Discovering affect-laden requirements to achieve system acceptance

Novel envisioned systems face the risk of rejection by their target user community and the requirements engineer must be sensitive to the factors that will determine acceptance or rejection. Conventionally, technology acceptance is determined by perceived usefulness and ease-of-use, but in some domains other factors play an important role. In healthcare systems, particularly, ethical and emotional factors can be crucial. In this paper we describe an approach to requirements discovery that we developed for such systems. We describe how we have applied our approach to a novel system to passively monitor users for signs of cognitive decline consistent with the onset of dementia. A key challenge was eliciting users’ reactions to emotionally charged events never before experienced by them at first hand. Our goal was to understand the range of users’ emotional responses and their values and motivations, and from these formulate requirements that would maximise the likelihood of acceptance of the system. The problem was heightened by the fact that the key stakeholders were elderly people who represent a poorly studied user constituency. We discuss the elicitation and analysis methodologies used, and our experience with tool support. We conclude by reflecting on the affect issues for RE and for technology acceptance

Pluto and the Platypus: An Odd Ball and an Odd Duck — On Classificatory Norms

Some astronomers believe that we have discovered that Pluto is not a planet. I contest this assessment. Recent discoveries of trans-Neptunian Pluto-sized objects do not require that we exclude Pluto from the planets. But the obvious alternative, that classificatory revision is a matter of arbitrary choice, is also unpalatable. I argue that this classificatory controversy — which I compare to the controversy about the classification of the platypus — illustrates how our classificatory practices are laden with normative commitments of a distinctive kind. I argue that the “norm-ladenness” of classification has philosophically significant ramifications for how we think about scientific disputes and debates in the metaphysics of classification such as the monism/pluralism debate

Towards a Non-Functional Requirements Discovery Approach for Persuasive Systems

[Abstract] A number of software systems that attempt to help people achieve behavior change have been proposed in various domains such as health and wellness. However, sometimes, such systems have failed to provide a satisfactory or sustainable User Experience (UX), as it is observed when users may be reluctant to respond to the activation of the systems' changing demands. Moreover, a negative User Experience (UX) can be exposed by Behavior Change Support Systems (BCSS) if designers do not have clear understanding of the requirements that factually help changing the user behavior that accomplishes a sustainability goal. We first explored the Persuasive System Design (PSD) model that should be considered in UX assessment of BCSSs. Then, we propose a requirements discovery process that can be considered to redesign a software interactive system based on negative UX.This work has received partial support by the projects FEDER-UE CSI ED431G/01, ED43C 2018/29, accreditation 2016-2019 ED431G/08, KUSISQA supported by N° 014-2019-FONDECYT-BM-INC.INV, NOVA LINCS UID/CEC/04516/2019, MICINN IJC2018-037522-I, RTI2018-099646-B-I00Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/01Xunta de Galicia; ED43C 2018/29Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/08Gobierno de Chile; 014-2019-FONDECYTBM-INC.INVRepública Portuguesa. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; UID/CEC/04516/201

The Mediating Role of Cinema in Representation of Hard Power Case Study: The movie "Zero Dark Thirty"

In recent decades, critical geopolitics has worked to achieve a proper understanding of the conditions prevailing in the world by common discourse analysis along with power relations. One of the areas ­taken into consideration seriously by the critical geopolitical is the media. Media, due to its function in issues related to soft power and common discourse in geopolitics and soft power has the ability to influence the prevailing trends in public opinion through ­ influencing on audiences and conveying information. Various media ­ are widely used to enhance the influence and expansion of soft power and also strengthening the function of hard power by the states ­and especially the world major powers like the United States of America. One of the Media ­ that has been utilized seriously to present an acceptable and also influential picture of states is cinema. In critical geopolitical perspective, ­ capabilities that cinema provides to represent different real and imaginative narratives and also its entertaining and attractive nature for people lead to represent different functions than news media represent of themselves. One of the functions is to use cinema to represent the hard power in order to convince citizens and to convey the message of ­ threats to enemies. As in 2012, in movie "Zero Dark Thirty" the hard power of the United States in the fight against terrorism was represented. This study intends to use the discourse analysis of the film "Zero Dark Thirty" in responding to this question what the mediating functions of cinema are in representation of ­hard power. Keywords: Media, cinema, representation, hard power, soft powe

Acceptance requirements and their gamification solutions.

We live in the days of social software where social interactions, from simple notifications to complex business processes, are supported by software platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. But for any social software to be successful, it must be used by a sizeable portion of its intended user community. Usage requirements are usually referred to as Acceptance Requirements and they have been studied in the literature both for general technology as well as software. Operationalization techniques for such requirements often consist of making a game out of software usage where users are rewarded/penalized depending on the degree of their participation. The game may be competitive or non-competitive, depending on the anticipated personality traits of intended users. Making a game out of usage is often referred to as Gamification, and gamification has attracted huge attention in the literature for the past few years because it offers a novel approach to software technology usage. This paper proposes a generic framework for designing gamified solutions for acceptance requirements. The framework consists of a generic acceptance goal model that characterizes the problem space by capturing possible refinements for acceptance requirements, and a generic gamification model that captures possible gamified operationalizations of acceptance requirements. These models have been extracted from the literature and they are highly dependent on context (cognitive and social) elements of the intended user community. The proposed framework is illustrated with the Meeting Scheduler exemplar

Combining mouse and keyboard events with higher level desktop actions to detect mild cognitive impairment

We present a desktop monitoring application that combines keyboard, mouse, desktop and application-level activities. It has been developed to discover differences in cognitive functioning amongst older computer users indicative of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Following requirements capture from clinical domain experts, the tool collects all Microsoft Windows events deemed potentially useful for detecting early clinical indicators of dementia, with a view to further analysis to determine the most pertinent. Further requirements capture from potential end-users has resulted in a system that has little impact on users? daily activities and ensures data security from initial recording of events through to data analysis. We describe two experiments: firstly, volunteers were asked to perform a short set of known tasks; the second (ongoing) experiment is a longitudinal study, with the software currently successfully running on participants? computers

Combining data mining and text mining for detection of early stage dementia:the SAMS framework

In this paper, we describe the open-source SAMS framework whose novelty lies in bringing together both data collection (keystrokes, mouse movements, application pathways) and text collection (email, documents, diaries) and analysis methodologies. The aim of SAMS is to provide a non-invasive method for large scale collection, secure storage, retrieval and analysis of an individual’s computer usage for the detection of cognitive decline, and to infer whether this decline is consistent with the early stages of dementia. The framework will allow evaluation and study by medical professionals in which data and textual features can be linked to deficits in cognitive domains that are characteristic of dementia. Having described requirements gathering and ethical concerns in previous papers, here we focus on the implementation of the data and text collection components

Vocal Quality Development in Children with Autism: The Role of Flutter

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are frequently described as having unusual prosody. Studies in vocal quality in children with ASD have been limited in number and are generally descriptive in nature. The objective of this study was to examine the occurrence of a specific vocal quality, flutter, in children with ASD.Method: Vocal flutter was examined via subjective ratings and through acoustic analyses to determine if flutter occurred more frequently in children with ASD than in language delayed or typically developing peers.Conclusion: Vocal flutter was heard more frequently in children with ASD via the subjective ratings. The occurrence of flutter overall was associated with a measure of fundamental frequency fluctuation

Sustainable supply chain management needs sustainable logistics services. The strategic role played by logistics service providers

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine the concept of sustainable service co-creation in triadic business relationships in logistics and supply chain management. More companies seek to develop sustainable solutions that would not be sustainable exclusively for themselves but for the supply chain they belong to. In doing that – especially when dealing with services – they may need the external support from logistics service providers (LSPs). This paper aims to explore the innovative initiatives undertaken by LSPs in triadic relationship management with their customers and suppliers while co-creating sustainable services along the supply chain. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the research question, a systematic literature review and empirical exploratory investigation through case study will be conducted adopting the qualitative methodology, to explore trends and evolving paradigms. Findings – A literature review conducted in this paper enriches existing literature through an integration of sustainability in a viable system approach and logistics service provision, in particular, it investigates the ways in which sustainability is achieved. It is assumed that the triadic relationship among an LSP and its customers and suppliers requires significant modifications in collaboration and an innovative approach in operating procedures. Research limitations/implications – This paper is an exploratory study and limited in its scope to an example of a relationship that focuses mainly on three actors: the supplier, the LSP and the customer. However, it could be extended in terms of numbers of case studies investigated. Practical implications – The implications arising from the literature and the empirical research offer a range of current sustainable practices in the services sector. This could be a starting point for other research and company activities. Originality/value – There is little research that addresses the issue of sustainability and logistics service providers simultaneously, hence the present paper is meant to fill the gap by providing a foundation which actors of different supply chains could use as a benchmark. This study gives evidence of how logistics services may contribute to sustainable development. Key words – sustainable supply chain management, logistics service providers, viable system approach, co-creation, business relationship managemen