Single Greatest Challenge Research Articles

The importance of image quality in AI visual inspection systems

AbstractThe use of AI for visual inspection is currently making great strides in sectors like automotive, metals and machinery manufacturing. However, those investing in the technology not only expect a system that will be superior to manual inspection, but an error rate close to zero in defect detection. Let us look at the importance of image quality and why the variability in the production environment is the single greatest challenge that AI engineers must face.

No exam: assessment of third-year engineering students on the basis of self-generated Statistics cases

Through the global pandemic, the single greatest challenge at universities has been the move towards digital assessment. In this classroom note, we describe our new no-exam assessment setup in a Statistics course for third-year bachelor Mechanical Engineering students. The main idea is to assess the students based on self-generated problems. Crucially, we supported students by providing a very clear structure of the course material, learning objectives, and requirements. At the same time, we left sufficient space for the students to tune the final assignment to their interests, creativity, and mathematical skills. In our experience, this setup makes assessment meaningful and enjoyable for both the students and the teacher and does not need to demand excessive time investment on the teacher’s side. We strongly believe that approaches like ours will have potential lasting effects on the diversity of assessment, quality of learning, and, last but not least, the appeal of Statistics for future engineers.

Judgments of Taste and Judgments of Quality

Judgments of Taste and Judgments of Quality

Corruption as a global hindrance to promoting ethics, integrity, and sustainable development in Tanzania: the role of the anti-corruption agency

Corruption is the single greatest challenge that erodes and defeats efforts made by many nations, especially in the developing world, towards sustainable development and towards the promotion and strengthening of democratic institutions and values. This article lays out international norms of ethics and integrity, reflected also in Tanzanian norms. It argues that strategic decision is imperative and a ‘Good Governance Architecture' is meant to provide a working solution to curb unethical behaviour, corruption, and the culture of impunity. This working solution – which involves economic and institutional reforms, prevention strategies, enforcement, political will, transparency, accountability, popular participation, the rule of law, and the democratic space – goes further towards the root cause of the problem than legal norms do.

Social Death through HIV and AIDS Stigmatization and Discrimination in Ghana: A Case Study of the Central Regional Hospital, Cape Coast, Ghana

Stigmatization of and discrimination against People Living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are increasingly recognized as the single greatest challenge to slowing the spread of HIV and partly the cause of the increased death rate particularly in Africa and Ghana to be specific. The purpose of the study was to identify the causes and effects of stigmatization of and discrimination against PLHIV visiting the Central Regional Hospital of Ghana for treatment and care. The research was conducted with a sample size of 120. Purposive and convenient/accidental sampling techniques were used to select respondents for the study. The study revealed that some people in Ghana stigmatize PLHIV because of the misconceptions they have about the modes of HIV transmission, the myths surrounding HIV and AIDS as well as their socio-cultural backgrounds and orientations. These stigmatizing behaviors towards PLHIV have serious health, social and psychological effects on them in particular and the society at large. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that there should be an intensification of education on HIV and AIDS through the media. This would make the population in Ghana more knowledgeable about the disease, which may help to reduce stigmatization of and discrimination against persons living with HIV.

Immigrant students’ shifting identifications in South African schools

The easing of legal and unauthorized entry to South Africa has made the country a new destination for Black immigrants. As this population continues to grow, its children have begun to experience South African schools in an array of uniquely challenging ways. For these immigrant youth, forging a sense of identity may be their single greatest challenge. There is however, very little research on the ways in which immigrant student identities are framed, challenged, asserted and negotiated in South African schools. Accordingly, this study asks how do immigrant students speak about their identifications in light of their negotiation of the school and social spaces in South Africa. Utilising the theoretical frameworks of understanding immigrant identities and identity pathways, this research study attempts to understand the unique experiences of Black immigrant youth inside South African schools. Findings were multi-fold in nature. First, although immigrant students’ ease of assimilation into the chosen reference group was to some degree sanctioned by their phenotypic racial features, their attempt at ‘psychosocial passing’ was politically motivated. Second, immigrant students did not readily classify according to skin pigmentocracy. Third, the majority of immigrant students heightened their ethnic self-awareness in forming their identity, but also assumed hyphenated identities. Fourth, immigrant students were not seen as having an identity, but rather as being ‘plugged into a category with associated characteristics or features’. Fifth immigrant students forged a ‘continental identity’. And sixth, the self-agency of immigrant students was twofold in nature; not only did they want to improve their own condition, but there seemed to be an inherent drive to improve the human condition of others.

Providing Academic Support for Teachers and Students in High Stakes Learning Environments

SUMMARY The pressures and demands of educating students have never been greater. Providing effective instruction for all students may be the single greatest challenge facing educators today. This article examines the impact of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Act on assessment, accountability and instruction for all students, including students with disabilities and English language learners. This article focuses on what we know about effective instruction and the need for systemic efforts to link classroom instruction to students' learning. Test preparation and the use of accommodations are also discussed within the context of high stakes learning environments. Implications for school psychologists as instructional change agents are provided.

Targetable gene delivery vectors.

Adenoviral vectors, which have targeting ligands for tumor cells on the capsid, no natural tropism, and carry a therapeutic payload should be constructed soon and tested in pre-clinical models. Nevertheless, there are still important considerations for the design and therapeutic use of targetable vectors. Perhaps the single greatest challenge in the future, as it was in the past, will be finding ligands that have a higher apparent affinity for tumor and/or tumor endothelial cells then normal cells. However, the advent of many rapidly advancing technologies and information including the sequencing of the human genome, in vivo and in vitro phage display, rapid analysis of gene and protein expression in any context, and new cellular targets such as angiogenic endothelial cells, may provide many opportunities for the discovery of novel and useful ligands. In addition, the interests in targeting vectors are rapidly growing with new journals and meetings solely devoted to this subject increasing annually. Within the next 5 years, we should have meaningful clinical data on targetable vectors to reassess our progress.

Choice of factor concentrates for haemophilia: a developing world perspective.

Provision of factor concentrates continues to be the single greatest challenge in providing effective haemophilia care in the developing world. While concerns for ultimate safety and very high purity dominate the selection of factor concentrates in developed countries, availability and cost are the pressing issues in developing countries. There certainly is concern for reasonable safety but purity is often considered an unaffordable luxury. Cost-effective protocols need to be designed for factor replacement in these countries where liberal on-demand therapy and prophylaxis are not possible. It is also essential to establish a good transfusion service for collecting adequate quantities of safe plasma. Support from government and health insurance is required to allow access to at least modest quantities of virus-inactivated factor concentrates. Depending on the situation in each country, factor concentrates may be imported, contract-fractionated or locally produced. Paradigms of effective management of this problem exist within the developing world. Until such time as these examples are widely emulated, less safe products will continue to be used in situations where a distinction frequent needs to be made between what is ideal and what is practical.

Choice of factor concentrates for haemophilia: a developing world perspective

Provision of factor concentrates continues to be the single greatest challenge in providing effective haemophilia care in the developing world. While concerns for ultimate safety and very high purity dominate the selection of factor concentrates in developed countries, availability and cost are the pressing issues in developing countries. There certainly is concern for reasonable safety but purity is often considered an unaffordable luxury. Cost‐effective protocols need to be designed for factor replacement in these countries where liberal on‐demand therapy and prophylaxis are not possible. It is also essential to establish a good transfusion service for collecting adequate quantities of safe plasma. Support from government and health insurance is required to allow access to at least modest quantities of virus‐inactivated factor concentrates. Depending on the situation in each country, factor concentrates may be imported, contract‐fractionated or locally produced. Paradigms of effective management of this problem exist within the developing world. Untill such time as these examples are widely emulated, less safe products will continue to be used in situations where a distinction frequent needs to be made between what is ideal and what is practical.

Urban poverty, issues, policies and actions

“Urban poverty and its attendant human cost is perhaps the single greatest challenge of our time. The future of our towns and cities, which is where most humanity will live in the next century, hinges on our tackling it successfully. The centerpiece of urban policy as we enter the 21st Century must therefore be the struggle against poverty, with goals such as the integration of the informal city, the recovery and democratic use of public space, and the reversal of the trend towards the concentration of wealth and opportunities, which so often ends in a spiral of violence…. “The struggle against urban poverty is a world challenge. To succeed, we need to tap the experience of individuals and organizations in the South as well as in the North, promoting an exchange that, more than the answers, will teach us what questions to ask. To this end, people living in poverty must take part in communications networks, which are often monopolized by intermediaries and experts. The role of experts is important, but mechanisms should be developed to facilitate direct, horizontal, global exchange…. “Such horizontal, direct contacts must involve local governments, the pivate sector, non-governmental and community organizations. And if public pollicies are to respond to real needs, these must be built out of experience, and their formulation and implementation must involve the people for whom they are intended…. “To do this, safety nets are not enough. Let us resolve to invest in the struggle against urban poverty, to invest in the poor themselves. Let us help people confronted with poverty in their efforts. New means of communication and successful experiences demonstrate that this can be done in a demoy-lXcratic and affordable manner. The struggle against poverty cannot be relegated to second-class expertise and technology. It is a huge challenge. It deserves the best.” (’Recife Declaration March 1996 Habitat II on ‘Urban Poverty-a World Challenge’).

Therapeutic potential of nerve growth factors in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative syndrome which primarily affects dopamine-producing neurons of the substantia nigra, resulting in poverty and slowness of movement, instability of gait and posture, and tremor at rest in individuals with the disease. While symptoms of the disease can be effectively managed for several years with available drugs, the syndrome is progressive and the efficacy of standard drugs wanes with time. One experimental approach to therapy is to use natural and synthetic molecules which promote survival and growth of dopaminergic neurons, so-called 'neurotrophic factors', to stabilise the diminishing population of dopaminergic neurons and stimulate compensation and growth in these cells. In this review, we examine the available evidence on 29 molecules with neurotrophic properties for dopaminergic neurons. The properties of these molecules provide ample reasons for optimism that a neurotrophic strategy can be developed that would provide a significant treatment option for patients with PD. While the search continues for even more specific, potent and long lasting agents, the single greatest challenge is the development of techniques for targeted delivery of these molecules.

Motivations and Characteristics of Volunteer Flying-Fox Rehabilitators in Australia

ABSTRACTA survey of volunteers involved in flying-fox rehabilitation was undertaken to determine the demographic profile of Carers, their motivations for rehabilitation and the costs incurred in the care of flying-foxes. Carers (n=119) from the east coast of Australia responded by completing a two-page questionnaire. Ninety percent of Carers were women and Carers' ages ranged from <20 to 50+ years, with a majority (60%) aged between 30–50 years. Most Carers were employed and almost 30% had professional or para-professional occupations. Carers appeared to be motivated by altruism rather than by a nurturance instinct or the desire to conserve the species. Respondents considered the time-demand of rehabilitation to be the single greatest challenge to the task, while the risk of contracting a bat-transmitted disease caused concern to 41.2% of Carers. Recruitment of new Carers occurred predominantly through contact with care groups or individual bat supporters which indicated a potential avenue for the dissemination of information and conservation messages to the public.

The madame butterfly procedure: Management of the unhappy postblepharoplasty patient with lower-eyelid retraction, round eye, and scleral show

The unhappy postblepharoplasty patient with lateral canthal dystopia, round eye, and scleral show presents perhaps the single greatest challenge to the aesthetic reconstructive surgeon. The problem may be as simple as a lax eyelid that is inferiorly displaced by gravity, or as complex as an eyelid that has full-thickness vertical inadequacy in each of the three eyelid lamellae. The Madame Butterfly procedure with hard palate graft reliably addresses full-thickness lower-eyelid vertical tissue inadequacy by totally reconstructing the lower eyelid with the use of the classic three-individual-layer reconstructive technique. Vertical and horizontal adequacy or inadequacy for each of the three eyelid layers are determined and then individually addressed in the total eyelid reconstruction. The Madame Butterfly procedure has the potential to fully reconstruct and reposition the lower eyelid and lateral canthus so that the final position, function, and appearance are as good or better than they were before they were changed by time, gravity, and previous surgery.

The Transeyelid Subperiosteal Midface-Lift in the Unhappy Postblepharoplasty Patient

The unhappy postblepharoplasty patient with lateral canthal dystopia, round eye, and scleral show presents perhaps the single greatest challenge to the aesthetic reconstructive surgeon. The problem may be as simple as a lax eyelid, which is inferiorly displaced by gravity or as complex as an eyelid, which has full thickness vertical inadequacy in each of the three eyelid lamellae. The transeyelid subperiosteal midface-lift with lower eyelid reconstruction is a reliable procedure for addressing full thickness lower eyelid vertical tissue inadequacy by totally reconstructing the lower eyelid by the classic three individual layer reconstructive technique. Vertical and horizontal adequacy or inadequacy for each of the three eyelid layers is determined and then individually addressed in the total eyelid reconstruction. This procedure has the potential to fully reconstruct and reposition the lower eyelid and lateral canthus such that the final position, function, and appearance is as good or better than it was before the changes caused by time, gravity, and previous surgery.

Infinite Needs–Finite Resources: The Future of Healthcare

The single greatest challenge facing managers in the developed countries of the world is to raise the productivity of knowledge and service workers. This challenge, which will dominate the management agenda for the next several decades, will ultimately determine the competitive performance of companies. Even more important, it will determine the very fabric of society and the quality of life of every industrialized nation. … Unless this challenge is met, the developed world will face increasing social tensions, increasing polarization, increasing radicalization, possibly even class war.