Evaluating semi-automatic annotation of domestic energy consumption as a memory aid

Frequent feedback about energy consumption can help conservation, one of the current global challenges. Such feedback is most helpful if users can relate it to their own day-to-day activities. In earlier work we showed that manual annotation of domestic energy consumption logs aids users to make such connection and discover patterns they were not aware of. In this poster we report how we augmented manual annotation with machine learning classification techniques. We propose the design of a lab study to evaluate the system, extending methods used to evaluate context aware memory aids, and we present the results of a pilot with 5 participants

Kejadian Penyakit Busuk Buah Kakao (Phytophthora palmivora var. palmivora) di Desa Karlutu, Kecamatan Seram Utara Barat, Kabupaten Maluku Tengah

The disease of cocoa fruit rot almost infecting all cocoa planting areas in Indonesia.The research aims to determine the disease incidence of fruit rot and its attack onthe cocoa crop in Karlutu village, North West Seram District. The research used acompletely random design block and repeated 3 times. Observations wereperformed on the people's cocoa crop in the village of Karlutu and taken 10 trees assamples for each replay. Subsequent fruit samples were carried to the laboratory andisolated using pin-set into petri-dish containing PDA media, then incubated for 48hours at a room temperature of 25-27 °c. The results of the study obtained theaverage highest disease incidence of cocoa fruit rot disease of 54% and the lowest(33%) in the village of Karlutu. Besides, the condition of cocoa farmer plantationthat is poorly maintained by local farmers causes the high damage caused by thisdisease. Thus, required strengthening local farmer knowledge about optimalcultivation of cocoa by implementing an effective strategy of integrated controlplant disease with an environmentally friendly approach

Sustainable Wellbeing Futures: A Research and Action Agenda for Ecological Economics

The editors of this timely book assert that these problems are not separate, but all stem from our overreliance on an out-dated approach to economics that puts growth of production and consumption above all else

The potential of physical motion cues: changing people’s perception of robots’ performance

Autonomous robotic systems can automatically perform actions on behalf of users in the domestic environment to help people in their daily activities. Such systems aim to reduce users' cognitive and physical workload, and improve wellbeing. While the benefits of these systems are clear, recent studies suggest that users may misconstrue their performance of tasks. We see an opportunity in designing interaction techniques that improve how users perceive the performance of such systems. We report two lab studies (N=16 each) designed to investigate whether showing physical motion, which is showing the process of a system through movement (that is intrinsic to the system's task), of an autonomous system as it completes its task, affects how users perceive its performance. To ensure our studies are ecologically valid and to motivate participants to provide thoughtful responses we adopted consensus-oriented financial incentives. Our results suggest that physical presence does yield higher performance ratings.<br/

Energy advisors at work: charity work practices to support people in fuel poverty

We present an ethnographic study of energy advisors working for a charity that provides support, particularly to people in fuel poverty. Our fieldwork comprises detailed observations that reveal the collaborative, interactional work of energy advisors and clients during home visits, supplemented with interviews and a participatory design workshop with advisors. We identify opportunities for Ubicomp technologies that focus on supporting the work of the advisor, including complementing the collaborative advice giving in home visits, providing help remotely, and producing evidence in support of accounts of practices and building conditions useful for interactions with landlords, authorities and other third parties. We highlight six specific design challenges that relate the domestic fuel poverty setting to the wider Ubicomp literature. Our work echoes a shift in attention from energy use and the individual consumer, specifically to matters of advice work practices and the domestic fuel poverty setting, and to the discourse around inclusive Ubicomp technologies

Energy advisors at work: charity work practices to support people in fuel poverty

We present an ethnographic study of energy advisors working for a charity that provides support, particularly to people in fuel poverty. Our fieldwork comprises detailed observations that reveal the collaborative, interactional work of energy advisors and clients during home visits, supplemented with interviews and a participatory design workshop with advisors. We identify opportunities for Ubicomp technologies that focus on supporting the work of the advisor, including complementing the collaborative advice giving in home visits, providing help remotely, and producing evidence in support of accounts of practices and building conditions useful for interactions with landlords, authorities and other third parties. We highlight six specific design challenges that relate the domestic fuel poverty setting to the wider Ubicomp literature. Our work echoes a shift in attention from energy use and the individual consumer, specifically to matters of advice work practices and the domestic fuel poverty setting, and to the discourse around inclusive Ubicomp technologies

Coarse grained approach for volume conserving models

Volume conserving surface (VCS) models without deposition and evaporation, as well as ideal molecular-beam epitaxy models, are prototypes to study the symmetries of conserved dynamics. In this work we study two similar VCS models with conserved noise, which differ from each other by the axial symmetry of their dynamic hopping rules. We use a coarse-grained approach to analyze the models and show how to determine the coefficients of their corresponding continuous stochastic differential equation (SDE) within the same universality class. The employed method makes use of small translations in a test space which contains the stationary probability density function (SPDF). In case of the symmetric model we calculate all the coarse-grained coefficients of the related conserved Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation. With respect to the symmetric model, the asymmetric model adds new terms which have to be analyzed, first of all the diffusion term, whose coarse-grained coefficient can be determined by the same method. In contrast to other methods, the used formalism allows to calculate all coefficients of the SDE theoretically and within limits numerically. Above all, the used approach connects the coefficients of the SDE with the SPDF and hence gives them a precise physical meaning.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 2 table