Collective Intelligence Analytics Dashboard Usability Evaluation

Online deliberations can reach a size where it is not possible anymore to quickly infer what is going on in a debate. This report presents results from the usefulness and usability evaluation of visualisations that aid the sense-making of large debates. Based on the results of the evaluations we prepared a set of recommendations to inform CI tool providers about the usefulness and usability of each visualisation

A Transformation of Prostate Adenocarcinoma to Small Cell Carcinoma

Here we describe the case of a 57yo male who was diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer, which subsequently transformed into small cell carcinoma of the prostate found on histology. He initially presented with fatigue and feeling poor overall for which he was diagnosed with metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma with PSA of 58.4. At that time, CT imaging showed metastatic disease with lymphadenopathy in the retro-peritoneum and pelvis. He was treated with combined androgenic blockade plus Taxotere and Prednisone, which controlled his disease for a short time. Four years after his initial prostate cancer diagnosis he began to again feel poorly with increased weight loss and N/V. Supra-clavicular lymph node biopsy was done and per histological report showed transformation of his prostate adenocarcinoma into small cell carcinoma of the prostate. He was treated with Carboplatin and 6 cycles of Etoposide after diagnosis but a few months later was noted to have progressive metastatic disease including multiple soft tissue masses in the pelvis and abdomen with significant lymphadenopathy on CT imaging. At this time, PSA level was lower than when he was diagnosed at 45.9, although still elevated. Throughout the course of his disease the highest PSA level was 160.2, which was before his diagnosis of transformation to SCC. A lower PSA level than expected is a common characteristic of this disease process despite extensive local disease being seen on imaging for this patient. He was also found to have osseous metastasis in his lumbar spine and femur. SCC of the prostate is a rare entity affecting only 0.5-2% of men with prostate cancer. It is also one of the most aggressive malignancies. Chemotherapy is the standard treatment, but prognosis remains dismal for men with SCC of the prostate. He is planning to consider hospice with his palliative radiation as his disease has continued to cause him significant abdominal pain requiring emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Other options would include continuing his initial chemo regimen of Carboplatin/Etoposide vs. SALVAGE therapy for SCC.https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/merf2020caserpt/1024/thumbnail.jp

Forward-Backward Multiplicity Correlations in Au+Au Collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 Gev

The study of correlations among particles produced in different rapidity regions may provide understanding of the mechanisms of particle production. Correlations that extend over a longer range are observed in hadron-hadron interactions only at higher energies. Results for short and long-range multiplicity correlations (Forward-Backward) are presented for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. The growth of long range correlations are observed as a function of the pseudorapidity gap in central Au+Au collisions. The Dual Parton model and Color Glass Condensate phenomenology have been explored to understand the origin of long range correlations.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, IWCF06, Hangzhou, China, Nov. 21-24, 200

Long-Term Effects of Home-Based Family Therapy for Non-responding Adolescents With Psychiatric Disorders. A 3-Year Follow-Up

Objective: Home-based treatment of families with low socio-economic status and multiple psychosocial problems (multi-problem families, MPFs) is gaining importance in clinical social epidemiology and health services research. The sustainability of the treatment is of special importance in order to breach transgenerational effects. Methods: We examined outcome, effect size, and clinical significance of home-based treatment for 84 multi-problem families in a naturalistic setting. 48 of the families were available for a follow-up after 3 years. The baseline characteristics of these family systems included low collaboration, an increased family adversity index, minors with high rates of child psychiatric disorders, a high prevalence of comorbidity, low relational family functioning, and adolescents who refused any form of treatment or had unilaterally terminated different forms of treatment before. The home-based family therapy consisted of one or two face-to-face counseling sessions per week over an average of 28.8 months (SD = 19.2). The symptoms and competence of the adolescents, the caregivers, and the family structure were assessed with 13 variables. Results: All variables showed significant improvement rates (pre- vs. post- treatment) with medium to high effect sizes (mean of Cohen's d = 1.04, range = 0.34 - 2.18). All variables showed a sustained or even further improvement at follow-up. Conclusion: This study provides evidence of statistically (p), practically (d), and clinically (RCI) significant changes in symptom and competence-related variables among adolescents and caregivers in MPFs with sustainable long-term effects in the 3-year follow-up period

ECOSENSUS: developing collaborative learning systems for stakeholding development in environmental planning

ECOSENSUS *(Electronic/Ecological Collaborative Sensemaking Support System) investigates the socio-technological issues around developing collaboration tools for participatory environmental decision making amongst (a) marginalised natural resource users, (b) professional 'experts' from different countries, and (c) key decision makers associated with managing ecosystems. An integral activity is the production of open content learning resources to support stakeholders in facilitating distributed environmental decision making. This involves the integrated use of three open source software tools: Moodle (online course management), Compendium (dialogue mapping) and uDig (user friendly desktop/internet GIS). In the first ECOSENSUS-1 phase, the pilot collaborative effort has been focused on supporting stakeholders in developing adaptive management plans for the Rupununi Wetlands in southern Guyana, a region rich in flora and fauna but also under intense pressure to expand the exploitation of its natural resources, including timber, gold, and commercially viable fish species. Results of the ECOSENSUS-1 are briefly described along with some preliminary notes on the current ECOSENUS-2 phase of associated research in Guyana supported by an additional grant from DEFRA. The paper prompts questions on how ECOSENSUS can feed into wider open source course development using the LabSpace on the OpenLearn project

The ECOSENSUS Project: Co-Evolving Tools, Practices and Open Content for Participatory Natural Resource Management

ECOSENSUS (Electronic/Ecological Collaborative Sensemaking Support System)[www.ecosensus.info] is an ESRC e-Social Science pilot project, using a Participatory Action Research methodology to evolve tools and work practices for collaborative work in environmental and natural resource management between a European-based team, and stakeholders involved in the region of concern, the North Rupununi District of Guyana. To promote long term capacity building in the region and beyond, the project's outputs will be disseminated as open source learning resources. Given the disparities in knowledge and power in such a project, central to our work are issues of stakeholder empowerment in the geographical modelling, interpretation and decision making practices that constitute environmental management. We argue that in e-Science, such factors have yet to receive much attention. This paper reports work accomplished to date: progress towards an environment which integrates GIS modelling with participatory deliberation about the implications of the models, and reactions from the indigenous Amerindians to this tool

A Visualisation Dashboard for Contested Collective Intelligence. Learning Analytics to Improve Sensemaking of Group Discussion

The skill to take part in and to contribute to debates is important for informal and formal learning. Especially when addressing highly complex issues, it can be difficult to support learners participating in effective group discussion, and to stay abreast of all the information collectively generated during the discussion. Technology can help with the engagement and sensemaking of such large debates, for example, it can monitor how healthy a debate is and provide indicators of participation's distribution. A special framework that aims at harnessing the intelligence of - small to very large – groups with the support of structured discourse and argumentation tools is Contested Collective Intelligence (CCI). CCI tools provide a rich source of semantic data that, if appropriately processed, can generate powerful analytics of the online discourse. This study presents a visualisation dashboard with several visual analytics that show important aspects of online debates that have been facilitated by CCI discussion tools. The dashboard was designed to improve sensemaking and participation in online debates and has been evaluated with two studies, a lab experiment and a field study in the context of two Higher Education institutes. The paper reports findings of a usability evaluation of the visualisation dashboard. The descriptive findings suggest that participants with little experience in using analytics visualisations were able to perform well on given tasks. This constitutes a promising result for the application of such visualisation technologies as discourse-centric learning analytics interfaces can help to support learners' engagement and sensemaking of complex online debates. In Spanish: La habilidad para participar y contribuir en los debates es importante para el aprendizaje informal y formal. Especialmente cuando se abordan temas altamente complejos, puede ser difícil apoyar a los alumnos que participan en una discusión grupal efectiva y mantenerse al tanto de toda la información generada colectivamente durante la discusión. La tecnología puede ayudar con el compromiso y razonamiento en debates tan grandes, por ejemplo, puede monitorear cuán saludable es un debate y proporcionar indicadores sobre la distribución de la participación. Un marco especial que pretende aprovechar la inteligencia de grupos de pequeños a muy grandes con el apoyo de herramientas de discurso y argumentación estructuradas es la Inteligencia Colectiva Controvertida (CCI). Las herramientas de CCI proporcionan una fuente rica de datos semánticos que, si se procesan de manera adecuada, pueden generar un sofisticado análisis del discurso en línea. Este estudio presenta un panel de visualización con varios análisis visuales que muestran aspectos importantes de los debates en línea que han sido facilitados por las herramientas de discusión de CCI. El tablero de instrumentos fue diseñado para mejorar la creación de sentidos y la participación en los debates en línea y se ha evaluado con dos estudios, un experimento de laboratorio y un estudio de campo, en el contexto de dos institutos de educación superior. Este artículo informa sobre los resultados de una evaluación de usabilidad del panel de visualización. Los hallazgos descriptivos sugieren que los participantes con poca experiencia en el uso de visualizaciones analíticas pudieron desempeñarse bien en determinadas tareas. Esto constituye un resultado prometedor para la aplicación de tales tecnologías de visualización, ya que las interfaces analíticas de aprendizaje centradas en el discurso pueden ayudar a apoyar el compromiso de los alumnos y su razonamiento en debates en línea complejos