Next Generation Computing and Communication Hub for First Responders in Smart Cities.

This paper contributes to the development of a Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) communication platform with the key goal of embedding it into a smart city technology infrastructure. The framework of this approach is a concept known as SmartHub, developed by the US Department of Homeland Security. The proposed embedding methodology complies with the standard categories and indicators of smart city performance. This paper offers two practice-centered extensions of the NGFR hub, which are also the main results: first, a cognitive workload monitoring of first responders as a basis for their performance assessment, monitoring, and improvement; and second, a highly sensitive problem of human society, the emergency assistance tools for individuals with disabilities. Both extensions explore various technological-societal dimensions of smart cities, including interoperability, standardization, and accessibility to assistive technologies for people with disabilities. Regarding cognitive workload monitoring, the core result is a novel AI formalism, an ensemble of machine learning processes aggregated using machine reasoning. This ensemble enables predictive situation assessment and self-aware computing, which is the basis of the digital twin concept. We experimentally demonstrate a specific component of a digital twin of an NGFR, a near-real-time monitoring of the NGFR cognitive workload. Regarding our second result, a problem of emergency assistance for individuals with disabilities that originated as accessibility to assistive technologies to promote disability inclusion, we provide the NGFR specification focusing on interactions based on AI formalism and using a unified hub platform. This paper also discusses a technology roadmap using the notion of the Emergency Management Cycle (EMC), a commonly accepted doctrine for managing disasters through the steps of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. It positions the NGFR hub as a benchmark of the smart city emergency service.

Home care technology through an ability expectation lens.

Home care is on the rise, and its delivery is increasingly reliant on an expanding variety of health technologies ranging from computers to telephone "health apps" to social robots. These technologies are most often predicated on expectations that people in their homes (1) can actively interact with these technologies and (2) are willing to submit to the action of the technology in their home. Our purpose is to use an "ability expectations" lens to bring together, and provide some synthesis of, the types of utility and disadvantages that can arise for people with disabilities in relation to home care technology development and use. We searched the academic databases Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO ALL, IEEE Xplore, and Compendex to collect articles that had the term "home care technology" in the abstract or as a topic (in the case of Web of Science). We also used our background knowledge and related academic literature pertaining to self-diagnosis, health monitoring, companionship, health information gathering, and care. We examined background articles and articles collected through our home care technology search in terms of ability expectations assumed in the presentation of home care technologies, or discussed in relation to home care technologies. While advances in health care support are made possible through emerging technologies, we urge critical examination of such technologies in terms of implications for the rights and dignity of people with diverse abilities. Specifically, we see potential for technologies to result in new forms of exclusion and powerlessness. Ableism influences choices made by funders, policy makers, and the public in the development and use of home health technologies and impacts how people with disabilities are served and how useful health support technologies will be for them. We urge continued critical examination of technology development and use according to ability expectations, and we recommend increasing incorporation of participatory design processes to counteract potential for health support technology to render people with disabilities technologically excluded and powerless.

Metagenomics of hydrocarbon resource environments indicates aerobic taxa and genes to be unexpectedly common.

Oil in subsurface reservoirs is biodegraded by resident microbial communities. Water-mediated, anaerobic conversion of hydrocarbons to methane and CO2, catalyzed by syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea, is thought to be one of the dominant processes. We compared 160 microbial community compositions in ten hydrocarbon resource environments (HREs) and sequenced twelve metagenomes to characterize their metabolic potential. Although anaerobic communities were common, cores from oil sands and coal beds had unexpectedly high proportions of aerobic hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria. Likewise, most metagenomes had high proportions of genes for enzymes involved in aerobic hydrocarbon metabolism. Hence, although HREs may have been strictly anaerobic and typically methanogenic for much of their history, this may not hold today for coal beds and for the Alberta oil sands, one of the largest remaining oil reservoirs in the world. This finding may influence strategies to recover energy or chemicals from these HREs by in situ microbial processes.

Auditing the impact of artificial intelligence on the ability to have a good life: using well-being measures as a tool to investigate the views of undergraduate STEM students.

AI/ML increasingly impacts the ability of humans to have a good life. Various sets of indicators exist to measure well-being/the ability to have a good life. Students play an important role in AI/ML discussions. The purpose of our study using an online survey was to learn about the perspectives of undergraduate STEM students on the impact of AI/ML on well-being/the ability to have a good life. Our study revealed that many of the abilities participants perceive to be needed for having a good life were part of the well-being/ability to have a good life indicator lists we gave to participants. Participants perceived AI/ML to have and continue to have the most positive impact on the ability to have a good life for disabled people, elderly people, and individuals with a high income and the least positive impact for people of low income and countries from the global south. Regarding indicators of well-being and the ability to have a good life given to participants, we found a significant techno-positive sentiment. 30% of respondents selected the purely positive box for 28 of the indicators and none did so for the purely negative box. For 52 indicators, the purely negative was below 10% (not counting the 0%) and for 10 indicators, none selected purely negative. Our findings suggest that our questions might be valuable tools to develop an inventory of STEM and other students' perspectives on the implications of AI/ML on the ability to have a good life.

Therapeutic bodily assistive devices and paralympic athlete expectations in winter sport.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the impact of therapeutic bodily assistive devices that enable beyond-the-normal body abilities on sport in general and the Paralympics and Olympics in particular. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Online. PARTICIPANTS: Members of the National Council on Rehabilitation Education (United States). Distribution of online survey link to membership. ASSESSMENT OF RISK FACTORS: The survey used a combination of 37 simple yes or no, Likert scale, and opinion rating scale questions. This article is based on 4 of the 37 questions that focus on the impact of therapeutic enhancements on various aspects of sport. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Whether respondents felt that there is an impact of therapeutic bodily assistive devices that enable beyond-the-normal body abilities on the participation of people with disabilities in sport of all levels and the self-identity of athletes with disabilities. Secondary outcome measure was what the respondents felt the impact may be. RESULTS: The respondents indicated that therapeutic bodily assistive devices, which enable beyond-the-normal body abilities, will have an impact on participation of people with disabilities in sport at all levels and on the self-identity of athletes with disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Given the result that the respondents felt that therapeutic enhancements will impact various aspects of sport, it may be prudent to initiate a broader discourse around therapeutic enhancement and to revise codes of ethics so that they give guidance on this topic.

Influencing discussions and use of neuroadvancements as professionals and citizens: Perspectives of Canadian speech-language pathologists and audiologists.

BACKGROUND: Early involvement of stakeholders in neuroethics and neurogovernance discourses of neuroscientific and neurotechnological advancements is seen as essential to curtail negative consequences. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and audiologists (AUs) make use of neuroadvancements including cochlear implants, brain-computer interfaces, and deep-brain stimulation. Although they have a stake in neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions, they are rarely mentioned in having a role, whether as professionals or as citizens. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to explore the role of SLPs and AUs as professionals and citizens in neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions and examine the utility of lifelong learning mechanisms to learn about the implications of neuroadvancements to contribute in a meaningful way to these discussions. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews conducted with 7 SLPs and 3 AUs were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Participants stated that their roles expected from them as professionals and as citizens indicate the importance to be knowledgeable on ethical, legal, and social implications of neuroadvancements and that lifelong learning is not used to learn about these implications. CONCLUSION: More must be done to facilitate the participation of SLPs and AUs in neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions, which would enrich the neuroethics and neurogovernance discourses benefitting patients, professionals, and the public.

Kinesiology, Physical Activity, Physical Education, and Sports through an Equity/Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Lens: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Equity, equality, diversity, and inclusion are terms covered in the academic literature focusing on sports, kinesiology, physical education, and physical activity, including in conjunction with marginalized groups. Universities in many countries use various EDI policy frameworks and work under the EDI headers "equality, diversity and inclusion", "equity, diversity and inclusion", "diversity, equity and inclusion", and similar phrases (all referred to as EDI) to rectify problems students, non-academic staff, and academic staff from marginalized groups, such as women, Indigenous peoples, visible/racialized minorities, disabled people, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S+) experience. Which EDI data, if any, are generated influences EDI efforts in universities (research, education, and general workplace climate) of all programs. METHOD: Our study used a scoping review approach and employed SCOPUS and the 70 databases of EBSCO-Host, which includes SportDiscus, as sources aimed to analyze the extent (and how) the academic literature focusing on sports, kinesiology, physical education, and physical activity engages with EDI. RESULTS: We found only 18 relevant sources and a low to no coverage of marginalized groups linked to EDI, namely racialized minorities (12), women (6), LGBTQ2S+ (5), disabled people (2), and Indigenous peoples (0). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a gap in the academic inquiry and huge opportunities.

Influencing discussions and use of neuroadvancements: Perspectives of Canadian occupational therapists.

BACKGROUND: The early involvement of many actors including health professionals is identified in neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions as crucial in constructing conversations around awareness, reaction, and knowledge development pertaining to the ethical, legal, and societal consequences of neuroscientific or neurotechnological advancements (NA). Occupational Therapists (OTs) have a stake in NA; however, OTs are rarely mentioned within this context. Lifelong learning (LL) could be used to increase OTs knowledge on NA and its consequences. However, LL is rarely mentioned within neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions. OBJECTIVE: The study's purpose is to understand the role of OTs as professionals and citizens in neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions and to examine the utility of LL processes put in place for OTs to empower OTs to contribute in a meaningful way to NA discussions. METHODS: 8 semi-structured interviews with OTs were conducted and analyzed using a directed content analysis. RESULTS: Although participants believed OTs can provide a holistic perspective to neurogovernance discussions, their knowledge on NA and its consequences is limited, and LL is not used as a tool to remain informed about such consequences. CONCLUSION: More education on NA and its consequences throughout their OT degree and through LL opportunities is warranted to facilitate their involvement.

Disability, displacement and public health: a vision for Haiti.

Refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) with disabilities are some of the most neglected and socially excluded groups within any population. Natural disasters are events that cause bodily harm resulting in disability and that result in the displacement of people. Many predict a continual increase of natural disasters in the future due to changing climates. People with disabilities constitute one of the most vulnerable social groups in the case of a natural disaster. In 2010, Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake leading to great social, health and economic hardship including the displacement of people with disabilities. Due to the very extent of the structural devastation Haiti experienced and the international focus on assisting Haitians who suffered injuries leading to disabilities, there is an opportunity for Haiti to become a model for future disaster management in terms of mainstreaming the needs of people with disabilities in the restoration, resettlement and reintegration process.

People with disabilities and social determinants of health discourses.

Social determinants of health (SDH) are an important public health policy discourse and the concept and scope of SDH is debated within and outside of the public health field. This article concerns itself with the visibility of people with disabilities in existing SDH discourses. It employed a frequency analysis of Google and Google Scholar search hits obtained with the phrase "social determinants of health" in combination with various social groups and looked at the visibility of people with disabilities within key SDH documents, the Millennium Development Goals and some contemporary SDH such as energy, water and climate change security. It found that people with disabilities are much less visible than other social groups despite the major impact SDH have on this population.

Coverage of ethics within the artificial intelligence and machine learning academic literature: The case of disabled people.

Disabled people are often the anticipated users of scientific and technological products and processes advanced and enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Disabled people are also impacted by societal impacts of AI/ML. Many ethical issues are identified within AI/ML as fields and within individual applications of AI/ML. At the same time, problems have been identified in how ethics discourses engage with disabled people. The aim of our scoping review was to better understand to what extent and how the AI/ML focused academic literature engaged with the ethics of AI/ML in relation to disabled people.Of the n = 1659 abstracts engaging with AI/ML and ethics downloaded from Scopus (which includes all Medline articles) and the 70 databases of EBSCO ALL, we found 54 relevant abstracts using the term "patient" and 11 relevant abstracts mentioning terms linked to "impair*", "disab*" and "deaf". Our study suggests a gap in the literature that should be filled given the many AI/ML related ethical issues identified in the literature and their impact on disabled people.

Impact of robotics and human enhancement on occupation: what does it mean for rehabilitation?

Purpose: People with disabilities face participation challenges in all occupations. Scientific and technological advancements impact the occupational landscape of humans. This scoping review aimed to ascertain the academic engagement with occupation in relation to robotics and human enhancement focusing in particular on how people with disabilities and rehabilitation were mentioned.Method: SCOPUS and the 70 databases of EBSCO host were searched. Manifest and latent content coding and thematic grouping of codes relevant to answering the review questions was performed.Results: Only four articles engaged with occupation in relation to human enhancement. As to occupation and robotics, some occupational fields were visible and not others; occupational health and safety was the most visible one; people with disabilities were covered from a medical, therapeutic angle and not in relation to social issues caused by the occupational impact of robotics. Change in the scope, meaning, and clients of rehabilitation efforts related to occupation enabled by human enhancement and robotics was not covered.Conclusions: The gaps found should be filled. The impact of robotics and human enhancement on the occupational landscape indicates the need for rehabilitation to think beyond recovery to the species typical as a goal. The ultrabilitation concept could help to meet this need.Implications for rehabilitationAdvances in robotics and human enhancement beyond species-typical levels modify the occupational landscape, human ability expectations in this setting, and the meaning and scope of disability and rehabilitation (clinical and community based).There is a need to elucidate the impact of these changes on the meaning, scope and goals of recovery-oriented rehabilitation.The recently coined term "ultrabilitation" creates space to discuss an ability expectation creep triggered by developments in robotics and human enhancement, particularly within occupation focused rehabilitation.

Analysis of engagement between ethics and return-to-work discourses in respective academic literature.

BACKGROUND: Return-to-work (RTW)/back-to-work (BTW) interventions that are designed to rehabilitate individuals impaired from fulfilling employment roles are facing challenges. Ethics discourses, including ethics theories, principles and concepts, are meant to give guidance on what one ought to do or not to do and RTW professionals could use them to respond to their challenges. OBJECTIVE: A scoping review was performed to investigate to what extent 33 ethics concepts, theories, and principles are employed in RTW/BTW academic literature, and to what extent RTW/BTW is engaged with in ethics linked academic journals. METHODS: Three academic databases were searched, and 147 article results were extracted from our literature review to be thematically analyzed. RESULTS: Searches with n = 11 ethics concepts and n = 4 ethics theories generated results. The content of 20 RTW/BTW article results demonstrated conceptual engagement between RTW and ethics discourses. Only one article in ethics-related journals conceptually engaged with RTW/BTW. CONCLUSION: Ethics theories and principles were not used extensively in RTW/BTW academic literature and RTW/BTW is a topic under-engaged within ethics-related journals. Our findings indicate opportunities for further research, like conducting interviews, to better understand our findings and how to respond to them.

Utility of science, technology and innovation governance for occupational discourses from the perspective of occupational therapy students.

BACKGROUND: Science, technology and innovation (STI) governance concerns itself with the societal impact of STI. Occupation, whether used with the meaning of paid, unpaid work or any activity that is considered meaningful to the individual on an everyday basis, is one area of societal impact of STI. Fields such as occupational therapy, occupational science and occupational health and safety concern themselves with the relationship between occupation and the health and well-being of human beings albeit all with different foci. OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the knowledge of students from two Occupational Therapy programs on STI governance, specific STI products and their views on the impact of STI governance and STI products on occupational therapy and its clients. METHODS: Online survey employing Yes/No' questions with comment boxes and open-ended textbox questions. Descriptive quantitative and thematic qualitative data was generated. RESULTS: Students were unfamiliar with STI governance discourses but felt that they should be aware of them. Students stated that how one governs STI impacts occupational therapy on all levels and that the occupational therapy community has expertise that would enrich STI governance discourses around occupation. CONCLUSION: Education actions seem to be warranted on the level of students and practitioners by the occupational therapy and STI governance communities.

Brain-computer interfaces and personhood: interdisciplinary deliberations on neural technology.

OBJECTIVE: Scientists, engineers, and healthcare professionals are currently developing a variety of new devices under the category of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Current and future applications are both medical/assistive (e.g. for communication) and non-medical (e.g. for gaming). This array of possibilities has been met with both enthusiasm and ethical concern in various media, with no clear resolution of these conflicting sentiments. APPROACH: To better understand how BCIs may either harm or help the user, and to investigate whether ethical guidance is required, a meeting entitled 'BCIs and Personhood: A Deliberative Workshop' was held in May 2018. MAIN RESULTS: We argue that the hopes and fears associated with BCIs can be productively understood in terms of personhood, specifically the impact of BCIs on what it means to be a person and to be recognized as such by others. SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings suggest that the development of neural technologies raises important questions about the concept of personhood and its role in society. Accordingly, we propose recommendations for BCI development and governance.

EcoHealth and the Determinants of Health: Perspectives of a Small Subset of Canadian Academics in the EcoHealth Community.

EcoHealth is an emerging field that examines the complex relationships among humans, animals, and the environment, and how these relationships affect the health of each of these domains. The different types of determinants of health greatly influence human health and well-being. Therefore, EcoHealth's ability to improve human, animal, and environmental health and well-being is, in part, influenced by its ability to acknowledge and integrate the determinants of health. However, our previous research demonstrates that the academic EcoHealth literature had a low, uneven engagement with the determinants of health. Accordingly, to make sense of this gap, our research aim is to better understand the views of a small subset of the Canadian EcoHealth community about EcoHealth and the determinants of health relative to EcoHealth. We used a qualitative research design involving seven semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed using thematic analysis. Our findings suggest a tension across themes and a lack of conceptual engagement with the determinants of health. As we consider a future with rapid, unsustainable changes, we expect the identification and integration of the different types of determinants of health within EcoHealth to be imperative for EcoHealth to attain its goal of improving the health and well-being of humans, animals, and the environment.

Analysis of the Coverage of Paratriathlon and Paratriathletes in Canadian Newspapers.

From recreational to elite levels, sport has many benefits for disabled people. At the same time, it is acknowledged that there is a trickle-down problem from para-elite sport to sport participation of disabled people, in general. Newspapers are one form of media that sets agendas and influences public opinion. Many studies have highlighted problematic aspects of parasport and para-athlete coverage in newspapers. Paratriathlon was one of two new events added to the Paralympics in Rio 2016, which increased its visibility in the public domain. We investigated the coverage of paratriathlon and paratriathletes in 300 Canadian newspapers using the ProQuest database Canadian Newsstream as a source, and utilizing a descriptive quantitative and a qualitative thematic content analysis. The main themes evident in the reporting on paratriathlon and paratriathletes, in the three hundred Canadian newspapers we covered, were the supercrip imagery of the para-athlete, personal stories mostly linked to the supercrip imagery, and the theme of able-bodied athletes in juxtaposition to the para-athletes. Using the lens of the four legacy goals of the International Paralympic Committee, we conclude that our findings are detrimental to the fulfillment of the four legacy goals.

Analysis of sudden infant death syndrome coverage in Canadian newspapers.

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS; also known as crib death) describes the sudden unexpected death of an infant under one year of age, which remains unexplained after a thorough investigation. SIDS is a public health concern. It is the fourth leading cause of infant death in Canada. Newspapers are a major source of health information for the public, shape public perceptions and can direct the discussion around issues. Despite the potential influence of newspapers, no study has examined the portrayal of SIDS in Canadian newspapers over time. The purpose of our study was to gain an understanding of SIDS coverage in Canadian English language newspapers using the Canadian Newsstream database from 1970 to 2015 and the historical database: The Globe and Mail from 1844 to 1977. Generating descriptive quantitative and qualitative data, we noted a decline in SIDS coverage over time. Blame and misdiagnosis were two dominant themes in the coverage of SIDS with many other aspects around SIDS missing; for example, indigenous people, who are at higher risk for SIDS, were rarely mentioned. Our findings suggest problems in the content and frequency of coverage of SIDS that have the potential to shape the public understanding of SIDS.

Three challenges to the Ottawa Spirit of Health promotion, trends in global health, and disabled people.

Health promotion according to the 1986 Ottawa Charter of the first global health promotion conference "is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment". In this commentary, I explore three powerful challenges to the spirit of the Ottawa Charter and to global health. The first challenge is the departure from the WHO definition of health; the second challenge relates to the appearance of the transhumanist/enhancement model of health which includes human performance enhancement beyond species-typical boundaries as part of the concept of health. The third challenge consists of the limited involvement and understanding of disabled people with their different models of 'disability/impairment' (medical, social, transhumanist/enhancement) in the discourse of global health and health promotion. Not dealing with these challenges impairs the ability of health promotion to deal with global health problems, the 'health' needs of marginalized groups--in particular, disabled people--and the Millennium Development Goals.