Awareness, views and experiences of Citizen Science among Swedish researchers — two surveys

In 2021 Sweden’s first national portal for citizen science will be launched to help researchers practice sustainable and responsible citizen science with different societal stakeholders. This paper present findings from two surveys on attitudes and experiences of citizen science among researchers at Swedish universities. Both surveys provided input to the development of the national portal, for which researchers are a key stakeholder group. The first survey (n=636) was exclusively focused on citizen science and involved researchers and other personnel at Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU). 63% of respondents at SLU had heard about citizen science (CS) prior to the survey; however a majority of these (61%) had not been involved in any CS initiative themselves. Dominant reasons for researchers choosing a CS approach in projects were to enable collection of large amounts of data (68%), improving the knowledge base (59%), improving data quality (25%), promote participants’ understanding in research (21%) and promote collaboration between the university and society (20%). The other survey (n=3 699) was on the broader topic of communication and open science, including questions on CS, and was distributed to researchers from all Swedish universities. 61% of respondents had not been engaged in any research projects where volunteers were involved in the process. A minority of the researchers had participated in projects were volunteers had collected data (18%), been involved in internal or external communication (16%), contributed project ideas (14%) and/or formulated research questions (11%). Nearly four out of ten respondents (37%) had heard about CS prior to the survey. The researchers were more positive towards having parts of the research process open to citizen observation, rather than open to citizen influence/participation. Our results show that CS is a far from well-known concept among Swedish researchers. And while those who have heard about CS are generally positive towards it, researchers overall are hesitant to invite citizens to take part in the research process

The motivation for citizens’ involvement in life sciences research is predicted by age and gender

Open Science is an umbrella term encompassing multiple concepts as open access to publications, open data, open education and citizen science that aim to make science more open and transparent. Citizen science, an important facet of Open Science, actively involves nonscientists in the research process, and can potentially be beneficial for multiple actors, such as scientists, citizens, policymakers and society in general. However, the reasons that motivate different segments of the public to participate in research are still understudied. Therefore, based on data gathered from a survey conducted in Czechia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the UK (N = 5,870), this study explores five types of incentives that can motivate individuals to become involved in life sciences research. The results demonstrate that men and younger individuals are more persuaded by extrinsic motives (external benefits or rewards), as compared with women and older people, who are driven by intrinsic motives (that originates from within an individual). This paper shows that specific strata of the population are differentially motivated to engage in research, thereby providing relevant knowledge for effectively designing public involvement activities that target various groups of the public in research projects

Evolving germs – Antibiotic resistance and natural selection in education and public communication

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics threatens modern healthcare on a global scale. Several actors in society, including the general public, must become more involved if this development is to be countered. The conveyance of relevant information provided through education and media reports is therefore of high concern. Antibiotic resistance evolves through the mechanisms of natural selection; in this way, a sound understanding of these mechanisms underlies explanations of causes and the development of effective risk-reduction measures. In addition to natural selection functioning as an explanatory framework to antibiotic resistance, bacterial resistance as a context seems to possess a number of qualities that make it suitable for teaching natural selection – a subject that has been proven notoriously hard to teach and learn. A recently suggested approach for learning natural selection involves so-called threshold concepts, which encompass abstract and integrative ideas. The threshold concepts associated with natural selection include, among others, the notions of randomness as well as vast spatial and temporal scales. Illustrating complex relationships between concepts on different levels of organization is one, of several, areas where visualizations are efficient. Given the often-imperceptible nature of threshold concepts as well as the fact that natural selection processes occur on different organizational levels, visual accounts of natural selection have many potential benefits for learning. Against this background, the present dissertation explores information conveyed to the public regarding antibiotic resistance and natural selection, as well as investigates how these topics are presented together, by scrutinizing media including news reports, websites, educational textbooks and online videos. The principal method employed in the media studies was content analysis, which was complemented with various other analytical procedures. Moreover, a classroom study was performed, in which novice pupils worked with a series of animations explaining the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Data from individual written assignments, group questions and video-recorded discussions were collected and analyzed to empirically explore the potential of antibiotic resistance as a context for learning about evolution through natural selection. Among the findings are that certain information, that is crucial for the public to know, about antibiotic resistance was conveyed to a low extent through wide-reaching news reporting. Moreover, explanations based on natural selection were rarely included in accounts of antibiotic resistance in any of the examined media. Thus, it is highly likely that a large proportion of the population is never exposed to explanations for resistance development during education or through newspapers. Furthermore, the few examples that were encountered in newspapers or textbooks were hardly ever visualized, but presented only in textual form. With regard to videos purporting to explain natural selection, it was found that a majority lacked accounts of central key concepts. Additionally, explanations of how variation originates on the DNA-level were especially scarce. These and other findings coming from the content analyses are discussed through the lens of scientific literacy and could be used to inform and strengthen teaching and scientific curricula with regards to both antibiotic resistance and evolution. Furthermore, several factors of interest for using antibiotic resistance in the teaching of evolution were identified from the classroom study. These involve, among others, how learners’ perception of threshold concepts such as randomness and levels of organization in space and time are affected by the bacterial context

Generative AI in essay writing : How IT students at Linnaeus University are using generative AI to write essays

Utvecklingen av generativ artificiell intelligens har haft en påverkan på högre utbildningsinstitutioner som universitet och högskolor. Generativ AI har funnits sedan några år tillbaka men utvecklas konstant för att klara av fler och mer avancerade uppgifter. Den Generativa AI är i dagens läge kapabel till att utföra uppgifter som att generera text, bild och kod baserat på den uppgift som efterfrågas. Det jämförs med tiden då kalkylatorn uppfanns eller när internet kom och studenter upplevde en förändring i utbildning främst då Chat boten, ChatGPT lanserades i slutet av 2022. Efter det har flertalet generativa Chat botar lanserats samt andra generativa artificiella intelligenser. Den generativa AI förmåga att utföra uppgifter på studentens begäran och utefter de kriterier som ställs, skapar en typ av gråzon där frågan kan ställas vad som är tillåtet och inte. Även hur generativ AI skall användas på rätt sätt för att öka studentens förmåga att utveckla dess studier. Generativ AI existerar redan och är här för att stanna vilket gör att utbildningsinstitutioner står inför en utmaning. Denna uppsats utforskar tillsammans med tidigare forskning och analyser hur IT studenter på Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö använder sig av generativ AI inom uppsatsskrivning, vilka beståndsdelar inom uppsatser som anses vara mer krävande och om generativ AI har påverkat deras utbildning. Uppsatsen använder sig av ramverket Task Teknologi Fit (TTF) för att se hur väl studenter uppfattar att generativ AI prestera inom dess 5 olika beståndsdelar. Sammanfattningsvis bidrar denna uppsats till den akademiska diskussionen om generativ AI inom universitetsutbildning och erbjuder insikter av den generativa AI mångfaldiga påverkan av studenter och dess studier. Slutsatsen av arbetet visar att studenters användandet av generativ AI bidrar med kreativa idéer för att vidare utveckla deras uppsatser samt effektiviserar deras arbetsförmåga genom att avlasta studenten med uppgifter

Generative AI in essay writing : How IT students at Linnaeus University are using generative AI to write essays

Utvecklingen av generativ artificiell intelligens har haft en påverkan på högre utbildningsinstitutioner som universitet och högskolor. Generativ AI har funnits sedan några år tillbaka men utvecklas konstant för att klara av fler och mer avancerade uppgifter. Den Generativa AI är i dagens läge kapabel till att utföra uppgifter som att generera text, bild och kod baserat på den uppgift som efterfrågas. Det jämförs med tiden då kalkylatorn uppfanns eller när internet kom och studenter upplevde en förändring i utbildning främst då Chat boten, ChatGPT lanserades i slutet av 2022. Efter det har flertalet generativa Chat botar lanserats samt andra generativa artificiella intelligenser. Den generativa AI förmåga att utföra uppgifter på studentens begäran och utefter de kriterier som ställs, skapar en typ av gråzon där frågan kan ställas vad som är tillåtet och inte. Även hur generativ AI skall användas på rätt sätt för att öka studentens förmåga att utveckla dess studier. Generativ AI existerar redan och är här för att stanna vilket gör att utbildningsinstitutioner står inför en utmaning. Denna uppsats utforskar tillsammans med tidigare forskning och analyser hur IT studenter på Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö använder sig av generativ AI inom uppsatsskrivning, vilka beståndsdelar inom uppsatser som anses vara mer krävande och om generativ AI har påverkat deras utbildning. Uppsatsen använder sig av ramverket Task Teknologi Fit (TTF) för att se hur väl studenter uppfattar att generativ AI prestera inom dess 5 olika beståndsdelar. Sammanfattningsvis bidrar denna uppsats till den akademiska diskussionen om generativ AI inom universitetsutbildning och erbjuder insikter av den generativa AI mångfaldiga påverkan av studenter och dess studier. Slutsatsen av arbetet visar att studenters användandet av generativ AI bidrar med kreativa idéer för att vidare utveckla deras uppsatser samt effektiviserar deras arbetsförmåga genom att avlasta studenten med uppgifter

Is it my responsibility or theirs? Risk communication about antibiotic resistance in the Swedish daily press

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing global threat involving many actors, including the general public. We present findings from a content analysis of the coverage of antibiotic resistance in the Swedish print media with respect to the risk communication factors cause, magnitude and countermeasures. The most commonly reported cause of development and spread of resistance was unnecessary prescription of antibiotics. Risk magnitudes were mostly reported qualitatively rather than using quantitative figures. Risk-reduction measures were analyzed using a framework that distinguishes between personal and societal efficacy. Measures at the societal level were more commonly reported compared to the individual level.EvoVi

Towards Real-Time NavMesh Generation Using GPU Accelerated Scene Voxelization

Context. Producing NavMeshes for pathfinding in computer games is a time-consuming process. Recast and Detour is a pair of stateof-the-art libraries that allows automation of NavMesh generation. It builds on a technique called Scene Voxelization, where triangle geometry is converted to voxels in heightfields. The algorithm is expensive in terms of execution time. A fast voxelization algorithm could be useful in real-time applications where geometry is dynamic. In recent years, voxelization implementations on the GPU have been shown to outperform CPU implementations in certain configurations. Objectives. The objective of this thesis is to find a GPU-based alternative to Recast’s voxelization algorithm, and determine when the GPU-based solution is faster than the reference. Methods. This thesis proposes a GPU-based alternative to Recast’s voxelization algorithm, designed to be an interchangeable step in Recast’s pipeline, in a real-time application where geometry is dynamic. Experiments were conducted to show how accurately the algorithm generates heightfields, how fast the execution time is in certain con- figurations, and how the algorithm scales with different sets of input data. Results. The proposed algorithm, when run on an AMD Radeon RX 480 GPU, was shown to be both accurate and fast in certain configurations. At low voxelfield resolutions, it outperformed the reference algorithm on typical Recast reference models. The biggest performance gain was shown when the input contained large numbers of small triangles. The algorithm performs poorly when the input data has triangles that are big in relation to the size of the voxels, and an optional optimization was presented to address this issue. Another optimization was presented that further increases performance gain when many instances of the same mesh are voxelized. Conclusions. The objectives of the thesis were met. A fast, GPUbased algorithm for voxelization in Recast was presented, and conclusions about when it can outperform the reference algorithm were drawn. Possibilities for even greater performance gains were identified for future research

Engines of creationism? Intelligent design, machine metaphors and visual rhetoric

Machine metaphors are ubiquitous in the molecular sciences. In addition to their use by scientists, educators and popularizers of science, they have been promoted intensively by the Intelligent Design (ID) movement in arguments for the necessity of a god-like designer to account for the complexities of life at the molecular level. The authors have investigated the visual rhetoric employed in a movie by ID proponents, with particular emphasis on machine metaphors. The authors provide examples and argue that science communicators could reduce the persuasive impact of ID visual rhetoric based on machine metaphors by emphasizing that self-assembly is fundamental to molecular complexes.NanoSi