Opportunistic Uses of the Traditional School Day Through Student Examination of Fitbit Activity Tracker Data

In large part due to the highly prescribed nature of the typical school day for children, efforts to design new interactions with technology have often focused on less-structured after-school clubs and other out-of-school environments. We argue that while the school day imposes serious restrictions, school routines can and should be opportunistically leveraged by designers and by youth. Specifically, wearable activity tracking devices open some new avenues for opportunistic collection of and reflection on data from the school day. To demonstrate this, we present two cases from an elementary statistics classroom unit we designed that intentionally integrated wearable activity trackers and childcreated data visualizations. The first case involves a group of students comparing favored recess activities to determine which was more physically demanding. The second case is of a student who took advantage of her knowledge of teachers’ school day routines to test the reliability of a Fitbit activity tracker against a commercial mobile app

Designing for Critical Algorithmic Literacies

As pervasive data collection and powerful algorithms increasingly shape children's experience of the world and each other, their ability to interrogate computational algorithms has become crucially important. A growing body of work has attempted to articulate a set of "literacies" to describe the intellectual tools that children can use to understand, interrogate, and critique the algorithmic systems that shape their lives. Unfortunately, because many algorithms are invisible, only a small number of children develop the literacies required to critique these systems. How might designers support the development of critical algorithmic literacies? Based on our experience designing two data programming systems, we present four design principles that we argue can help children develop literacies that allow them to understand not only how algorithms work, but also to critique and question them

Greening China’s Belt and Road Initiative:From Norm Localization to Norm Subsidiarity?

From 2015, China began to promote eco-sustainability in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through not only vision statements but also specific guidelines and governance initiatives. What has driven these policy changes? Bringing together theories of norm localization, norm subsidiarity, and policy deliberation, we argue that China’s move toward green BRI began as a norm localization process where environmental norms emerged in the open policy space created by China’s top leaders carrying the ambition to make the BRI a new global governance model. After adopting a broad norm on environmental stewardship, state bureaucracies found opportunities to create procedural and operational rules. A novel procedural rule-making methodology emphasizing inclusive dialogue with host countries has emerged, driven by top leaders’ pursuit of international leadership and preexisting local norms guiding South–South cooperation. With operational rules, different actors follow their preferences to localize existing international standards or develop new ones.In 2013, the Chinese government launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a platform for global and regional cooperation focusing on infrastructure development, trade, finance, policy coordination, and people-to-people exchange. Since then, many researchers have raised concerns regarding negative environmental impacts of large-scale infrastructure development brought by the initiative and stressed the need for China to introduce stronger regulatory frameworks that promote ecological sustainability (hereinafter “eco-sustainability”) within the BRI (Ascensão et al. 2018; Lechner et al. 2018). Since 2015, China has made many efforts to govern the BRI’s environmental impacts, which are reflected at three levels, including setting broad policy goals, developing governance methodologies, and making operational rules and standards.First, the central government published several high-level documents, most notably the “Visions and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road” (2015) (hereinafter “Visions and Actions”), that show the goal to treat environmental stewardship as an indispensable target of the BRI (Coenen et al. 2021; Zhou et al. 2018). Second, regarding the methodology to design substantial rules and policies, China has stressed a “dialogue-based” approach, anchored on inclusive collective deliberation and innovation by China, host countries, and other international stakeholders (Tao 2020). A typical example of this approach is the BRI International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC), a policy dialogue platform cohosted by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and international partners from both the Global South and the Global North. By emphasizing the voices of and cooperation between developing countries, providing host country governments with opportunities to participate in the decision-making processes, and allowing flexibility in the rule adoption, this rule-making methodology differs from that of the West.1 Third, at the operational level, we are observing debates and uncertainties regarding some critical issues for environmental governance of the BRI, such as new areas of cooperation, standards for project design and implementation, and rules of development financing.Hence, Beijing’s green BRI policy seems not just a rhetorical strategy. Instead, by building new institutions and redesigning projects, China has made a clear shift in policy. China’s rapid move toward green BRI seems to contrast with the limited attention it had given to environmental impacts of its overseas activities in the past. Through the lens of constructivist international relations theories, Beijing’s move toward green BRI can be seen as a process of engagement with norms regarding appropriate ways to govern environmental impacts of international development cooperation and investment adopted by Western actors like the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Park 2005).2 In this process of normative engagement, Chinese policy makers have not only adopted key elements of some international norms—a “norm localization” dynamic—but also actively incorporated Chinese ideas, a “norm subsidiarity” dynamic (Acharya 2011).What has led China to gradually develop this green BRI policy, which concerns not only the import of existing environmental norms but also attempts to construct new ones? We argue that different types of norm dynamics exist in three phases of China’s green BRI policy. Initially, the green BRI development was driven by the localization of the international norm on environmental stewardship due to Chinese top leaders’ ambition to make the BRI a flagship program of international cooperation; after this broad goal had been set, the norm subsidiarity dynamic kicked in, which was largely driven by top leaders’ strategic ambition and preexisting local norms guiding South–South cooperation; and finally, for the development of operational rules and standards, different bureaucracies have followed their preferences to localize existing international norms or develop new norms.3We proceed as follows. After reviewing the literature on green BRI, we introduce our analytical framework building on Acharya’s (2011) framework of norm localization and norm subsidiarity. Considering China’s political context, we further stress the importance of local deliberation—a process of collective policy deliberation among top leaders and political actors in functional areas—in triggering the localization dynamic and (potentially) transforming the localization dynamic into the subsidiarity dynamic. We then conduct a theory-guided process-tracing study on the evolution of China’s efforts to green the BRI. By unpacking the logic of China’s green BRI policy, we advance understanding of China’s strategy for governing environmental impacts of its global activities and also China’s engagement with international environmental norms

Narrative support for young game designers’ writing

Creating narrative-based computer games is a complex and challenging task. Narrative Threads is a suite of software tools designed to aid young people (aged 11-15) in creating their own narrative-based games as a writing development activity. A participatory design process highlighted the areas where additional support was required, and informed the iterative design of Narrative Threads. The tools are implemented as a plugin to a commercial game creation toolset, and constitute character and object design tools, a branching narrative diagramming tool and an augmented story map view. In this paper, we provide an overview of the design of the tools and describe an evaluation carried out with 14 children over a four-day workshop. The study examined tool usage patterns, and compared games created with Narrative Threads to those created using the standard toolset. The results suggest a number of ways in which dynamic external representations of story elements can support writing activities in narrative-based game creation. Young designers using Narrative Threads wrote more character dialogue, made stronger links between the conversations they wrote and wider game events, and designed more complex characters, compared to those using the standard toolset. In addition to showing how Narrative Threads can support young games designers, the results have broader implications for anyone looking to support storytelling and writing through game creation activities and tools

NuzzleBug: Debugging Block-Based Programs in Scratch

While professional integrated programming environments support developers with advanced debugging functionality, block-based programming environments for young learners often provide no support for debugging at all, thus inhibiting debugging and preventing debugging education. In this paper we introduce NuzzleBug, an extension of the popular block-based programming environment Scratch that provides the missing debugging support. NuzzleBug allows controlling the executions of Scratch programs with classical debugging functionality such as stepping and breakpoints, and it is an omniscient debugger that also allows reverse stepping. To support learners in deriving hypotheses that guide debugging, NuzzleBug is an interrogative debugger that enables to ask questions about executions and provides answers explaining the behavior in question. In order to evaluate NuzzleBug, we survey the opinions of teachers, and study the effects on learners in terms of debugging effectiveness and efficiency. We find that teachers consider NuzzleBug to be useful, and children can use it to debug faulty programs effectively. However, systematic debugging requires dedicated training, and even when NuzzleBug can provide correct answers learners may require further help to comprehend faults and necessary fixes, thus calling for further research on improving debugging techniques and the information they provide.Comment: To appear at the 2024 IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE '24), April 14--20, 2024, Lisbon, Portuga

Design principles for transforming making programs into online settings at public libraries

Purpose This paper aims to investigate design principles for transforming existing making communities of practice within public libraries into online knowledge-building communities to support youths, families with young children and adult members’ making and tinkering during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach Building upon C4P and connected learning framework, the authors analyze existing literature and practitioner reports on informal learning projects related to making and STEM learning, family learning and online learning as well as emergent cases of innovative approaches in response to COVID-19 from public libraries, informal learning institutions and community groups. Findings The authors suggest 11 design principles around five areas: program design, facilitation, tools and materials, process documentation and sharing and feedback. Originality/value This work contributes to the information and learning sciences concerned with community engagement and knowledge creation by suggesting a design model to transform and sustain existing making communities of practice within public libraries into online knowledge-building communities during COVID-19

Preoperative Imaging Assessment and Utility of the Systemic Inflammatory Indices in the Management of Invasive Lobular Carcinoma of the Breast

The last century has witnessed an evolution in the surgical and oncological management of breast cancer. However, the unique characteristics of lobular carcinoma continue to pose challenges in both the preoperative and adjuvant setting. In the first part of this study, the size of lobular cancer was assessed on Digital Breast Tomosynthesis and compared with the standard imaging tool, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, using final pathology as the gold standard measurement. The correlation with sonography was calculated as a secondary analysis. The results found that lobular tumour size estimation on tomosynthesis and sonography has low to moderate correlation with final pathology. Although, there is some agreement with tumour sizes less than 2cm, the need for preoperative MRI remains. The introduction of contrast-enhanced spectral mammography may reduce the need for magnetic resonance imaging in the preoperative assessment of lobular breast cancer. Further investigation will be considered. The second analysis evaluated the potential of systemic peripheral blood ratios as prognostic indicators in the adjuvant setting of node negative early breast cancer, comparing two internationally validated tools, the Nottingham Prognostic Index and Oncotype DX® Recurrence Score, to assess whether the blood ratios may reduce the need for genomic testing in selected cases. The recurrence scores of 495 node negative patients with early breast cancer were compared with the Nottingham Prognostic Index and four systemic inflammatory indices calculated from the preoperative peripheral blood count. Statistical tests of correlation found that there was poor to no correlation with the Oncotype DX® Recurrence Score, the Nottingham Prognostic Index and the systemic inflammatory indices investigated, for both subtypes. The results of this study highlight the need for further work in this field. Lobular cancer has distinct morphomolecular and histomolecular properties that require studies specifically designed to address this

UNCOVER: JWST Spectroscopy of Three Cold Brown Dwarfs at Kiloparsec-scale Distances

We report JWST/NIRSpec spectra of three distant T-type brown dwarfs identified in the Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization (UNCOVER) survey of the Abell 2744 lensing field. One source was previously reported as a candidate T dwarf on the basis of NIRCam photometry, while two sources were initially identified as candidate active galactic nuclei. Low-resolution 1–5 μm spectra confirm the presence of molecular features consistent with T dwarf atmospheres, and comparison to spectral standards infers classifications of sdT1, T6, and T8–T9. The warmest source, UNCOVER-BD-1, shows evidence of subsolar metallicity, and atmosphere model fits indicate Teff = 1300 K and [M/H] ∼ −1.0, making this one of the few spectroscopically confirmed T subdwarfs known. The coldest source, UNCOVER-BD-3, is near the T/Y dwarf boundary with Teff = 550 K, and our analysis indicates the presence of PH3 in the 3–5 μm region, favored over CO2 and a possible indicator of subsolar metallicity. We estimate distances of 0.9–4.5 kpc from the Galactic midplane, making these the most distant brown dwarfs with spectroscopic confirmation. Population simulations indicate high probabilities of membership in the Galactic thick disk for two of these brown dwarfs, and potential halo membership for UNCOVER-BD-1. Our simulations indicate that there are approximately 5 T dwarfs and 1–2 L dwarfs in the Abell 2744 field down to F444W = 30 AB mag, roughly one-third of which are thick disk members. These results highlight the utility of deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy for identifying and characterizing the oldest metal-poor brown dwarfs in the Milky Way