scholarly journals Conceptualising fairness: three pillars for medical algorithms and health equity

2022 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. e100459
Author(s):  
Laura Sikstrom ◽  
Marta M Maslej ◽  
Katrina Hui ◽  
Zoe Findlay ◽  
Daniel Z Buchman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
English Language ◽  
De Novo ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Core Concept ◽  
Framework Analysis ◽  
Governance Tools

ObjectivesFairness is a core concept meant to grapple with different forms of discrimination and bias that emerge with advances in Artificial Intelligence (eg, machine learning, ML). Yet, claims to fairness in ML discourses are often vague and contradictory. The response to these issues within the scientific community has been technocratic. Studies either measure (mathematically) competing definitions of fairness, and/or recommend a range of governance tools (eg, fairness checklists or guiding principles). To advance efforts to operationalise fairness in medicine, we synthesised a broad range of literature.MethodsWe conducted an environmental scan of English language literature on fairness from 1960-July 31, 2021. Electronic databases Medline, PubMed and Google Scholar were searched, supplemented by additional hand searches. Data from 213 selected publications were analysed using rapid framework analysis. Search and analysis were completed in two rounds: to explore previously identified issues (a priori), as well as those emerging from the analysis (de novo).ResultsOur synthesis identified ‘Three Pillars for Fairness’: transparency, impartiality and inclusion. We draw on these insights to propose a multidimensional conceptual framework to guide empirical research on the operationalisation of fairness in healthcare.DiscussionWe apply the conceptual framework generated by our synthesis to risk assessment in psychiatry as a case study. We argue that any claim to fairness must reflect critical assessment and ongoing social and political deliberation around these three pillars with a range of stakeholders, including patients.ConclusionWe conclude by outlining areas for further research that would bolster ongoing commitments to fairness and health equity in healthcare.

scholarly journals A Framework of Engagement Practices for Stakeholders Collaborating around Complex Social Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10828
Author(s):  
Frederick Robert Peter Edlmann ◽  
Sara Grobbelaar
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Framework Analysis ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
The Impact

South Africa’s interventions to address complex social challenges rely on coordination across several sectors and between different levels of government and society. Improved alignment, planning and coordination are needed when addressing the causal factors of these social challenges. These causal factors include the environments in which people live and their behaviours. Furthermore, emphasis is placed on the recurring engagement of civil society, especially of marginalized stakeholders, as participants in the efforts to address the challenges. The study draws from the promise shown by stakeholder networks, termed Innovation Platforms, in other Sub-Saharan Africa countries to address such complex social challenges. The study aimed to improve the understanding of how a stakeholder network’s engagement practices impact the effectiveness of the network. To this end, a conceptual framework and management tool for stakeholder engagement in IPs is proposed. The study followed the conceptual framework analysis procedure to develop, evaluate and refine the conceptual framework. The article describes the core research outcomes of the framework development approach, starting with a systematized literature review to identify core concepts, followed by interviews with experts and a case study to refine the framework content. The case study applied the framework to develop recommendations for improved engagement in a stakeholder network which has been established around the challenge of vagrancy in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The result of the approach is a multidimensional framework for conceptualizing stakeholder engagement practices in a variety of contexts. The focus of the framework content remains on the practices of engagement which enable effective and fruitful stakeholder interactions within and around a network. The study delivered valuable insights into the nature of some development initiatives in South Africa and the impact of stakeholder engagement on them.

Assessment 360°: A Panoramic Framework for Assessing English Language Learners

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Lewis ◽  
Nancy Castilleja ◽  
Barbara J. Moore ◽  
Barbara Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Diverse Student ◽  
Many Sources

This issue describes the Assessment 360° process, which takes a panoramic approach to the language assessment process with school-age English Language Learners (ELLs). The Assessment 360° process guides clinicians to obtain information from many sources when gathering information about the child and his or her family. To illustrate the process, a bilingual fourth grade student whose native language (L1) is Spanish and who has been referred for a comprehensive language evaluation is presented. This case study features the assessment issues typically encountered by speech-language pathologists and introduces assessment through a panoramic lens. Recommendations specific to the case study are presented along with clinical implications for assessment practices with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations.

Importance of Video Aids’ Usage in Teaching and Learning Process of English Language Classes

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eriselda Vrapi ◽  
Xhevdet Zekaj
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
English Curriculum ◽  
9Th Grade ◽  
8Th Grade

This study aims to explore the use of video in English language teaching (ELT) elementary school (grades 8 to 9)... In addition, the thesis aims to find out how videos in English lessons helped to achieve the goals of English curriculum. The main hypothesis was that teaching with video would develop pupils’ communicative skills and, therefore, was appropriate for the communicative approach to ELT. The study addressed five research questions regarding the use of videos in English lessons in the case study school: why the teachers used videos in ELT, what kinds of videos were used in English lessons, how and how often videos were used, what was taught and learned through the use of videos and, finally, what the teachers’ and pupils’ attitudes to lessons with videos were. The research was performed as a case study at an Elbasan elementary school. The data for the research was obtained through the use of mixed methods: qualitative, in the form of interviews with four English teachers and observations of three of the interviewed teachers’ lessons with videos, and quantitative, in the form of a pupil questionnaire answered by 105 pupils from two 8th grade and two 9th grade classes.

Deep Reinforcement Learning for Multiparameter Optimization in de novo Drug Design

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niclas Ståhl ◽  
Göran Falkman ◽  
Alexander Karlsson ◽  
Gunnar Mathiason ◽  
Jonas Boström
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
De Novo ◽  
De Novo Drug Design ◽  
Generative Process ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Multiparameter Optimization ◽  
Long Short Term Memory ◽  
New Compounds

<p>In medicinal chemistry programs it is key to design and make compounds that are efficacious and safe. This is a long, complex and difficult multi-parameter optimization process, often including several properties with orthogonal trends. New methods for the automated design of compounds against profiles of multiple properties are thus of great value. Here we present a fragment-based reinforcement learning approach based on an actor-critic model, for the generation of novel molecules with optimal properties. The actor and the critic are both modelled with bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM) networks. The AI method learns how to generate new compounds with desired properties by starting from an initial set of lead molecules and then improve these by replacing some of their fragments. A balanced binary tree based on the similarity of fragments is used in the generative process to bias the output towards structurally similar molecules. The method is demonstrated by a case study showing that 93% of the generated molecules are chemically valid, and a third satisfy the targeted objectives, while there were none in the initial set.</p>

Kant’s ‘Transcendental Deduction’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Stroud
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Structural Description ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Transcendental Deduction ◽  
The World ◽  
Empirical Realism

This chapter presents a straightforward structural description of Immanuel Kant’s conception of what the transcendental deduction is supposed to do, and how it is supposed to do it. The ‘deduction’ Kant thinks is needed for understanding the human mind would establish and explain our ‘right’ or ‘entitlement’ to something we seem to possess and employ in ‘the highly complicated web of human knowledge’. This is: experience, concepts, and principles. The chapter explains the point and strategy of the ‘deduction’ as Kant understands it, as well as the demanding conditions of its success, without entering into complexities of interpretation or critical assessment of the degree of success actually achieved. It also analyses Kant’s arguments regarding a priori concepts as well as a posteriori knowledge of the world around us, along with his claim that our position in the world must be understood as ‘empirical realism’.

Positive Psychology’s A Priori Problem

2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara S. Held
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
A Priori ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Negative Numbers ◽  
Psychological States ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Optimal Functioning ◽  
Conceptual Muddles ◽  
Negative Phenomena

The positive/negative distinction works well in many fields—for example, in mathematics negative numbers hold their own, and in medical pathology negative results are usually celebrated. But in positive psychology negativity should be replaced with positivity for flourishing/optimal functioning to occur. That the designation of the psychological states and processes deemed positive (good/desirable) and negative (bad/undesirable) is made a priori, independent of circumstantial particularity, both intrapersonal and interpersonal, does not seem to bother positive psychologists. But it should, as it results in conceptual muddles and dead ends that cannot be solved within their conceptual framework of positivity and negativity. Especially problematic is an ambiguity I find in positive psychologists’ a priori and a posteriori understandings of positivity and negativity, an ambiguity about constitutive and causal relations that pervades their science and the conclusions drawn from it. By eliminating their a priori dichotomy of positivity and negativity, positive psychologists might well find themselves in a better position to put back together the psychological reality that they have fractured in their ontologically dubious move of carving up psychological reality a priori into positive and negative phenomena. They then might find themselves better placed to “broaden and build” their own science of flourishing.

scholarly journals The Role of Cultural Beliefs, Norms, and Practices in Nigerian Women’s Experiences of Sexual Abuse and Violence

2021 ◽  
pp. 107780122110001
Author(s):  
Chinyere Elsie Ajayi ◽  
Khatidja Chantler ◽  
Lorraine Radford
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Rape Myths ◽  
Framework Analysis ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Male Privilege ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Bride Price

This study aims to explore if and how cultural beliefs, norms, and practices might contribute to Nigerian women’s experiences of sexual abuse and violence. In-depth narrative interviews were conducted with 12 women of Nigerian origin living in the Northwest of England who had experienced sexual abuse and violence. Women’s accounts were analyzed thematically, and drawing upon a feminist-intersectional conceptual framework, analysis reveals that male privilege defined by gendered role and expectation, religious beliefs, rape myths, and bride-price with the associated practice of libation may have contributed to women’s experiences of sexual abuse and violence.

Economic structure, power and institutions: A conceptual framework for analysing the historical transformation of US industrial strategy

2021 ◽  
pp. 102452942110154
Author(s):  
Mattia Tassinari
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Economic Structure ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Alexander Hamilton ◽  
The Government ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

An industrial strategy emerges from possibilities for structural change, that depend on material constraints and opportunities afforded by economic structure, the distribution of power in society and the institutional arrangements organized at the political level. Building on a structural political economy perspective, this article develops a structure–power–institutions conceptual framework to describe how economic structure, the distribution of power, and institutions interact through a ‘circular process,’ which is useful for analysing the historical transformation of industrial strategy. In this framework, an industrial strategy refers to the institutional arrangements through which the government manages emerging conflicts or agreements between different powers and influences structural change. As an illustrative case study, the structure–power–institutions framework is applied to analyse the historical transformation of US industrial strategy from the era of Alexander Hamilton to that of Donald Trump.

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