Consumers and Artificial Intelligence:An Experiential Perspective

Artificial intelligence (AI) helps companies offer important benefits to consumers, such as health monitoring with wearable devices, advice with recommender systems, peace of mind with smart household products, and convenience with voice-activated virtual assistants. However, although AI can be seen as a neutral tool to be evaluated on efficiency and accuracy, this approach does not consider the social and individual challenges that can occur when AI is deployed. This research aims to bridge these two perspectives: on one side, the authors acknowledge the value that embedding AI technology into products and services can provide to consumers. On the other side, the authors build on and integrate sociological and psychological scholarship to examine some of the costs consumers experience in their interactions with AI. In doing so, the authors identify four types of consumer experiences with AI: (1) data capture, (2) classification, (3) delegation, and (4) social. This approach allows the authors to discuss policy and managerial avenues to address the ways in which consumers may fail to experience value in organizations’ investments into AI and to lay out an agenda for future research

Web-Based Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Patients often seek other patients’ experiences with the disease. The Internet provides a wide range of opportunities to share and learn about other people’s health and illness experiences via blogs or patient-initiated online discussion groups. There also exists a range of medical information devices that include experiential patient information. However, there are serious concerns about the use of such experiential information because narratives of others may be powerful and pervasive tools that may hinder informed decision making. The international research network DIPEx (Database of Individual Patients’ Experiences) aims to provide scientifically based online information on people’s experiences with health and illness to fulfill patients’ needs for experiential information, while ensuring that the presented information includes a wide variety of possible experiences. Objective: The aim is to evaluate the colorectal cancer module of the German DIPEx website krankheitserfahrungen.de with regard to self-efficacy for coping with cancer and patient competence. Methods: In 2015, a Web-based randomized controlled trial was conducted using a two-group between-subjects design and repeated measures. The study sample consisted of individuals who had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer within the past 3 years or who had metastasis or recurrent disease. Outcome measures included self-efficacy for coping with cancer and patient competence. Participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group that had immediate access to the colorectal cancer module for 2 weeks or to a waiting list control group. Outcome criteria were measured at baseline before randomization and at 2 weeks and 6 weeks Results: The study randomized 212 persons. On average, participants were 54 (SD 11.1) years old, 58.8% (124/211) were female, and 73.6% (156/212) had read or heard stories of other patients online before entering the study, thus excluding any influence of the colorectal cancer module on krankheitserfahrungen.de. No intervention effects were found at 2 and 6 weeks after baseline. Conclusions: The results of this study do not support the hypothesis that the website studied may increase self-efficacy for coping with cancer or patient competencies such as self-regulation or managing emotional distress. Possible explanations may involve characteristics of the website itself, its use by participants, or methodological reasons. Future studies aimed at evaluating potential effects of websites providing patient experiences on the basis of methodological principles such as those of DIPEx might profit from extending the range of outcome measures, from including additional measures of website usage behavior and users’ motivation, and from expanding concepts, such as patient competency to include items that more directly reflect patients’ perceived effects of using such a website. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02157454; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02157454 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6syrvwXxi

September 11: Perspectives From the Field of Philanthropy -- Volume Three

Assesses the philanthropic sector's response to September 11 through interviews with leaders in the field. Provides lessons learned in the government-philanthropic relief effort, highlighting unresolved public policy issues. Includes recommendations

Identifying the physical features of marina infrastructure associated with the presence of non-native species in the UK

Marine invasive non-native species (NNS) are one of the greatest threats to global marine biodiversity, causing significant economic and social impacts. Marinas are increasingly recognised as key reservoirs for invasive NNS. They provide submersed artificial habitat that unintentionally supports the establishment of NNS introduced from visiting recreational vessels. While ballast water and shipping vectors have been well documented, the role of recreational vessels in spreading NNS has been relatively poorly studied. Identification of the main physical features found within marinas, which relate to the presence of NNS, is important to inform the development of effective biosecurity measures and prevent further spread. Towards this aim, physical features that could influence the presence of NNS were assessed for marinas throughout the UK in July 2013. Thirty-three marine and brackish NNS have been recorded in UK marinas, and of the 88 marinas studied in detail, 83 contained between 1 and 13 NNS. Significant differences in freshwater input, marina entrance width and seawall length were associated with the presence of NNS. Additionally, questionnaires were distributed to marina managers and recreational vessel owners to understand current biosecurity practices and attitudes to recreational vessel biosecurity. The main barriers to biosecurity compliance were cited as cost and time. Further work identifying easily distinguished features of marinas could be used as a proxy to assess risk of invasion. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00227-016-2941-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Materializing digital collecting: an extended view of digital materiality

If digital objects are abundant and ubiquitous, why should consumers pay for, much less collect them? The qualities of digital code present numerous challenges for collecting, yet digital collecting can and does occur. We explore the role of companies in constructing digital consumption objects that encourage and support collecting behaviours, identifying material configuration techniques that materialise these objects as elusive and authentic. Such techniques, we argue, may facilitate those pleasures of collecting otherwise absent in the digital realm. We extend theories of collecting by highlighting the role of objects and the companies that construct them in materialising digital collecting. More broadly, we extend theories of digital materiality by highlighting processes of digital material configuration that occur in the pre-objectification phase of materialisation, acknowledging the role of marketing and design in shaping the qualities exhibited by digital consumption objects and consequently related consumption behaviours and experiences

Invasive alien species in urbanised marine environments: management applications of natural and manipulated salinity stress

The development of the world’s oceans is not only changing the physical appearance of our coastlines, but also the marine communities that inhabit them. Increasing human activity in the seas has contributed to the spread of a vast number of marine invasive non-native species (NNS), which can have serious environmental and economic impacts in their introduced regions. In order to reduce the spread of these species, research into ways to cost-effectively monitor the arrival of new species and control or eradicate harmful species is needed. NNS are especially prevalent as fouling species on artificial structures within urbanised environments, such as harbours and marinas, where the high level of disturbance and changes in environmental conditions may facilitate their establishment. This thesis aims to investigate the effects of natural and manipulated changes in salinity on NNS within these environments, to address knowledge gaps in the management of NNS in Scotland. In order to assess the long-term patterns of individual marine NNS establishment and spread, this thesis begins by updating data on the baseline distribution of marine and brackish NNS in Scotland. In 2016, rapid assessment surveys (RAS) were carried out in eighteen of the largest marinas in mainland Scotland, finding eighteen fouling NNS, triple the number of species detected in 2008 when marinas were last surveyed. The average number of species per site has also increased, rising by 3.2 species over the ten year period from 2006 to 2016. Since the last compilation of marine NNS records in 2012, increased survey efforts across the country have seen an additional 1006 presence records added to a synthesised list of marine and brackish NNS. These records show that there have been a number of new species introduced to Scotland in this period, with the number of recorded marine NNS now totalling 32 species, 22 of which are considered established or likely to be established. Sites identified in this study as having high abundances of NNS should be incorporated into strategic monitoring to allow for early detection of NNS new to Scotland. The influence of salinity variation and other abiotic factors on variation in marina fouling communities was then evaluated. Patterns of NNS diversity were investigated among marinas found on a spectrum of high to low salinity. Field surveys were conducted to assess how native and non-species diversity contributed to fouling community composition on floating pontoons, with primary and secondary data collected on temperature and salinity, site location, marina features and river parameters. Fouling communities are dominated by native species, although NNS occupied more than 50% cover in one site, and over 10% cover in another three sites. NNS and native species diversity were influenced by salinity conditions within a site, with sites further away from rivers having significantly more diverse fouling assemblages and higher numbers of NNS. This data could be used to develop a profile of sites with higher susceptibility to NNS colonisation, allowing for more cost-efficient assignment of monitoring effort. Finally, two experiments were conducted to assess the effectiveness of treatment with hypo-saline waters as a tool for managing biofouling and controlling fouling NNS. Immersion in water with a salinity lower than 10 was shown to reduce biofouling load, resulting in loss of 20 - 50% of biofouling cover. Variation in species’ tolerance to osmotic change resulted in a shift in community composition in the eight weeks following treatment. Susceptibility to low salinity treatment also varied between NNS, such that growth of some NNS actually increased following treatment with hypo-saline water, potentially due to reduced competition from dominant native species. Effectiveness of treatment with freshwater was lessened in sites where communities were exposed to low salinity periods, with no effect of treatment on communities in the site with high freshwater input. These results support previous research indicating the potential of osmotic shock as a method for reducing biofouling, but highlight the potential for unintended consequences if community and NNS tolerance are not given due consideration. These findings highlight opportunities to use the natural salinity variation in Scottish urbanised waters to guide development of NNS monitoring and management strategies. Increased attention is being given to marine NNS management in Scotland, as opportunities for biosecurity planning emerge in the development of regional marine plans, and as marine industries are increasingly becoming aware of their responsibilities to follow best practice guidance in NNS management. The results of this study should be used to inform biosecurity plan development, and to help develop a strategic framework for national monitoring of NNS

Biosecurity implications of the highly invasive carpet sea-squirt didemnum vexillum kott, 2002 for a protected area of global significance

Loch Creran on the west coast of Scotland supports the most expansive reefs of the serpulid (Serpula vermicularis) in the world. It also supports flame shell (Limaria hians) and horse mussel (Modiolus modiolus) reefs, thereby ensuring this loch received designation as a European Special Area of Conservation in 2005. In 2015, environmental DNA of the invasive, non-native colonial tunicate Didemnum vexillum, which has a worldwide distribution, was detected in Loch Creran. Didemnum vexillum was confirmed as being present at an oyster farm in the sea loch, using the cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI), following rapid intertidal and dive surveys in early September 2016. The abundance and distribution range assessment carried out at the farm indicated an early-stage D. vexillum invasion. The follow up dive surveys and wider loch intertidal surveys carried out in 2017 and 2018 confirmed that the D. vexillum presence continues to be associated exclusively with the oyster farm. This is the first time that such a highly invasive species has been found within a protected area of global significance and it has significant biosecurity and policy implications regarding how to manage such invasive species

UNICORE 6 – Recent and Future Advancements

In the last three years activities in Grid computing have changed; in particular in Europe the focus moved from pure research-oriented work on concepts, architectures, interfaces, and protocols towards activities driven by the usage of Grid technologies in day-to-day operation of e-infrastructure and in applicationdriven use cases. This change is also reected in the UNICORE activities [1]. The basic components and services have been established, and now the focus is increasingly on enhancement with higher level services, integration of upcoming standards, deployment in e-infrastructures, setup of interoperability use cases and integration of applications. The development of UNICORE started back more than 10 years ago, when in 1996 users, supercomputer centres and vendors were discussing "what prevents the efficient use of distributed supercomputers?". The result of this discussion was a consensus which still guides UNICORE today: seamless, secure and intuitive access to distributed resources. Since the end of 2002 continuous development of UNICORE took place in several EU-funded projects, with the subsequent broadening of the UNICORE community to participants from across Europe. In 2004 the UNICORE software became open source and since then UNICORE is developed within the open source developer community. Publishing UNICORE as open source under BSD license has promoted a major uptake in the community with contributions from multiple organisations. Today the developer community includes developers from Germany, Poland, Italy, UK, Russia and other countries. The structure of the paper is as follows. In Section 2 the architecture of UNICORE 6 as well as implemented standards are described, while Section 3 focusses on its clients. Section 4 covers recent developments and advancements of UNICORE 6, while in section 5 an outlook on future planned developments is given. The paper closes with a conclusion