EXPLORING THE STAGES OF INFORMATION SEEKING IN A CROSS-MODAL CONTEXT

Previous studies of users with visual impairments access to the web have focused on human-web interaction. This study explores the under investigated area of cross-modal collaborative information seeking (CCIS), that is, the challenges and opportunities that exist in supporting visually impaired (VI) users to take an effective part in collaborative web search tasks with sighted peers. We conducted an observational study to investigate the process with fourteen pairs of VI and sighted users in co-located and distributed settings. The study examined the effects of cross-modal collaborative interaction on the stages of the individual Information Seeking (IS) process. The findings showed that the different stages of the process were performed individually most of the time; however it was observed that some collaboration took place in the results exploration and management stages. The accessibility challenges faced by VI users affected their individual and collaborative interaction and also enforced certain points of collaboration. The paper concludes with some recommendations towards improving the accessibility of cross-modal collaborative search.Peer Reviewe

Digital Wellbeing for All: Expanding Inclusivity to Embrace Diversity in Socio-Emotional Status

The ubiquity of information and communication technology contributed positively in enhancing lives, mainly in increasing productivity and economic growth, while their impact on life satisfaction and wellbeing has been a hidden cost. Digital media shall empower users to maximise their digital wellbeing, i.e. healthy and regulated relationship with technology. Similar to usability, people differ in their needs to achieve and maintain their digital wellbeing. A technology design shall be inclusive in how it helps users to increase their digital wellbeing and reduce possible harm. Typical inclusivity dimensions in Human-Computer Interaction research include gender, race, physical and cognitive abilities, with the aim of making the product usable by the wider possible user set. However, another range of inclusivity dimensions becomes prominent and that is the diversity in users' socio-emotional characteristics such as susceptibility to online pressure (technical and social), resilience and others. Such characteristics can be traits, e.g. introversion, or temporal status, e.g. being in a low mood. In this position paper, we are proposing digital wellbeing as a target for an inclusive design where technology designers need to anticipate and reduce the negative impact of their products and services on the wellbeing of users through considering their diverse socio-emotional status

How the different explanation classes impact trust calibration: The case of clinical decision support systems

Machine learning has made rapid advances in safety-critical applications, such as traffic control, finance, and healthcare. With the criticality of decisions they support and the potential consequences of following their recommendations, it also became critical to provide users with explanations to interpret machine learning models in general, and black-box models in particular. However, despite the agreement on explainability as a necessity, there is little evidence on how recent advances in eXplainable Artificial Intelligence literature (XAI) can be applied in collaborative decision-making tasks, i.e., human decision-maker and an AI system working together, to contribute to the process of trust calibration effectively. This research conducts an empirical study to evaluate four XAI classes for their impact on trust calibration. We take clinical decision support systems as a case study and adopt a within-subject design followed by semi-structured interviews. We gave participants clinical scenarios and XAI interfaces as a basis for decision-making and rating tasks. Our study involved 41 medical practitioners who use clinical decision support systems frequently. We found that users perceive the contribution of explanations to trust calibration differently according to the XAI class and to whether XAI interface design fits their job constraints and scope. We revealed additional requirements on how explanations shall be instantiated and designed to help a better trust calibration. Finally, we build on our findings and present guidelines for designing XAI interfaces

Managing Procrastination on Social Networking Sites: The D-Crastinate Method.

Procrastination refers to the voluntary avoidance or postponement of action that needs to be taken, that results in negative consequences such as low academic performance, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Previous work has demonstrated the role of social networking site (SNS) design in users' procrastination and revealed several types of procrastination on SNS. In this work, we propose a method to combat procrastination on SNS (D-Crastinate). We present the theories and approaches that informed the design of D-Crastinate method and its stages. The method is meant to help users to identify the type of procrastination they experience and the SNS features that contribute to that procrastination. Then, based on the results of this phase, a set of customised countermeasures are suggested for each user with guidelines on how to apply them. To evaluate our D-Crastinate method, we utilised a mixed-method approach that included a focus group, diary study and survey. We evaluate the method in terms of its clarity, coverage, efficiency, acceptance and whether it helps to increase users' consciousness and management of their own procrastination. The evaluation study involved participants who self-declared that they frequently procrastinate on SNS. The results showed a positive impact of D-Crastinate in increasing participants' awareness and control over their procrastination and, hence, enhancing their digital wellbeing

Markers associated with covid-19 susceptibility, resistance, and severity

In December 2019, the latest member of the coronavirus family, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged in Wuhan, China, leading to the outbreak of an unusual viral pneumonia known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 was then declared as a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). The initial mortality rate of COVID-19 declared by WHO was 2%; however, this rate has increased to 3.4% as of 3 March 2020. People of all ages can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, but those aged 60 or above and those with underlying medical conditions are more prone to develop severe symptoms that may lead to death. Patients with severe infection usually experience a hyper pro-inflammatory immune reaction (i.e., cytokine storm) causing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which has been shown to be the leading cause of death in COVID-19 patients. However, the factors associated with COVID-19 susceptibility, resistance and severity remain poorly understood. In this review, we thoroughly explore the correlation between various host, viral and environmental markers, and SARS-CoV-2 in terms of susceptibility and severity

Contribution of citizen science to improve knowledge on marine biodiversity in the Gulf Region

Monitoring marine biodiversity is costly and practical solutions have to be implemented to identify species and their preferred habitats, particularly in this era of rapid global change. Citizen science has proven to be effective and with high potential for monitoring efforts, and has been extensively applied to biodiversity. We have used the citizen science approach to engage the general public and stakeholders to contribute improving the current knowledge of sea snake biodiversity in Qatar and the Gulf Region. Logistic regression analysis using demographic data from interview surveys conducted in Qatar has indicated that the people having seen more sea snakes are older than 30 years and are Qatari citizens and/or fishermen from India. Of the ten species of sea snakes listed in the literature to be present in the Gulf Region, most of them have been reported for Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. However, the number of species present is often assumed based on their occurrence within the Arabian Gulf rather than on actual captures and appropriate identification. The creation of marine reference biological scientific collections to properly identify the species and make accurate biodiversity inventories is an urgent priority for the countries in the Gulf region. To this end, contributions by stakeholders and the general public for this study have proven to be very useful. However a larger networking with local and international scientists and stakeholders is still needed to adequately survey the country''s current biodiversity, identify research priorities and eventually provide the scientific input needed to assist biodiversity management related to renewable resource management and marine conservation in the Arabian Gulf Region

Immunoinformatics prediction of potential immunodominant epitopes from human coronaviruses and association with autoimmunity

Cross-reactivity between different human coronaviruses (HCoVs) might contribute to COVID-19 outcomes. Here, we aimed to predict conserved peptides among different HCoVs that could elicit cross-reacting B cell and T cell responses. Three hundred fifty-one full-genome sequences of HCoVs, including SARS-CoV-2 (51), SARS-CoV-1 (50), MERS-CoV (50), and common cold species OC43 (50), NL63 (50), 229E (50), and HKU1 (50) were downloaded aligned using Geneious Prime 20.20. Identification of epitopes in the conserved regions of HCoVs was carried out using the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) to predict B- and T-cell epitopes. Further, we identified sequences that bind multiple common MHC and modeled the three-dimensional structures of the protein regions. The search yielded 73 linear and 35 discontinuous epitopes. A total of 16 B-cell and 19 T-cell epitopes were predicted through a comprehensive bioinformatic screening of conserved regions derived from HCoVs. The 16 potentially cross-reactive B-cell epitopes included 12 human proteins and four viral proteins among the linear epitopes. Likewise, we identified 19 potentially cross-reactive T-cell epitopes covering viral proteins. Interestingly, two conserved regions: LSFVSLAICFVIEQF (NSP2) and VVHSVNSLVSSMEVQSL (spike), contained several matches that were described epitopes for SARS-CoV. Most of the predicted B cells were buried within the SARS-CoV-2 protein regions’ functional domains, whereas T-cell stretched close to the functional domains. Additionally, most SARS-CoV-2 predicted peptides (80%) bound to different HLA types associated with autoimmune diseases. We identified a set of potential B cell and T cell epitopes derived from the HCoVs that could contribute to different diseases manifestation, including autoimmune disorders

Consequence of aging at Au/HTM/perovskite interface in triple cation 3D and 2D/3D hybrid perovskite solar cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) expressed great potentials for offering a feasible alternative to conventional photovoltaic technologies. 2D/3D hybrid PSCs, where a 2D capping layer is used over the 3D film to avoid the instability issues associated with perovskite film, have been reported with improved stabilities and high power conversion efficiencies (PCE). However, the profound analysis of the PSCs with prolonged operational lifetime still needs to be described further. Heading towards efficient and long-life PSCs, in-depth insight into the complicated degradation processes and charge dynamics occurring at PSCs' interfaces is vital. In particular, the Au/HTM/perovskite interface got a substantial consideration due to the quest for better charge transfer; and this interface is debatably the trickiest to explain and analyze. In this study, multiple characterization techniques were put together to understand thoroughly the processes that occur at the Au/HTM/perovskite interface. Inquest analysis using current–voltage (I–V), electric field induced second harmonic generation (EFISHG), and impedance spectroscopy (IS) was performed. These techniques showed that the degradation at the Au/HTM/perovskite interface significantly contribute to the increase of charge accumulation and change in impedance value of the PSCs, hence resulting in efficiency fading. The 3D and 2D/3D hybrid cells, with PCEs of 18.87% and 20.21%, respectively, were used in this study, and the analysis was performed over the aging time of 5000 h. Our findings propose that the Au/HTM/perovskite interface engineering is exclusively essential for attaining a reliable performance of the PSCs and provides a new perspective towards the stability enhancement for the perovskite-based future emerging photovoltaic technology.Scopu