65 research outputs found
Utilizing Volunteered Geographic Information to Develop a Real-Time Disaster Mapping Tool: A Prototype and Research Framework
The global proliferation of personal mobile devices has provided the capability of electronic data collection to billions of people. Furthermore, recent innovations in technologies and implementation methodologies have allowed groups of people to collect and analyze large quantities of data. Examples of such systems include Wikipedia, a community-sourced digital encyclopedia, and Yelp, a directory and review tool of local businesses. The occurrence of important events or the establishment of new restaurants has motivated individuals to provide timely and accurate contributions to Wikipedia or Yelp, respectively. Considering the benefits of widespread data collection capabilities and the motivations to contribute to public knowledge, this design-science paper proposes and prototypes components of a publically driven, real-time disaster-response mapping system
The Effects of Geospatial Website Attributes on eImage: An Exploratory Study
This research-in-progress analyzes the impacts of geospatial website attributes on eImage, or the online image of an organization. Specifically, geospatial attributes on websites of service-oriented businesses that must convince consumers to visit their physical locations are addressed. Limited existing research regarding geospatial website attributes provided the motivation to conduct this study. Additionally, the moderating impact of geospatial reasoning ability on eImage is explored. The results of this study will further electronic commerce and human-computer interaction research, expand the understanding of website attributes and their effects on eImage, as well as provide practical guidance for web designers
Understanding and Managing Website Information Content: The WICS Method
This study describes and demonstrates the Website Information Content Survey (WICS), which is intended to provide practitioners and researchers with a means of systematically describing website information content. In an exploratory survey of twenty business-to-consumer websites across five e-commerce domains, we demonstrate how the survey can be used to make cross-website comparisons that can identify potential gaps in a websiteâs information content. The results of this study offer actionable guidance to practitioners seeking to match their websiteâs information mix to customersâ demands for product, company, and channel information. We also enable future investigations of hypothesized relationships between website information content and user-website interaction outcomes
Impact of Geospatial Reasoning Ability and Perceived Task-Technology Fit on Decision-Performance: The Moderating Role of Task Characteristics
Consumer, business and governmental entities increasingly rely on spatial decision support systems (SDSS) for decision-making involving geospatial data. Understanding user- and task-characteristics that impact decision performance will allow developers of such systems to maximize geospatial decision-making performance. Furthermore, scholars will benefit from a more comprehensive understanding of what specific characteristics influence decision-making as such knowledge can guide future research in the decision sciences domain. This paper provides a synthesis of geospatial reasoning ability, task-complexity, geovisualization and decision-performance research. A two-factor experiment designed to measure the impact of geospatial reasoning ability on decision-performance is performed. Two treatments, problem-complexity and map-complexity, are investigated for their moderating role on decision-performance. A partial least squares analysis is performed to assess the experiment results. Cognitive Fit Theory is used as the theoretical framework of this study and is extended, along with research in decision-performance and geospatial reasoning ability
DSS Access on the World Wide Web: An Empirical Test of an Open DSS Protocol
The World Wide Web (WWW) was designed to be a pool of human knowledge, which would allow collaborators to share their ideas and all aspects of a common project [1]. This goal for the WWW makes it an ideal distribution system for the Decision Support Systems (DSSs) of the future. The purpose of this research study is to validate a protocol that was designed to allow DSS information to be found and transmitted via the WWW. This paper describes an empirical study designed to determine if users can utilize an Open DSS protocol to create specifications which fully describe specific DSS applications. The results of this study will be presented at the conferenc
Atorvastatin Therapy during the Peri-Infarct Period Attenuates Left Ventricular Dysfunction and Remodeling after Myocardial Infarction
Although statins impart a number of cardiovascular benefits, whether statin therapy during the peri-infarct period improves subsequent myocardial structure and function remains unclear. Thus, we evaluated the effects of atorvastatin on cardiac function, remodeling, fibrosis, and apoptosis after myocardial infarction (MI). Two groups of rats were subjected to permanent coronary occlusion. Group II (nâ=â14) received oral atorvastatin (10 mg/kg/d) daily for 3 wk before and 4 wk after MI, while group I (nâ=â12) received equivalent doses of vehicle. Infarct size (Masson's trichrome-stained sections) was similar in both groups. Compared with group I, echocardiographic left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and fractional area change (FAC) were higher while LV end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) and LV end-systolic and end-diastolic diameters (LVESD and LVEDD) were lower in treated rats. Hemodynamically, atorvastatin-treated rats exhibited significantly higher dP/dtmax, end-systolic elastance (Ees), and preload recruitable stroke work (PRSW) and lower LV end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP). Morphometrically, infarct wall thickness was greater in treated rats. The improvement of LV function by atorvastatin was associated with a decrease in hydroxyproline content and in the number of apoptotic cardiomyocyte nuclei. We conclude that atorvastatin therapy during the peri-infarct period significantly improves LV function and limits adverse LV remodeling following MI independent of a reduction in infarct size. These salubrious effects may be due in part to a decrease in myocardial fibrosis and apoptosis
Dysregulation of the Norepinephrine Transporter Sustains Cortical Hypodopaminergia and Schizophrenia-Like Behaviors in Neuronal Rictor Null Mice
A novel animal model highlights the link between Akt dysfunction, reduced cortical dopamine function, norepinephrine transporters, and schizophrenia-like behaviors
Pathogenetics of alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins.
Alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV) is a lethal lung developmental disorder caused by heterozygous point mutations or genomic deletion copy-number variants (CNVs) of FOXF1 or its upstream enhancer involving fetal lung-expressed long noncoding RNA genes LINC01081 and LINC01082. Using custom-designed array comparative genomic hybridization, Sanger sequencing, whole exome sequencing (WES), and bioinformatic analyses, we studied 22 new unrelated families (20 postnatal and two prenatal) with clinically diagnosed ACDMPV. We describe novel deletion CNVs at the FOXF1 locus in 13 unrelated ACDMPV patients. Together with the previously reported cases, all 31 genomic deletions in 16q24.1, pathogenic for ACDMPV, for which parental origin was determined, arose de novo with 30 of them occurring on the maternally inherited chromosome 16, strongly implicating genomic imprinting of the FOXF1 locus in human lungs. Surprisingly, we have also identified four ACDMPV families with the pathogenic variants in the FOXF1 locus that arose on paternal chromosome 16. Interestingly, a combination of the severe cardiac defects, including hypoplastic left heart, and single umbilical artery were observed only in children with deletion CNVs involving FOXF1 and its upstream enhancer. Our data demonstrate that genomic imprinting at 16q24.1 plays an important role in variable ACDMPV manifestation likely through long-range regulation of FOXF1 expression, and may be also responsible for key phenotypic features of maternal uniparental disomy 16. Moreover, in one family, WES revealed a de novo missense variant in ESRP1, potentially implicating FGF signaling in the etiology of ACDMPV
Addressing climate change with behavioral science:A global intervention tournament in 63 countries
Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions' effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior-several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people's initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.</p
Addressing climate change with behavioral science: a global intervention tournament in 63 countries
Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventionsâ effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behaviorâseveral interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on peopleâs initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors
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