Effective Mitigation of Anchoring Bias, Projection Bias, and Representativeness Bias from Serious Game-based Training

AbstractAlthough human use of heuristics can result in ‘fast and frugal’ decision-making, those prepotent tendencies can also impair our ability to make optimal choices. Previous work had suggested such cognitive biases are resistant to mitigation training. Serious games offer a method to incorporate desirable elements into a training experience, and allow the use of mechanisms that enhance learning and retention. We developed a game to train recognition and mitigation of three forms of cognitive bias: anchoring, a tendency to be inordinately influenced by one piece of information; projection, an implicit assumption that others think or know what you do; and representativeness, judging the likelihood of a hypothesis by how much the available data resembles it. Participants were randomly assigned to play the training game once, twice spaced by 10 to 12 days, or a control condition that used a training video. External questionnaire-based assessments were given immediately post-training and 12 weeks later. Superior training was seen from the game. An independent group using our training game with their own novel bias assessment instruments (to which the researchers and game-developers had no access or content information) validated the key finding. These results demonstrate the viability and high value of using serious computer games to train mitigation of cognitive biases

BLOOM: A 176B-Parameter Open-Access Multilingual Language Model

Large language models (LLMs) have been shown to be able to perform new tasks based on a few demonstrations or natural language instructions. While these capabilities have led to widespread adoption, most LLMs are developed by resource-rich organizations and are frequently kept from the public. As a step towards democratizing this powerful technology, we present BLOOM, a 176B-parameter open-access language model designed and built thanks to a collaboration of hundreds of researchers. BLOOM is a decoder-only Transformer language model that was trained on the ROOTS corpus, a dataset comprising hundreds of sources in 46 natural and 13 programming languages (59 in total). We find that BLOOM achieves competitive performance on a wide variety of benchmarks, with stronger results after undergoing multitask prompted finetuning. To facilitate future research and applications using LLMs, we publicly release our models and code under the Responsible AI License

Widespread deoxygenation of temperate lakes

The concentration of dissolved oxygen in aquatic systems helps to regulate biodiversity, nutrient biogeochemistry, greenhouse gas emissions, and the quality of drinking water. The long-term declines in dissolved oxygen concentrations in coastal and ocean waters have been linked to climate warming and human activity, but little is known about the changes in dissolved oxygen concentrations in lakes. Although the solubility of dissolved oxygen decreases with increasing water temperatures, long-term lake trajectories are difficult to predict. Oxygen losses in warming lakes may be amplified by enhanced decomposition and stronger thermal stratification8,9 or oxygen may increase as a result of enhanced primary production. Here we analyse a combined total of 45,148 dissolved oxygen and temperature profiles and calculate trends for 393 temperate lakes that span 1941 to 2017. We find that a decline in dissolved oxygen is widespread in surface and deep-water habitats. The decline in surface waters is primarily associated with reduced solubility under warmer water temperatures, although dissolved oxygen in surface waters increased in a subset of highly productive warming lakes, probably owing to increasing production of phytoplankton. By contrast, the decline in deep waters is associated with stronger thermal stratification and loss of water clarity, but not with changes in gas solubility. Our results suggest that climate change and declining water clarity have altered the physical and chemical environment of lakes. Declines in dissolved oxygen in freshwater are 2.75 to 9.3 times greater than observed in the world’s oceans and could threaten essential lake ecosystem services

Global data set of long-term summertime vertical temperature profiles in 153 lakes

Climate change and other anthropogenic stressors have led to long-term changes in the thermal structure, including surface temperatures, deepwater temperatures, and vertical thermal gradients, in many lakes around the world. Though many studies highlight warming of surface water temperatures in lakes worldwide, less is known about long-term trends in full vertical thermal structure and deepwater temperatures, which have been changing less consistently in both direction and magnitude. Here, we present a globally-expansive data set of summertime in-situ vertical temperature profiles from 153 lakes, with one time series beginning as early as 1894. We also compiled lake geographic, morphometric, and water quality variables that can influence vertical thermal structure through a variety of potential mechanisms in these lakes. These long-term time series of vertical temperature profiles and corresponding lake characteristics serve as valuable data to help understand changes and drivers of lake thermal structure in a time of rapid global and ecological change

Global data set of long-term summertime vertical temperature profiles in 153 lakes

Measurement(s) : temperature of water, temperature profile Technology Type(s) : digital curation Factor Type(s) : lake location, temporal interval Sample Characteristic - Environment : lake, reservoir Sample Characteristic - Location : global Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14619009Climate change and other anthropogenic stressors have led to long-term changes in the thermal structure, including surface temperatures, deepwater temperatures, and vertical thermal gradients, in many lakes around the world. Though many studies highlight warming of surface water temperatures in lakes worldwide, less is known about long-term trends in full vertical thermal structure and deepwater temperatures, which have been changing less consistently in both direction and magnitude. Here, we present a globally-expansive data set of summertime in-situ vertical temperature profiles from 153 lakes, with one time series beginning as early as 1894. We also compiled lake geographic, morphometric, and water quality variables that can influence vertical thermal structure through a variety of potential mechanisms in these lakes. These long-term time series of vertical temperature profiles and corresponding lake characteristics serve as valuable data to help understand changes and drivers of lake thermal structure in a time of rapid global and ecological change

Propriétés et potentiel thérapeutique de copolymères dégradables fonctionnalisés à base d'Acides L-lactique, glycolique et D-gluconique

Les polymères dégradables de synthèse type PLA ne sont pas fonctionnalisés. Dipagyl, monomère fonctionnalisé dérivé de l'acide gluconique (groupes OH), permet de réaliser des homo- ou co-polymères avec un lactide (PLADgl). Ils sont l'objet de cette recherche. Les groupes OH introduits ont permis : La formation de liaisons H qui induisent une augmentation de Tv (fonction du taux d'OH). Le couplage avec un composé fluorescent et du PEG. L'augmentation de la mouillabilité dépendante de la composition.. Une dégradation plus rapide fonction de l'hydrophilie. Certains films PLADgl sont biocompatibles (tests de culture cellulaire). Ce travail pluridisciplinaire a permis d'obtenir un matériau à propriétés thermiques, de surface et de dégradation modulables et des particules hydrodispersables porteuses de principe actif modèle.MONTPELLIER-BU Pharmacie (341722105) / SudocPARIS-BIUP (751062107) / SudocSudocFranceF

Bringing Interactive Contextual Maps to Users for Information Retrieval

International audienceThe growth of available online collections of documents comes with a growth in users' expectations for retrieval services. Contextual representations and interaction processes are becoming a real challenge to accurately navigate among large amounts of data. This paper presents an intuitive framework for the creation of multilevel interactive maps of multimedia content. Our framework allows the user to build interactive 2D representations of multimedia documents. The visualization is based on a graph layout and filtering and generates maps through document clustering. Users may interactively modify the map according to their criteria of interests, defining their own viewpoints on the collection. They can then dig or surf depending on the interaction mode they choose. Those functionalities allow them to navigate, browse, and analyze quickly and precisely sets of multimedia documents, allowing deep investigation of collections

Sustainable bioproducts through thermoplastic processing of wheat gluten and its blends

International audienceProteins are unique biopolymers extensively used for food and non-food applications. In addition to animal proteins such as poultry feathers that are generated as byproducts, plant proteins such as wheat gluten and soy proteins are also available in large quantities at reasonable cost. Since proteins are inherently non-thermoplastic, they cannot generally be processed by thermal treatments. Further, most proteins do not dissolve in common solvents either. Hence, most of the non-food applications of plant proteins require extensive chemical and physical modifications which increases cost and also reduces the biodegradability of the products developed. However, studies have shown that proteins including wheat gluten and keratin can become thermoplastic under specific conditions, when adequate pressure, heat and moisture are applied. Similarly, proteins can be made thermoplastic after physical or chemical modifications or by using plasticizers and compatibilizers. Based on such modifications, completely biodegradable composites with proteins as matrix and natural fibers as reinforcement and even all protein composites have been developed. Proteins as matrix offer new avenues to obtain sustainable, green composites with unique properties. Wheat gluten is a novel protein that has many distinct properties and characteristic behavior. Wheat gluten has been used for several non-food applications mostly by dissolving and solution casting which is a cumbersome process and restricted to only a few types of materials that can be developed. Alternatively, wheat gluten has been made thermoplastic using chemical, physical modifications or a combination of both. Several organic and inorganic additives, crosslinkers and plasticizers have also been added to ensure thermoplastic processing of wheat gluten and to obtain products with properties suitable for commodity applications. In this review, we discuss the processes and possibility of converting wheat proteins into thermoplastic products and as matrix for composites and the properties and applications of the wheat gluten based thermoplastics

Thermomechanical and acidic treatments to improve plasticization and properties of chitosan films A comparative study of acid types and glycerol effects

Plasticized and unplasticized chitosan films were successfully prepared by thermomechanical treatment, as a possible alternative route to solvent casting method. Acetic acid and lactic acid were used as solvents and glycerol was used as plasticizer with a fixed concentration of 25 wt.-%. The properties of the prepared samples were investigated demonstrating the effects of acid type and the addition of glycerol. Microstructure analysis results revealed a homogeneous and cohesive matrix, indicating a smooth surface without pores, cracks and irregularities. Unplasticized samples with lactic acid showed lower stiffness, higher elongation at break, more thermal stability, higher water uptake and water vapor permeability compared to the samples prepared with acetic acid. The introduction of glycerol affected all properties of the samples, but the samples prepared with lactic acid were more influenced. The rheological and mechanical properties (tensile strength and elongation at break) were improved when glycerol was added, resulting in a ductile behavior with a small plastic deformation and higher elongation at break compared to unplasticized films. On the other side, thermal properties were negatively affected by a decrease in the thermal stability. The water uptake and WVP measurements verified that the hydrophilic character of the material was enhanced by the addition of glycerol

Leadership Development through Design Based Wilderness Education

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singapore Ministry of Education to help develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). One element of this collaboration, the Global Leadership Program (GLP), aims to provide SUTD students with the opportunity to interact with the MIT community and experience MIT’s academic culture. During GLP students participate in a program designed to develop leadership ability while also increasing their understanding of engineering science and design thinking. This paper introduces a curriculum combining the pedagogies of design-based learning and wilderness education that was implemented in the summer of 2014 to holistically address the development of these three competencies. Through design-based learning activities, both for and in a natural environment, students were encouraged to develop competencies in engineering science and engineering design while exploring the diverse attributes essential for success as an engineer. This paper examines the results of a retrospective post-then-pre survey administered to the participants upon completion of the program to explore the effects of the program on the development of professional engineering competencies. We find a statistically significant increase in items associated with Individual Leadership Skill, Group Leadership Skill and the role of Society and the Economy. These results are triangulated with student exit interviews and instructor observations