Early Effort Research Articles

The Cult of Gay Relics and Queer Medievalism in 1980s Sydney

Abstract This article explains how the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of radical queer nuns, created gay ‘religious relics’ in San Francisco and Sydney, Australia, in the 1980s. The Sisters’ relics are a neglected part of twentieth-century queer history and reflect the role of urban spaces and sexual cultures in the formation of contemporary queer identities. They also represent an early effort to preserve and commemorate queer histories. The Sisters drew on deliberately archaic medieval models to preserve pieces of destroyed sex-on-premises venues and cruising sites that were important to gay men. During the early 1980s, arson and hostile civic authorities destroyed these places and the HIV/AIDS epidemic began to threaten the gay community which patronized them. In Sydney, the Sisters also held reliquary exhibitions which commemorated and defended gay identity and dignity through the veneration of campy pieces of popular culture and the reclamation of seemingly homophobic religious discourses and concepts. The refashioning of the medieval cult of relics into a vehicle for queer identity and history speaks to the ongoing role of imagined pasts in the formation of present selves, and of the erasure of certain kinds of sexual experience from mainstream presentations of queer history.

A Novel Method to Early Agile Effort Estimation through Functional Initiatives

ContextDecision makers struggle to develop rough order of magnitude cost estimates early in an agile software project's lifecycle, when lack of detailed functional user requirements limits Functional Size Measurement. ObjectiveThis study introduces a new method based on counting initiatives to measure the functional size (Functional Initiative Count (FIC) and Functional Initiative Points (FIP) of agile software projects during their early phases and examines its effectiveness as a predictor of agile software development effort. FIC and FIP are derived from an agile project's high-level initiatives converted into similar size units based on their active verbs. Initiatives, also referred to as capabilities in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DoD), identifies the means to accomplish a mission, function, or objective. Initiatives are typically documented early in a project's product vision document, product roadmap document, or concept of operations (in the DHS and DoD). MethodThe analysis used historical actual data from 21 agile projects implemented between 2014 and 2022 in the DHS and DoD. ResultFIC revealed to be a reliable predictor of total software development effort, while FIP revealed to be an even better predictor of total software development effort. ConclusionUsing FIP is a viable solution to use as a functional size measure for early phase agile software development effort estimation.

Separating Noisy Samples From Tail Classes for Long-Tailed Image Classification With Label Noise.

Most existing methods that cope with noisy labels usually assume that the classwise data distributions are well balanced. They are difficult to deal with the practical scenarios where training samples have imbalanced distributions, since they are not able to differentiate noisy samples from tail classes' clean samples. This article makes an early effort to tackle the image classification task in which the provided labels are noisy and have a long-tailed distribution. To deal with this problem, we propose a new learning paradigm which can screen out noisy samples by matching between inferences on weak and strong data augmentations. A leave-noise-out regularization (LNOR) is further introduced to eliminate the effect of the recognized noisy samples. Besides, we propose a prediction penalty based on the online classwise confidence levels to avoid the bias toward easy classes which are dominated by head classes. Extensive experiments on five datasets including CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, MNIST, FashionMNIST, and Clothing1M demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the existing algorithms for learning with long-tailed distribution and label noise.

The Influence of Cyber Victimization, Internet Use, and Perception of Cyberbullying-on-Cyberbullying Perpetration among Korean Adults: A National Sample-Based Study.

Although cyberbullying has emerged as a serious problem even among adults, most researches have been conducted on the adolescents. We aimed to verify the independent effects of cyber victimization, internet use, and the perception of cyberbullying-on-cyberbullying perpetration in South Korea adults. The data of 1500, 20s to 50s Korea adults from the 2019 Survey on the Cyberbullying conducted by the National Information Society Agency were used. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that cyber victimization and internet use were positively related to cyberbullying perpetration. In particular, the perception of cyberbullying was negatively associated with cyberbullying perpetration. This study is an early effort to verify the influence of the perception of cyberbullying-on-cyberbullying perpetration. Educating that cyberbullying is an illegal and dangerous behavior is important to prevent cyberbullying perpetration.

Public interest or individual benefit: biased perception toward Chinese redistributive policies

PurposeRedistributive policies aim to reduce income disparities and improve social equity. This study investigates whether redistributive effects that successfully diminish objective income inequality also effectively alter people’s perceptions of inequality.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing data from the 2018 China Household Income Survey (CHIP), comprising 56,167 individuals, this study applies ordered probability regression (Oprobit) and ordinary least squares (OLS) for analysis. To address potential biases in estimates, we employed the generalized propensity score matching (GPSM) method to estimate the treatment effect of transfer income on perceptions of inequality.FindingsThe results indicate that while China’s redistribution policies effectively reduce income disparities, they do not improve perceptions of inequality. Individuals exhibit biased attitudes toward redistributive policies. Specifically, perceptions of inequality are insensitive to the overall redistributive effect; the relationship is negative among the poor but positive among the rich. This contradictory pattern may be attributed to perceived income losses among the rich and gains among the poor.Social implicationsThe findings have important implications for policy development. Redistribution policies should not only aim to mitigate income disparities but also address and improve people’s perceptions of inequality.Originality/valueExisting literature has largely overlooked the impact of redistribution on perceived income inequality. This study represents an early effort to explore whether redistributive policies that reduce income inequality also influence people’s perceptions of inequality.

P21: Cultural adaptations of an evidence-based mental health intervention for older adults with depression and anxiety in a low- resource setting in Peru

Objectives: Effectively adapting innovative mental health evidence-based community interventions is critical, yet underdeveloped, for reducing the treatment gap among older adults with depressive and anxiety symptoms. The Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives (PEARLS) is an evidence-based community intervention designed to reduce symptoms of depression and improve quality of life among older adults. PEARLS includes 6-8 sessions of in- home visits of trained social workers to deliver a multi-component intervention: problem- solving, behavioral activation activities, and psychoeducation. We used the Framework for Reporting Adaptations andModifications-Enhanced (FRAME) to document process and changes made to adapting PEARLS, branded as VIDACTIVA (Vidas Activas y Valiosas) in an urban, low- resource community in Lima, Peru.Methods: We obtained data in two stages. First, we conducted formative interviews with several stakeholders, including older adults, health professionals, community health workers (CHWs), city officials, and church leaders from the community. Second, during the iterative pilot phase, we used a mixed-Methods approach, integrating interviews with fidelity assessments, field notes, and training evaluations. We employed an iterative, rapid content analytic approach to triangulate findings from multiple sources and stakeholders, allowing us to identify needed adaptations.Results: We made several adaptations. Most adaptations occurred during the formative phase focused on the training plan for CHWs (VIDACTIVA delivers). We also made adaptations of the components of the intervention (problem-solving) and in the way supervision sessions were conducted. Adaptations involved researchers, CHWs, health professionals and older adults. All adaptations were fidelity-consistent with PEARLS. Due to this is the early stage of implement VIDACTIVA, the most common goal across adaptations was increased feasibility and acceptability of the intervention.Conclusions: The current study is an early effort to apply FRAME in the low-income urban context in Lima, Peru. FRAME guided systematic documentation of the adaptation decision- making process while successfully balancing fidelity. These observations lend insight to continue implementation efforts of VIDACTIVA intervention, which is undergoing a pilot clinical trial.

Sosialisasi Sadari Pada Remaja Putri di Desa Pulo Peding Kecamatan Babussalam Kabupaten Aceh Tenggara

Adolescence is a transition period from children to adults. Adolescence lasts from the age of 15-20 years. Developmental changes that occur during adolescence include physical, psychological and psychosocial development (Gainau, 2021). Adolescent girls experience secondary sexual signs in the form of widening of the hips, breast growth, hair growth around the genitals and armpits, as well as growth of the uterus and vagina (Sarwono, 2016). Breast self-examination or what is known as BSE, is a form of early detection prevention effort whose implementation procedure can be carried out by each individual woman more easily in order to find symptoms or signs related to breast cancer, for example; lump in the breast (Sari P, Sayuti S, Ridwan M, Rekiaddin LO, 2020). This community service activity takes the form of outreach about breast self-examination (BSE) to young women in Pulo Peding village, Babussalam District, Southeast Aceh Regency. This activity was attended by 30 participants with the aim of increasing teenagers' knowledge about BSE. The results of this activity were an increase in teenagers' knowledge before and after being given socialization, namely from an average knowledge score of 50 to 80. It is hoped that this activity can be useful for young women and doing BSE regularly to detect breast cancer early.

A comprehensive evaluation of the contamination scenario and water quality in the gas fields of north-east region, Bangladesh

Gas fields generate a significant volume of produced water, disposed in the vicinity of gas fields in Bangladesh after processing. It may have a variety of effects on ecology and the environment. This study was conducted to assess the contamination scenario and quality of produced and discharged water from gas fields in northeastern Bangladesh. The physicochemical analyses for this study were performed using standard procedures. Based on the outcomes of the analyzed samples, the current research employs a variety of indexing and statistical approaches to investigate the overall status of the studied water. The physiochemical analysis revealed high electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solid (TDS), salinity, and Na contents in both produced and discharged water. No severe cases have been identified, certain metals, such as Fe, Ni, and Cd, have been detected at levels high enough to impact specific index values in some cases. The results of the weighted contamination index (WCI) indicated mild to considerable pollution in the gas field region. The average score of potential ecological risk (PER) reflects minimal ecological risk. The heavy metal toxicity load (HTML) reveals negligible metal pollution in the studied water. The agricultural risk indices displayed increased sodium concentrations and EC, resulting in salinity and sodium risks. The magnesium absorption ratio is within the allowable range. In addition, the average heavy metal pollution index (HMPI) value demonstrates that the produced and discharged water is unsuitable for drinking. The entropy-based water quality index (EWQI) is below the threshold limit (<100) for all samples, indicating satisfactory water quality. This study is an early effort to evaluate the quality of wastewater produced and discharged from gas fields in Bangladesh. The findings of this research will provide valuable insights for future researchers and regulators in effectively managing and mitigating pollution from wastewater.

Exploring the Dynamic Capabilities Pattern in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs): A Phenomenological Study of MSME stagnancy in Indonesia

The objective of this research is to explore the Dynamic Capability Pattern, furthermore to observe how motivational and sociological factors impact the occurrence of stagnancy of MSMEs in Indonesia. Design/Methodology/Approach – A qualitative approach is applied with Open Questions Interviews towards 10 (ten) MSME actors in Indonesia who represent a range of industries including food and beverage, fashion retail, and the chemical raw materials sector The findings of this study underscore several key points: SMEs consistently exhibit dynamic capabilities, particularly in the stages of sensing and seizing opportunities, however they frequently encounter challenges when striving to advance to a transformational stage. Continuous engagement in sensing and seizing cycles is crucial for MSMEs to prosper and progress to the next level of development. However, underdeveloped SMEs encounter challenges in re-engaging these cycles effectively. Mentorship from experienced communities or business groups can enhance SMEs' willingness and ability to pursue further development. Motivational and sociological factors play a significant role in influencing dynamic capabilities within Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. Research Limitations - As a qualitative study, this research used a limited sample of participants from the Food &amp; Beverage, and Fashion retail sectors to acquire insights. Therefore, it is highly recommended that future research be conducted on a larger scale, involving a more diverse range of participants from various business sectors, to validate the cyclical patterns and factors influencing the Dynamic Capabilities of MSMEs in Indonesia. To the best of the author's understanding and knowledge, employing a qualitative approach in this research marks an early effort to thoroughly comprehend the consistency of Dynamic Capability Pattern, motivational and sociological forces that shape the decisions of MSMEs regarding their potential transformation.

Risk Factor Analysis for Stroke Incidence in North Sulawesi: Based on the 2018 Indonesia Basic Health Research

Stroke is a serious public health issue and the main cause of disability and death after ischemic heart disease. Every year, 12.2 million individuals worldwide suffer from a stroke, which results in 6.5 million deaths. There has been an increasing incidence of stroke in Indonesia, including in North Sulawesi. This study aims to examine the risk factors for stroke incidence in North Sulawesi in a population aged ≥35 years based on the 2018 Indonesia Basic Health Research data. This quantitative research was an analytical observational study with a cross-sectional design. The Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression were performed during data analysis involving 7,111 respondents. The multivariate analysis results showed that hypertension (p=0.000; AOR 8.739; 95% CI 5.758-13.263), physical activity (p=0.000; AOR 2.771; 95% CI 1.944-3.948), gender (p=0.000; AOR 2.047; 95% CI 1.388-3.017), heart disease (p=0.015; AOR 1.919; 95% CI 1.133-3.250), age (p=0.008; AOR 1.669; 95% CI 1.144-2.434), occupation (p=0.008; AOR 1.693; 95% CI 1.145-2.504), and fatty foods consumption (p=0.023; AOR 0.603; 95% CI 0.390-0.932) had a significant correlation with stroke incidence in this study. The main finding of this study shows that hypertension is the most influential risk factor for stroke incidence in a population aged ≥35 years in North Sulawesi. Regular blood pressure screenings are needed as an early hypertension detection effort to prevent stroke incidence.

Hubungan Pengetahuan Mengenai Kanker Payudara Dalam Mengelola Kecemasan Dan Pengobatan Komplementer

Objective: The large number of breast cancer sufferers and the lack of knowledge have resulted in many sufferers experiencing excessive anxiety; this is one of the factors for the government to focus more on providing education to the public. Methods: This research design uses a systematic review of data sources obtained from several articles collected by conducting computer searches via Google Scholar of the articles that have been searched. Population and sample from research article entitled Relationship between knowledge about breast cancer and awareness behavior (breast self-examination), description of anxiety and depression in women with breast cancer, Indonesian Journal of Community Empowerment (IJCE) The importance of breast self-examination (SADARI) as an early detection effort Breast cancer, experience of using complementary therapy in breast cancer patients, comparative analysis of the CART algorithm classification with C 4.5 in cases of breast cancer sufferers. Results: The article discusses primarily breast cancer and knowledge about breast cancer so that you can manage anxiety. Early detection of breast cancer can be done using a BSE examination. This examination can easily detect signs of breast cancer. Conclusion: Breast cancer is a deadly cancer and affects many women in Indonesia and even around the world. The BSE examination is an early detection that is easy to carry out, and anxiety in breast cancer sufferers is normal. Patients who are afraid of undergoing surgery prefer complementary therapy, but this therapy takes longer to heal.

ANALISIS CLUSTERING STUNTING DENGAN DISTANCE EUCLID

Entering the Industrial Revolution Era 4.0, human resources must be supported by healthy and intelligent human resources so that they can increase competitiveness. The world still faces the problem of hunger and malnutrition today. According to a Unicef report, many people suffer from malnutrition in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that malnutrition is a dangerous threat to the health of the world's population. Stunting also has an impact in Indonesia, the prevalence of toddlers experiencing stunting in Indonesia is 24.4% in 2021. The solution created is to classify and cluster stunting so as to produce patterns that can be used as best practice to be transmitted to other affected areas. The algorithm used is Euclid, the Euclid algorithm is able to cluster stunting prevalence data into 3 clusters with a little category of 66%, a medium category of 28%, a lot of category of 6%. The results of the classification and clustering of the best stunting prevalence in cluster two with a small number, can be used as a source of accurate and updated information that can be used by the government in its efforts to optimize stunting handling in each district/city based on artificial intelligence which can provide patterns for handling and optimizing stunting. in each district/city. Malnutrition is estimated to be the main cause of 3.1 million child deaths every year. Therefore, efforts need to be made to minimize stunting by predicting stunting sufferers. The prediction results can be used as an early prevention effort.

Bioethics-CSR Divide

Bioethics-CSR Divide

Performance assessment of existing canal-blocking in restoration management of peatland conservation

The aim of this research is to assess existing results of the canal-blocking peatland conservation due to the classification of 5 canal-blocking types on peatland conservation as the management of restoration in the peatland area of Block-C ex-PLG. The low water levels (>40 cm from the surface) during the dry season make dry peatlands susceptible to fires. The back wetting of peatland is the early effort in preventing the peatland fire, which can be carried out on a wide scale by exploiting the available canal network through the overall and integrated canal blocking in unity of peatland hydraulics. The canal blocking due to the five types of canal blocking classification, which is intended to back the discussion of peatland, can give the ecology and society economic impacts that include supporting the natural vegetation recovery, preparation of water supply along season on the peatland hydrologic unity, and to be preventing drought and also the fire that are often happened in the dry season. Land use is suggested based on customization: agriculture and plantation in designated areas, adaptive vegetation in limited plantation zones, and protected areas restored to serve as safeguarded vegetation zones.

EFFECTIVENESS OF ACCOMPANIMENT FOR ADOLESCENTS AND PREGNANT WOMEN WITH ANEMIA: ENDEAVORS IN EARLY STUNTING SCREENING DURING THE FIRST 1000 DAYS OF LIFE

The 2022 Indonesian Nutritional Status Study survey reveals that the prevalence of stunting among children under five was 21.6%. In Central Java province, the rate was 20.8%, while in Brebes Regency, it reached 29.1% (the highest in Central Java). Stunting poses a significant nutritional challenge affecting the growth and development of young children. This issue is linked to factors such as malnutrition in pregnant women, adolescents, and nursing mothers, as well as the presence of infectious diseases in mothers. The well-being of young women is crucial, as they will become the next generation of parents, shaping the nation's future. By 2030, an estimated 68% of Indonesia's economic support will come from individuals of productive age, including current adolescents who will soon become parents. This cross-sectional observational study aimed to assess the effectiveness of assisting adolescents and pregnant women with anemia as an early stunting screening initiative. The data collection involved checking hemoglobin levels in adolescents and pregnant women, assisting those with anemia for 30 days, and then re-evaluating their hemoglobin levels. Univariate frequency distribution analysis indicated increased hemoglobin levels among adolescents and anemic pregnant women. Chi-square analysis resulted in a p-value of 0.04, suggesting that assisting adolescents and pregnant women as an early stunting screening effort effectively addresses anemia.

Evaluation of precipitation across the contiguous United States, Alaska, and Puerto Rico in multi-decadal convection-permitting simulations

This study is an early effort to generate a multi-decadal convection-permitting regional climate dataset that covers nearly the entire North American continent. We assessed a 20 year dynamically downscaled regional climate simulation at a 4 km spatial resolution with explicit convection across the contiguous United States (CONUS), Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Specifically, we evaluated the model’s performance in representing mean, 95th percentile, and extreme precipitation across regions. Our findings indicate that when compared with ERA5 reanalysis, the forcing data, convection-permitting simulation improves representations of seasonal, 95th percentile, and extreme precipitation over a large portion of the CONUS, Alaska, and Puerto Rico, particularly in areas where precipitation is heaviest. The simulation adds value over its forcing data (ERA5) in up to 53% of all grid cells in the CONUS, 68.8% in Alaska, and 84.0% in Puerto Rico. It is important to note that, however, despite improvements, model errors in Puerto Rico remain large. Similar improvements are observed in extreme indices, including consecutive dry days, maximum 5 days precipitation, and extreme precipitation. Analysis of the diurnal cycle of mean hourly precipitation suggests that representations of convective processes—including onset, dissipation, suppression, downstream propagation, and local circulation—improved overall.

An economic evaluation of the expansion of electronic case reporting in an academic healthcare setting.

Determine the economic cost or benefit of expanding electronic case reporting (eCR) for 29 reportable conditions beyond the initial eCR implementation for COVID-19 at an academic health center. The return on investment (ROI) framework was used to quantify the economic impact of the expansion of eCR from the perspective of an academic health system over a 5-year time horizon. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess key factors such as personnel cost, inflation, and number of expanded conditions. The total implementation costs for the implementation year were estimated to be $5031.46. The 5-year ROI for the expansion of eCR for the 29 conditions is expected to be 142% (net present value of savings: $7166). Based on the annual ROI, estimates suggest that the savings from the expansion of eCR will cover implementation costs in approximately 4.8 years. All sensitivity analyses yielded a strong ROI for the expansion of eCR. Our findings suggest a strong ROI for the expansion of eCR at UHealth, with the most significant cost savings observed implementing eCR for all reportable conditions. An early effort to ensure data quality is recommended to expedite the transition from parallel reporting to production to improve the ROI for healthcare organizations. This study demonstrates a positive ROI for the expansion of eCR to additional reportable conditions beyond COVID-19 in an academic health setting, such as UHealth. While this evaluation focuses on the 5-year time horizon, the potential benefit could extend further.

Structured Attention Composition for Temporal Action Localization.

Temporal action localization aims at localizing action instances from untrimmed videos. Existing works have designed various effective modules to precisely localize action instances based on appearance and motion features. However, by treating these two kinds of features with equal importance, previous works cannot take full advantage of each modality feature, making the learned model still sub-optimal. To tackle this issue, we make an early effort to study temporal action localization from the perspective of multi-modality feature learning, based on the observation that different actions exhibit specific preferences to appearance or motion modality. Specifically, we build a novel structured attention composition module. Unlike conventional attention, the proposed module would not infer frame attention and modality attention independently. Instead, by casting the relationship between the modality attention and the frame attention as an attention assignment process, the structured attention composition module learns to encode the frame-modality structure and uses it to regularize the inferred frame attention and modality attention, respectively, upon the optimal transport theory. The final frame-modality attention is obtained by the composition of the two individual attentions. The proposed structured attention composition module can be deployed as a plug-and-play module into existing action localization frameworks. Extensive experiments on two widely used benchmarks show that the proposed structured attention composition consistently improves four state-of-the-art temporal action localization methods and builds new state-of-the-art performance on THUMOS14.

Contest Schemes and Dynamic Incentive Provision

Simple contest schemes, which tend to use extreme contemporaneous peer benchmarking, are generally thought to be less efficient at motivating productive and cooperative effort than explicit bonus contracts that optimally weight observed own and peer outputs. We show, however, that contest schemes can outperform explicit bonus contracts in a two-period dynamic setting if periodic output is correlated over time, and contract terms can be renegotiated. In our model, all parties update their beliefs about ex ante unknown time-invariant noise upon observing first-period outputs, and second-period wage offers are updated accordingly. This creates first-period shirking incentives for the agents. We show that relative to bonus contracts, the extreme contemporaneous peer benchmarking in contest schemes can weaken or even eliminate the adverse incentives created by prior-period benchmarking, even though the available information and the learning process are the same under both schemes. This dynamic advantage allows contest schemes to outperform repeated bonus contracts for a wide range of parameter values, despite imposing higher static efficiency losses in each period. If competing agents are assigned to sufficiently similar tasks, a contest scheme’s ability to sever the statistical link between periods can yield not only higher early productive effort compared with bonus contracts, but also less uncooperative behavior, despite putting the agents in a more contest-like situation. This paper was accepted by Brian Bushee, accounting. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.00035 .

Relationships among development, growth, body size, reproduction, aging, and longevity - trade-offs and pace-of-life

Relationships of growth, metabolism, reproduction, and body size to the biological process of aging and longevity have been studied for decades and various unifying “theories of aging” have been proposed to account for the observed associations. In general, fast development, early sexual maturation leading to early reproductive effort, as well as production of many offspring, have been linked to shorter lifespans. The relationship of adult body size to longevity includes a remarkable contrast between the positive correlation in comparisons between different species and the negative correlation seen in comparisons of individuals within the same species. We now propose that longevity and presumably also the rate of aging are related to the “pace-of-life.” A slow pace-of-life including slow growth, late sexual maturation, and a small number of offspring, predicts slow aging and long life. The fast pace of life (rapid growth, early sexual maturation, and major reproductive effort) is associated with faster aging and shorter life, presumably due to underlying trade-offs. The proposed relationships between the pace-of-life and longevity apply to both inter- and intra-species comparisons as well as to dietary, genetic, and pharmacological interventions that extend life and to evidence for early life programming of the trajectory of aging. Although available evidence suggests the causality of at least some of these associations, much further work will be needed to verify this interpretation and to identify mechanisms that are responsible.