Genuine participation in participant-centred research initiatives : the rhetoric and the potential reality

The introduction of Web 2.0 technology, along with a population increasingly proficient in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), coupled with the rapid advancements in genetic testing methods, has seen an increase in the presence of participant-centred research initiatives. Such initiatives, aided by the centrality of ICT interconnections, and the ethos they propound seem to further embody the ideal of increasing the participatory nature of research, beyond what might be possible in non-ICT contexts alone. However, the majority of such research seems to actualise a much narrower definition of ‘participation’—where it is merely the case that such research initiatives have increased contact with participants through ICT but are otherwise non-participatory in any important normative sense. Furthermore, the rhetoric of participant-centred initiatives tends to inflate this minimalist form of participation into something that it is not, i.e. something genuinely participatory, with greater connections with both the ICT-facilitated political contexts and the largely non-ICT participatory initiatives that have expanded in contemporary health and research contexts. In this paper, we highlight that genuine (ICT-based) ‘participation’ should enable a reasonable minimum threshold of participatory engagement through, at least, three central participatory elements: educative, sense of being involved and degree of control. While we agree with criticisms that, at present, genuine participation seems more rhetoric than reality, we believe that there is clear potential for a greater ICT-facilitated participatory engagement on all three participatory elements. We outline some practical steps such initiatives could take to further develop these elements and thereby their level of ICT-facilitated participatory engagement.Peer reviewe

A data mining approach for developing online streaming recommendations

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A Case for Weakening Patent Rights

This Article contributes to the patent debate by observing that new and emerging technologies are radically altering the relative costs and benefits of the patent system. Although analysts cannot measure the patent system\u27s numerous absolute costs and benefits, this Article demonstrates that new and emerging technologies are significantly reducing the research, development, and commercialization costs ( innovation costs ) that are used by adherents to the incentive and prospect theories to justify the patent system\u27s existence. All things being equal, if significantly, the relative need for the patent system has decreased and will continue to decrease. Thus, this Article argues that patents should be weakened significantly-by at least twenty-five to fifty percent. To support this claim, this Article takes an interdisciplinary approach out of appreciation for the fact that innovation spans many disciplines: Two of the authors are scientists with extensive expertise in three-dimensional printing, and the remaining author is a law professor who is an expert on patent law. Altogether, this Article offers a thorough catalog of new and emerging technologies and their effects, both general and specific, on innovation costs and the patent system

A Case for Weakening Patent Rights

(Excerpt) In Part I, this Article introduces the new and emerging technologies, including the Internet, cloud computing, three-dimensional (“3D”) printing, and synthetic biology, which will bring this radical change. Part II provides an overview of the innovation cycle, including the stages of basic research, inventing and prototyping, product development, marketing, and distribution. It also describes, in detail, how these new technologies are dramatically lowering the costs and risks of all stages in the innovation cycle. Part III considers how lawmakers might adapt patent law to account for the new age of innovation and its lower costs of innovation. This Article explores both the magnitude of the change and the method by which that change should be accomplished; specifically, it analyzes various factors that might affect the magnitude of the change to patent strength, such as nonmonetary incentives to innovate, decreased costs of copying innovations, and concerns about U.S. companies’ competitiveness in a global marketplace. After considering these factors, this Article recommends that lawmakers weaken patents by at least twenty-five to fifty percent. Such a change would not only account for decreased costs of innovation, but also would be large enough for the change to be unequivocally felt and studied. To accomplish this reduction in patent strength this Article explores shortening the patent term, but with the understanding that to do so would be politically difficult. Thus, it recommends dramatically raising patent maintenance and renewal fees for the end portion of patents’ lives. Finally, this Article also briefly explores doctrinal changes that could weaken patents in specific technology sectors and explain why we consider them a second-best option

A Case for Weakening Patent Rights

(Excerpt) In Part I, this Article introduces the new and emerging technologies, including the Internet, cloud computing, three-dimensional (“3D”) printing, and synthetic biology, which will bring this radical change. Part II provides an overview of the innovation cycle, including the stages of basic research, inventing and prototyping, product development, marketing, and distribution. It also describes, in detail, how these new technologies are dramatically lowering the costs and risks of all stages in the innovation cycle. Part III considers how lawmakers might adapt patent law to account for the new age of innovation and its lower costs of innovation. This Article explores both the magnitude of the change and the method by which that change should be accomplished; specifically, it analyzes various factors that might affect the magnitude of the change to patent strength, such as nonmonetary incentives to innovate, decreased costs of copying innovations, and concerns about U.S. companies’ competitiveness in a global marketplace. After considering these factors, this Article recommends that lawmakers weaken patents by at least twenty-five to fifty percent. Such a change would not only account for decreased costs of innovation, but also would be large enough for the change to be unequivocally felt and studied. To accomplish this reduction in patent strength this Article explores shortening the patent term, but with the understanding that to do so would be politically difficult. Thus, it recommends dramatically raising patent maintenance and renewal fees for the end portion of patents’ lives. Finally, this Article also briefly explores doctrinal changes that could weaken patents in specific technology sectors and explain why we consider them a second-best option

Participative Urban Health and Healthy Aging in the Age of AI

This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on String Processing and Information Retrieval, ICOST 2022, held in Paris, France, in June 2022. The 15 full papers and 10 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 33 submissions. They cover topics such as design, development, deployment, and evaluation of AI for health, smart urban environments, assistive technologies, chronic disease management, and coaching and health telematics systems

日本とベトナムの住宅世帯のエネルギー消費に対する決定要因に関する研究

The research first aims to investigate the effects of all influencing factors on household energy consumption and to evaluate their complex relationships under different situation. Hybrid modeling combing physics-based modeling and data-driven modeling is the state-of-the-art approach to be considered for energy forecast, while factor analysis has the potential for sorting the weight of factors. Discussion on the final results imply cognitive changes for consumers where the visualization of energy efficiency optimization can be easily captured so that environmental sustainability will be closer than ever.北九州市立大

Neutrosophic Crisp Set Theory

Since the world is full of indeterminacy, the Neutrosophics found their place into contemporary research. We now introduce for the first time the notions of Neutrosophic Crisp Sets and Neutrosophic Topology on Crisp Sets. We develop the 2012 notion of Neutrosophic Topological Spaces and give many practical examples. Neutrosophic Science means development and applications of Neutrosophic Logic, Set, Measure, Integral, Probability etc., and their applications in any field. It is possible to define the neutrosophic measure and consequently the neutrosophic integral and neutrosophic probability in many ways, because there are various types of indeterminacies, depending on the problem we need to solve. Indeterminacy is different from randomness. Indeterminacy can be caused by physical space, materials and type of construction, by items involved in the space, or by other factors. In 1965 [51], Zadeh generalized the concept of crisp set by introducing the concept of fuzzy set, corresponding to the situation in which there is no precisely defined set;there are increasing applications in various fields, including probability, artificial intelligence, control systems, biology and economics. Thus, developments in abstract mathematics using the idea of fuzzy sets possess sound footing. In accordance, fuzzy topological spaces were introduced by Chang [12] and Lowen [33]. After the development of fuzzy sets, much attention has been paid to the generalization of basic concepts of classical topology to fuzzy sets and accordingly developing a theory of fuzzy topology [1-58]. In 1983, the intuitionistic fuzzy set was introduced by K. Atanassov [55, 56, 57] as a generalization of the fuzzy set, beyond the degree of membership and the degree of non-membership of each element. In 1999 and 2002, Smarandache [71, 72, 73, 74] defined the notion of Neutrosophic Sets, which is a generalization of Zadeh’s fuzzy set and Atanassov\u27s intuitionistic fuzzy set

An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in product-service systems?

Copyright @ 2012 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because its implementation and diffusion is hindered by several barriers (cultural, corporate and regulative ones). The paper investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptation of eco-efficient PSS alternatives, and opens the debate on the aesthetic of eco-efficient PSS, and the way in which aesthetic could enhance some specific inner qualities of this kinds of innovations. Integrating insights from semiotics, the paper outlines some first research hypothesis on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptation and satisfaction

Beyond Mediation: Thinking About Technology Existentially, Or, The Algorithm That I Also Am

The history of philosophy has been characterized by a suspicion of technology. Discourses surrounding technology—from the pre-Socratics to the present—often position technology as an external other and as something that interferes with the Delphic injunction to “Know Thyself.” This dissertation traces the history of this philosophical skepticism (which is herein defined as “Socratic Socratic) before calling it into question. By reading Socrates and Kierkegaard (as well as other figures associated with the existential tradition) against themselves, technologies—and especially contemporary communicative technologies—are theorized as existentially rich sites in which one may authentically pursue self-knowledge and develop their subjectivity. Numerous examples of possibilities for technological maieutics, especially ones that are present in the “algorithmized” online world, are presented. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to go beyond philosophical discourses of technological mediation, which are argued to often prematurely distance the individual from their technological doings, and instead advocates for a more existentially responsible attitude towards technological being. This existentially responsible attitude considers technologies to be the culminations of one’s actions, and advocates for a responsibility to recognize and pursue the avenues for self-knowledge that are present in our contemporary technological landscape