Adaptive Service Research Articles

Adaptations to comprehensive abortion care during the COVID-19 pandemic: case studies of provision in Bolivia, Mali, Nepal, and the occupied Palestinian territory

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted comprehensive abortion care provision. To maintain access to services while keeping individuals safe from infection, many organisations adapted their programmes. We conducted a programme evaluation to examine service adaptations implemented in Bolivia, Mali, Nepal, and the occupied Palestinian territory. Our programme evaluation used a case study approach to explore four programme adaptations through 14 group and individual interviews among 16 service providers, facility managers and representatives from supporting organisations. Data collection took place between October 2021 and January 2022. We identified adaptations to comprehensive abortion care services in relation to provision, health information systems and counselling, and referrals. Four overarching strategies emerged: (1) the use of digital technologies, (2) home and community outreach, (3) health worker optimisation, and (4) further consideration of groups in vulnerable situations. In Bolivia, the use of a messaging application increased access to confidential gender-based violence support and comprehensive abortion care. In Mali, the adoption of digital approaches created timely and complete data reporting and trained members of the community served as “interlocutors” between the communities and providers. In Nepal, an interim law expanded medical abortion provision to pharmacies, and home visits complemented facility-based services. In the occupied Palestinian territory, the use of a hotline and social media expanded access to quick and reliable information, counselling, referrals, and post-abortion care. Adaptations to comprehensive abortion care service delivery to mitigate disruptions to services during the COVID-19 pandemic may continue to benefit service quality of care, access to care, routine monitoring, as well as inclusivity and communication in the longer term.

The impact of Covid-19 on bereavement care in Ireland: A national survey of bereavement care providers.

Objectives: To a) describe bereavement care providers' experience of demand and type of need for bereavement care during the first year of the pandemic; b) describe the self-assessed impact on care providers; c) identify service adaptations and challenges currently faced.
 Methods: Data was collected via an online survey of Irish bereavement service workers (n=199) during the 2021 level 5 restrictions enforced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 Results: 47% of respondents noted an increase in the demand for their service, with many reporting higher levels of distress and more complex needs among service users. 47% reported an increase in the emotional impact of the work. Many service providers altered their service provision and/or developed new services, in part, to meet the changing pattern of need. The positive changes and opportunities resulting from the pandemic were also noted, some of which they intended to continue post-pandemic.
 Conclusion: The pandemic and related restrictions shone a light on the way we die and grieve in Ireland. With the current focus on bereavement, now may be the time to develop a national policy for bereavement care, which should provide direction for service provision and pathways, alongside public education to meet bereavement needs.

Obstetric referrals, complications and health outcomes in maternity wards of large hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed methods study of six hospitals in Guinea, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania

ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic affected provision and use of maternal health services. This study describes changes in obstetric complications, referrals, stillbirths and maternal deaths during the first year of the pandemic...

Sustainable Management of Ecosystem Services and Climate Adaptation Strategies: Achieving Synergy Between Ecology and Climate

Climate change is undeniably one of the most formidable challenges facing humanity in the contemporary era, with far-reaching consequences reverberating through ecosystems, economies, and societies on a global scale. The imperative for the development and implementation of effective climate adaptation strategies is not only evident but increasingly urgent. Against this backdrop, this paper offers a comprehensive exploration of the pivotal and multifaceted role that ecosystem services play in bolstering and fortifying climate resilience.

Cloud Security and Privacy

Abstract: Over the last decade, cloud computing has grown and evolved significantly. It provides cost-effective solutions as well as a wide range of adaptable services. Many businesses are using cloud services. Users mostly use cloud services to save data in a virtual environment. Users have no knowledge of or influence over what happens in the cloud, and nothing in the cloud is visible to them, which raises security and privacy problems. Malicious administrators can mess with the integrity, privacy, virtual machines, and volatile confidentiality of cloud services. Clouds are vulnerable to hacking, and their integrity, availability, and data security are all in jeopardy.

Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Big Data into Smart Healthcare Systems: A Comprehensive Review of Current Practices and Future Directions

The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled both the vulnerabilities and resilience of global healthcare systems, sparking a surge in innovation, including the accelerated adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytics. This paper provides a comprehensive examination of the incorporation of these technologies within the advancement of contemporary, intelligent healthcare systems, with a keen focus on their potential to transform health management globally. This study explores the roles of AI and big data in bolstering the adaptability, efficiency, and productivity of healthcare services while also empowering individuals with actionable insights for enhanced health outcomes. Besides identifying key opportunities for AI and big data synergies within smart medical systems - encompassing disease detection and prevention, personalized medicine, resource allocation, and healthcare accessibility - this study delve into the critical ethical considerations accompanying their use. These include the essential principles of explainability, trustworthiness, privacy, security, and healthcare equity. Emphasis is placed on the importance of transparent, accountable, and ethically robust implementation strategies to ensure the responsible deployment of these technologies. Furthermore, the inherent privacy and security challenges associated with big data and AI in healthcare are addressed, detailing potential risks such as data breaches, data misuse, and patient confidentiality threats. Also, this study highlights the significance of incorporating privacy-preserving techniques, such as differential privacy and federated learning, in AI and big data analytics. This paper proposes a forward-looking paradigm for embedding AI and big data analytics within the core infrastructure of smart healthcare systems, outlining best practices and providing recommendations to leverage their transformative potential effectively and ethically. The insights and findings offered aim to guide future research, policy, and implementation efforts focused on harnessing the power of AI and big data to enhance global health resilience, stimulate innovation, and drive constructive change within the realm of intelligent medical facilities.

ВЗАЄМОДІЯ HARD SKILLS ТА SOFT SKILLS У ПРОЦЕСІ ФОРМУВАННЯ ФАХОВИХ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТЕЙ СЛУХАЧІВ ТВВ «ХМЕЛЬНИЦЬКА ФІЛІЯ АКАДЕМІЇ ДЕРЖАВНОЇ ПЕНІТЕНЦІАРНОЇ СЛУЖБИ»

The adaptation of the penitentiary service of Ukraine to the requirements of the world penitentiary system involves compliance with the principles of legality, justice, democracy, and humanism with the widest possible use of international standards. At the same time, there are actions that are unacceptable for the staff of the State Criminal Enforcement Service: provocations, haste in making decisions, disclosing the facts of the convict’s life, inaction and passivity, indifference. In this sense, the issue of the interaction of the so-called Hard skills and Soft skills, acquired by students during their studies at an educational institution becomes especially relevant. Among the personnel of the State Criminal and Executive Service undergoing training in the territorially Separated Branch “Khmelnitskyi branch of the Academy of the State Penitentiary Service”, an example of hard skills is the skills that trainees acquire at the practical classes. It should be noted that, in addition to hard skills, most subjects of training courses contribute to the development of soft skills as well. For example, the discipline “Tactical and Special Training”. During its studying, a number of official situations that may arise during practical work or official duties are simulated. The tasks are aimed at finding hiding places of prohibited items or preventing the rebellion of convicts and prisoners. After “playing” this situation, the teacher, with the participation of the students, conducts a discussion and analysis of the activities and actions of individual categories of event participants. As a result, a model of the best solution to a certain problem is produced. During such practical training, the teacher is able to identify the characteristics of the listener’s character, his reaction to a certain situation, the ability to think outside the box and find the optimal way out, and to correct an undesirable model of his behavior. Also, the teacher can motivate further correct actions of the person by means of encouragement. After graduating from the territorially separated branch of the Khmelnitsky branch of the Academy of the State Penitentiary Service, the employees of the State Penitentiary Service constantly improve the acquired knowledge and skills in the conditions of penal institutions by conducting weekly training. The autonomy of higher education institutions allows for variations within the defined curriculum of courses, therefore, the saturation of practical classes of students with tasks aimed at group performance of the assigned task will ensure the formation and development of flexible skills, which in the future will find a positive reflection of the specialist at the workplace in the conditions of the institutions of the State Penitentiary services. Key words: Hard skills, Soft skills, Penitentiary Service.

What comes after strategy: Moving beyond statements and open letters – An analysis of three Toronto hospitals’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) plans

IntroductionThe murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020 forced institutions to publicly acknowledge systemic racism. In the Canadian healthcare sector, some hospitals used this pivotal moment to create...

Progress in Lightweight Design Methods for Large-Size Panel Structures in Manned Pressurized Capsules

The pressurized capsule structure provides the pressure environment for astronauts or payloads in space, which is thus considered as the most crucial structural component for manned spacecraft. The manned deep space exploration mission (MDSEM) brings new challenges to the pressurized capsule structure: extremely low structural weight, long service life, reusability and adaptability to the harsh deep space environment. The conventional welded panel pressurized capsule structure (WPPCS) is not able to meet these new requirements. To address the above challenges, this paper comprehensively expounds why the current WPPCS cannot meet the requirements of MDSEMs based on the analysis of the vibration environment and structural characteristics of the pressurized capsule structure. Furthermore, a new type of integrated panel pressurized capsule structure (IPPCS) is proposed, showing the lightweight advantage compared with WPPCS. Finally, the technical details and research results of the strength criterion, design method, material upgrading and structural integrity manufacturing process of the IPPCS are fully introduced. The conclusions drawn in this paper will provide useful and meaningful references for the future development of large-size, lightweight pressurized capsule structures.

Electric vehicle charging scheduling control strategy for the large-scale scenario with non-cooperative game-based multi-agent reinforcement learning

With the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs), electric vehicle charging scheduling control in the complex urban environment has become a hot research issue, especially the use of multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) to solve game problems in the process of EV scheduling. In a complex and unstable environment involving high-speed dynamic changes of vehicles, the traditional methods have poor learning effects. In this paper, a multi-agent charge scheduling control framework with the cooperative vehicle infrastructure system (CVIS) is proposed to solve the game problems between electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) and EVs. To achieve effective control of electric vehicle charging stations in large-scale road networks, a new multi-agent A2C algorithm based on a non-cooperative game (NCG-MA2C) is proposed. In the proposed NCG-MA2C algorithm, the state representation is based on the K-nearest neighbor multi-head attention mechanism, the action definition is based on the proposed adaptive service price adjustment strategy, and spatio-temporal discount joint reward stable learning convergence. The results show that the proposed algorithm has good performance in increasing the efficiency of EVCSs while reducing EV charging cost compared with the fixed strategy, the greedy strategy, the independent Q learning (IQL) algorithm, the multi-agent Q-learning algorithm (MAIQL), and the multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) algorithm. The NCG-MA2C algorithm has strong extensibility and validity in the complex urban environment.

Availability and use of personal protective equipment in low- and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Availability and appropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is of particular importance in Low and Middle-Income countries (LMICs) where disease outbreaks other than COVID-19 are frequent and health workers are scarce. This study assesses the availability of necessary PPE items during the COVID-19 pandemic at health facilities in seven LMICs. Data were collected using a rapid-cycle survey among 1554 health facilities in seven LMICs via phone-based surveys between August 2020 and December 2021. We gathered data on the availability of World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended PPE items and the use of items when examining patients suspected to be infected with COVID-19. We further investigated the implementation of service adaptation measures in a severe shortage of PPE. There were major deficiencies in PPE availability at health facilities. Almost 3 out of 10 health facilities reported a stock-out of medical masks on the survey day. Forty-six percent of facilities did not have respirator masks, and 16% did not have any gloves. We show that only 43% of health facilities had sufficient PPE to comply with WHO guidelines. Even when all items were available, healthcare workers treating COVID-19 suspected patients were reported to wear all the recommended equipment in only 61% of health facilities. We did not find a statistically significant difference in implementing service adaptation measures between facilities experiencing a severe shortage or not. After more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall availability of PPE remained low in our sample of low and middle-income countries. Although essential, the availability of PPE did not guarantee the proper use of the equipment. The lack of PPE availability and improper use of available PPE enable preventable COVID-19 transmission in health facilities, leading to greater morbidity and mortality and risking the continuity of service delivery by healthcare workers.

Collective reinforcement learning based resource allocation for digital twin service in 6G networks

The 6th generation (6G) mobile communications technology will realize the interconnection of humans, machines, things as well as virtual space. The development of digital twins (DTs) and 6G has accelerated the Internet of Things (IoT) in an unprecedented way. The combination of DTs and edge intelligence (EI) enables powerful digital space synchronized with the real world constructed in the intelligent edge, bringing real-time, and adaptive services delivery of IoT. However, the dynamic features and heterogeneous resources in 6G-enabled IoT make the resource allocation for computation-intensive and delay-sensitive DTs services more challenging. In this paper, we first define the DTs implementation process as a DT service function chain (DTSFC) and address the resource allocation problem of DTs-empowered networks in form of dynamic DTSFCs orchestration. We further propose a novel collective reinforcement learning (CRL) method which is inspired by human collaboration, to realize the effective resource allocation of DTSFCs. Numerical results verify that the proposed CRL algorithm improves the learning efficiency and generalization ability compared with the benchmarks.

Social media and anxiety in young adults: preparing primary care for the rising challenge.

Several researchers and policymakers have acknowledged the alarming association between social media usage and anxiety symptoms in young adults. While primary care holds a crucial role in the improvement of health outcomes for those presenting with anxiety, there has been no research on GPs' perceptions of the impact of social media on anxiety. Furthermore, there has been little discussion of social media as a risk factor in anxiety-related consultations. This study is the first to use empirical research to inform how primary care can adapt to address social media's impact on anxiety within young adults. To identify GPs' perceptions of the impact of social media on anxiety; and to identify the facilitators and barriers within primary care to addressing social media's impact on anxiety among young adults. Following an exploratory pilot interview, semi-structured interviews with GPs (n = 7) were transcribed and thematically analysed following an inductive approach. Six facilitators were identified: a framework to facilitate discussion, open GP attitudes, GP training, alternative support, larger stakeholder influence, and young adult education of social media's impact on anxiety. Three barriers were identified: a lack of GP awareness of social media's impact on anxiety, cautious GP attitudes, and increased pressure on the health service. This qualitative study revealed a diversity of perceptions, and these novel findings are instructive in the adaptation of primary care services to meet the current mental health needs of young adults, as well as better assisting GPs in engaging in these conversations, especially within university practices.

A COMPARISON OF PRODUCT PERSONALIZATION AND PRODUCT CUSTOMIZATION: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Personalization is the adaptation of products or services to the preferences of the customer in terms of some features. Individualization in products and services is called product personalization when it is initiated by the company and product customization when it is initiated by the customer. In this study, product personalization and product customization are discussed and compared as two different personalization concepts. Based on literature review it is pointed out that whereas product personalization is a process initiated by the company, based on customer data, where the control is in the company and focused on personalized experience; product customization is a process initiated by the customer, based on customer preferences, where the customer is in control, focused on the flexibility and options of the user.

Competence Improvement of School Libraries in Realizing Adaptive Service Innovation

Background of the study: Librarians are required to adapt to the surrounding environment in all eras. During the post-Covid-19 pandemic period, returning the spirit of offline learning by providing the right information resources for users at the school level is necessary. Improving the competence of librarians in managing the library is one of the keys. Purpose: This study aims to analyze how librarians adaptively improve their competency in the post-Covid-19 pandemic. Method: This research uses a qualitative approach and case study method. Data collection techniques were using observation, interviews, and documentation analysis. The validity of the data was tested using the source triangulation technique. Data are presented by reducing data, presenting data, and drawing conclusions. Findings: The librarian profession is a profession with competencies that develop adaptively. Improving the competence of school librarians in the post-pandemic period includes general competencies and core competencies. General competencies include operating computers, compiling work programs, and compiling reports. Improvement of core competencies includes a selection of library materials, acquisition of information sources, cataloging capabilities, maintenance of library materials, improvement of circulation services, reference services, information retrieval, library promotion capabilities, literacy, use of IT in libraries, as well as enhancement of specific competencies. Competency enhancement is carried out in various ways: through training, technical guidance, knowledge sharing, seminars, and workshops held online, hybrid, and offline. As well as comparative studies in other libraries, both online and offline. Conclusion: Online self-development activities are still the prima donna for librarians at the school level because they save costs and time. In contrast, offline activities are still a factor in cost considerations.

Diverse contributions of nature to climate change adaptation in an upland landscape

ABSTRACT Nature provides numerous functions and services that can contribute to societal climate change adaptation. These ‘adaptation services’ can be sustained, latent, or novel, depend on persistence or transformation of ecosystems, and require varying co-production by people. Adaptation services also include climate mitigation. We present an approach to explore an extensive set of land use and climate scenarios that outline possible futures for a landscape, and quantify the contributions of adaptation services. We quantified adaptation success across six criteria relevant to the region, characterised the contributions of different types of adaptation services, and mapped spatial variation in contributions across the landscape. We built an integrated model of the Mackenzie District (an upland landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand), and analysed 1200 hypothetical scenarios for the period 2060–2070. We found many adaptation options, with 46% of scenarios meeting the criteria for successful adaptation. Four sustained, two latent and five novel services co-produced through financial input made diverse contributions to economic profit, profit resilience, climate change mitigation, climate risk adaptation, landscape cultural heritage and biodiversity. Successful adaptation scenarios were multifunctional, relying on alternative combinations of services allowed by spatial heterogeneity. By accounting for the numerous relationships between people and natural components within complex landscape systems, our advanced simulation approach can inform participatory pathway development by quantifying the potential for nature to contribute to future climate change adaptation.

Between accessibility and adaptability of digital platform: investigating learners' perspectives on digital learning infrastructure

PurposeThe massive expansion of digital platform has been responsible for the widespread progressive engagement created amongst learners and educators. The practice of requiring student feedback on online learning services ensures that teacher education continues to advance its strategic approach to online learning. This paper aims to examine the level of accessibility and adaptability of digital technology with particular focus on Malaysia, by elaborating the value of superior learning service and practical adaptability of online learning during the pandemic era.Design/methodology/approachThis study was conducted using qualitative approach of data collection, namely via structured interview. The listed respondents included 30 higher learners who participated in the study by providing feedback on the issues encountered during the research process.FindingsThe findings revealed that the strategic enhancement of digital accessibility continued with digital adaptability to sources of learning services would contribute to advancing achievement of digital learning pathway.Practical implicationsIncreasing accessibility to digital platforms in digital learning system can help to shape the digital environment. Digital expansion can create unlimited boundaries for online knowledge acquisition.Social implicationsThe social implication refers to acquiring the abilities developed through online engagement with peers by actualising and exploring information together with continuous inter-connectedness of sharing pathway in online platform. The instructor would need to give a proportional gateway to make learners experience the digital environment for future education.Originality/valueThis study aims to assess the value of developing accessibility of digital technology for students' online learning services during the pandemic and beyond. A well-structured plan would enable digital learning capabilities and mutual accessibility amongst learners. This can allow digital abilities to be transformed into collaborative teamwork amongst learners.

Do Eco-Based Adaptation Measures Enhance Ecosystem Adaptation Services? Economic Evidence from a Study of Hillside Forests in a Fragile Watershed in Northeastern Taiwan

As the risks of climate change keep increasing, countries have emphasized the ecosystem adaptation policy, and the United Nation Environmental Program (UNEP) aids countries to adapt to a warming world with eco-based adaptation (EbA) measures for good ecosystem governance for boosting ecosystem adaptation services (EAS). With the purpose of helping to indicate the magnitude of the benefits of EAS from local EbA measures, this study assesses the economic value of the EAS of hillside forests regarding the residents in a climate vulnerable watershed, the Lanyang River watershed, by applying a single-bounded contingent evaluation method. The demographic variables and motivation variables indexed by perceived impacts are influencing factors in the residents’ willingness-to-pay. These variables are of significance in EbA policy application. The average economic value for each responding resident was estimated to be NT$ 793.65 on the basis of a survey of the residents’ willingness to pay for EAS and the single-boundary contingent valuation method. The results verified that the residents depend on the protection of natural hillside ecosystems. Considering the complex interactions between ecosystems and humans, the EbA is demonstrated to be a crucial method for mitigating the consequences of climate change. Protecting hillside ecosystems in the Lanyang River watershed through soil and water management presents critical policy implications. Now that climate change has become an emergency, this case study shows the success of Taiwan’s long manipulated EbA for EAS, with evidence of residents benefiting. This Taiwan case study has policy implications for the world and UNEP’s global EbA program to maintain EAS.

Using Dummy Locations to Conceal Whereabouts of Mobile Users in Location-Based Services

Location-based services are extremely popular in these days. Mobile users use the services such as GPS and Google Maps almost every day to assist their daily activities like finding a restaurant or looking for an apartment. However, in order to use the services, users have to share their location information with the service providers. This requirement may hold back the service adaptation since users may not like to share their locations with others. One common method to preserve user privacy is to send a couple of dummy locations along with the true location to the service providers, so the provider would not be able to tell which location is true. This method is simple and effective, but it also has some drawbacks that make the privacy safeguarding fragile. If the dummy locations are not carefully planned, they may land on wild fields or water and could be easily perceived as fake. This research investigates the flaws of using dummy locations to uphold user privacy from both the users’ and service providers’ points of view, and proposes innovative methods to close the loopholes, so more users will be willing to use location-based services.

Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare and substance use service access among women who inject drugs: a qualitative study

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare and substance use services engagement, including primary and mental health services as well as residential and outpatient drug treatment. Women who inject drugs (WWID) face known barriers to healthcare and substance use service engagement, which pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 on WWID’s engagement with healthcare and substance use services, however, remains understudied.MethodsTo explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service-seeking and utilization, we conducted in-depth interviews with 27 cisgender WWID in Baltimore, Maryland, in April–September 2021. Iterative, team-based thematic analysis of interview transcripts identified disruptions and adaptations to healthcare and substance use services during the COVID-19 pandemic.ResultsThe COVID-19 pandemic disrupted service engagement for WWID through service closures, pandemic safety measures restricting in-person service provision, and concerns related to contracting COVID-19 at service sites. However, participants also described various service adaptations, including telehealth, multi-month prescriptions, and expanded service delivery modalities (e.g., mobile and home delivery of harm reduction services), which overwhelmingly increased service engagement.ConclusionTo build upon service adaptations occurring during the pandemic and maximize expanded access for WWID, it is vital for healthcare and substance use service providers to continue prioritizing expansion of service delivery modality options, like telehealth and the provision of existing harm reduction services through alternative platforms (e.g., mobile services), that facilitate care continuity and increase coverage.