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This chapter documents our experiences of pivoting research on sexual and gender minority youth towards an online protocol using digital methods. Digital diaries presented an opportunity to conduct virtual longitudinal qualitative research on how youth describe their experiences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic in Vancouver, Canada. Our digital diary process, supplemented with remote interviews, allowed us to capture shifting health-related patterns and trends, establish capacity to identify and explore unanticipated areas of inquiry, and evaluate participants’ impressions of the method itself. While going digital allowed us to overcome some immediate constraints to participation, it also introduced new uncertainties, including equity concerns and issues around consistent, secure and safe digital access for research participants. We describe how features of young people’s lives remain important factors associated with their ability to participate in digital and remote research. We offer solutions to the challenges and conclude that to counteract the inequities arising from the shift to digital methods, we need flexible, adaptive and population-tailored digital and remote approaches to data collection.
This chapter draws on a mixed-method project that explored retail market encounters in Edinburgh during the pandemic. It borrows from Walter Benjamin’s methodological and conceptual approach in the arcades project to explore how online settings, notably Instagram, function as market spaces. Arcades, for Benjamin, work by using their architecture to create atmospheres conducive to specific actions – lingering, browsing and purchasing. Arcades and Instagram share material and technical features that are orchestrated to shape action and in this both parallel the functions of ‘market devices’. The significance of space, as an element in ‘the equipment and devices’ which give market ‘action a shape’ has long been acknowledged in market studies (Callon 1998: 22) but how retail space works to devise action has had little attention. In describing how Instagram provided ‘digital-affective premises’ during the pandemic we advance three broader propositions. First, that market spaces are necessarily market devices because they are designed to produce action. Second, that while scholarship has exposed the material and technical elements of market devices, it had said much less about their sentimental or affective elements. Finally, that market spaces showcase how technical-sentimental, digital-affective elements interact in giving action its shape.
In this chapter, I show how the urge to monumentalize the book-bound novel in the face of cultural and technological transformations inspires a range of strategies to make literature anew. Starting from contested notions of the “end of the book” and then examining several “renaissances,” I explore the resilience of paper-based literature in the era of its foretold death. First, I examine how comparative literary studies has responded to the shift from analog to digital by developing new frameworks and critical tools. Then, I zoom in on recent innovations in, and reinventions of, analogue literary practices, in book art and book design as well as literary fiction. I end with a reflection on a specific form of bookishness that emphasizes the novel’s size and scale, and thus reinvents it as monumental. On all these levels, we will see, the digital has brought the book, and the novel as the literary art form bound by the book, into sharper focus.
This chapter treats the design considerations for dictionaries as printed books, the transition from print to digital formats in the thirty years around the turn of the twenty-first century, and the considerations for digital and online formats. Section 1: Customer-focused decisions about format, size, and extent of physical dictionaries; the mapping of book and page components of printed dictionaries; the mutual influence of editorial and design choices; and the advent of digital composition and production for printed formats. Section 2: Factors driving the choice of digital versus print formats for changing customer needs; functional challenges of converting printed dictionaries to digital; design considerations for online interfaces, including both technical performance and user experience.
The “digital twin” is now a recognized core component of the Industry 4.0 journey, helping organizations to understand their complex processes, resources and data to provide insight, and help optimize their operations. Despite this, there are still multiple definitions and understandings of what a digital twin is; all of which has led to a “mysticism” around the concept. Following the “hype curve” model, it can be seen that digital twins have moved past their initial hype phase with only minimal implementation in industry, this is often due to the perceived high cost of initial development and sensor outfit. However, a second hype peak is predicted through the development of “lean digital twins.” Lean digital twins represent conceptual or physical systems in much lower detail (and hence at much lower cost to build and manage the models), focusing in on the key parameters and operators that most affect the desired optimal outcomes of the physical system. These lean digital twins are requirements managed with the system to ensure added value and tapping into existing architectures such as onboard platform management systems to minimize costs. This article was developed in partnership between BMT and Siemens to demystify the different definitions and components of a lean digital twin and discuss the process of implementing a lean digital twin solution that is tied to the core benefits in question and outlining the tools available to make implementation a reality.
Sun Tzu's Art of War is widely regarded as the most influential military & strategic classic of all time. Through 'reverse engineering' of the text structured around 14 Sun Tzu 'themes,' this rigorous analysis furnishes a thorough picture of what the text actually says, drawing on Chinese-language analyses, historical, philological, & archaeological sources, traditional commentaries, computational ideas, and strategic & logistics perspectives. Building on this anchoring, the book provides a unique roadmap of Sun Tzu's military and intelligence insights and their applications to strategic competitions in many times and places worldwide, from Warring States China to contemporary US/China strategic competition and other 21st century competitions involving cyber warfare, computing, other hi-tech conflict, espionage, and more. Simultaneously, the analysis offers a window into Sun Tzu's limitations and blind spots relevant to managing 21st century strategic competitions with Sun-Tzu-inspired adversaries or rivals.
Through textually grounded "reverse engineering" of Sun Tzu’s ideas, this study challenges widely held assumptions. Sun Tzu is more straightforward, less "crafty," than often imagined. The concepts are more structural, less aphoristic. The fourteen themes approach provides a way of addressing Sun Tzu’s tendency to speak to multiple, often shifting, audiences at once ("multivocality"). It also sheds light on Sun Tzu’s limitations, including a pervasive zero-sum mentality; focus mostly on conventional warfare; a narrow view of human nature. Sun Tzu’s enduring value is best sought in the text’s extensive attention to warfare’s information aspects, where Sun Tzu made timeless contributions having implications for modern information warfare and especially its human aspects (e.g., algorithm sabotage by subverted insiders). The text points opportunities for small, agile twenty-first-century strategic actors to exploit cover provided by modern equivalents to Sun Tzu’s "complex terrain" (digital systems, social networks, complex organizations, and complex statutes) to run circles around large, sluggish, established institutional actors, reaping great profit from applying Sun Tzu’s insights.
At the heart of the versatility of Sun Tzu’s thinking – and a basic reason it is so extraordinarily conducive to digital age applications – stands its unswerving emphasis on the pivotal importance of information as a resource for strategic actors.
Through textually grounded "reverse engineering" of Sun Tzu’s ideas, this study challenges widely held assumptions. Sun Tzu is more straightforward, less "crafty," than often imagined. The concepts are more structural, less aphoristic. The fourteen themes approach provides a way of addressing Sun Tzu’s tendency to speak to multiple, often shifting, audiences at once ("multivocality"). It also sheds light on Sun Tzu’s limitations, including a pervasive zero-sum mentality; focus mostly on conventional warfare; a narrow view of human nature. Sun Tzu’s enduring value is best sought in the text’s extensive attention to warfare’s information aspects, where Sun Tzu made timeless contributions having implications for modern information warfare and especially its human aspects (e.g., algorithm sabotage by subverted insiders). The text points opportunities for small, agile twenty-first-century strategic actors to exploit cover provided by modern equivalents to Sun Tzu’s "complex terrain" (digital systems, social networks, complex organizations, and complex statutes) to run circles around large, sluggish, established institutional actors, reaping great profit from applying Sun Tzu’s insights.
Measurement-based peer supervision is one strategy to assure the quality of psychological treatments delivered by non-mental health specialist providers. In this formative study, we aimed to 1) describe the development and 2) examine the acceptability and feasibility of PEERS (Promoting Effective mental healthcare through peER Supervision)—a novel smartphone app that aims to facilitate registering and scheduling patients, collecting patient outcomes, rating therapy quality and assessing supervision quality—among frontline treatment providers delivering behavioral activation treatment for depression. The PEERS prototype was developed and tested in 2021, and version 1 was launched in 2022. To date, 215 treatment providers (98% female; ages 30–35) in Madhya Pradesh and Goa, India, have been trained to use PEERS and 65.58% have completed the supplemental, virtual PEERS course. Focus group discussions with 98 providers were examined according to four themes—training and education, app effectiveness, user experience and adherence and data privacy and safety. This yielded commonly endorsed facilitators (e.g., collaborative learning through group supervision, the convenience of consolidated patient data), barriers (e.g., difficulties with new technologies) and suggested changes (e.g., esthetic improvements, suicide risk assessment prompt). The PEERS app has the potential to scale measurement-based peer supervision to facilitate quality assurance of psychological treatments across contexts.
The causes of ill health and death are changing and, as we live longer, new health-preventable problems emerge, bringing new challenges. Improving health (physical, mental or both) and promoting general well-being remain major priorities.
Just as important, the difference in health status between rich and poor continues to grow. At a global level, the picture is even more complex. Although there is some evidence that life expectancy is beginning to plateau in developed countries such as the UK, the biggest potential to improve health still lies in addressing inequality between or within countries.
Therefore, this chapter:
summarizes the models of health improvement that are prevalent today;
introduces a combined conceptual model to describe the factors affecting health in modern times; and
presents some case studies of interventions designed to improve health which offer important insight and learning.
Edited by
Rob Waller, NHS Lothian,Omer S. Moghraby, South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust,Mark Lovell, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Digital processes need to have wellbeing at their core. Rather than focusing on burnout and distress, digital can be considered as an enabler of wellness. Using key concepts such as user-centred design, reimagining processes and education, digital can enhance the lives of staff and patients. Many solutions to digital distress involve taking a break from technology. These solutions are temporary and do not address the root cause of the issue. As technology embeds itself into every facet of our lives, we have an opportunity to take control of how we engage with digital. Instead of translating paper processes into digital equivalents there is an opportunity to leverage the power digital brings to reduce the burden rather than add to it. Clinician and patient engagement are key to digital wellbeing and the success of digital in our healthcare systems. Increasing autonomy and providing flexible support can reduce burnout with digital systems. Involvement must be meaningful and not acceptability testing at the end of system design. Critically, we must remember that people are the most important determinant of the success of any digital project.
Mental Health is now a digital field. The last few decades have brought digital approaches to both clinical systems and service user supports. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated this, highlighting both new ways of working but also major issues with our hardware and clinical systems. This book will empower those working in mental health to to gain the most from digital changes, to build better services, and to enhance the quality of care that is delivered to patients. It will update readers on the digital mental health landscape and cover technology-enabled care, big data, the challenges of technology in the NHS, and the role of professional bodies in developing future digital clinicians. In an increasingly digital world this is a critical guide for mental health professionals to realise the benefits of technology for patients.
Social connections have a significant impact on health across age groups, including older adults. Loneliness and social isolation are known risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Yet, we did not find a review focused on meta-analyses and systematic reviews of studies that had examined associations of social connections with cognitive decline and trials of technology-based and other social interventions to enhance social connections in people with ADRD.
Study design:
We conducted a scoping review of 11 meta-analyses and systematic reviews of social connections as possible determinants of cognitive decline in older adults with or at risk of developing ADRD. We also examined eight systematic reviews of technology-based and other social interventions in persons with ADRD.
Study results:
The strongest evidence for an association of social connections with lower risk of cognitive decline was related to social engagement and social activities. There was also evidence linking social network size to cognitive function or cognitive decline, but it was not consistently significant. A number of, though not all, studies reported a significant association of marital status with risk of ADRD. Surprisingly, evidence showing that social support reduces the risk of ADRD was weak. To varying degrees, technology-based and other social interventions designed to reduce loneliness in people with ADRD improved social connections and activities as well as quality of life but had no significant impact on cognition. We discuss strengths and limitations of the studies included.
Conclusions:
Social engagement and social activities seem to be the most consistent components of social connections for improving cognitive health among individuals with or at risk for ADRD. Socially focused technology-based and other social interventions aid in improving social activities and connections and deserve more research.
Despite a rich range of varied styles and modes of production of fine arts and crafts during the fin de siècle in Britain, a relatively small set of imagery – the decadent stylings of Aubrey Beardsley, for example – has come to define the age. Drawing on the contemporary idea of the “unity of the arts,” this chapter seeks to expand an understanding of 1890s visuality through the potential of the digital. It first explores the literary/visual/artistic intersections of the 1890s, from Pre-Raphaelite antecedents through the Arts and Crafts movement and book illustration. It then turns to the digital, especially advances in interoperability and rich metadata, to consider the ways that technology can both simulate and illuminate fin-de-siècle artistic intersections, complementing previous modes of thinking about the 1890s while offering a more comprehensive view of the diverse visual culture of the period. Like ideals about the unity of the arts, these new transmedial approaches offer enormous promise but are not without their challenges and limitations.
Clinical trials provide the “gold standard” evidence for advancing the practice of medicine, even as they evolve to integrate real-world data sources. Modern clinical trials are increasingly incorporating real-world data sources – data not intended for research and often collected in free-living contexts. We refer to trials that incorporate real-world data sources as real-world trials. Such trials may have the potential to enhance the generalizability of findings, facilitate pragmatic study designs, and evaluate real-world effectiveness. However, key differences in the design, conduct, and implementation of real-world vs traditional trials have ramifications in data management that can threaten their desired rigor.
Methods:
Three examples of real-world trials that leverage different types of data sources – wearables, medical devices, and electronic health records are described. Key insights applicable to all three trials in their relationship to Data and Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMBs) are derived.
Results:
Insight and recommendations are given on four topic areas: A. Charge of the DSMB; B. Composition of the DSMB; C. Pre-launch Activities; and D. Post-launch Activities. We recommend stronger and additional focus on data integrity.
Conclusions:
Clinical trials can benefit from incorporating real-world data sources, potentially increasing the generalizability of findings and overall trial scale and efficiency. The data, however, present a level of informatic complexity that relies heavily on a robust data science infrastructure. The nature of monitoring the data and safety must evolve to adapt to new trial scenarios to protect the rigor of clinical trials.
Adam Smith saw the division of labour and specialisation as the driver of ‘universal opulence’, a process limited by the scope of the market. He also believed that competition was essential to ensure growth benefited the public. Yet eventually there could be a trade-off between these two mechanisms. In today’s era of global production networks, the markets at certain links in supply chains may support just one specialised supplier; and in winner-take-all digital markets there is a single supplier even at global scale. When the scope of the market is global, there may be a trade-off between specialisation and competition.
While digital technologies have induced profound global transformations, political scientists often lack the analytical tools to grasp their effects on politics. In particular, digitization's impact on dictatorships remains not only empirically understudied, but seriously under-conceptualized. How do new technological possibilities affect autocratic politics? This contribution starts from the inner logic of authoritarianism rather than from technical innovation. It first maps the ways in which autocrats employ various digital technologies to maintain power. This helps us identify seven core areas where dictatorial politics are transformed by the use of new tools. We delineate the key characteristics of these areas of change and conclude that, in their sum, technologically induced transformations significantly alter the nature of dictatorship if and when it is digitized.