Humanism in Asian medical education - A scoping review

Introduction: Humanistic values lie at the heart of medicine. In the wake of professional breaches among health care professionals, the place of humanistic values in medical training has been the subject of much debate and development in the literature. This scoping review aims to map the current understanding of how humanism in the Asian socio-cultural context may be understood and applied, and how the strengthening of humanistic values may be further integrated into medical schools in Asia. Methods: Arksey and O'Malley's approach to scoping reviews was used to guide the study protocol. Databases PubMed, ERIC, EMBASE, Scopus, CINAHL, and Web of Science were searched for articles on humanism and medical education in Asia. Data charting and thematic analysis were performed on the final articles selected. Results: Three hundred and six abstracts were retrieved, 93 full-text articles were analysed, and 48 articles were selected. Thematic analysis revealed four themes on the need to strengthen humanistic values, the challenge of finding a common framework and definition, opportunities in medical school for curriculum design and training, and the need for validated tools in program evaluation in Asia. Conclusion: Themes highlighted in this review show an increasing recognition amongst Asian medical educators of the importance of inculcating humanistic values into medical training. Further research and ongoing discussion are needed to develop culturally relevant, effective, and integrative curricula in order to promote humanistic attitudes and behaviours among medical students and physicians in Asia.

The Integration of 21st-Century Skills in Science: A Case Study of Canada and the USA

This comparative study examines the extent to which the 21st-century skills are integrated into the 4th and 8th-grade public school science curriculum in Canada in relation to that of the United States of America (USA) by analyzing the 4th and 8th grade Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes of Canada and the 4th and 8th grade Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) of the United States in relation to the 21st-century skills as listed by the Applied Educational System (AES). The results predicted a huge economic decline of the United States in the nearest future in contrast to that of Canada if an intervention is not instituted.

Thinking Deep. Acting on Top. Underground Built Heritage and Its Fringe as a Community Catalyst for Local Sustainable Development: Exploratory Cases from Poland and Greece

Underground Built Heritage (UBH) is a distinct class of cultural heritage providing a focal point for community pride and engagement to become a springboard for local sustainable development (LSD). This research aims to articulate how local UBH and its fringe serve as a facilitator of communal identity to mobilize community care towards social and economic development with less involvement from the state and the market actors. For this purpose, local (and less-conspicuous) cases of UBH are employed in Warsaw, Poland, and Volos, Greece, indicating the power of UBH to connect and engage local communities with places, triggering a momentum for a truly bottom-up action that pays less attention to market considerations and state support. The studied UBH sites have been discussed according to an established common framework, dealing with five main issues: (a) general context and status, (b) history, (c) users and management, (d) ecosystem services, and (e) introduction of the paradigm of living labs. The analysis was based on a thorough literature review and complemented by field observations and interviews. The results provide evidence for UBH as a potential facilitator of social and economic development. The case studies in Poland and Greece showed that local actors were involved in activities and social networks of tacit knowledge, generating community building to reinforce bottom-up activities in contact with UBH.

Advance care planning among African Americans: A review and synthesis of theory application

Objectives Theoretical and conceptual frameworks are often underutilized in research, which may diminish understanding of the phenomena and contribute to the under-development of interventions. The topic of low/disparate rates of Advance Care Planning (ACP) among African Americans has been researched extensively; however, the use of theoretical and/or conceptual frameworks has not been reported. The purpose of this review is to describe theoretical and/or conceptual frameworks utilized in studies that investigated factors affecting perceptions of ACP or ACP rates among African Americans. Methods Utilizing a narrative, literature review process, themes were generated, applied, and described with frequencies across broad categories of study characteristics, framework categories and key constructs, mode of framework application, and quality of framework reporting. Results Four main types of frameworks were found with behavioral frameworks dominating the collection of studies. Complex, systems theoretical frameworks were less common. Framework use and reporting quality findings are described. Significance of results The problem of disparate rates of ACP among African Americans is nuanced and varied, stemming from both internal (e.g., personal, behavioral) and external factors (e.g., living conditions). While important and necessary to focus on internal, psychological factors, it is also vital to incorporate systems’ theories such as the Cumulative Disadvantage Theory to better understand and demonstrate inherent complexities. Recommendations for framework use are discussed for research and clinical application. Incorporating complexity science approaches and multi-systems theories may support multi-level modeling needed to understand this problem and reduce ACP disparities in this population.

Methods of Learning the Structure of the Bayesian Network

Sometimes in practice it is necessary to calculate the probability of an uncertain cause, taking into account some observed evidence. For example, we would like to know the probability of a particular disease when we observe the patient’s symptoms. Such problems are often complex with many interrelated variables. There may be many symptoms and even more potential causes. In practice, it is usually possible to obtain only the inverse conditional probability, the probability of evidence giving the cause, the probability of observing the symptoms if the patient has the disease.Intelligent systems must think about their environment. For example, a robot needs to know about the possible outcomes of its actions, and the system of medical experts needs to know what causes what consequences. Intelligent systems began to use probabilistic methods to deal with the uncertainty of the real world. Instead of building a special system of probabilistic reasoning for each new program, we would like a common framework that would allow probabilistic reasoning in any new program without restoring everything from scratch. This justifies the relevance of the developed genetic algorithm. Bayesian networks, which first appeared in the work of Judas Pearl and his colleagues in the late 1980s, offer just such an independent basis for plausible reasoning.This article presents the genetic algorithm for learning the structure of the Bayesian network that searches the space of the graph, uses mutation and crossover operators. The algorithm can be used as a quick way to learn the structure of a Bayesian network with as few constraints as possible.learn the structure of a Bayesian network with as few constraints as possible.

GENDER AND CLIMATE CHANGE

The impacts of climate action is not bound by gender disparities, but still each one ofus is accountable and responsible for its management. Climate action has to be scientific expression of attributes working in synchronously with multi-stakeholders and a common framework or exchange of dialogues. If equity in action is a perspective per se, then equality in gender towards steering it forward is a gender attribute. Women, men, children and other stakeholders are all impacted, and beyond gender bias one has to work on then targets. Women face inequalities and have not been given the key role in decision making, local and indigenous knowledge repository is used for local action by women and their contribution fixes many local issues.

Change in Rhetoric but not in Action? Framing of the Ethical Issue of Modern Slavery in a UK Sector at High Risk of Labor Exploitation

This article shows how the ethical framing of the contemporary issue of modern slavery has evolved in UK construction, a sector in which there is a high risk of labor exploitation. It also examines how these framing dynamics have inhibited the emergence of a common framework of action to deal with the issue. We draw on both framing theory and the literature on the discursive construction of moral legitimacy. Our longitudinal analysis reveals that actors seeking to shape the debate bring their own moral schemes to justify and construct the legitimacy of their frames. Actors cluster their views around five evolving frames: human rights issue (later shifting to hidden crime), moral issue, management issue (later shifting to human moral obligation), social justice issue, and decent work issue—which promote particular normative evaluations of what the issue is, who is responsible, and recommendations for action. Our study contributes to a dynamic and political understanding of the meaning making of modern slavery. We identify the antecedents and conditions that have forestalled the emergence of new patterns of action to tackle modern slavery in the UK construction sector thereby evidencing the effects of the interplay of morally competing frames on field-level change.

International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health core set for vision loss: A discussion paper and invitation

The World Health Organization created the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to provide a common framework to understand and describe functioning and disability. To make the ICF more applicable for everyday use, an ICF core set can be developed. We are going to reduce the entire ICF of 1400 categories to essential categories that can be used in a specific health context. These ICF core sets are created through a scientific process based on preparatory studies and the involvement of a multidisciplinary group of experts. The aim of this project is the development of an internationally accepted, evidence-based and valid ICF core set for irreversible vision loss. This article describes the process that is followed in detail and invites stakeholders to participate in the development.