye | Full Show | Watch for free | National Theatre at Home

Further to a post earlier this year regarding a play - 

Dramatherapy iii - A Specification for Care: Nye

- the play Nye is available to watch for free UNTIL 11th NOV 

on the National Theatre's YouTube channel (with Michael Sheen as Nye Bevan)

https://youtu.be/hpN--d5bXSY?si=yHiiXn1ZhN2_NDnP


My source: Politics of Health Group Mail List Messages

Visit the PoHG website for lots of interesting links and publications: http://www.pohg.org.uk/

Visit PoHG on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/282761111845400

Follow us on Twitter: @pohguk

I walked by the NT this afternoon on the way to Bankside Gallery.

Wednesday, November 06, 2024

Dear Doctor, I have a list . . .

It seems reasonable to suggest that my trips to see the GP as a child:

"What's the problem Mrs Jones?"
"It's Peter, he's not eating!"
"Well, does he seem ill? ... Is he lying down all the time?"
"No, he's running around all day"
"Well he sounds OK but let's check" ... ... ...
"Say arr!"
 (That's to me - not you reader!)
"Argh!"
"Mmm.. ok, ok. ... What does he eat?"
"Tomato soup, chips, chicken, beans on toast, raw carrot, boiled egg."
"Oh! And jam butties!"
"Well he's of slim build, no doubt underweight, but he's fine. Keep the jam butties rolling, and I suspect he'll keep running around."
- were in the days pre-one-problem-per-visit to the surgery. Even now I wonder is this an urban (rural) myth. But then it rears itself with a comment by family, or overheard. The 1960s and 1970s were a different time, a different age. We always saw the same doctor. Continuity mattered then. Thankfully, I was not a regular 'visitor', or the more derogatory term frequent flyer.

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group

Ever since starting in the NHS as a nursing assistant, you became aware of the anxiety provoked by many patients when it is their turn to see the doctor. Being asked to bring the patient and any relative(s) through. It often entailed a walk.


I remember one instance their being 12 professionals. Learners can soon increase numbers and restrictions were imposed. Voices were raised. Patients did see the doctor separately.

Back in 1980s, I became a CMHN (CPN) in 1985, I used to encourage patient's to prepare, to make notes of points - questions they wanted to ask. I framed it as their time, their opportunity. A learning opportunity too.

Of course, humour always needs to be used carefully, but on occasion we would joke about walking into the meeting with a list.*


In case of long-term mental illness families are also greatly involved. Sometimes a case review would take place in the patient's home. If it's care in the community, delivered by the community team then surely the administration can be organised in support? 

At times, I would offer to assist and the team were always responsive. This role of advocacy has changed, transformed over the decades, but it is still there. As a nurse you listen for the voice: but have to be ready to 'pick this up' on another's behalf. Ready 

*Lists: Long a tool for safety and situational awareness.

Tuesday, November 05, 2024

'What Kingdom' by Fine Gråbøl

client - person - individual - self - patient
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group
What Kingdom

'Gråbøl was lucky. Eventually she started seeing a new psychiatrist, who looked at that record "and was like, "Wow, you receive So much more medicine than all the other people who live there. Why is that?'" She didn't know. Gradually, though, she was able to come off the drugs; and two doctors decided that
she didn't, in fact, have borderline personality and bipolar disorders, removing the diagnoses that had shaped her sense of her self. In time, she left the unit and rebuilt her life.

She's no longer on medication today, but the ghosts of her past diagnoses haunt her. She wonders whether the conditions are merely in hibernation and she'll wake up one day and enter another depressive episode. She doesn't wish she'd never been diagnosed, but does feel that her doctors underestimated the effect those labels would have on her development.

At 17, she points out - the age she was diagnosed as bipolar - most teenagers don't yet know who they are. "You want to find a box or language to define yourself, so that you can close yourself in. And one way of getting that sense is getting into the psychiatric system." Since returning to "normal" life, she has also struggled with survivor's guilt: the feeling that while she made it out of the system, others did not.


'Above all, she wishes that the emphasis would shift away from the suffering individual and onto their broader context. We need to become better, as a society, at making room for people who aren't fully functional citizens. Gråbøl's narrator phrases it as a question: "Could we not imagine treatments that are instead externally directed involving the outside world gearing itself towards a wider and more comprehensive emotional spectrum?" Gråbøl's answer, though, is the same as my own: "I don't know."'

the system

citizens?


My source:
Leaf Arbuthnot, Interview. We need to make room for the mentally ill. Review, The Daily Telegraph, 21 September 2024, pp.8-9.

Image:
https://images3.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9781953861849

Monday, November 04, 2024

Paths, lines, corners, edges and axes . . .

'If a farmer has made a path, he is able to saunter easily up and down it. That is what the path was made for. But the work of making the path was not a process of sauntering easily, but one of marking the ground, digging, fetching loads of gravel, rolling, and draining. He dug and rolled where there was yet no path, so that he might in the end have a path on which he could saunter without any more digging or rolling. Similarly a person who has a theory can, among other things, expound to himself, or the world, the whole theory, or any part of it; he can, so to speak, saunter in prose from any part to any other part of it. But the work of building the theory was a job of making paths where as yet there were none.' 
Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (1949; Penguin, 1999), p. 272.

path
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=path

line (line of sight)
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=line

corners
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=corners

edges
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=edges

axes: STRUCTURE
domains: CONTENT

Frayn, Michael (2006). The human touch: our part in the creation of a universe. Notes. London: Faber & Faber. p.425.

Previously: 'Frayn on maths'

I will keep this book a bit longer - chapter 'Home Address' (the self) a good read.

Sunday, November 03, 2024

Hear* are the Global Evidence Results: Health 10 :: Education 1

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group

EDUCATION 1

MENTAL HEALTH X?



HEALTH 10



DEFENCE 10


Key recommendations

Our main recommendation is for countries to collaborate on evidence synthesis. The most promising avenue for evidence synthesis is Living Evidence Reviews (LERs), which are systematic reviews that are continuously updated. We propose that ‘meta’ LERs are conducted across all areas of social policy to answer the questions that really matter to policymakers.

“Globally, it may be helpful for countries to join forces in producing systematic reviews and identifying evidence gaps. One proposal, currently being shaped by David Halpern and Deelan Maru, proposes that a handful of likeminded governments join forces to produce better systematic reviews and avoid duplication (Halpern and Maru, 2024)… Like the Cochrane Collaboration and the Campbell Collaboration, such an approach can help expand our knowledge of what works, and put a spotlight on the areas where more evidence is needed.”

A Blueprint for Better International Collaboration on Evidence
https://www.bi.team/publications/international-collaboration-evidence/

My source:
Harford, T. Intellect. Used in evidence. FTWeekend, Magazine 2-3 November 2024, p.9-10.

*We really need to listen and respond to this!

Friday, November 01, 2024

ERCIM News No. 139 Special Theme: "Software Security"

Dear ERCIM News reader,

A new ERCIM News issue (Number 139) is online with a special theme on Software Security. The articles in this special theme offer a comprehensive panorama of the current European research activities in software security and protection. They showcase a diverse range of research projects, highlighting the ongoing advancements and key developments of the field..

You can access the issue at https://ercim-news.ercim.eu/

This special theme was coordinated by our guest editors Sebastian Schrittwieser (University of Vienna) and Michele Ianni (University of Calabria).

Thank you for reading ERCIM News!

Please share this issue with anyone who might find it interesting. You can also support us on X (https://x.com/ercim_news) and LinkedIn. Let's keep the conversation going and share the latest updates together!

Next issue:

No. 140, January 2025
Special Theme: " Large-Scale Scientific Computing". Submissions are welcome! See call for contributions.

Announcements in this issue: Call for Proposals: Dagstuhl Seminars and Perspectives Workshops - Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik is accepting proposals for scientific seminars/workshops in all areas of computer science.

Call for Papers: ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice

ERCIM News is published quarterly by ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. With the printed and online edition, ERCIM News reaches more than 10000 readers.
All issues published to date are available online.

About ERCIM

ERCIM - the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics - aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase cooperation with European industry. Leading European research institutes are members of ERCIM. ERCIM is the European host of W3C.

Peter Kunz                      	
ERCIM Office
+33 (0)7 68 16 50 47

2004, Route des Lucioles
BP93
F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex

@ercim_news 

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

What are the characteristics of living a life?

What about Nationhood?

Citizenship?

[Spiritual ( Sciences, Sociology, Intra- Interpersonal, Political )]



person(hood) individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group


speak
see

hear


speak
hear
see



speak
hear
see



Source: Various since 2021 - image 'X'.

Women's rights in Afghanistan: An ongoing battle
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI(2023)747084

Afghanistan: No future without women’s participation
https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/09/1154721

Monday, October 28, 2024

Patriot

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group

Source: Various

Saturday, October 26, 2024

NOT 'Nanny State': Protection & assurance of the quality of nutrition

The Government needs a plan to fix our broken food system and turn the tide on the public health emergency

24 October 2024

The House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee demands that the Government should develop a comprehensive, integrated long-term new strategy to fix our food system, underpinned by a new legislative framework. This is the key conclusion of the Committee’s report, ‘Recipe for health: a plan to fix our broken food system’.

Chair's comments

Baroness Walmsley, Chair of the Food, Diet and Obesity Committee, said:

“Food should be a pleasure and contribute to our health and wellbeing, but it is making too many people ill. Something must be going wrong if almost two in five children are leaving primary school with overweight or obesity and so many people are finding it hard to feed healthy food to their families. That is why we took a root and branch look at the food system and analysed what had gone wrong over the past few decades.

“Over the last 30 years successive governments have failed to reduce obesity rates, despite hundreds of policy initiatives. This failure is largely due to policies that focused on personal choice and responsibility out of misguided fears of the ‘nanny state’. Both the Government and the food industry must take responsibility for what has gone wrong and take urgent steps to put it right.

“We hope, given the recent comments from the Prime Minister, Lord Darzi and the Secretary of State for Health, that there is now an appetite to shift towards prevention of ill health. We urge the Government to look favourably on our plan to fix our broken food system and accept that not only is it cost-effective, but that it would lead to a lot less human misery.”

[My emphasis] 

About time! Real action please.

DO NOT DILUTE TO TASTE!

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group
Personal responsibility
Educational determinants
Health literacy
My choices
Role model
Internal - Extrinsic motivation
The life chances I am afforded
impact my 'health career'.

Environmental/Physical determinants 
Ultra Processed Foods
Smoking
Food & Nutrition
Impacts of Obesity
Child development
Nutritional value of foods


Social determinants
public (mental) health
information
Family economics
Social values
Sustainable Living

Political determinants
'Nanny State' (political rhetoric)
Lobbying - (Food) Industry
Business ethics
Food poverty
Advertising regulation
Cost to Government, NHS, Society
Security

Spiritual determinants: Values of society, governments, citizens, business . . .

Previously:

Jones P, Wirnitzer K. Hodges’ model: the Sustainable Development Goals and public health – universal health coverage demands a universal framework. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2022;5: https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/5/2/358

'nutrition' on W2tQ

https://x.com/search?q=%40h2cm%20%27nanny%20state%27&src=typed_query&f=live

Gambling?

Friday, October 25, 2024

RCN: Are you an internationally educated RCN Member?

Please tell us about your experience so we can campaign for change on issues you care about the most!

We are keen to hear from *all* members, including HCAs and students, so please share this with your networks.

https://surveys.rcn.org.uk/s/IEQ1BS/

This survey closes at 11:59pm on 3 November 2024.

Thank you

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Case formulation - Theory and Practice

 Still sorting papers, I've discovered copies of slides from the COPE course University of Manchester on Case Formulation by John McGovern.

An original purpose for Hodges' model is to help bridge the theory-practice gap.

The slides include -

  • content: ingredients - preliminary formulation
  • a means of understanding an individual's problems and distress in line with cognitive behavioural theory
  • hypothesis to explain acquisition, and maintenance of problem
  • not piecemeal

ROLE OF CASE FORMULATIONS

Bridge between theory and practice

a flexible tool for guidance

an explanatory framework to share with the patient

How types of formulation can be related to situations (Hodges' model is situated) - inference chain.

Comprehensive formulation - reflects the template that supports data gathering

inc. core beliefs - conditional beliefs

Questions for Preliminary Formulation

Main Ingredients - includes social support/relationships/employment/finances

(so this touches on determinants)

Choosing Treatment Targets

group exercise and summary

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Register for Free! AI for One Health and Planetary Health: Where Are We?

Friday 8 November, 9:30am GMT – onwards

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, Ground Floor, 25 Copthall Avenue, London EC2R 7BP

Join BCS SGAI in London for an engaging full-day event featuring a line up of exciting talks. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a hands-on tutorial on low-code/no-code AI and Certificates of Attendance will be provided.

* Speakers & Agenda
https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2024/november/ai-for-one-health-and-planetary-health-where-are-we-artificial-intelligence-sg/

* Invitation for Free Registration
https://ArtificialIntelligence081124.eventbrite.co.uk


100% Discount Code: AIHealth24Committee

--------------------------------
Hope to see you there - in London 6th-9th November.

Book received: 'Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence'

Many thanks to Edward Elgar Publishing for a review copy of this book which arrived today:

Edited by David J. Gunkel, Professor of Communication, Northern Illinois University, US, and Professor of Applied Ethics, Łazarski University, Poland

Publication Date: 2024 ISBN: 978 1 80392 671 1 Extent: 336 pp
This engaging Handbook identifies and critically examines the moral opportunities and challenges typically attributed to artificial intelligence. It provides a comprehensive overview and examination of the most pressing and urgent problems with this technology by drawing on a wide range of analytical methods, traditions, and approaches.

This is timely, prior to next month's event on AI and Planetary Health, about which news to follow shortly, especially if you are based near London and southern England.

I also can't believe it is 34 years since publication of the following case study:

Davies, M. and Owen, K. ‘Complex uncertain decisions: medical diagnosis’, Case Study 10 in Expert System Opportunities from the DTI’s Research Technology Initiative, HMSO 1990.

Ethics in AI 2024 :: Expert Systems 1990

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Consultation: CHANGE NHS


 
Our NHS is broken, but not beaten. Together we can fix it.    
[ c/o https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/ ]

The NHS has been there for us for over 76 years. But to make sure the NHS is here for the next 76 years, doing all it can to support the health of everyone, we need your help.

We want to have the biggest ever conversation about the future of the NHS.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a lot or a little to say. Your views, experiences and ideas will shape a new 10 Year Health Plan for England. 

This is open to everyone. If you are a member of the public or someone who works in health and care in England, 'Start Here', to tell us how the NHS needs to change.

If you are contributing as a representative of an organisation, complete the organisation questionnaire. This is an early opportunity to share your insights as we begin an extensive programme of engagement to develop the 10 Year Health Plan. 

If you register your email address, we will stay in touch to seek your views as the 10 Year Health Plan develops.


'change' in Hodges' model

The NHS and people's health is more than 
a machine, more than a mechanistic thing 
that if broken can be fixed.

By definition you cannot be 'inclusive'
if you do not achieve balance
with the humanistic; and the
values of humanity and
 the spiritual as per context.


individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group

purposes

person-centredness

personalised care experiences

continuity

mental state; mental health

attitudes - mindset

expectations (public education)

my health literacy (all of them: education)


processes
(care inc. 'writing' records, 'gates' access)
demographically-driven care 

define 'success' - metrics - data

utilise evidence

peak CO2
peak obesity

physical health:
chronological age - pathological age

encourage self-care to support sustainability

social care

social attitudes

child support - support for families

proven practices that delivers

community as resource

community: homes for living in -
not profiting from

Public involvement: 
#NHSCHANGE #CHANGENHS

Protect / Create green spaces for outdoor play


funding, finance, budgets, economics

POLICY:
FROM: National ill-Health Service
TO: National Health Service 

long-termism

E3^ for all the literacies

address: food quality, 
air, water, noise, litter

SOCIO-tech approach to applied technology

Teach Hodges' model to teens, and prisoners
as part of PSHE and rehab programmes


E3^ education, education, education - by literacies we include: information, emotional, media, finance, spiritual, cultural, scientific, religious, climate...

'delivers' includes: improved care experiences, integrated care (related to all the domains), patient, carer, public safety, cost effectiveness, research questions, accurate - valid reporting.

All health disciplines / professionals, social care, and APPGs ... share a common model - a conceptual framework for critical thinking and reflective practice.

Monday, October 21, 2024

Call for focus group participants: the records of adopted and care-experienced people -

– additional retention guidance for
record-keepers and care professionals

Could you help update retention guidance for record-keepers and care professionals by joining a focus group in November?

Care-experienced and adopted people, archivists & records managers and social workers are invited to participate in an online focus group to shape updated and detailed improvements in retaining care-experienced and adopted people’s records in England and Wales. This has been identified as a critical need by many recent reports including IICSA.

We recently published Guidance on the Records of Adopted and Care-Experienced People (Feb 2024) which sets out best practice, to improve consistency across England and Wales. We are a participative and inclusionary project led by members of the Chief Archivists in Local Government Group (CALGG), independent consultants and academics and professionals working in the records management, data protection and access to records fields, in the charitable and local government sectors. Some of our project members are adopted or care-experienced people.

Focus groups will take place on

Weds 13 Nov 11am-12.30

Mon 18 Nov 2-3.30pm

Thurs 28 Nov 2-3.30pm.

We will meet on Zoom: you will be able to join in your web browser, no zoom account or desktop app/licence is required.

Further information

The Guidance is aimed at people responsible for creating, managing, and providing access to care and adoption records. It includes the viewpoints of care-experienced people and adopted people to give practitioners a greater understanding of their experiences, needs and the challenges they face. The Guidance highlights that all organisations should have an up-to-date policy covering all records relating to children, young people and their families, together with procedures and plans to implement the policy including up-to-date retention schedules. Retention schedules recommend how long to keep different types of records. Each record type should have a retention period based on best practice, legislation, business need or a combination of these. Schedules also include how and when the retention period is triggered, and what should happen at the end of the period: typically either confidential destruction, or being kept permanently.

A retention period of [at] least 125 years from date of birth for case files and preferably 150 years as exemplary practice is recommended in the Guidance. However it also recommends the permanent preservation of these records with an option for people to opt out in the case of their own records.

These recommendations are made because many care-experienced or adopted people reconstruct their personal histories by turning to the records created about them by social workers and care providers. Thousands of requests to view records for this purpose are made each year in England and Wales. The records – a “paper self” - have significant impacts on a care-experienced person throughout their life. However, accessing records is often difficult, both practically and emotionally, and can be traumatic and dehumanizing. Records have been kept inconsistently across the public, private, and voluntary care sectors, affecting outcomes for individuals. Across England and Wales the records of adopted and care-experienced people who are formally classified as ‘looked-after people’ should be kept for 100 and 75 years respectively, but there are no permanent preservation protections for records in law. Moreover, some care-experienced people are omitted from the requirement for records to be retained. In addition, there are now many records sitting in digital systems which do not have a proper data migration/preservation strategy.

My Source: To view the list archives go to: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK 

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Nobel Peace Prize 2024


'The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

In response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, a global movement arose whose members have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons. Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as “the nuclear taboo”.

The testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is unique in this larger context. ...'


Press release. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Sat. 19 Oct 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2024/press-release/>


Previously: Nobel Prize :: peace

1989 SHADES OF GREY, Computer Aided Learning program, BBC Micro. Simulation of nuclear weapons, Based on Fanchi, J. Local effects of nuclear weapons, BYTE, Volume 11. Issue 13. Dec., pp. 143–155. Computer Aided Learning program, BBC Micro, published by Open Software Limited.
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2024/03/jones-publications-list.html

Friday, October 18, 2024

HC@AIxIA: AI&Health Seminar - OCTOBER 21 AI in PCNSL: a diagnostic and therapeutic journey

Dear Madam/Sir,

This is to officially announce the NINTH seminar of the "AI & Health" series as hosted by HC@AIxIA, i.e., the "Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare" working group of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence.

*** Save the date: 21 OCTOBER 2024. ***

We hope you will attend and participate in the discussion on the relevant topics that will be presented and by our speakers. Feel free to share this with those potentially interested.

Please find some details below, and a poster attached. All directions for participating are available at https://aixia.it/en/gruppi/hc/.

== Are you interested in Joining the group? ==
Please head to https://aixia.it/en/gruppi/hc/ fo find out how. Do not hesitate to contact us at hc-aixia@googlegroups.com for any information or clarification.

Thank you for your interest in the AI & Health seminar series and the HC@AIxIA working group, and see you soon!

Sincerely,
Francesco Calimeri, Mauro Dragoni, Fabio Stella
(coordinators of the HC@AIxIA working group)
Link to participate: https://unimib.webex.com/unimib/j.php?MTID=m447969fc152aadf2062314114be484a6


2024 October 21 - 4:30PM CET
Teresa Calimeri, Senior Staff Physician Lymphoma Unit, IRCCS San Raffale Hospital (Milan, Italy)
- joint with Nicoletta Anzalone, Head of the Neuroradiology Unit of Advanced Vascular Imaging, IRCCS San Raffale Hospital, Milan, Italy, and Michela Destito, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University “Magna Graecia” of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy).

Title: AI in PCNSL: a diagnostic and therapeutic journey

Abstract: The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of oncology represents one of the most significant challenges of the near future. Recent studies indicate that radiomic features can assist radiologists in addressing diagnostic and prognostic healthcare challenges, potentially ushering in a new era of personalized medicine. In this seminar, we will discuss our experience with primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) as a case study. Initially, we will delineate the constraints of the current diagnostic and prognostic tools. Subsequently, we will illustrate the application of a radiomics-based machine learning model and a deep learning (DL) approach to enhance the precision of outcome prediction. Furthermore, we will present our ideas on the possible application of these models in the treatment path of patients, along with the potential integration of a composite genetic and radiomic (radiogenomics) risk-adapted strategy. This strategy could be studied, validated, and routinely used during PCNSL treatment. Through case studies and recent research findings, this seminar aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state and future potential of AI in PCNSL management. (joint work with Nicoletta Anzalone, Head of the Neuroradiology Unit of Advanced Vascular Imaging, IRCCS San Raffale Hospital, Milan, Italy, and Michela Destito, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University “Magna Graecia” of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy).

Short Bio: Teresa Calimeri, MD PhD, works in the Lymphoma Unit of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy as a senior staff physician and she has been recently identified as the clinical coordinator of the Disease Unit Lymphoma. Dr. Calimeri’s personal research focus includes the molecular characterization of primary and secondary CNS lymphomas along with the applications of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a biomarker of diagnosis, treatment response and disease prognosis. Dr. Calimeri has also recently promoted and launched a collaboration with biomedical and informatic engineers with the aim to apply radiomic and deep learning approaches for the studies of lymphoid malignancies. Moreover, she is deeply involved in the clinical management of indolent and aggressive lymphomas. She spent part of her PhD in Molecular Oncology at The Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 2017, she also completed a II Level Master course in the diagnosis and therapy of Lymphomas at the University of Udine sponsored by the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi. She is member of both European and International PCNSL Collaborative Group (EPCG and IPCG). She is actively involved in the projects of the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi (FIL) and International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group (IELSG).



Thursday, October 17, 2024

‘Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot’ by Lawrence Lek

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group

Carebot








Adnan, M.Z. Can robots have nervous breakdowns, Collecting, FTWeekend, 5-6 October 2024, p.7.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

2025 6th edition of "Seed Projects for Interdisciplinary Research"

Para quem possa ter interesse. / To whom it may concern.

Caros/as Coordenadores/as das Unidades I&D da UC,  

Caros/as Gestores/as de Ciência, 


A pedido do Vice-reitor para a Investigação e Diretor do Instituto de Investigação Interdisciplinar (IIIUC), Professor João Ramalho-Santos, i
nformamos que estão abertas as candidaturas para a 6ª Edição de financiamento dos "Projetos Semente de Investigação Interdisciplinar", com o apoio da Fundação Santander, promovido pelo Núcleo das Áreas Estratégicas da UC (NAE), em colaboração com o Instituto de Investigação Interdisciplinar (IIIUC). 


Com este concurso, a UC pretende continuar a apoiar o desenvolvimento inicial de projetos de investigação originais e interdisciplinares com um financiamento semente que permita aos investigadores e às investigadoras da UC tornarem as suas propostas científicas mais robustas, de forma a assegurar financiamento competitivo no futuro e o desenvolvimento de novas linhas de investigação que cruzam áreas do saber na Universidade de Coimbra.
 


Irão ser financiados até cinco projetos de investigação interdisciplinar, uma em cada Área Estratégica da Universidade de Coimbra:  Saúde; Clima, Energia e Mobilidade; Recursos Naturais, Agroalimentar e Ambiente; Digital, Indústria e Espaço; Património, Cultura e Sociedade Inclusiva.
 


Poderão concorrer a este financiamento investigadores/as integrados/as nas Unidades I&D (ou noutras estruturas da Universidade de Coimbra) que desenvolvam investigação na UC e que obtiveram o doutoramento após 1 outubro de 2014. A equipa do projeto deve incluir de três a seis Investigadores/as da UC, de pelo menos duas Unidades I&D de
domínios científicos distintos. 


As candidaturas podem ser submetidas até 6 de dezembro de 2024, às 17h na página web do concurso:
 

https://www.uc.pt/iii/iiiuc-apoia/seedprojects-uc/edicao-2025/  


Estão disponíveis nesta página as normas do concurso, modelo para submissão de candidatura e a lista de júri nomeado para esta edição.
 


Atenciosamente,
 

O Núcleo das Áreas Estratégicas 


Isabel Neves 
 

Maria João Neves   

Natacha Leite   

Shiva Saadatian   


*******************

On behalf of the Vice-rector for Research and Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (IIIUC), Professor João Ramalho-Santos, we would like to inform you that applications are now open for the 6th edition of "Seed Projects for Interdisciplinary Research", with the support of Santander Foundation, promoted by the UC Strategic Areas Unit (NAE), in collaboration with the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (IIIUC).  


Through this call, the UC intends to provide support for the initial development of original and interdisciplinary research projects with seed funding that will allow UC researchers to make their scientific proposals more robust, ensuring competitive funding in the future and the development of new research lines that cross areas of knowledge at the University of Coimbra. 
 


There will be funding for up to five interdisciplinary research projects, one in each of the UC Strategic Areas: Health; Climate, Energy and Mobility; Natural Resources, Agri-food and Environment; Digital, Industry and Space; Heritage, Culture and Inclusive Society. 
 


Researchers of the R&D Units (or other structures of the University of Coimbra), who carry out research at the UC and who obtained their doctorate after 1 October 2014 are eligible to apply for this funding. The project team must include three to six researchers from the UC, from at least two R&D Units in
different scientific fields 


The applications can be submitted until 6 December 2024 at 5pm on the call website: 
 

https://www.uc.pt/en/iii/iiiuc-supports/seedprojects-uc/2025-edition/  


The call guidelines, proposal template and the list of juries appointed for this edition are available on this page. 
 

 

Yours sincerely,  

Strategic Areas Unit 

  

Isabel Neves   

Maria João Neves    

Natacha Leite    

Shiva Saadatian 

Universidade de Coimbra • Reitoria • Administração | University of Coimbra • Rectory • Administration

Serviço de Promoção e Gestão da Investigação | Research Management Service

Núcleo das Áreas Estratégicas | Strategic Areas Unit

Polo I | Rua Larga • Edifício da FMUC (1º piso) • 3004-504 COIMBRA • PORTUGAL

Polo II | Casa Costa Alemão • Rua Dom Francisco de Lemos • 3030-789 COIMBRA • PORTUGAL

https://www.uc.pt/spgi/nae/