Usability and Interaction Dimensions of Participatory Noise and Ecological Monitoring

The integration of sensors in smartphones has transformed personal mobile phones, from tools primarily meant for communication purposes, into instruments that can sense or collect information about the surrounding environment (Lane et al. 2010). There are several mobile apps that allow ordinary members of the public (non-professionals) to collect fine-grained data about their environment and to contribute to real research. By involving citizens in environmental monitoring activities this helps to raise their awareness of environmental issues (Becker et al. 2013). However there are also challenges in the use of such apps. The lower-end sensors for mobile phones do not give the same level of data accuracy as specialised devices. The data is being collected by ‘inexpert’ citizens, which may add to perceptions of the data being inaccurate. Also, in order to apply complex statistical models, the data needs to be collected in mass quantities. This raises two questions about the citizens involved: (1) what is their experience of using the app and (2) what factors motivate them to participate

Creativity in Citizen Cyberscience

An interview study was conducted to explore volunteers’ experiences of creativity in citizen cyberscience. Participants were recruited from 4 projects: GeoTag-X, Virtual Atom Smasher, Synthetic Biology, and Extreme Citizen Science. Ninety-six interviews were conducted in total: 86 with volunteers (citizen scientists) and 10 with professional scientists. The resulting thematic analysis revealed that volunteers are involved in a range of creative activities, such as discussing ideas, suggesting improvements, gamification, artwork, creative writing, and outreach activities. We conclude that the majority of creative products are community-related. Creativity in citizen cyberscience is a collective process: volunteers create within a project and a community, both for themselves and for others

Attitudes Towards End-of-Life Decisions and the Subjective Concepts of Consciousness: An Empirical Analysis

Background: People have fought for their civil rights, primarily the right to live in dignity. At present, the development of technology in medicine and healthcare led to an apparent paradox: many people are fighting for the right to die. This study was aimed at testing whether different moral principles are associated with different attitudes towards end-of-life decisions for patients with a severe brain damage. Methodology: We focused on the ethical decisions about withdrawing life-sustaining treatments in patients with severe brain damage. 202 undergraduate students at the University of Padova were given one description drawn from four profiles describing different pathological states: the permanent vegetative state, the minimally conscious state, the locked-in syndrome, and the terminal illness. Participants were asked to evaluate how dead or how alive the patient was, and how appropriate it was to satisfy the patient's desire. Principal Findings: We found that the moral principles in which people believe affect not only people's judgments concerning the appropriateness of the withdrawal of life support, but also the perception of the death status of patients with severe brain injury. In particular, we found that the supporters of the Free Choice (FC) principle perceived the death status of the patients with different pathologies differently: the more people believe in the FC, the more they perceived patients as dead in pathologies where conscious awareness is severely impaired. By contrast, participants who agree with the Sanctity of Life (SL) principle did not show differences across pathologies. Conclusions: These results may shed light on the complex aspects of moral consensus for supporting or rejecting end-of-life decisions

Supporting the consumption and co-authoring of locative media experiences for a rural village community: design and field trial evaluation of the SHARC2.0 framework

Locative Media Experiences (LMEs) have significant potential in enabling visitors to engage with the places that they visit through an appreciation of local history. For example, a visitor to Berlin that is exploring remnants of the Berlin Wall may be encouraged to appreciate (or in part experience) the falling of the Berlin wall by consuming multimedia directly related to her current location such as listening to audio recordings of the assembled crowds on 10th November 1989. However, despite the growing popularity of enabling technologies (such as GPS-equipped smart phones and tablets), the availability of tools that support the authoring of LMEs is limited. In addition, mobile apps that support the consumption of LMEs typically adopt an approach that precludes users from being able to respond with their own multimedia contributions. In this article we describe the design and evaluation of the SHARC2.0 framework that has been developed as part of our long-term and participatory engagement with the rural village of Wray in the north of England. Wray has very limited cellular data coverage which has placed a requirement on the framework and associated tools to operate without reliance on network connectivity. A field study is presented which featured a LME relating to Wray’s local history and which contained multimedia content contributed by members of the community including historic photos (taken from an existing ‘Digital Noticeboard’ system), audio-clips (from a local historian and village residents) and video (contributed during a design workshop). The novelty of our approach relates to the ability of multiple authors to contribute to a LME in-situ, and the utilisation of personal cloud storage for storing the contents associated with a multi-authored LME

Quality of Reporting on the Vegetative State in Italian Newspapers. The Case of Eluana Englaro

Background: Media coverage of the vegetative state (VS) includes refutations of the VS diagnosis and describes behaviors inconsistent with VS. We used a quality score to assess the reporting in articles describing the medical characteristics of VS in Italian newspapers. Methodology/Principal Findings: Our search covered a 7-month period from July 1, 2008, to February 28, 2009, using the online searchable databases of four major Italian newspapers: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Avvenire. Medical reporting was judged as complete if three core VS characteristics were described: patient unawareness of self and the environment, preserved wakefulness (eyes open), and spontaneous respiration (artificial ventilator not needed). We retrieved 2,099 articles, and 967 were dedicated to VS. Of these, 853 (88.2%) were non-medical and mainly focused on describing the political, legal, and ethical aspects of VS. Of the 114 (11.8%) medical articles, 53 (5.5%) discussed other medical problems such as death by dehydration, artificial nutrition, neuroimaging, brain death, or uterine hemorrhage, and 61 (6.3%) described VS. Of these 61, only 18 (1.9%) reported all three CORE characteristics and were judged complete. We found no differences among the four investigated newspapers (Fisher’s exact = 0.798), and incomplete articles were equally distributed between journalistic pieces and expert opinions (x 2 = 1.8854, P = 0.170). Incorrect descriptions of VS were significantly more common among incomplete articles (13 of 43 vs. 1 of 18; Fisher’s exact P = 0.047)

Implementing telehealth to support medical practice in rural/remote regions: what are the conditions for success?

BACKGROUND: Telehealth, as other information and communication technologies (ICTs) introduced to support the delivery of health care services, is considered as a means to answer many of the imperatives currently challenging health care systems. In Canada, many telehealth projects are taking place, mostly targeting rural, remote or isolated populations. So far, various telehealth applications have been implemented and have shown promising outcomes. However, telehealth utilisation remains limited in many settings, despite increased availability of technology and telecommunication infrastructure. METHODS: A qualitative field study was conducted in four remote regions of Quebec (Canada) to explore perceptions of physicians and managers regarding the impact of telehealth on clinical practice and the organisation of health care services, as well as the conditions for improving telehealth implementation. A total of 54 respondents were interviewed either individually or in small groups. Content analysis of interviews was performed and identified several effects of telehealth on remote medical practice as well as key conditions to ensure the success of telehealth implementation. RESULTS: According to physicians and managers, telehealth benefits include better access to specialised services in remote regions, improved continuity of care, and increased availability of information. Telehealth also improves physicians' practice by facilitating continuing medical education, contacts with peers, and access to a second opinion. At the hospital and health region levels, telehealth has the potential to support the development of regional reference centres, favour retention of local expertise, and save costs. Conditions for successful implementation of telehealth networks include the participation of clinicians in decision-making, the availability of dedicated human and material resources, and a planned diffusion strategy. Interviews with physicians and managers also highlighted the importance of considering telehealth within the broader organisation of health care services in remote and rural regions. CONCLUSION: This study identified core elements that should be considered when implementing telehealth applications with the purpose of supporting medical practice in rural and remote regions. Decision-makers need to be aware of the specific conditions that could influence telehealth integration into clinical practices and health care organisations. Thus, strategies addressing the identified conditions for telehealth success would facilitate the optimal implementation of this technology

Predicting video game players’ fun from physiological and behavioural data : one algorithm does not fit all

Finding a physiological signature of a player’s fun is a goal yet to be achieved in the field of adaptive gaming. The research presented in this paper tackles this issue by gathering physiological, behavioural and self-report data from over 200 participants who played off-the-shelf video games from the Assassin’s Creed series within a minimally invasive laboratory environment. By leveraging machine learning techniques the prediction of the player’s fun from its physiological and behavioural markers becomes a possibility. They provide clues as to which signals are the most relevant in establishing a physiological signature of the fun factor by providing an important score based on the predictive power of each signal. Identifying those markers and their impact will prove crucial in the development of adaptive video games. Adaptive games tailor their gameplay to the affective state of a player in order to deliver the optimal gaming experience. Indeed, an adaptive video game needs a continuous reading of the fun level to be able to respond to these changing fun levels in real time. While the predictive power of the presented classifier remains limited with a gain in the F1 score of 15% against random chance, it brings insight as to which physiological features might be the most informative for further analysis and discuss means by which low accuracy classification could still improve gaming experience

The role of experimental test beds for the systems testing of future marine electrical power systems

Marine electrical power systems (MEPS) are experiencing a progressive change with increased electrification - incorporation of distributed power generation, high power density requirement, increased storage integration, availability of alternative technologies and incorporation of novel loads to name a few. In recent years, smart grid (advanced land based power systems) concepts have increasingly been incorporated within MEPS to leverage on their proven advantages. Due to the distinct nature of the two power systems, upon incorporation, the solutions need to be further proven by simulations and experimentation. This paper presents two smart grid enabled MEPS test beds at the University of Strathclyde developed to allow for proof of concept validations, prototyping, component characterization, test driven development/enhancement of emerging MEPS solutions, technologies and architectures. The capabilities of the test beds for rapid proof of concept validations and component characterization are discussed by means of two case studies. Drawing on from the two case studies, this paper further presents a discussion on the requirements of systems testing of future more electric MEPS