Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the performance of tasks by machines ordinarily associated with human intelligence. Machine learning (ML) is a subtype of AI; it refers to the ability of computers to draw conclusions (ie, learn) from data without being directly programmed. ML builds from traditional statistical methods and has drawn significant interest in healthcare epidemiology due to its potential for improving disease prediction and patient care. This review provides an overview of ML in healthcare epidemiology and practical examples of ML tools used to support healthcare decision making at 4 stages of hospital-based care: triage, diagnosis, treatment, and discharge. Examples include model-building efforts to assist emergency department triage, predicting time before septic shock onset, detecting community-acquired pneumonia, and classifying COVID-19 disposition risk level. Increasing availability and quality of electronic health record (EHR) data as well as computing power provides opportunities for ML to increase patient safety, improve the efficiency of clinical management, and reduce healthcare costs.

The concept of ‘the Anthropocene’ as a new human-induced geological epoch has made its way into IR. Debates have recently arisen between ‘post-humanists’ stressing its destruction of subject-object binaries and ‘New Anthropocentrists’ arguing that it increases the importance of the human being as planetary steward. This article moves beyond these debates to question a strange but unexplored foundation that underlies the basic discourse of the Anthropocene: the assertion that humanity must be grouped together as a collective species, ‘anthropos’, or planetary ‘We’. Using the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, it argues that the Anthropocene reveals a new and deeper shift in human subjectivity, moving from an individualistic Cartesian ‘I’ to a collective and planetary ‘We’. This argument is made in three steps. First, today's common treatment of humanity as a collective whole in Anthropocene literature is examined. Second, it details how transformations in subjectivity occur by shifting the historical boundaries of our most fundamental notion of certainty – the ‘subiectum’ – and how the technologies of Earth System Science (ESS) subtly facilitate this shift today. Finally, the article argues how this subjective transformation from the ‘I’ to the ‘We’ results from the temporal, spatial, and existential incalculability and uncertainty of the Anthropocene, thereby fostering the rise of certainty in new forms of conflictual identity politics.

Drawn from the philosophy of science, metatheory is generally defined in International Relations (IR) as ‘theorizing about theory’ by examining a theory’s ontology or epistemology. Yet, despite being available to IR since at least the 1940s, metatheory ‘exploded’ into IR only in the late-1980s. What explains this sudden proliferation of metatheory in IR’s literature? This article answers this question by conducting a genealogy of metatheory in IR. It begins by offering a four-step heuristic guide for conducting a genealogical analysis. Then, bracketing IR’s traditional historical narratives, it problematizes a tacit practice undergirding IR’s present use of metatheory: theorizing about the ‘world’ using the philosophy of science. Tracing and interpreting the transformations of this practice through scholarship from the 1940s to the present reveals how metatheory emerged unexpectedly from what is now considered to be an outmoded and forgotten event: the inter-paradigm debate (IPD) of the mid-1980s. The IPD transformed what had always been conceptualized as a single, dynamic world for IR theory, into plural, static, theoretical worlds best (meta)theorized through a concept of ontology drawn from scientific realism. In sum, this genealogy demonstrates the implicit power that explicit theoretical practices wield over IR scholars, tacitly conditioning the discipline’s conceptual possibilities and limits.

Background: Cognitive dysfunction following coronary artery bypass surgery is a regular occurrence, but its cause is still unknown. In order to devise strategies to mitigate this acquired disability, a precise and quantitative description of the post-operative neurocognitive phenotype is necessary. This study is designed to assess the feasibility of using the KINARM robot to quantify the changes in the neurological function after cardaic surgery. Methods: Patients without prior history of cognitive dysfunction were recruited from the pre-operative cardiac surgery clinic, and underwent pre-operative assessment with the KINARM. The KINARM provides a quantitative assessment of the neurocognitive control of the upper limbs. During bypass surgery, brain tissue oxygen levels were measured with near-infrared spectroscopy. Patients were reassessed with the KINARM post-operatively at 3 months. Results: To date, 12 participants have been recruited (mean age = 65 years, all male). On straightforward tasks, such as visually guided reaching, the majority of patients scored within the normal range, both pre- and post-operatively. In more complex tasks, required visuospatial and executive functioning, post-operative deficits were more pronounced. Conclusions: It is feasible to use the KINARM robot to provide a quantitative measurement of the neurocognitive phenotype of patients after cardiac surgery.

An enormous effort is underway worldwide to attempt to detect gravitational waves. If successful, this will open a new frontier in astronomy. An essential portion of this effort is being carried out in Australia by the Australian Consortium for Interferometric Gravitational Astronomy (ACIGA), with research teams working at the Australia National University, University of Western Australia, and University of Adelaide involving scientists and students representing many more institutions and nations. ACIGA is developing ultrastable high-power continuous-wave lasers for the next generation interferometric gravity wave detectors; researching the problems associated with high optical power in resonant cavities; opening frontiers in advanced interferometry configurations, quantum optics, and signal extraction; and is the world's leader in high-performance vibration isolation and suspension design. ACIGA has also been active in theoretical research and modelling of potential astronomical gravitational wave sources, and in developing data analysis detection algorithms. ACIGA has opened a research facility north of Perth, Western Australia, which will be the culmination of these efforts. This paper briefly reviews ACIGA's research activities and the prospects for gravitational wave astronomy in the southern hemisphere.

The Nature Conservancy takes a strategic and systematic approach to conservation planning. Ecoregional assessments are used to set goals and identify geographical priorities, and Conservation Action Planning is used to develop strategic plans for conservation areas. This study demonstrates how these planning processes were applied at the seascape scale based on a case study of Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. Conservation Action Planning was used to identify key threats and strategies, and systematic conservation planning (similar to that used for ecoregional assessments) was used to design a network of marine protected areas to be resilient to the threat of climate change. The design was based on an assessment of biodiversity and socio-economic values, and identified 14 Areas of Interest that meet specific conservation goals. A detailed community-based planning process is now underway with local communities that own and manage these areas to refine and implement the marine protected area network.

The radiocarbon results (and Bayesian modeling) of 15 samples of carbonized food residues removed from the external surface of rim sherds of cooking pots indicate that shellyware pottery first appeared in Perth, Scotland, around cal AD 910–1020 (95% probability) and that it had disappeared by cal AD 1020–1140 (95% probability). Previously, it had been suggested that this pottery could not date to before AD 1150. These data, together with 14C analyses carried out on leather artifacts and a sample of wattle from a ditch lining, also demonstrate that there was occupation in Perth about 100 yr or more prior to the granting of royal burgh status to Perth in the 1120s.

Objectives: Medication non-adherence in affective disorder is an area of concern. Abbreviated cognitive therapy for adherence (ACTA) is an intervention specifically designed to address this. Our objectives were to explore psychiatric trainees' experiences of delivering this therapy, and to examine patient satisfaction using the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ).

Method: This preliminary study took place in two centres in Scotland. The experiences of five higher psychiatric trainees who underwent training in this novel approach were gathered at a ‘brain storming’ meeting after completing training, which included clinical application of the intervention. Also included is the preliminary feedback from a small number of participants involved in a randomised controlled pilot study of ACTA provided by these same trainees. In this pilot, 15 participants with bipolar affective disorder were allocated to receive ACTA (n = 7) or treatment as usual (TAU) (n = 8) and both groups completed a CSQ (client satisfaction questionnaire) at the end of the study.

Results: It was possible to learn and use this approach with limited previous experience of cognitive behavioural techniques. Longer structured sessions with the patients fostered the development of a collaborative relationship and facilitated negotiation of a treatment plan. There was 100% attendance rate for those receiving ACTA. Satisfaction scores for both the ACTA group and TAU group were high with median scores greater than 55 from a maximum of 60 in both groups. The ACTA group made additional positive comments.

Conclusions: Training in a brief therapy, such as ACTA, appears possible during psychiatric training and may represent a useful set of cognitive and behavioural techniques for busy clinicians. Preliminary findings suggest that patients like it.