What really matters? A qualitative analysis on the adoption of innovations in agriculture

The agricultural industry is confronted with the need of increasing the production to feed a growing population, and contemporarily to manage the decreased availability of natural resources. This major challenge boosts agriculture sector to adopt new approaches and technical innovations; anyway, the adoption of innovations in agriculture is not immediate, due to the interaction of many drivers that impact on individuals and enterprises’ decisions. This paper aims at providing a list of drivers for the adoption of technological innovations in agriculture, on the basis of the outcomes of in-depth interviews and focus groups performed in three European countries (Italy, Greece, Turkey). With specific reference to innovations, ease of use, effectiveness, usefulness, resource savings, and compatibility were mentioned as relevant features for an innovation to be adopted. Trials, demonstrations, experience and knowledge sharing, and support from qualified third parties were included among the facilitating factors for conveying and promoting innovations. Finally, public funding, agricultural policies and market conditions were identified as factors that may tip the balance in the process of innovations’ adoption

Taste and the algorithm

Today, a consistent part of our everyday interaction with art and aesthetic artefacts occurs through digital media, and our preferences and choices are systematically tracked and analyzed by algorithms in ways that are far from transparent. Our consumption is constantly documented, and then, we are fed back through tailored information. We are therefore witnessing the emergence of a complex interrelation between our aesthetic choices, their digital elaboration, and also the production of content and the dynamics of creative processes. All are involved in a process of mutual influences, and are partially determined by the invisible guiding hand of algorithms. With regard to this topic, this paper will introduce some key issues concerning the role of algorithms in aesthetic domains, such as taste detection and formation, cultural consumption and production, and showing how aesthetics can contribute to the ongoing debate about the impact of today’s “algorithmic culture”

What Would You Ask to Your Home if It Were Intelligent? Exploring User Expectations about Next-Generation Homes

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) research is giving birth to a multitude of futuristic home scenarios and applications; however a clear discrepancy between current installations and research-level designs can be easily noticed. Whether this gap is due to the natural distance between research and engineered applications or to mismatching of needs and solutions remains to be understood. This paper discusses the results of a survey about user expectations with respect to intelligent homes. Starting from a very simple and open question about what users would ask to their intelligent homes, we derived user perceptions about what intelligent homes can do, and we analyzed to what extent current research solutions, as well as commercially available systems, address these emerging needs. Interestingly, most user concerns about smart homes involve comfort and household tasks and most of them can be currently addressed by existing commercial systems, or by suitable combinations of them. A clear trend emerges from the poll findings: the technical gap between user expectations and current solutions is actually narrower and easier to bridge than it may appear, but users perceive this gap as wide and limiting, thus requiring the AmI community to establish a more effective communication with final users, with an increased attention to real-world deploymen

XML content warehousing: Improving sociological studies of mailing lists and web data

In this paper, we present the guidelines for an XML-based approach for the sociological study of Web data such as the analysis of mailing lists or databases available online. The use of an XML warehouse is a flexible solution for storing and processing this kind of data. We propose an implemented solution and show possible applications with our case study of profiles of experts involved in W3C standard-setting activity. We illustrate the sociological use of semi-structured databases by presenting our XML Schema for mailing-list warehousing. An XML Schema allows many adjunctions or crossings of data sources, without modifying existing data sets, while allowing possible structural evolution. We also show that the existence of hidden data implies increased complexity for traditional SQL users. XML content warehousing allows altogether exhaustive warehousing and recursive queries through contents, with far less dependence on the initial storage. We finally present the possibility of exporting the data stored in the warehouse to commonly-used advanced software devoted to sociological analysis

Towards Evidence Based M-Health Application Design in Cancer Patient Healthy Lifestyle Interventions

Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases in Europe and the world. Significant correlations between dietary habits and cancer incidence and mortality have been confirmed by the literature. Physical activity habits are also directly implicated in the incidence of cancer. Lifestyle behaviour change may be benefited by using mobile technology to deliver health behaviour interventions. M-Health offers a promising cost-efficient approach to deliver en-masse interventions. Smartphone apps with constructs such as gamification and personalized have shown potential for helping individuals lose weight and maintain healthy lifestyle habits. However, evidence-based content and theory-based strategies have not been incorporated by those apps systematically yet. The aim of the current work is to put the foundations for a methodologically rigorous exploration of wellness/health intervention literature/app landscape towards detailed design specifications for connected health m-apps. In this context, both the overall work plan is described as well as the details for the significant steps of application space and literature space review. Both strategies for research and initial outcomes of it are presented. The expected evidence based design process for patient centered health and wellness interventions is going to be the primary input in the implementation process of upcoming patient centered health/wellness m-health interventions.ENJECT COST-STSM-ECOST-STSM-TD1405-220216-07045

E-portfolio in education. Practices and reflections

The main activities of the digiFolio Project include: Building a common knowledge base supported by research work on the theory of portfolio usage; Paper and online publication of the results of the research work; Establishment of the pedagogical model for the training course; Analysis of the existing technological infrastructures for digital portfolio usage; Adjustment of the best tools and training course setup; Piloting and evidencing of the training course; Monitoring of the trainees' work by using a specific online teachers' support structure; International seminar. Website: http://digifolioseminar.org/?The present publication addresses the use of digital portfolios in educational context and it is one of the latest dissemination activities of the Digifolio project – Digital Portfolio as a strategy for teachers’ professional development, a COMENIUS 2.1 project which was carried out between 2005 and 2008. It involved several universities and teacher training institutions from five different European countries. The project, which main focus was the reflection on the potentialities of portfolios and digital technologies in the perspective of teachers’ professional development, came to its end with an international seminar which aimed at disseminating the work produced in the frame of a previous teachers training course, as well as allowing and welcoming the contribution of other education professionals with their practices and reflections on the above-mentioned thematic.Europeen Comissio

Critical-Emancipatory Workshop Analysis Through Qualitative Analysis Software

Critical-emancipatory Workshop is a data collection technique and interventional strategy for emancipatory education aimed at participants involved in the research. It usually results in a significant amount of data in text, audio, image and video formats. Taking this into account, qualitative analysis software usage is paramount to data treatment optimization and promotion of results credibility. This research aimed at identifying the potentialities and limits of webQDA for a Critical-emancipatory Workshop qualitative analysis. To this end, a case study based on the researchers\u27 experience was conducted. It revealed that webQDA is a powerful digital tool for broadening and deepening the analysis of qualitative data; however, some of its features might be improved depending on specificities of the data collection technique