Socio-instrumental Design Patterns

This paper draws on pragmatic philosophy and design theory to propose the concept of the socio-instrumental design pattern. These patterns are design theories that acknowledge that solutions are to be found in the source social setting (where design takes place) and the target social setting (where the IT artefact will be embedded and put into action). Solutions may be discussed in terms of what to do and what to focus in the design process, not merely in terms of properties of the IT artefact. Besides introducing the concept, the paper proposes a way to structure socio-instrumental design patterns, and an example pattern is included to illustrate the approach. The example is grounded in empirical data from an ongoing action research project with an emphasis on socio-instrumental qualities of IT artefacts in their social context

Five Principles for DSR Based Curriculum Development

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Improving animal health on organic dairy farms: stakeholder views on policy options

Although ensuring good animal health is a stated aim of organic livestock farming and an important reason why consumers purchase organic products, the health states actually achieved are comparable to those in conventional farming. Unfortunately, there have been no studies to date that have assessed stakeholder views on different policy options for improving animal health on organic dairy farms. To address this deficit, stakeholder consultations were conducted in four European countries, involving 39 supply-chain stakeholders (farmers, advisors, veterinarians, inspectors, processors, and retailers). Stakeholders were encouraged to discuss different ways, including policy change, of improving organic health states. Acknowledging the need for further health improvements in organic dairy herds, stakeholders generally favoured establishing outcome-oriented animal health requirements as a way of achieving this. However, as a result of differing priorities for animal health improvement, there was disagreement on questions such as: who should be responsible for assessing animal health status on organic farms; and how to define and implement minimum health requirements. The results of the study suggest that future research must fully explore the opportunities and risks of different policy options and also suggest ways to overcome the divergence of stakeholders’ interests in public debates

A Switch of Dialect as Disguise

Criminals may purposely try to hide their identity by using a voice disguise such as imitating another dialect. This paper empirically investigates the power of dialect as an attribute that listeners use when identifying voices and how a switch of dialect affects voice identification. In order to delimit the magnitude of the perceptual significance of dialect and the possible impact of dialect imitation, a native bidialectal speaker was the target speaker in a set of four voice line-up experiments, two of which involved a dialect switch. Regardless of which dialect the bidialectal speaker spoke he was readily recognized. When the familiarization and target voices were of different dialects, it was found that the bidialectal speaker was significantly less well recognized. Dialect is thus a key feature for speaker identification that overrides many other features of the voice. Whether imitated dialect can be used for voice disguise to the same degree as native dialect switching demands further research

DESIGNING CHATBOTS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION PRACTICE

In this research–in–progress paper, we employ design science research to articulate design knowledge for chatbots in higher education practice. We conducted a literature review to factor previous research into the design process. In addition, we performed a content analysis of student e-mails and forum posts from four instances of a basic Java programming course. Drawing from literature and data, we present a conceptual architecture for chatbots in higher education, discuss its rationale, and provide a proof-of-concept implementation. We conclude with a discussion including tentative design recommendations and a plan for continued research

Dietary Energy Density as Marker of Dietary Quality in Swedish Children and Adolescents: The European Youth Heart Study

To investigate if dietary energy density is associated with measures of dietary quality (food group, micronutrient and macronutrient intakes) in children and adolescents

Effects of Water Contamination on the Supercooled Dynamics of a Hydrogen-Bonded Model Glass Former

Broad-band dielectric spectroscopy is a commonly used tool in the study of glass-forming liquids. The high sensitivity of the technique together with the wide range of probed time scales makes it a powerful method for investigating the relaxation spectra of liquids. One particularly important class of glass-forming liquids that is often studied using this technique consists of liquids dominated by hydrogen (H) bond interactions. When investigating such liquids, particular caution has to be taken during sample preparation due to their often highly hygroscopic nature. Water can easily be absorbed from the atmosphere, and dielectric spectroscopy is a very sensitive probe of such contamination due to the large dipole moment of water. Our knowledge concerning the effects of small quantities of water on the dielectric properties of these commonly investigated liquids is limited. We here demonstrate the effects due to the presence of small amounts of water on the dielectric response of a typical H-bonded model glass former, tripropylene glycol. We show how the relaxation processes present in the pure liquid are affected by addition of water, and we find that a characteristic water induced relaxation response is observed for water contents as low as 0.15 wt %. We stress the importance of careful purification of hygroscopic liquids before experiments and quantify what the effects are if such procedures are not undertaken

Onset of transcription of the aminopeptidase N (leukemia antigen CD 13) gene at the crypt/villus transition zone during rabbit enterocyte differentiation

AbstractThe sequence of a cDNA clone (2.82 kbp) of rabbit intestinal aminopeptidase N (CD 13) is reported. Using the corresponding anti-sense RNA probe, the distribution of aminopeptidase N mRNA along the crypt/villus axis of the rabbit small intestine was studied by in situ hybridization. The aminopeptidase N gene is expressed along the whole length of the villus with a maximum at its base. Expression was not detected in the crypt cells. The distribution of aminopeptidase N mRNA correlates with the presence of active enzyme as monitored by histochemical staining. The results are compatible with onset of transcription of the aminopeptidase N gene at the crypt/villus transition zone during the enterocyte differentiation

Tumour microvessel density as predictor of chemotherapy response in breast cancer patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of intratumoural microvessel density in breast cancer. We studied immunohistochemically primary tumours of 104 patients with metastasised breast cancer who took part in a randomised multicentre trial comparing docetaxel to sequential methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil. Vessels were highlighted with factor VIII staining and counted microscopically. Microvessel density was compared with clinical response to chemotherapy and patient survival. The microvessel density of the primary tumour was not significantly associated with patient's response to chemotherapy, time to progression or overall survival in the whole patient population or in the docetaxel or methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil groups. However, disease-free survival was longer in patients with low microvessel density (P=0.01). These findings suggest that microvessel density of the primary tumour cannot be used as a predictive marker for chemotherapy response in advanced breast cancer