Showing papers on "Agency (philosophy) published in 2022"

Sustainable Development Report 2022

Abstract: The Sustainable Development Report 2022 features the SDG Index and Dashboards, the first and widely used tool to assess country performance on the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. In a context of multiple crises, the report analyzes and outlines how the SDGs can be used as a roadmap for more sustainable societies by 2030 and beyond. In particular, this year's edition underlines the importance of international financing mechanisms for addressing lack of fiscal space in poorer countries and promoting sustainable investments into physical and human infrastructure. The authors examine country performance on the SDGs for 193 countries using a wide array of indicators, and calculate future trajectories, presenting a number of best practices to achieve the historic Agenda 2030. The views expressed in this report do not reflect the views of any organization, agency or program of the United Nations. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Considerations for the Use of Phage Therapy in Clinical Practice

Abstract: Increasing antimicrobial resistance and medical device-related infections have led to a renewed interest in phage therapy as an alternative or adjunct to conventional antimicrobials. Expanded access and compassionate use cases have risen exponentially but have varied widely in approach, methodology, clinical situations in which phage therapy might be considered, dosing, route of administration, and outcomes. ABSTRACT Increasing antimicrobial resistance and medical device-related infections have led to a renewed interest in phage therapy as an alternative or adjunct to conventional antimicrobials. Expanded access and compassionate use cases have risen exponentially but have varied widely in approach, methodology, and clinical situations in which phage therapy might be considered. Large gaps in knowledge contribute to heterogeneity in approach and lack of consensus in many important clinical areas. The Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) has convened a panel of experts in phage therapy, clinical microbiology, infectious diseases, and pharmacology, who worked with regulatory experts and a funding agency to identify questions based on a clinical framework and divided them into three themes: potential clinical situations in which phage therapy might be considered, laboratory testing, and pharmacokinetic considerations. Suggestions are provided as answers to a series of questions intended to inform clinicians considering experimental phage therapy for patients in their clinical practices.

Human-Centered AI

Abstract: Researchers, developers, business leaders, policy makers, and others are expanding the technology-centered scope of artificial intelligence (AI) to include human-centered AI (HCAI) ways of thinking. This expansion from an algorithm-focused view to embrace a human-centered perspective can shape the future of technology so as to better serve human needs. Educators, designers, software engineers, product managers, evaluators, and government agency staffers can build on AI-driven technologies to design products and services that make life better for people and enable people to care for each other. Humans have always been tool builders, and now they are supertool builders, whose inventions can improve our health, family life, education, business, the environment, and much more. The remarkable progress in algorithms for machine and deep learning have opened the doors to new opportunities, and some dark possibilities. However, a bright future awaits AI researchers, developers, business leaders, policy makers, and others who build on their working methods by including HCAI strategies of design and testing. This enlarged vision can shape the future of technology so as to better serve human needs. As many technology companies and thought leaders have said, the goal is not to replace people, but to empower them by making design choices that give humans control over technology.

Viewpoint: The case for a six-dimensional food security framework

Abstract: The definition of food security has evolved and changed over the past 50 years, including the introduction of the four commonly cited pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability, which have been important in shaping policy. In this article, we make the case that it is time for a formal update to our definition of food security to include two additional dimensions proposed by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition: agency and sustainability. We show that the impact of widening food system inequalities and growing awareness of the intricate connections between ecological systems and food systems highlight the importance of these additional dimensions to the concept. We further outline the ways in which international policy guidance on the right to food already implies both agency and sustainability alongside the more established four pillars, making it a logical next step to adopt a six dimensional framework for food security in both policy and scholarly settings. We also show that advances have already been made with respect to providing measurements of agency and sustainability as they relate to food insecurity.

An Entangled Pedagogy: Looking Beyond the Pedagogy—Technology Dichotomy

Abstract: Abstract ‘Pedagogy first’ has become a mantra for educators, supported by the metaphor of the ‘pedagogical horse’ driving the ‘technological cart’. Yet putting technology first or last separates it from pedagogy, making us susceptible to technological or pedagogical determinism (i.e. where technology is seen either as the driving force of change or as a set of neutral tools). In this paper, I present a model of entangled pedagogy that encapsulates the mutual shaping of technology, teaching methods, purposes, values and context. Entangled pedagogy is collective, and agency is negotiated between teachers, students and other stakeholders. Outcomes are contingent on complex relations and cannot be determined in advance. I then outline an aspirational view of how teachers, students and others can collaborate whilst embracing uncertainty, imperfection, openness and honesty, and developing pedagogical knowledge that is collective, responsive and ethical. Finally, I discuss implications for evaluation and research, arguing that we must look beyond isolated ideas of technologies or teaching methods, to the situated, entangled combinations of diverse elements involved in educational activity.

Manufacturer’s online selling strategies under spillovers from online to offline sales

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, we investigate a manufacturer’s online selling strategy choice between wholesale selling and agency selling, and discuss its impact in the presence of spillovers from online to offline sales. We find that the manufacturer’s optimal online selling strategies vary with consumers’ online channel acceptance and the extent of the spillover effect. In particular, when the online channel acceptance is high, the manufacturer prefers the agency selling strategy. When the online channel acceptance is moderate, if the sale in the online channel leads to a negative spillover effect on demand in the offline channel, the manufacturer has an incentive to adopt the wholesale selling strategy; otherwise, the agency selling strategy is a preferred choice for the manufacturer. When the online channel acceptance is low, if the sale in the online channel leads to a significant negative or a positive spillover effect on demand in the offline channel, the manufacturer should adopt the agency selling strategy; otherwise, reselling the products to an e-tailer is an optimal choice. Moreover, under certain conditions, we find a “win-win-win” result for the manufacturer, the offline retailer, and the online platform by adopting the agency selling strategy. Finally, we show that two types of spillover (i.e., stimulation effect and cannibalization effect) have different influences on supply chain participants.

Evaluation of science advice during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden

Abstract: Abstract Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 years of collaboration between political bodies, authorities, and the scientific community had yielded many successes in preventive medicine. Sweden’s population is literate and has a high level of trust in authorities and those in power. During 2020, however, Sweden had ten times higher COVID-19 death rates compared with neighbouring Norway. In this report, we try to understand why, using a narrative approach to evaluate the Swedish COVID-19 policy and the role of scientific evidence and integrity. We argue that that scientific methodology was not followed by the major figures in the acting authorities—or the responsible politicians—with alternative narratives being considered as valid, resulting in arbitrary policy decisions. In 2014, the Public Health Agency, after 5 years of rearrangement, merged with the Institute for Infectious Disease Control, with six professors leaving between 2010 and 2012 going to the Karolinska Institute. With this setup, the authority lost scientific expertise. The Swedish pandemic strategy seemed targeted towards “natural” herd-immunity and avoiding a societal shutdown. The Public Health Agency labelled advice from national scientists and international authorities as extreme positions, resulting in media and political bodies to accept their own policy instead. The Swedish people were kept in ignorance of basic facts such as the airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission, that asymptomatic individuals can be contagious and that face masks protect both the carrier and others. Mandatory legislation was seldom used; recommendations relying upon personal responsibility and without any sanctions were the norm. Many elderly people were administered morphine instead of oxygen despite available supplies, effectively ending their lives. If Sweden wants to do better in future pandemics, the scientific method must be re-established, not least within the Public Health Agency. It would likely make a large difference if a separate, independent Institute for Infectious Disease Control is recreated. We recommend Sweden begins a self-critical process about its political culture and the lack of accountability of decision-makers to avoid future failures, as occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improving Human-AI Partnerships in Child Welfare: Understanding Worker Practices, Challenges, and Desires for Algorithmic Decision Support

Abstract: AI-based decision support tools (ADS) are increasingly used to augment human decision-making in high-stakes, social contexts. As public sector agencies begin to adopt ADS, it is critical that we understand workers’ experiences with these systems in practice. In this paper, we present findings from a series of interviews and contextual inquiries at a child welfare agency, to understand how they currently make AI-assisted child maltreatment screening decisions. Overall, we observe how workers’ reliance upon the ADS is guided by (1) their knowledge of rich, contextual information beyond what the AI model captures, (2) their beliefs about the ADS’s capabilities and limitations relative to their own, (3) organizational pressures and incentives around the use of the ADS, and (4) awareness of misalignments between algorithmic predictions and their own decision-making objectives. Drawing upon these findings, we discuss design implications towards supporting more effective human-AI decision-making.

Unreal influence: leveraging AI in influencer marketing

Abstract: Purpose This paper aims to examine how consumers respond to social media influencers that are created through artificial intelligence (AI) and compares effects to traditional (human) influencers. Design/methodology/approach Across two empirical studies, the authors examine the efficacy of AI social media influencers. With Study 1, the authors establish baseline effects for AI influencers and investigate how social-psychological distance impacts consumer perceptions. The authors also investigate the role of an influencer’s agency – being autonomous or externally managed – to test the boundaries of the results and determine the interactive effects between influencer type and influencer agency. Study 2 acts as an extension and validation of Study 1, whereby the authors provide generalisability and overlay the role of need for uniqueness as a moderated mediator. Findings The authors show that there are similarities and differences in the ways in which consumers view AI and human influencers. Importantly, the authors find no difference in terms of intention to follow or personalisation. This suggests that consumers are equally open to follow an AI or human influencer, and they perceive the level of personalisation provided by either influencer type as similar. Furthermore, while an AI influencer is generally perceived as having lower source trust, they are more likely to evoke word-of-mouth intentions. In understanding these effects, the authors show that social distance mediates the relationship between influencer type and the outcomes the authors investigate. Results also show that AI influencers can have a greater effect on consumers who have a high need for uniqueness. Finally, the authors find that a lack of influencer agency has a detrimental effect. Research limitations/implications The studies investigate consumers’ general response to AI influencers within the context of Instagram, however, future research might examine consumers’ response to posts promoting specific products across a variety of category contexts and within different social media platforms. Practical implications The authors find that in some ways, an AI influencer can be as effective as a human influencer. Indeed, the authors suggest that there may be a spill-over effect from consumer experiences with other AI recommendation systems, meaning that consumers are open to AI influencer recommendations. However, the authors find consistent evidence that AI influencers are trusted less than traditional influencers, hence the authors caution brands from rushing to replace human influencers with their AI counterparts. Originality/value This paper offers novel insight into the increasingly prominent phenomenon of the AI influencer. Specifically, it takes initial steps towards developing understanding as to how consumers respond to AI influencers and contrast these effects with human influencers.

From Treatment to Healing:Envisioning a Decolonial Digital Mental Health

Abstract: The field of digital mental health is making strides in the application of technology to broaden access to care. We critically examine how these technology-mediated forms of care might amplify historical injustices, and erase minoritized experiences and expressions of mental distress and illness. We draw on decolonial thought and critiques of identity-based algorithmic bias to analyze the underlying power relations impacting digital mental health technologies today, and envision new pathways towards a decolonial digital mental health. We argue that a decolonial digital mental health is one that centers lived experience over rigid classification, is conscious of structural factors that influence mental wellbeing, and is fundamentally designed to deter the creation of power differentials that prevent people from having agency over their care. Stemming from this vision, we make recommendations for how researchers and designers can support more equitable futures for people experiencing mental distress and illness.

Use of new approach methodologies (NAMs) to meet regulatory requirements for the assessment of industrial chemicals and pesticides for effects on human health

Abstract: New approach methodologies (NAMs) are increasingly being used for regulatory decision making by agencies worldwide because of their potential to reliably and efficiently produce information that is fit for purpose while reducing animal use. This article summarizes the ability to use NAMs for the assessment of human health effects of industrial chemicals and pesticides within the United States, Canada, and European Union regulatory frameworks. While all regulations include some flexibility to allow for the use of NAMs, the implementation of this flexibility varies across product type and regulatory scheme. This article provides an overview of various agencies’ guidelines and strategic plans on the use of NAMs, and specific examples of the successful application of NAMs to meet regulatory requirements. It also summarizes intra- and inter-agency collaborations that strengthen scientific, regulatory, and public confidence in NAMs, thereby fostering their global use as reliable and relevant tools for toxicological evaluations. Ultimately, understanding the current regulatory landscape helps inform the scientific community on the steps needed to further advance timely uptake of approaches that best protect human health and the environment.

Implementation of Safe Supply Alternatives During Intersecting COVID-19 and Overdose Health Emergencies in British Columbia, Canada, 2021

Abstract: Objectives. To explore the implementation and effectiveness of the British Columbia, Canada, risk mitigation guidelines among people who use drugs, focusing on how experiences with the illicit drug supply shaped motivations to seek prescription alternatives and the subsequent impacts on overdose vulnerability. Methods. From February to July 2021, we conducted qualitative interviews with 40 people who use drugs in British Columbia, Canada, and who accessed prescription opioids or stimulants under the risk mitigation guidelines. Results. COVID-19 disrupted British Columbia's illicit drug market. Concerns about overdose because of drug supply changes, and deepening socioeconomic marginalization, motivated participants to access no-cost prescription alternatives. Reliable access to prescription alternatives addressed overdose vulnerability by reducing engagement with the illicit drug market while allowing greater agency over drug use. Because prescriptions were primarily intended to manage withdrawal, participants supplemented with illicit drugs to experience enjoyment and manage pain. Conclusions. Providing prescription alternatives to illicit drugs is a critical harm reduction approach that reduces exposure to an increasingly toxic drug supply, yet further optimizations are needed. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(S2):S151-S158. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306692).

Evaluation of science advice during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden

Abstract: Abstract Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 years of collaboration between political bodies, authorities, and the scientific community had yielded many successes in preventive medicine. Sweden’s population is literate and has a high level of trust in authorities and those in power. During 2020, however, Sweden had ten times higher COVID-19 death rates compared with neighbouring Norway. In this report, we try to understand why, using a narrative approach to evaluate the Swedish COVID-19 policy and the role of scientific evidence and integrity. We argue that that scientific methodology was not followed by the major figures in the acting authorities—or the responsible politicians—with alternative narratives being considered as valid, resulting in arbitrary policy decisions. In 2014, the Public Health Agency, after 5 years of rearrangement, merged with the Institute for Infectious Disease Control, with six professors leaving between 2010 and 2012 going to the Karolinska Institute. With this setup, the authority lost scientific expertise. The Swedish pandemic strategy seemed targeted towards “natural” herd-immunity and avoiding a societal shutdown. The Public Health Agency labelled advice from national scientists and international authorities as extreme positions, resulting in media and political bodies to accept their own policy instead. The Swedish people were kept in ignorance of basic facts such as the airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission, that asymptomatic individuals can be contagious and that face masks protect both the carrier and others. Mandatory legislation was seldom used; recommendations relying upon personal responsibility and without any sanctions were the norm. Many elderly people were administered morphine instead of oxygen despite available supplies, effectively ending their lives. If Sweden wants to do better in future pandemics, the scientific method must be re-established, not least within the Public Health Agency. It would likely make a large difference if a separate, independent Institute for Infectious Disease Control is recreated. We recommend Sweden begins a self-critical process about its political culture and the lack of accountability of decision-makers to avoid future failures, as occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prosthetic embodiment: systematic review on definitions, measures, and experimental paradigms

Abstract: The term embodiment has become omnipresent within prosthetics research and is often used as a metric of the progress made in prosthetic technologies, as well as a hallmark for user acceptance. However, despite the frequent use of the term, the concept of prosthetic embodiment is often left undefined or described incongruently, sometimes even within the same article. This terminological ambiguity complicates the comparison of studies using embodiment as a metric of success, which in turn hinders the advancement of prosthetics research. To resolve these terminological ambiguities, we systematically reviewed the used definitions of embodiment in the prosthetics literature. We performed a thematic analysis of the definitions and found that embodiment is often conceptualized in either of two frameworks based on body representations or experimental phenomenology. We concluded that treating prosthetic embodiment within an experimental phenomenological framework as the combination of ownership and agency allows for embodiment to be a quantifiable metric for use in translational research. To provide a common reference and guidance on how to best assess ownership and agency, we conducted a second systematic review, analyzing experiments and measures involving ownership and agency. Together, we highlight a pragmatic definition of prosthetic embodiment as the combination of ownership and agency, and in an accompanying article, we provide a perspective on a multi-dimensional framework for prosthetic embodiment. Here, we concluded by providing recommendations on metrics that allow for outcome comparisons between studies, thereby creating a common reference for further discussions within prosthetics research.

Can HR adapt to the paradoxes of artificial intelligence?

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely heralded as a new and revolutionary technology that will transform the world of work. While the impact of AI on human resource (HR) and people management is difficult to predict, the article considers potential scenarios for how AI will affect our field. We argue that although popular accounts of AI stress the risks of bias and unfairness, these problems are eminently solvable. However, the way that the AI industry is currently constituted and wider trends in the use of technology for organising work mean that there is a significant risk that AI use will degrade the quality of work. Viewing different scenarios through a paradox lens, we argue that both positive and negative visions of the future are likely to coexist. The HR profession has a degree of agency to shape the future if it chooses to use it; HR professionals need to develop the skills to ensure that ethics and fairness are at the centre of AI development for HR and people management.

Can extended reality in the metaverse revolutionise health communication?

Abstract: In the metaverse, users will actively engage with 3D content using extended reality (XR). Such XR platforms can stimulate a revolution in health communication, moving from information-based to experience-based content. We outline three major application domains and describe how the XR affordances (presence, agency and embodiment) can improve healthy behaviour by targeting the users’ threat and coping appraisal. We discuss how health communication via XR can help to address long-standing health challenges.

Responsible Hedge Funds

Abstract: Hedge funds that endorse the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) underperform other hedge funds after adjusting for risk but attract greater investor flows, accumulate more assets, and harvest greater fee revenues. Consistent with an agency explanation, the underperformance is driven by PRI signatories with low ESG exposures and is greater for hedge funds with poor incentive alignment. To address endogeneity, we exploit regulatory reforms that enhance stewardship and show that the ESG exposure and relative performance of signatory funds improve post reforms. Our findings suggest that some hedge funds endorse responsible investment to pander to investor preferences.

Moral Distress: What Are We Measuring?

Abstract: Abstract While various definitions of moral distress have been proposed, some agreement exists that it results from illegitimate constraints in clinical practice affecting healthcare professionals’ moral agency. If we are to reduce moral distress, instruments measuring it should provide relevant information about such illegitimate constraints. Unfortunately, existing instruments fail to do so. We discuss here several shortcomings of major instruments in use: their inability to determine whether reports of moral distress involve an accurate assessment of the requisite clinical and logistical facts in play, whether the distress in question is aptly characterized as moral, and whether the moral distress reported is an appropriate target of elimination. Such failures seriously limit the ability of empirical work on moral distress to foster appropriate change.

Prosthetic embodiment: systematic review on definitions, measures, and experimental paradigms

Abstract: The term embodiment has become omnipresent within prosthetics research and is often used as a metric of the progress made in prosthetic technologies, as well as a hallmark for user acceptance. However, despite the frequent use of the term, the concept of prosthetic embodiment is often left undefined or described incongruently, sometimes even within the same article. This terminological ambiguity complicates the comparison of studies using embodiment as a metric of success, which in turn hinders the advancement of prosthetics research. To resolve these terminological ambiguities, we systematically reviewed the used definitions of embodiment in the prosthetics literature. We performed a thematic analysis of the definitions and found that embodiment is often conceptualized in either of two frameworks based on body representations or experimental phenomenology. We concluded that treating prosthetic embodiment within an experimental phenomenological framework as the combination of ownership and agency allows for embodiment to be a quantifiable metric for use in translational research. To provide a common reference and guidance on how to best assess ownership and agency, we conducted a second systematic review, analyzing experiments and measures involving ownership and agency. Together, we highlight a pragmatic definition of prosthetic embodiment as the combination of ownership and agency, and in an accompanying article, we provide a perspective on a multi-dimensional framework for prosthetic embodiment. Here, we concluded by providing recommendations on metrics that allow for outcome comparisons between studies, thereby creating a common reference for further discussions within prosthetics research.

Some Very Simple Economics of Web3 and the Metaverse

Abstract: The Metaverse refers to a shared vision among technology entrepreneurs of a three-dimensional virtual world, an embodied internet with humans and the physical world in it. As such, the Metaverse is thought to expand the domain of human activity by overcoming spatial, temporal, and resource-related constraints imposed by nature. The technological infrastructure of the Metaverse, i.e., Web3, consists of blockchain technology, smart contracts, and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which reduce transaction and agency costs, and enable trustless social and economic interactions thanks to decentralized consensus mechanisms. The emerging Metaverse may give rise to new products and services, new job profiles, and new business models. In this brief note, I assess the promises and challenges of the Metaverse, offer a first empirical glimpse at the emerging Metaverse economy, and discuss some simple Metaverse economics that revolve around building and operating the Metaverse.

Out Of Reach: Inequities In The Use Of High-Quality Home Health Agencies

Abstract: Patients receiving home health services from high-quality home health agencies often experience fewer adverse outcomes (for example, hospitalizations) than patients receiving services from low-quality agencies. Using administrative data from 2016 and regression analysis, we examined individual- and neighborhood-level racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic factors associated with the use of high-quality home health agencies. We found that Black and Hispanic home health patients had a 2.2-percentage-point and a 2.5-percentage-point lower adjusted probability of high-quality agency use, respectively, compared with their White counterparts within the same neighborhoods. Low-income patients had a 1.2-percentage-point lower adjusted probability of high-quality agency use compared with their higher-income counterparts, whereas home health patients residing in neighborhoods with higher proportions of marginalized residents had a lower adjusted probability of high-quality agency use. Some 40–77 percent of the disparities in high-quality agency use were attributable to neighborhood-level factors. Ameliorating these inequities will require policies that dismantle structural and institutional barriers related to residential segregation.

Comparing Student Experiences of Collaborative Learning in Synchronous CS1 Classes in Gather.Town vs. Zoom

Abstract: We report results of a study of student experiences (anonymous survey: n=90, interviews: n=4) in a fully online, synchronous CS1 class taught during the COVID-19 pandemic. Half the class sessions were held in Zoom and half were held in Gather.Town, an online platform that supports proximity chat and spatially designated private spaces. Students expressed strong preferences for the Gather.Town class setting due to its support for peer socializing, sense of place, agency, engagement, and fluid interactions.