Automated and Participative Decision Support in Computer-aided Credibility Assessment

History has shown that inaccurate assessments of credibility can result in tremendous costs to businesses and society. This study uses Signal Detection Theory (SDT) to improve the accuracy of credibility assessments through combining automated and participatory decision support. Participatory decision support is also proposed to encourage acceptance of the decision aid’s recommendation. A new hybrid decision aid is designed to perform automated linguistic analysis and elicit and analyze perceptual cues (i.e., indirect cues) from an observer. The results suggest that decision aids that collect both linguistic and indirect cues perform better than decision aids that collect only one type of cue. Users of systems that collect linguistic cues experience improved credibility assessment accuracy; yet, users of systems that collect both types of cues or only indirect cues do not experience higher accuracy. However, collecting indirect cues increases the user’s acceptance of decision-aid recommendations

Proposing the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) to Explain and Predict the Influence of High- and Low-Affect Infusion on Web Vendor Trust

Trust is just as essential to online business as it is to offline transactions but can be more difficult to achieve-especially for newer websites with unknown web vendors. Research on web-based trust development explains that web vendor trust can be created by both cognitive and affective (e.g., emotion-based) influences. But under what circumstances will emotion or cognition be more dominate in trust establishment? Theory-based answers to these questions can help online web vendors design better websites that account for unleveraged factors that will increase trust in the web vendor. To this end, we use the Affect Infusion Model and trust transference to propose the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) that explains and predicts how and when cognition, through perceived website performance (PwP), and positive emotion (PEmo) each influence web vendor trust. ATIM explains the underlying causal mechanisms that determine the degree of affect infusion and the subsequent processing strategy that a user adopts when interacting with a new website. Under high-affect infusion, PEmo acts as a mediator between PwP and vendor trust; under low-affect infusion, PwP primarily impacts trust and PEmo is dis-intermediated. We review two distinct, rigorously validated experiments that empirically support ATIM. To further extend the contributions of ATIM, we demonstrate how use of specific contextual features-rooted in theory and that drive one\u27s choice of affect infusion and cognitive processing-can be leveraged into a methodology that we propose to further enhance user-centered design (UCD). We further detail several exciting research opportunities that can leverage ATIM

Evident and latent plasticity across the rice diterpene synthase family with potential implications for the evolution of diterpenoid metabolism in the cereals

The evolution of natural products biosynthetic pathways can be envisioned to occur via a number of mechanisms. Here we provide evidence that latent plasticity plays a role in such metabolic evolution. In particular, rice (Oryza sativa) produces both ent- and syn-copalyl diphosphate (CPP), which are substrates for downstream diterpene synthases. Here we report that several members of this enzymatic family exhibit dual reactivity with some pairing of ent-, syn-, or normal CPP stereochemistry. Evident plasticity was observed, as a previously reported entsandaracopimaradiene synthase also converts syn-CPP to syn-labda-8(17),12E,14-triene, which can be found in planta. Notably, normal CPP is not naturally found in rice. Thus, the presence of diterpene synthases that react with this non-native metabolite reveals latent enzymatic/metabolic plasticity, providing biochemical capacity for utilization of such a novel substrate (i.e., normal CPP) that may arise during evolution, the implications of which are discussed

Social influence on students' experiences of transition into postgraduate study

Introduction Students’ social relationships play an important role in their experiences of educational transition, with some researchers reporting that postgraduate students often feel a lack of support during their transition. The current study examined how students’ social relationships influence their experiences of transition into taught postgraduate study in the Sport and Exercise Sciences. Method A mixed methods approach was adopted to explore 12 students’ (M age 25±9.54; 4 female, 8 male) social relationships and the perceived influence of these relations on educational transition. A personal network analysis was used to structure an interview which was analysed using a thematic content analysis. Results Five sources of social influence were identified, including social support, social comparison, gate keeper, accommodation of relationships, and, coping with the network. These themes were evidenced and discussed with reference to participants’ network structural features such as tie strength and alter centrality. Discussion The combination of both network structure and function makes a novel contribution to literature by highlighting aspects of participants’ social network in context to their experiences of transition. Results are discussed in relation to social network theory and models of influence. Recommendations for coordinators of Masters programmes are also offered relating to the provision, development and maintenance of supportive relationships

Prospects for detecting gravitational waves at 5 Hz with ground-based detectors

We propose an upgrade to Advanced LIGO (aLIGO), named LIGO-LF, that focuses on improving the sensitivity in the 5-30 Hz low-frequency band, and we explore the upgrade's astrophysical applications. We present a comprehensive study of the detector's technical noises and show that with technologies currently under development, such as interferometrically sensed seismometers and balanced-homodyne readout, LIGO-LF can reach the fundamental limits set by quantum and thermal noises down to 5 Hz. These technologies are also directly applicable to the future generation of detectors. We go on to consider this upgrade's implications for the astrophysical output of an aLIGO-like detector. A single LIGO-LF can detect mergers of stellar-mass black holes (BHs) out to a redshift of z~6 and would be sensitive to intermediate-mass black holes up to 2000 M_\odot. The detection rate of merging BHs will increase by a factor of 18 compared to aLIGO. Additionally, for a given source the chirp mass and total mass can be constrained 2 times better than aLIGO and the effective spin 3-5 times better than aLIGO. Furthermore, LIGO-LF enables the localization of coalescing binary neutron stars with an uncertainty solid angle 10 times smaller than that of aLIGO at 30 Hz, and 4 times smaller when the entire signal is used. LIGO-LF also significantly enhances the probability of detecting other astrophysical phenomena including the tidal excitation of neutron star r-modes and the gravitational memory effects.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, published in PR

Measurement of optical response of a detuned resonant sideband extraction gravitational wave detector

We report on the optical response of a suspended-mass detuned resonant sideband extraction (RSE) interferometer with power recycling. The purpose of the detuned RSE configuration is to manipulate and optimize the optical response of the interferometer to differential displacements (induced by gravitational waves) as a function of frequency, independently of other parameters of the interferometer. The design of our interferometer results in an optical gain with two peaks: an RSE optical resonance at around 4 kHz and a radiation pressure induced optical spring at around 41 Hz. We have developed a reliable procedure for acquiring lock and establishing the desired optical configuration. In this configuration, we have measured the optical response to differential displacement and found good agreement with predictions at both resonances and all other relevant frequencies. These results build confidence in both the theory and practical implementation of the more complex optical configuration being planned for Advanced LIGO

Measurement of Optical Response of a Detuned Resonant Sideband Extraction Interferometer

We report on the optical response of a suspended-mass detuned resonant sideband extraction (RSE) interferometer with power recycling. The purpose of the detuned RSE configuration is to manipulate and optimize the optical response of the interferometer to differential displacements (induced by gravitational waves) as a function of frequency, independently of other parameters of the interferometer. The design of our interferometer results in an optical gain with two peaks: an RSE optical resonance at around 4 kHz and a radiation pressure induced optical spring at around 41 Hz. We have developed a reliable procedure for acquiring lock and establishing the desired optical configuration. In this configuration, we have measured the optical response to differential displacement and found good agreement with predictions at both resonances and all other relevant frequencies. These results build confidence in both the theory and practical implementation of the more complex optical configuration being planned for Advanced LIGO.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, for submission to Phys Rev Letter