Tuning the Diversity of Open-Ended Responses from the Crowd

Crowdsourcing can solve problems that current fully automated systems cannot. Its effectiveness depends on the reliability, accuracy, and speed of the crowd workers that drive it. These objectives are frequently at odds with one another. For instance, how much time should workers be given to discover and propose new solutions versus deliberate over those currently proposed? How do we determine if discovering a new answer is appropriate at all? And how do we manage workers who lack the expertise or attention needed to provide useful input to a given task? We present a mechanism that uses distinct payoffs for three possible worker actions---propose,vote, or abstain---to provide workers with the necessary incentives to guarantee an effective (or even optimal) balance between searching for new answers, assessing those currently available, and, when they have insufficient expertise or insight for the task at hand, abstaining. We provide a novel game theoretic analysis for this mechanism and test it experimentally on an image---labeling problem and show that it allows a system to reliably control the balance betweendiscovering new answers and converging to existing ones

Correlation of the Low-Back Vowel Merger and TRAP-Retraction

The combination of the retraction of TRAP and the merger of LOT and THOUGHT can be found in a number of English dialects. Gordon (2005) has suggested that the merger of LOT and THOUGHT creates a margin of security in which TRAP may retract, and that TRAP-retraction might therefore be expected to be found anywhere the low-back vowel merger exists. This work presents data showing the combination of these two kinds of vowel variation among emerging adult speakers in Illinois. F1 and F2 were measured for TRAP, LOT, and THOUGHT tokens taken from word list recitation and interview speech data for 26 emerging adult speakers from Southern Illinois, Chicagoland, and I-55 Corridor. The data clearly show that speakers in Southern Illinois engage in forms of both TRAP-retraction and the low-back vowel merger. While finding the low-back vowel merger in a South Midland U.S. dialect is unsurprising, the discovery of a well backed TRAP vowel (often further back than the F2 grand mean) in this region is novel. By interpreting the position of TRAP as a function of the degree of low-back vowel merger (i.e., always merged, occasionally merged, or always distinct), we see that Gordon’s suggestion is borne out at the community level. However, the functionalist argument underlying Gordon’s suggestion (i.e., that the retraction of TRAP follows as a result of the “vacuum” in vowel space created by the low-back vowel merger) is not entirely upheld. Though TRAP-retraction and the low-back vowel merger are linked at the community level, at the level of individual speakers this correlation breaks down. It is suggested that this disjoint can be resolved by viewing these results through a model of linguistic variation based on principles of evolution and emergence

Memory in Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Behavioral evidence concerning memory in high-functioning forms of autism (HFA) and in moderately low-functioning autism (M-LFA) is reviewed and compared. Findings on M-LFA are sparse. However, it is provisionally concluded that memory profiles in HFA and M-LFA (relative to ability-matched controls) are similar, but that declarative memory impairments are more extensive in M-LFA than in HFA. Specifically, both groups have diminished memory for emotion- or person-related stimuli. Regarding memory for non-social stimuli, both groups probably have mental-age appropriate nondeclarative memory; and within declarative memory, both groups have mental-age appropriate immediate free recall of within-span or supra-span lists of unrelated items, as well as cued recall and paired associate learning. By contrast, recognition is largely unimpaired in HFA but moderately impaired in M-LFA; and free recall of meaningful or structured stimuli is moderately impaired in HFA but more severely impaired in M-LFA. Theoretical explanations of data on declarative memory in HFA identify problems in the integrative processing, or the consolidation and storage, of complex stimuli; or a specific problem of recollection. Proposed neural substrates include the following: disconnectivity of primary sensory and association areas; dysfunctions of medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus or posterior parietal lobe; or combinations of these associated with neural disconnectivity. Hypothetically, perirhinal dysfunction might explain the more extensive declarative memory impairments in M-LFA. Foreseeable consequences of uneven memory abilities in HFA and M-LFA are outlined, including possible effects on language and learning in M-LFA. Finally, priorities for future research are identified, highlighting the urgent need for research on memory in lower-functioning individuals

Impaired Competence for Pretense in Children with Autism: Exploring Potential Cognitive Predictors.

Lack of pretense in children with autism has been explained by a number of theoretical explanations, including impaired mentalising, impaired response inhibition, and weak central coherence. This study aimed to empirically test each of these theories. Children with autism (n=60) were significantly impaired relative to controls (n=65) when interpreting pretense, thereby supporting a competence deficit hypothesis. They also showed impaired mentalising and response inhibition, but superior local processing indicating weak central coherence. Regression analyses revealed that mentalising significantly and independently predicted pretense. The results are interpreted as supporting the impaired mentalising theory and evidence against competing theories invoking impaired response inhibition or a local processing bias. The results of this study have important implications for treatment and intervention

The Intertwined Renewable Energy–Water–Environment (REWE) Nexus Challenges and Opportunities: A Case Study of California

In our built environment, societal production of energy and clean water is inextricably linked to the natural resources from which they are derived. Acknowledgement and consideration of the coupling of energy, water, and the environment (the energy–water–environment nexus) will be critical to a sustainable future. This is particularly true as we transition away from historical energy sources (e.g., coal, petroleum, natural gas) and into the widespread adaptation of renewable energy (RE) sources (e.g., solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, bioenergy) as a strategy to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and consequently slow global climate change. This transition is fraught with both challenges and opportunities at the county, state, national, and international levels, as addressing future societal needs with respect to energy and water, and the environment requires recognition of their interdependence and development of new technologies and societal practices. In this study, the focus is on the RE–water–environment (REWE) nexus. In California, the REWE nexus is becoming increasingly important in achieving 100% clean electricity from eligible RE and zero-carbon resources by 2045 and in the face of climate change and population and economic growth. In this context, California’s RE deployment and renewable electrical generation, its RE legislative information, REWE nexus, and intertwined REWE nexus challenges and opportunities in California (e.g., administrative–legal, technology development, digitalization, and end-of-life RE waste) are comprehensively discussed to identify the knowledge gaps in this nexus and solutions

Effects of Phosphate Fertilizer Applications and Chemistry-Mineralogy of the Iron Oxide System on Phosphate Adsorption-Desorption by Stream Sediments : Final Report

(print) vii, 102 p. : ill., maps ; 28 cm.Item lacks publication date. Issue date supplied from WorldCat bibliographic recordDespite geologic, geomorphic, and land use differences, suspended sediments collected from the Muskingum River and its tributaries during spring flooding were remarkably uniform in mineralogy and size distribution. The greatest evidence of regional differences came from Moxahala Creek, which receives acid drainage from abandoned coal mines. As a result, Black Fork Creek, a tributary to Moxahala Creek, was chosen for detailed water quality and bottom sediment studies. Marked increases in dissolved SO4, Fe, and Al, and decreased. pH were observed in sections of the stream affected by acid mine drainage. In addition, a gelatinous yellow precipitate of iron was abundant in the bottom sediments below sources of pollution. This Fe-oxide or oxyhydroxide precipitate greatly increased surface area and reactivity of bottom sediments and added to the overall sediment load. A standard P adsorption procedure was proposed and the ability of four laboratories to produce consistent results over a wide range of soils was determined. Soil (0.5 or 1.0 g) was shaken in 0.01 mol L-1 CaCl2 at a soil: solution ratio of 1:25 in containers allowing a 50% head space for 24 hours at 24 to 26°C on an end-over-end shaker. Initial dissolved inorganic P concentrations of 0 to 323 u mol P L-1 (as KH2PO4 or NaH2PO4) were used and microbial activity inhibited by 20 g L-1 chloroform. Excellent agreement between the four laboratories was obtained for P adsorbed by the 12 soils studied, with a mean coefficient of variation over all P levels and soils of 0.91%. The laboratories also exhibited a high degree of replication of individual treatments with no laboratory showing a strong consistent bias across all soils and P levels in terms of P adsorption. Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin adsorption models were highly correlated with the adsorption data. Respective mean correlations for the 12 soils were 0.98, 0.97 and 0.95. The proposed method has the potential to produce consistent results which can be used to predict partitioning of dissolved inorganic P between solid and solution phases in the environment.Acknowledgements -- Abstract -- Chapter 1: Suspended Sediments of the Muskingum River Basin -- Chapter 2: Water and Bottom Sediment Quality in Streams Affected by Acid Coal Mine Drainage - a Study of the Black Fork Creek Watershed, Ohio -- Chapter 3: Interlaboratory Comparison of a Standardized Phosphorus Adsorption Procedur

LuzDeploy: A Collective Action System for Installing Navigation Infrastructure for Blind People

Providing navigation assistance to people with visual impairments often requires augmenting the environment with after-market technology. However, installing navigation infrastructure in large environments requires a critical mass of trained personnel. Recruiting, training and managing participants for such a task is difficult. LuzDeploy is a computational method to recruit, instruct and orchestrate volunteers to perform physical crowdsourcing tasks. We use LuzDeploy to orchestrate volunteers to install physical infrastructure for the navigation assistance of people with visual impairments. Our system provides on-the-go enrollment so that volunteers can participate to the collective action whenever they have time, coming and leaving as needed. Providing automated instructions also allows to avoid instructing participants directly, so experts do not need to be available on-site

The Effects of Sequence and Delay on Crowd Work

A common approach in crowdsourcing is to break large tasks into small microtasks so that they can be parallelized across many crowd workers and so that redundant work can be more easily compared for quality control. In practice, this can re-sult in the microtasks being presented out of their natural order and often introduces delays between individual micro-tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate in a study of 338 crowd workers that non-sequential microtasks and the introduction of delays significantly decreases worker performance. We show that interruptions where a large delay occurs between two related tasks can cause up to a 102 % slowdown in com-pletion time, and interruptions where workers are asked to perform different tasks in sequence can slow down comple-tion time by 57%. We conclude with a set of design guide-lines to improve both worker performance and realized pay, and instructions for implementing these changes in existing interfaces for crowd work. Author Keywords Crowdsourcing; human computation; workflows; continuity