Community Practitioners Research Articles

Shaping the future of advanced automation and control systems for society strategic directions and multidisciplinary collaborations of IFAC's social systems coordinating committee

In an era of rapid advancements in highly intelligent digital systems, blockchain, and other transformative technologies, the role of control and automation in shaping human civilization is of paramount, even critical, importance. This paper examines the strategic significance of IFAC's Social Systems Coordinating Committee (CC), a unique multidisciplinary global community of researchers and practitioners comprising leading universities, research centers, industry partners and international agencies at the forefront of integrating technological and societal progress.This paper reports the results of a strategic "milestone" review, including an extensive meta-analysis of the Social Systems CC's five Technical Committees (TCs) and their activities. It uncovers key themes emphasizing this CC's contributions to models, systems, infrastructures, and operations. Using content analysis and word clouds, 272 keywords were refined to elucidate the main themes of the CC, revealing significant current and future collaborations with other IFAC communities and external organizations. The paper identifies high-potential new cooperation opportunities between this CC and the other IFAC CCs and their TCs, suggesting ways to achieve these collaborations. The findings highlight the Social Systems CC's unique position at the heart of the global automation and control community, where it offers practical applications in planning, management, and sustainability as well as fostering cross-sector cooperation crucial for human progress and effective humanitarian and environmental responses. This paper underscores the Social Systems CC's role in advancing control science and automation systems engineering to tackle pressing societal challenges, advocating for a future where technology and human systems synergize for the global well-being of all living systems.

Streamlined Algorithms for Large-Scale Matrix Computations in High-Performance Computing

In the realm of high-performance computing (HPC), large-scale matrix computations are fundamental to a myriad of scientific and engineering applications, from simulations in physics and engineering to data analysis in machine learning. This paper addresses the critical need for efficient and scalable algorithms capable of handling the growing computational demands of these applications. This study explores advanced algorithmic strategies that leverage the architecture of modern HPC systems, including parallelism, distributed computing, and optimized memory usage. The proposed algorithms are designed to minimize computational complexity and maximize performance, ensuring that largescale matrix operations can be executed swiftly and accurately. One of the key contributions of this work is the development of parallel algorithms that distribute the computational workload across multiple processors, significantly reducing execution time. By employing techniques such as data partitioning and workload balancing, the algorithms ensure optimal use of available computational resources, thus enhancing scalability. Furthermore, the paper introduces innovative approaches to memory management, which are crucial for handling large matrices that exceed the memory capacity of individual computing nodes. These approaches include efficient data storage formats and dynamic memory allocation strategies that reduce overhead and improve data access speeds. Another critical aspect of this research is the application of these algorithms to real-world problems. The paper presents case studies in fields such as climate modeling, structural analysis, and machine learning, demonstrating the practical benefits and performance gains achieved through the use of streamlined matrix computation algorithms. The results show substantial improvements in computation time and resource utilization, validating the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Additionally, the paper discusses the integration of these algorithms into existing HPC frameworks and libraries, making them accessible to a broader community of researchers and practitioners. By providing detailed implementation guidelines and performance benchmarks, the study ensures that the benefits of these advanced algorithms can be readily harnessed in various applications. The research also delves into the theoretical underpinnings of the proposed algorithms, offering a rigorous analysis of their computational complexity and scalability. In conclusion, this paper makes significant strides in addressing the challenges of large-scale matrix operations. Through the development of efficient, scalable, and practical algorithms, this research enhances the capability of HPC systems to tackle complex computational tasks, paving the way for advancements in various scientific and engineering domains. The proposed methods not only improve performance and resource utilization but also contribute to the broader goal of making high-performance computing more accessible and effective for large-scale data analysis and simulation.

Understanding obsolescence and shortage in French industry: An empirical analysis

In a constantly changing economic context, obsolescence has become a major challenge for many companies at all stages of the value chain. Obsolescence can take many forms and affect various sectors of the economy, with technological, environmental, economic and societal repercussions. Companies that succeed in anticipating and proactively managing obsolescence are better prepared to remain competitive in the marketplace. The aim of this article is to present the results of a survey of French manufacturers. Conducted in the form of a questionnaire, it provided an initial overview of manufacturers’ needs and requirements in terms of obsolescence management. This study shows the challenges faced by companies seeking to minimize obsolescence and its consequences, and explains the methods currently in use. The final ambition of this article is to propose niches for research and complementary work to be carried out by the various communities of scientists and practitioners.

The Parameters of Absolute Competence of General Courts and State Administrative Courts in Adjudicating Land Disputes

The judiciary, as a subsystem of the judicial power system in Indonesia, consists of four judicial environments, namely the general judiciary, religious court, military court, and state administrative court. The parameters for determining the authority of each judicial body are as specified in Act Number 48 of 2009 concerning Judicial Power. This research aims to analyze the existence of legal instruments, the scope of authority of the State Administrative Court and the general court in land disputes, as well as the absolute competency parameters of the general court and State Administrative Court in adjudicating land disputes. The problem was investigated using several approaches, namely the conceptual approach, the statutory regulatory approach, and the case approach. The research can provide a theoretical contribution, namely a contribution of thought to the development of legal science, especially administrative law, in the form of concepts and theories related to the authority of the judiciary. Practical contributions can be a contribution of thought to the community and legal practitioners, especially judges, in recognizing aspects of public law and aspects of civil law in dealing with land disputes.

Contextualizing Inequities in COVID Vaccination Trends Among Project REFOCUS Pilot Sites: Racism-Related Determinants of Health.

Coronavirus disease (COVID) dashboards rarely provide insights about the racialized contexts in which vaccination inequities occur. The purpose of this study was to use the emerging Project REFOCUS dashboard to contextualize COVID vaccination patterns among 6 diverse communities. We queried the dashboard to generate descriptive statistics on vaccination trends and racism-related contextual factors among the 6 Project REFOCUS pilot sites (Albany, Georgia, Bronx, New York, Detroit, Michigan, Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, San Antonio, Texas, and Wake County, North Carolina). Vaccination rates, demographic indicators, and contextual factors differed across sites. As of October 17, 2022, the proportion of people who had received at least 1 COVID vaccine dose ranged from 58.4% (Wayne County, Michigan) to 95.0% (Wake County, North Carolina). The pilot sites with the greatest percentage of Black residents (Dougherty County, Georgia, Wayne County, Michigan, and Phillips County, Arkansas) had lower proportions of fully vaccinated people. Wayne County, Michigan, had the highest level of residential segregation between Black and White residents (78.5%) and non-White and White residents (68.8%), whereas Phillips County, Arkansas, had the highest overall mortgage denial rates (38.9%). Both counties represent settings where over 75.0% of residents report Black race and over 30.0% of the population live in poverty. The dashboard integrates racism-related factors with COVID vaccination visualizations and provides a fuller picture of the context in which COVID trends are occurring. Community organizers, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners can track racism-related factors and other social determinants of health as part of the contexts in which COVID-related inequities occur.

Leveraging capacity for transformative sustainability science: a theory of change from the Future Earth Pathways Initiative

Abstract Non-technical summary To address increasingly pressing social–environmental challenges, the transformative strand of sustainability science seeks to move beyond a descriptive-analytical stance in order to explore and contribute to the implementation of radical alternatives to dominant and unsustainable paradigms, norms, and values. However, in many cases, academia is not currently structured to support and reward inter-/trans-disciplinary and transformative endeavors. This paper introduces a theory of change for the Future Earth Pathways Initiative, and similar initiatives, to help leverage the capacity of sustainability scientists to engage in transformative research. Technical summary The increasing body of descriptive-analytical knowledge produced by sustainability science over the last two decades has largely failed to trigger the transformation of policies, norms, and behaviors it was aiming to inform. The emergent transformative strand of sustainability science is a proactive alternative approach seeking to play an active role in processes of societal change by developing knowledge about options, solutions, and pathways, and by participating in their implementation. In principle, scientists can enhance their contribution to more sustainable futures by engaging in transformative research. However, a lack of skills and competencies, relatively unmatured transformative methods and concepts, and an institutional landscape still geared toward disciplinary and descriptive-analytical research, still hinders the sustainability science community from engaging more widely in transformative research. In this paper, the Future Earth Pathways Initiative introduces a theory of change (ToC) for increasing the capacity of sustainability scientists to engage in this type of research. This ToC ultimately aims to build a growing community of practitioners engaged in transformative research, to advance concepts, methods, and paradigms to foster ‘fit-for-purpose transformative research’, and to shape institutions to nurture transformative research-friendly contexts. Social media summary What would a theory of change for leveraging the transformative capacity of sustainability science look like?

Dünyada ve Kazakistan'da Sanatın Geliştirilmesi ve Yaratıcı Eğitim: Tasarım ile Karşılaştırmalı Analiz

Teachers of art and creative education are assigned more and more complex and effective tasks. However, the current system of art education does not always prepare students for these challenges. When we study what and how our system teaches young designers, we find that the most valuable elements of a designer's perspective and process are rarely taught. Instead, some designers go beyond their education through industry experience, essentially learning by accident. Many project programs still maintain a closed perspective and an inefficient mechanism for tacit knowledge transfer. At the same time, the skills to develop creative solutions to complex problems are becoming increasingly important. Organizations are beginning to realize that signers bring something special to this type of work, a rational belief based on numerous studies that link commercial success to a design-based approach. So, what should we do? Other learned professions, such as medicine, law, and business, provide excellent advice and guidance embedded in their own professionalization history. In this article, we will borrow their experience to recommend a course of action for designing. This will not be easy: it will require a research team to make recommendations on how to compile a list of design and educational practices that schools can use to create a curriculum that is appropriate for their goals and abilities. And then it will take a conscious effort for the design profession to become both a reliable community of practitioners and an effective professor, able together to fully understand the value of design in the 21st century. In this article, we will outline this path.

Nurse Practitioner Communities of Practice: An Exploratory Study

Background: The flexibility and value of the Nurse Practitioner (NP) role has been recognized as providing significant benefits for patient groups internationally since the 1960s, and nationally since 2000. At the time of this study, approximately 400 NPs were endorsed to deliver care across diverse clinical and geographic Victorian locations. However, little was known about the supportive requirements to meet their networking and mentoring needs. The aim of this study was to determine the NPs’ degree of membership and engagement and perceived provision of mentorship with NP Communities of Practice (CoP). Methods: An exploratory prospective cross-sectional multi-site study using an online survey was used to collect data. A total of 182 participants responded to the survey. Findings: NPs depend on each other to learn what they need to learn to transition to the NP role in clinical and non-clinical aspects of the role. While the benefits of NP CoP membership proved instrumental in facilitating transformational leadership knowledge, the Victorian NP CoP reinforced that there was room for improvement in the manner in which the groups were not only set up but also how they continued to meet the cohort’s contemporary needs. Most participants reported associated membership benefits such as support, networking, as well as being able to undertake educational opportunities. Further, a small number found NP CoP membership contributed to their sense of belonging, effectively decreasing their sense of professional isolation. To a lesser degree, mentorship and information sharing were reported. Conclusion: Participants identified the NP CoP as collegial, supportive environments which nurtured and facilitated transition to the NP role. By including educational, leadership, networking, and mentoring opportunities, the Victorian NP CoP decreased professional isolation for both neophyte and experienced NPs. However, the NP CoP did not meet all member’s needs.

A dialogical appraisal of diasporic women’s work to impact change in Iran

How do women in the Iranian diaspora contribute to change in their homeland? Drawing on narrative accounts from activists and advocates, this paper offers insight into whether and how change occurs in relation to diasporic initiatives. The results highlight women’s perceived success in public education and awareness-raising activities that focus on procedural, discursive and legislative change. At the same time, despite enjoying freedom in the diaspora, diasporic women continue to face operational constraints like those in the homeland and must minimise risk. The findings are timely given the feminist uprisings that have engulfed Iran in 2022–2023, the coherence of which rests upon the patient and persistent work of those that have come before. This research holds significance for practitioners in diasporic communities, and researchers interested in agents and drivers of change in repressive operating environments.

An Overview of Web Assisted Learning and Teaching of Tamil (WALTT) at the Penn Language Center

This resource description explores a web-assisted learning and teaching approach for Tamil facilitated by the Penn Language Center. Tamil is an ancient language spoken predominantly in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. The language has significant cultural and linguistic relevance. However, due to limited resources and geographical constraints, access to high-quality Tamil language instruction has often been challenging for learners outside Tamil-speaking regions. To address these challenges, the Penn Language Center developed the WALTT program, which integrates web-based technologies into Tamil language learning and teaching. This web resource description aims to examine the structure of the syllabi in detail. Overall, this resource description aims to decode the presence of web-assisted learning resources in the field of Tamil language education, as well as provide valuable resources for the broader community of web-assisted language learning and teaching practitioners and beginners of the language.

A Delphi Study to identify strategies to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 on children under the age of five in Wales

The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused widespread impact on education across all settings and contexts, including early childhood education and care (ECEC). In Wales, it is estimated that roughly three-quarters of children under the age of five (c.155,000 children) were impacted by the closure of ECEC settings. While literature is still emerging on the long-term impact of the pandemic on children under five, little research has explored the potential strategies to mitigate these adverse impacts. This research project used the Delphi method to investigate what experts and ECEC practitioners believe are the most effective strategies to mitigate the adverse impact of the pandemic on children under five, using Wales as a national-level case study. Between May and September 2021, three consecutive surveys were distributed to study participants, who were identified as ECEC experts (n=39). Furthermore, alongside the traditional Delphi study a one-off anonymous online survey was also sent to the wider ECEC practitioner community in Wales (n=378). The dominant theme within the strategies suggested by the study participants was the importance of high-quality play experiences. The importance of universal provision and quality support for practitioners and families was also highlighted. These themes were dominant in both expert and practitioner groups, despite consensus not being found between them. This paper presents and critically explores these identified themes, providing the foundation for replication and portability of this work and its outcomes to ECEC settings in other nations and jurisdictions.

Supported: Supporting, enabling, and sustaining homecare workers to deliver end-of-life care: A qualitative study protocol

Background Homecare workers provide essential care at home for people at end-of-life but are often poorly trained and supported. Aim To explore the experiences and needs of homecare workers and the views of homecare clients and carers, and other community-based health and social care staff about the homecare worker role, including identification of good practice. Methods In this qualitative exploratory study, we will conduct 150 semi-structured interviews with homecare workers within three geographic English localities chosen for maximum socio-demographic variation. Eligible participants will be consenting adults providing care services (workers [n = 45], managers [n = 15] community practitioners [n = 30]), receiving care (clients thought to be in the last 6 months of life [n = 30], family carers [n = 15], or commissioners of homecare services supporting end-of-life care [n = 15]. Interviews may adopt a Pictor-guided or standard semi-structured approach according to their preference. Managers and commissioners can contribute to an online focus group if preferred. A range of recruitment strategies will be used, including through homecare agencies, local authorities, local NHS services, charities, voluntary sector groups and social media. Interviews and focus groups will be recorded, transcribed, anonymised, and analysed adopting a case-based approach for each geographic area within-case and then comparison across cases using reflexive thematic analysis. The design and analysis will be informed by Bronfenbrenner’s Adapted Ecological Systems theory. This study is registered on the Research Registry (No.8613). Contribution We will provide evidence on ways to improve the experiences and address the needs of homecare workers in relation to caring for people nearing end-of-life. It will offer insight into good practice around supporting homecare workers including responding to their training and development needs. Findings will inform subsequent stages of an evaluation-phase study of a training resource for homecare workers.

Reimagining educational linguistics: a post-competence perspective

Abstract Drawing on Bernstein’s sociology of education, this article offers a critical discussion of the origins, assumptions and values of educational linguistics since its foundation in the 1970s. It argues that the sociohistorical context in which the field emerged led to its areas of focus and mission being based on a number of problematic assumptions originating in a primarily Anglophone, Chomskyan theory of language and learning; assumptions that have led to it promoting a strong ‘competence model’ (Bernstein’s term) of education ever since, thereby exacerbating the disconnect between applied linguist and language teacher communities. After identifying important changes in language learning contexts and characteristics worldwide since the 1970s, the article presents a framework for reimagining educational linguistics that looks beyond competence to also recognise the validity of both literacy and pluralist orientations to education and the need for systems, institutions, programs and teachers to move flexibly or choose eclectically along a continuum between these. It discusses the implications of this reimagined vision, including for understandings of relationships in the classroom, notions of authenticity in texts and communities, language modality, curricular outcomes, assessment and language repertoires. A reimagined research agenda is also offered that it is hoped will support attempts to make educational linguistics relevant to the widest possible range of practitioner communities worldwide.

Green Marketing: A Bibliographic Perspective

Interest in green marketing in both the academic and practitioner communities has undergone steady growth in recent years. With more than 150 papers published in 2022, the Web of Science (WOS) database confirms this premise. Although some bibliometric analyses on this topic exist, none has included a comprehensive review of the literature, authors, journals, theories, keywords, and future lines of research as does this study. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to consolidate a descriptive bibliometric analysis to identify the main themes studied, the most influential authors and journals, the most commonly used theories, the networks that exist between authors and topics, the most frequently used keywords, and their evolution over the years. It has been found that green marketing research has increased rapidly, especially since 2015. In total, 1741 research articles have been published in 828 journals. The top five authors, the top 10 cited publications, and the top five cited publications by the WOS classification are all analysed herein. Finally, based on keyword analysis, it is concluded that “sustainability”, “planned behaviour”, “performance”, and “trust” have attracted extensive attention over the past decade.

Report on the 10th Joint Workshop on Interfaces and Human Decision Making for Recommender Systems (IntRS 2023) at ACM RecSys 2023

The 10th edition of the Joint Workshop on Interfaces and Human Decision Making for Recommender Systems was held as part of the 17th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys), the premier international forum for the presentation of new research results, systems and techniques in the broad field of recommender systems. The workshop was organized as a hybrid event: the physical session took place on September 18th at the venue of the main conference, Singapore, with the possibility for authors to present remotely. The IntRS workshop brings together an interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners who share research on new recommender systems (informed by psychology), including new design technologies and evaluation methodologies, and aim to identify critical challenges and emerging topics in the field. This year we focused particularly on topics related to Human-Centered AI, Explainability of decision-making models, User-adaptive XAI systems, which are becoming more and more popular in the last years, especially in domains where recommended options might have ethical and legal impacts on users. The integration of XAI with recommender systems is crucial for enhancing their transparency, interpretability, and accountability. This topic attracted a lot of interest from the community, as demonstrated by the fact that several workshop papers proposed methods for recommendation explanations. Date : 18 September 2023. Website : https://intrs2023.wordpress.com.

"My culture doesn't 100% like these kinds of services, but you decide what to do": Female refugees' experiences with sexual and reproductive healthcare in the Southeastern U.S.

This study investigates female refugees' experiences accessing and utilizing sexual and reproductive (SRH) services in the state of Georgia. We conducted in-person, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 26 female refugee adolescents and adults from Burma, Bhutan or Nepal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Georgia. Questions inquired about perceptions and experiences while accessing and utilizing SRH services. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants discussed the importance but also varying influence of social and cultural norms on SRH service utilization. Challenges to accessing and utilizing SRH services included communication and cost barriers. Facilitators included accessible clinic locations, transportation, and positive interactions with clinic providers and staff. Understanding female refugees' experiences accessing and utilizing SRH services is critical to meet their SRH needs adequately. Through community engagement, practitioners and researchers can gain insights into cultural influences on SRH, address communication and cost barriers, and enhance existing facilitators to increase female refugees' access and use of services. Our community-engaged study incorporated perspectives of diverse groups of refugee women and adolescents in the Southeastern U.S. Findings from this study highlight lived experiences with SRH services and identify barriers to and facilitators of SRH services access and utilization.

The Beginning of Our Journey: The Launch of the Tunisian Journal of Sports Science and Medicine

The Tun J Sport Sci Med is a peer-reviewed, quarterly, and open-access journal that upholds the highest principles of academic transparency, diversity, equity, and accessibility. The Tun J Sport Sci Med invites submissions of high-quality original articles, review articles (e.g., narrative, scoping, systematic, integrative), editorials, short communications, and letters to the editor. While editorials are typically published through invitations, we are open to considering exceptional editorial pieces. The authors interested in submitting editorials should contact the editors-in-chief to discuss their potential fit and relevance for our journal. We place great value on contributions that not only introduce new findings but also provide a critical analysis of existing research and offer innovative approaches to address the complex challenges within sports science and medicine.

FlowTransformer: A transformer framework for flow-based network intrusion detection systems

This paper presents the FlowTransformer framework, a novel approach for implementing transformer-based Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDSs). FlowTransformer leverages the strengths of transformer models in identifying the long-term behaviour and characteristics of networks, which are often overlooked by most existing NIDSs. By capturing these complex patterns in network traffic, FlowTransformer offers a flexible and efficient tool for researchers and practitioners in the cybersecurity community who are seeking to implement NIDSs using transformer-based models. FlowTransformer allows the direct substitution of various transformer components, including the input encoding, transformer, classification head, and the evaluation of these across any flow-based network dataset. To demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the FlowTransformer framework, we utilise it to provide an extensive evaluation of various common transformer architectures, such as GPT 2.0 and BERT, on three commonly used public NIDS benchmark datasets. We provide results for accuracy, model size and speed. A key finding of our evaluation is that the choice of classification head has the most significant impact on the model performance. Surprisingly, Global Average Pooling, which is commonly used in text classification, performs very poorly in the context of NIDS. In addition, we show that model size can be reduced by over 50%, and inference and training times improved, with no loss of accuracy, by making specific choices of input encoding and classification head instead of other commonly used alternatives.

Seeing, Sharing and Supporting: Assertive Outreach as a Partial Solution to Rough Sleeping

Abstract Assertive outreach is becoming an increasingly salient feature of policy responses to homelessness—and particularly rough sleeping—with the aim of supporting people to access secure housing. Despite its demonstrated successes, existing research points to structural challenges practitioners face in navigating complex and fragmented service systems to provide people sleeping rough with a continuum of care. This study examines an Australian organisation’s efforts to collaboratively and systematically overcome these challenges by bringing together government, community and service practitioners from multiple sectors in their delivery of an assertive outreach programme. Using an ethnographic research design, this article draws on observations of outreach practices and service provider administrative quantitative data, as well as qualitative interviews and focus groups conducted with assertive outreach service providers. Our findings demonstrate that through flexible and collaborative social work practices, practitioners were able to see people sleeping rough, share information across services and support people into a range of housing, health and other forms of services. Critically, however, structural barriers such as a lack of affordable and social housing prevented assertive outreach from ending people’s homelessness. We foreground the critical implications of these findings for social work.

Artificial intelligence in the service of health and safety at work: Perspectives and challenges from now to 2035 - A prospective study

Artificial intelligence systems are developing very rapidly in all areas. This is particularly true in the case of work, where we are seeing their use in the robotisation of industrial production or the automation of certain functions in services (from chatbots to robotic process automation). In the context of a prospective study devoted to the use of artificial intelligence for occupational risk prevention, a very diverse project group was set up: occupational health practitioners, artificial intelligence specialists, lawyers, futurists, sociologists, and everyday users of artificial intelligence techniques. Using the method of contrasting scenarios, this project group successively documented variables likely to influence the use of artificial intelligence in the service of occupational health and safety, put forward hypotheses on their possible development over the next ten to fifteen years, and constructed scenarios. These relatively general scenarios were then adapted specifically to the subject studied, in particular during seminars devoted to specific uses (possible uses of artificial intelligence tools in epidemiology and accidentology, technologies for securing working environments using artificial intelligence, advanced robotics using artificial intelligence). Based on all the material produced during the study, the study finally resulted in recommendations of the project group on the use of AI in occupational risk prevention proposed for discussion. The subject is indeed of interest to the whole community of practitioners involved in occupational risk prevention whose practices will certainly be affected by these new technological developments.