Process Of Scrutiny Research Articles

Mournful Mothers and Damaged Damsels: Are We Really Listening to Women During Parliamentary Human Rights Scrutiny?

Scrutiny regimes in some Australian parliaments require consideration of human rights impacts of proposed legislation, but routinely ignore gendered impacts of legislation, particularly those relating to alcohol and other drugs. Where women's voices are heard, they are often only listened to according to stereotypes. Drawing on Anne Summers’ work on stereotypes of Australian women, an analysis of reports and hearing transcripts from major parliamentary inquiries into drug law reform, and in-depth interviews with those involved in parliamentary human rights scrutiny, we argue that parliamentary scrutiny regimes perpetuate paternalistic accounts of women to be pitied or punished: the ‘mournful mother’ whose child is affected by alcohol or other drugs and needs to be heard, and the ‘damaged damsel’ who is themselves affected by alcohol or other drugs and needs to be protected. This raises the question: are women listened to during parliamentary scrutiny processes or simply talked about in stereotypical ways?

A novel deep machine learning algorithm with dimensionality and size reduction approaches for feature elimination: thyroid cancer diagnoses with randomly missing data.

Thyroid cancer incidences endure to increase even though a large number of inspection tools have been developed recently. Since there is no standard and certain procedure to follow for the thyroid cancer diagnoses, clinicians require conducting various tests. This scrutiny process yields multi-dimensional big data and lack of a common approach leads to randomly distributed missing (sparse) data, which are both formidable challenges for the machine learning algorithms. This paper aims to develop an accurate and computationally efficient deep learning algorithm to diagnose the thyroid cancer. In this respect, randomly distributed missing data stemmed singularity in learning problems is treated and dimensionality reduction with inner and target similarity approaches are developed to select the most informative input datasets. In addition, size reduction with the hierarchical clustering algorithm is performed to eliminate the considerably similar data samples. Four machine learning algorithms are trained and also tested with the unseen data to validate their generalization and robustness abilities. The results yield 100% training and 83% testing preciseness for the unseen data. Computational time efficiencies of the algorithms are also examined under the equal conditions.

The Relevance of World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist to Spinal Surgery

Across the 193 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) an estimated 234 million operations were conducted worldwide in 2008 (1 per every 25 human beings on the planet). These numbers have continued to increase to 312.9 million by 2016. Surgical errors involving the wrong site, wrong procedure or wrong patient occur at a rate of 1 in 112,000. This equates to 2,000 estimated ‘never events’ every year with a significant associated physical and psychological burden on patients and surgeons and financial and reputational burden on health organisations involved in litigation for such errors. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (WHOSSC), produced in 2009 is now synonymous with safety in the operating theatre. This checklist imposes a process of scrutiny at the key steps of the patients journey through theatre. The key details scrutinised have been shown to improve patient outcomes and theatre efficiency. Several studies have looked at adapted checklists specific to different specialties and it is becoming clearer that whilst the overall benefit of the original checklist is undeniable, in some speciality areas a more deliberate and nuanced application of the checklist to address specific problems could be of value. As a specialism, spinal surgery differs from others with a significant risk of a perioperative complication leading to harm and morbidity, permanent disability or even death. Iatrogenic spinal cord injury requires high-level resources and prolonged, sometimes lifelong rehabilitation. Other complications include cerebrospinal fluid leak, blood loss, new neurologic deficit, hardware failure, proximal junctional failure, pseudarthrosis, and surgical site infection. Wrong level spinal surgery (WLSS) is a complication specific to spinal surgery and studies have reported WLSS effecting 50-68% of spinal surgeons at some point in their career. The risks of these complications can be mitigated by factors, some of which are included in the WHOSSC and others with are lacking. This scoping review looks at how surgical checklists; both the original and modified versions have and could be used to address the surgical safety challenges specific to spinal surgery.

The Dynamics of Verbal and Non-Verbal Linguistic Communication in The Saudi Sports Community

The study aimed to identify and examine the paradigms of verbal and non-verbal communicative dynamics, encompassing the nuanced dimensions of body language, symbolic cues, and facial expressions between foreign and indigenous participants situated within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This analysis focuses on the theoretical of the constructs of linguistic competence and intercultural communicative competence. The salience of these theoretical underpinnings lies in their pivotal role in orchestrating the attainment of precise and effective communication within the purview of the concerned stakeholders. To galvanize this endeavor, an empirical data has been garnered through the process of direct surveillance and scrutiny. This repository encompasses a multifaceted, encompassing video recordings, photographic archives, and textual discourse exchanged among the participants. This analytical process is underpinned by the advanced computational tools of artificial intelligence. The results show that, for harmonious discourse, a universal lingua franca, exemplified by the likes of the English language, assumes the role of a linchpin, serving as the quintessential vehicle for fostering interaction and communication with the indigenous populace. Simultaneously, the strategic deployment of somatic expressions, and the emotional gesticulations emerge as potent catalysts, amplifying the efficacy of cross-cultural dialogues and igniting an enhanced rapport with foreign customs and traditions.

A “Tick and Flick” Exercise: Movement and Form in Australian Parliamentary Human Rights Scrutiny

Human rights scrutiny processes in some Australian parliaments require consideration of whether rights-limiting legislation is reasonable, justifiable, and proportionate. The Queensland Human Rights commissioner has raised concerns of this becoming a “perfunctory ‘tick and flick’ exercise” in which decision-makers perform the “dance steps to [rights] derogation”—a concern emulated by others. Taking this notion of “tick and flick” and “dance steps” literally, this article explores movement and form in the composition of parliamentary human rights scrutiny reports. Drawing from Marie Jacob and Anna Macdonald's notion of legal documents as material, somatic, and metaphorical forms, this article analyzes the choreographic and calligraphic forms in these reports. Through exploring the forms themselves alongside interview data about parliamentary human rights scrutiny practices, this article speculates on whether form has bearing on the process of parliamentary human rights scrutiny, and how form shapes the substance of both the reports and human rights themselves.

The Question of the Origins of COVID-19 and the Ends of Science

Intense public interest in scientific claims about COVID-19, concerning its origins, modes of spread, evolution, and preventive and therapeutic strategies, has focused attention on the values to which scientists are assumed to be committed and the relationship between science and other public discourses. A much discussed claim, which has stimulated several inquiries and generated far-reaching political and economic consequences, has been that SARS-CoV-2 was deliberately engineered at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and then, either inadvertently or otherwise, released to the public by a laboratory worker. This has been pursued despite a clear refutation, through comprehensive genomic analysis, of the hypothesis that the virus was deliberately engineered and the failure of detailed investigations to identify any evidence in support of a laboratory leak. At the same time a substantial, established body of knowledge about the many factors underlying the emergence of novel zoonotic diseases has been largely ignored—including climate change and other mechanisms of environmental destruction, tourism, patterns of trade, and cultural influences. The existence and conduct of these debates have raised questions about the vulnerability of science to manipulation for political purposes. Scientific discourses are vulnerable because: (i) claims can be made with no more than probabilistic force; (ii) alleged “facts” are always subject to interpretation, which depends on social, ethical, and epistemological assumptions; and (iii) science and scientists are not inherently committed to any single set of values and historically have served diverse, and sometimes perverse, social and political interests. In the face of this complexity, the COVID-19 experience highlights the need for processes of ethical scrutiny of the scientific enterprise and its strategic deployment. To ensure reliability of truth claims and protection from corrupting influences robust ethical discourses are required that are independent of, and at times even contrary to, those of science itself.

Emotions Matter: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Detection and Classification of Students’ Emotions in STEM during Online Learning

In recent years, the rapid growth of online learning has highlighted the need for effective methods to monitor and improve student experiences. Emotions play a crucial role in shaping students’ engagement, motivation, and satisfaction in online learning environments, particularly in complex STEM subjects. In this context, sentiment analysis has emerged as a promising tool to detect and classify emotions expressed in textual and visual forms. This study offers an extensive literature review using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) technique on the role of sentiment analysis in student satisfaction and online learning in STEM subjects. The review analyses the applicability, challenges, and limitations of text- and facial-based sentiment analysis techniques in educational settings by reviewing 57 peer-reviewed research articles out of 236 articles, published between 2015 and 2023, initially identified through a comprehensive search strategy. Through an extensive search and scrutiny process, these articles were selected based on their relevance and contribution to the topic. The review’s findings indicate that sentiment analysis holds significant potential for improving student experiences, encouraging personalised learning, and promoting satisfaction in the online learning environment. Educators and administrators can gain valuable insights into students’ emotions and perceptions by employing computational techniques to analyse and interpret emotions expressed in text and facial expressions. However, the review also identifies several challenges and limitations associated with sentiment analysis in educational settings. These challenges include the need for accurate emotion detection and interpretation, addressing cultural and linguistic variations, ensuring data privacy and ethics, and a reliance on high-quality data sources. Despite these challenges, the review highlights the immense potential of sentiment analysis in transforming online learning experiences in STEM subjects and recommends further research and development in this area.

Making and Breaking ‘Bad’ Habits in Drugs, Law and Human Rights Scrutiny

Certain Australian parliaments have a process of human rights scrutiny, whereby a committee examines whether proposed laws are compatible with human rights. These processes are often driven by rituals or habitual ways of performing scrutiny that privilege reliance on legal advice over community input. Scholars have called for comparative work that helps us better understand whether habit plays a significant role in human rights scrutiny processes in other contexts. Answering this call, this piece offers a case study of the decriminalization of public intoxication in the Australian state of Victoria and the reforms to drinking in public places in the Yarra City Council, a municipal body in that state. Both cases applied the state’s human rights charter, which requires consideration of human rights in making decisions and developing laws. We argue that both cases performed habits of human rights scrutiny and reproduced habitual associations between alcohol and safety. Embracing the conception of law as performance and informed by performance studies research into rituals and habits, our argument is threefold: that the performance of human rights scrutiny in both cases is a ritual inflected by habitual practices or ways of doing things; that the approach to drugs (specifically, alcohol) in both cases is formed though habits of thought and practice; and that these habits of thought constitute the habitual drinker as abject and irrational. This in turn raises questions of agency and voluntarity: have performances of human rights scrutiny become so habituated that they are seen as compulsory and therefore stubborn to change? Building on this, we conclude that there are ways in which scrutiny processes can move from performing ‘bad’ habits to performing repair in ways that are more sensitive and sensitized to people who use alcohol and other drugs.

Motivational drivers for serial position effects: Evidence from high-stakes legal decisions.

Experts and employees in many domains make multiple similar but independent decisions in sequence. Often, the serial position of the case in the sequence influences the decision. Explanations for these serial position effects focus on the role of decision-makers' fatigue, but these effects emerge also when fatigue is unlikely. Here, we suggest that serial position effects can emerge due to decision-makers' motivation to be or appear consistent. For example, to avoid having inconsistencies revealed, decisions may become more favorable toward the side that is more likely to put a decision under scrutiny. As a context, we focus on the legal domain in which many high-stakes decisions are made in sequence and in which there are clear institutional processes of decision scrutiny. We analyze two field data sets: 386,109 U.S. immigration judges' decisions on asylum requests and 20,796 jury decisions in 18th century London criminal court. We distinguish between five mechanisms that can drive serial position effects and examine their predictions in these settings. We find that consistent with motivation-based explanations of serial position effects, but inconsistent with fatigue-based explanations, decisions become more lenient as a function of serial position, and the effect persists over breaks. We further find, as is predicted by motivational accounts, that the leniency effect is stronger among more experienced decision-makers. By elucidating the different drivers of serial position effects, our investigation clarifies why they are common, when they are expected, and how to reduce them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Tax Confidentiality as a Limitation in the Procedure for Public Control of the State of Public Finances

AbstractAny control, regardless of the field to which it relates, requires information. This claim is also valid in the field of citizen’s control. For an individual to be able to effectively assess what is going on around him or her and make sound decisions on that basis, he or she must be able to obtain a variety of information, including, above all, information that is comprehensive public knowledge. According to what follows from the regulations of the Act of 6 September 2001 on access to public information, their catalogue is broad and, more importantly, open. Although on the surface it might seem that the individual does not need anything more, it should not be forgotten that the same legislator determines a number of restrictions that block or completely close the way to certain pieces of public information. This group of statutory restrictions includes tax confidentiality as defined by the Tax Ordinance Act of 29 August 1997. The main objective of the considerations undertaken in this article is to determine to what extent tax confidentiality by its very nature restricts the process of public scrutiny of the state of public finances, taking into account its subjective and objective scope and its positioning among all the premises limiting accessibility to public knowledge.

Scrutinising council scrutiny: from theoretical black box to analytical toolbox1

ABSTRACT Despite their vast relevance to democracy, scholars have paid little systematic attention to the scrutiny function of local councils. To stimulate such research, this study theorises the concept of council scrutiny. First, we outline the rationale, wider policy context, and conceptualisations. Next, we present and discuss an actor-centred institutionalist approach to introduce an analytical framework that depicts council scrutiny as a loop comprising eight interrelated parts. These parts include the institutional context and policy environment, intrinsic motivations and actor properties, scrutiny objects, objectives, constellations, the scrutiny process as such, and its effects and personal rewards. Finally, we explain how this analytical framework may serve as a vehicle for a more comprehensive and detailed study of the various aspects of council scrutiny.

Re-examining judicial review of delegated legislation

AbstractThe usage of delegated legislation as a means of governance deserves significant attention, in view of the enormous impact that it is capable of having on the lives of citizens. While reforms to the process of parliamentary scrutiny are an important means of minimising the inappropriate usage of delegated legislation, this paper explores the possibility of drawing more fruitfully upon judicial review as an additional control mechanism. It undertakes a theoretical analysis of what makes delegated legislation distinct from primary legislation and other types of executive action for the purposes of judicial review, with a view towards identifying the proper normative orientation of judicial review of delegated legislation – upholding the moral requirements of delegation relationships and safeguarding democratic accountability and the rule of law. It then argues that existing grounds of review applied towards delegated legislation go some way towards but are inadequately directed at this normative orientation. Drawing inspiration from Irish and US jurisprudence, the paper critically evaluates several possible means of filling this doctrinal space, and concludes that the non-delegation doctrine and a rule of law-based ground of judicial review directed at exercises of delegated law-making power can supplement the law of judicial review of delegated legislation.

Університети третього віку як осередки з формування цифрових компетентностей у людей похилого віку

In this article, we present the outcomes of implementing an experimental program designed to nurture digital proficiencies among older adults within the framework of a Third Age University affiliated with a territorial social service center. Through a process of analytical scrutiny, we have refined, systematized, and extended the definitions and structure of digital proficiencies in the older demographic. Anchored in this conceptualization and the tenets of andragogy, we have formulated a program that prioritizes the enhancement of digital skills, encompassing computer utilization, internet navigation, engagement with social media, and the mastery of other digital tools. Furthermore, the research delves into the collaboration between social workers who specialize in geragogy and program participants, as well as the utilization of the Moodle platform. The analysis of survey results (n=360 respondents) substantiates the program’s triumph and the favorable attitude of older adults toward digital technologies. It underscores how the program takes into account the nuances of geronto-educational technologies while fostering the digital proficiencies of older individuals, enabling them to seamlessly integrate digital tools into their everyday lives.

The Key to Democracy: Mandatory Pre-Legislative Consultation

India’s policy of public consultation in the legislation process is currently not mandatory. The concept of pre-legislative scrutiny and inclusion of the public has proven to be an invaluable addition to the democratic process, and the absence of the same has led to instances of widespread protest and discontentment. The policy of pre-legislative scrutiny was introduced in 2014. However, certain bills passed post-2014 have witnessed public outcry over its lack of consultation and majority stakeholders’ adverse effects. This paper aims to highlight the importance of pre-legislative scrutiny and provide for a mandatory method to be followed while implementing a mandatory process of pre-legislative scrutiny. A democratic political structure is one that is based on the rule of law. Without the rule of law, there will be no political future. The aim of this paper is to examine the status of the rule of law in the current political environment, with the rule of law as the dependent variable and fundamental rights, inequality, an open parliament, and an autonomous judiciary as independent variables. The requisite data was gathered from written and online media in order to assess the rule of law. Only the rule of law and effective state institutions will enable a federal democratic republic to thrive.

How does better regulation shape EU health policy? A case study of unhealthy advertising regulation

Abstract Introduction Better Regulation is a meta-regulatory tool designed to improve regulatory quality and reduce regulatory burden in the development of EU policy. Despite concerns by civil society that its operation may have a chilling effect on regulatory protections, its impact on health policy has not been researched systematically. Using provisions on high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) food and alcohol advertising to children within the revision of the audiovisual media services directive (AVMSD) as a case study, we explore how the operation of Better Regulation affects EU health policy processes. Methods We employ a qualitative process tracing approach based on policy documents, Freedom of Information requests, media reporting, and expert interview data. Results After an evaluation in 2016, the revised AVMSD maintained a reliance on self- and co-regulation of alcohol and HFSS food advertising to children, despite significant evidence supportive of statutory measures and pressure from the public health community to strengthen provisions. This result aligns with calls from commercial actors to retain the status quo. Preliminary results indicate that pathways via which Better Regulation guidelines may have contributed to this outcome include, for instance, the structure and approach used in the impact assessment and the related scrutiny process, the design of the consultation strategy, and the evaluation criteria of the AVMSD proposal. Conclusions Considering how policymaking infrastructure - as a key political determinant of health - may shape the processes and dynamics underlying decision-making can support those working towards a policy environment which protects human and environmental health. In examining EU alcohol and HFSS food advertising provisions within the AVMSD revision through a focus on Better Regulation processes, we contribute a novel perspective towards explaining how measures to improve regulatory quality interact with actors’ agency to shape policy outputs. Key messages • The Better Regulation agenda should be understood as a key political determinant of health at the EU level. • Understanding the ways in which governance tools such as Better Regulation can shape health policy is important for those engaged in promoting effective and evidence-informed public health action.

NOVATION AND ADVANCE CONSENT

AbstractProfessor Goode once observed that “Novation need not be left to ad hoc agreement; it is open to the parties to provide for it in advance and in particular to establish a contractual mechanism by which novation takes place automatically on the occurrence of a designated act or event”. This deceptively straightforward proposition is examined in the present article. It explores the legal footing for, and the risks in adopting a pristine version of, the proposition, and considers possible safeguards that may be incorporated within the process of scrutiny, if in any case there arises concern over the effectiveness of a novation that is undertaken pursuant to consent given in advance.

On tables, doors and listening spaces: parliamentary human rights scrutiny processes and engagement of others

ABSTRACT According to some scholars, it is essential that parliamentary human rights scrutiny processes allow for engagement with and scrutiny from civil society actors. There has, however, been limited examination of how parliamentary human rights scrutiny processes unfold in Australia. Where does the work of rights scrutiny take place, who has a seat at the table, and how, precisely, does scrutiny work unfold? In this paper, we explore these questions, drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with former and current members of parliament, their staff and others directly involved in the scrutiny process. We explore their accounts of the scrutiny process, focusing on their descriptions of where and how committees do their work, who is at the table, who speaks and who listens. Drawing on Kay Lalor’s work on listening and Sara Ahmed’s work on being at the table, we consider how stakeholders attribute significance to doors, tables, speaking and listening. We argue that the different spaces and voices at play have a crucial role in establishing human rights norms within parliament; in other words, human rights is shaped by spaces and voices. This has implications for the credibility, integrity and rigour of parliamentary human rights scrutiny processes.

Making Rights and Realities: How Australian Human Rights Make Gender, Alcohol and Other Drugs

ABSTRACT Australia is unique among Western nations in that it does not have a national bill of rights; in lieu, rights protections have proceeded in a piecemeal fashion, with some jurisdictions developing their own systems for rights protection. These systems involve parliaments ‘scrutinising’ proposed new laws for their compatibility with rights. These processes are sometimes theorised as constitutive, capable of bringing various material-discursive effects into being. For instance, whilst problems such as family and sexualised violence are said to pre-exist legislative and policy practices designed to combat them, alternative approaches can draw our attention to the way these phenomena are made in and through such processes themselves. Drawing on work from Moya Lloyd (“(Women’s) Human Rights: Paradoxes and Possibilities.” Review of International Studies 33 (1): 91–103) and Karen Zivi (Zivi, K. 2019. “Human Dignity and Human Rights: Lessons from the Fight for Marriage Equality in the United State”s.” In Critical Perspectives on Human Rights, edited by B. Schippers, 103–119. London: Rowman and Littlefield International, Zivi, K. 2012. Making Rights Claims: A Practice of Democratic Citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Press.) on human rights as constituting norms, rules, conventions, and worlds, Law’s (Law, J. 2011. “Collateral Realities.” In The Politics of Knowledge, edited by F. Rubio, and P. Baert, 156–178. London: Routledge) work on collateral realities, and interviews (N = 30) conducted with key stakeholders involved in Australian rights scrutiny processes, we explore how articulations about human rights might shape connections between alcohol, other drugs, gender and social problems. Using a case-based approach, we focus on three accounts that generate relations between alcohol, drugs, gender, and bodies, and consider the possible implications for affected populations.

Conflict-Sensitive Climate Change Adaptation: A Review

Climate change adaptation (CCA) evolved in the global policy framework in the early 1990s. However, it began to flourish about a decade later through a subsequent development of institutions, policies and supporting financial mechanisms. Various adaptation approaches and development practices have been evolving over the last couple of decades through a process of scrutiny, debates, and critiques. One such recent approach is called conflict-sensitive adaptation, which encompasses concepts to understand potential conflict-inflicting elements and peacebuilding aspects of adaptation interventions. This paper examines 35 peer-reviewed research articles that have analysed field data with the notion of conceptualising conflict-sensitive CCA initiatives. Emerging key results were presented and discussed in different academic forums to stimulate peer reflections and debates. We found that the understanding of conflict-sensitive adaptation has its universality in engaging with diverse stakeholders. However, practicalities were different in the cases of the global north and the global south. In the global south, there is a concentration of research in areas of pre-existing conflict in Africa and Asia, where climate change links are often assumed from IPCC reports in order to compensate for the unavailability of field data. However, from the perspective of adaptation politics and governance, there is a concerted urge for the emancipatory participation of local and marginalised populations. We argue for a need to pretest adaptation projects through a conflict lens. Decolonising the adaptation and understanding of local geography is critical in such planning.

The Fix is in? Parliamentary Scrutiny of Appointments of the Heads of Brazilian Regulatory Agencies

Abstract This manuscript analyses the parliamentary scrutiny of the presidential appointments to the direction of independent Brazilian Regulatory Agencies from an in-depth case study of the heads of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency—ANVISA, between 1999 and 2021. In Brazil, the Senate has the final decision on these appointments, exercising a dual function: parliamentary control over presidential patronage and selecting future heads of agencies. The objective of this article was to explain how the parliament exercises these functions and interferes in the appointment process. The results indicate that, although the formal process of parliamentary scrutiny seems like a game of marked cards, where it is already known in advance that the result will be approval, the Parliament plays an anticipatory role of presidential decisions, interfering in the timing of appointments and the possibility of influence over the choice of nominees.