MarsCAPE: Mars Communicated through an Augmented, Physical Environment

In the last decade, vast amounts of planetary science data has been made available publicly often focused on Mars. Such data is typically disseminated via the web and made available through screen-based visualisations. However, this approach can make it difficult to convey the broader context of a feature of interest or the spatial arrangement of surface phenomena. To better support learning and engagement, we present and evaluate MarsCAPE: Mars Communicated through an Augmented, Physical Environment. MarsCAPE consists of physical models of the surface of Mars, augmented by projected information and visualizations. To assess its learning and engagement value, a structured workshop and formal evaluation were conducted. Participants reported a significant increase in knowledge, found the models engaging, and exhibited natural learning without prompting. Systems such as MarsCAPE have potential to provide an interesting, educational way for the public to access planetary data that goes beyond the capabilities of on-screen visualizations

Designing task workflows to ensure the best scientific outcomes in citizen science

Citizen science, or ‘public participation in scientific research’, can be described as research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional participants often through crowd-sourcing techniques. The advance of modern day internet technology that has made the world a more connected place has resulted in a surge of citizen science projects, especially online platforms which allow volunteers to take part in research in both an asynchronous and geographically abstract manner. Due to this increased interest, citizen science is becoming a distinct field of research in its own right beyond the original scientific problems it was devised to address. Although some of this research has considered interface HCI and functionality, there has been relatively little attention paid specifically to human factors issues. Through this work we attempt to address this shortfall, by considering citizen science as a form of ‘work’. Due to its similarities in terms of repetition with production lines of the early 20th century and more recently on-screen visual inspection tasks, some of the many decades of ergonomics research in this field are applied specifically to the virtual citizen science arena. We make a first step in considering how virtual citizen science systems can be better designed for the needs of the volunteer, exploring how manipulating task flow affects both the quality of information collected, and the volunteers’ experience of using the interface. A hierarchical task analysis of 12 Zooniverse projects revealed that the types of tasks, judgements and the way they are presented to the volunteer varies greatly, independent of the science discipline involved. Furthermore, through differing designs of the Zooniverse’s ‘Planet Four: Craters’ platform, it was shown that task workflow design factors such as autonomy, variety, task type and volunteer judgement required can influence the amount of data collected, the accuracy of this data and both volunteer engagement and motivation. Simpler tasks with fewer volunteer judgements required resulted in a significantly greater volume of data collected, however accuracy is affected with an increase of false-positive classifications. Volunteers reported a preference for greater autonomy and task variety, a stance reflected in the number of times they visited and returned to the platform, however this also significantly reduced the accuracy of classifications – both in terms of inter-participant agreement and expert judgement comparison. The interplay of task workflow factors and their effect has been shown to be a complex affair. Through the empirical data collected, a model has been derived predicting the influence of different task workflow configurations on classification numbers over time since a platforms’ launch. It demonstrates that when considering task workflow design, developers of future citizen science platforms will need to perform a balancing act. The importance of user engagement, the data needs of the science case and the resources that can be committed both in terms of time and data reduction will need to be weighed, and balanced with the realistic public reach and promotion the science case can be predicted to generate

Coordinator perceptions when assessing the impact of citizen science towards sustainable development goals

Tracking progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires high-quality, timely, and accessible data, often in areas where data are rarely available. Problems exist due to socioeconomic variations between countries and the qualitative nature of certain indicators in their definition. Citizen science has the potential to contribute to several SDGs. However, whilst citizen science’s potential to contribute towards SDGs is well documented, limitations exist when measuring the impact that citizen science has made toward SDG progress. To better understand the issues and prospective solutions surrounding impact assessment towards SDG progress, this work presents the outcomes of semi-structured interviews with citizen science project coordinators. They reveal the complex nature of impact assessment within a citizen science context. Coordinators demonstrate greater confidence when the project is easier to relate to the SDGs, and the project methodology can objectively measure indicators. Issues exist, however, when considering SDGs with a broader, global context, those more difficult to link to project goals and when the project’s impact on them happens at timescales beyond the funding period. If the full potential of citizen-science contributions to the SDGs is to be realised, approaches are needed to fully consider practitioners’ needs and motivations

The Role of Citizen Science in Promoting Ocean and Water Literacy in School Communities: The ProBleu Methodology

Human activities continue to degrade oceanic, coastal and inland waters. The generational change in the role of society in actively looking after the health of water resources can be achieved through the expansion of ocean and water literacy in schools. The Network of European Blue Schools established under the EU4Ocean Coalition for Ocean Literacy has improved ocean and water literacy; however, this Network needs to grow and be supported. Here, we present ProBleu, a recently funded EU project that will expand and support the Network, partly through the use of citizen science. The core of the proposed methodology is facilitating school activities related to ocean and water literacy through funding calls to sustain and enrich current school activities, and kick-start and support new activities. The outcomes of the project are anticipated to have widespread and long-term impacts across society, and oceanic, coastal and inland water environments

Menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells: women's attitudes, willingness, and barriers to donation of menstrual blood

Background: Menstrual blood contains mesenchymal stem cells (MenSC), considered a potential “off-the-shelf” treatment for a range of diseases and medical conditions. Samples of menstrual blood can be collected painlessly, inexpensively, and as frequently as every month for cell therapy. While there has been considerable previous research into the clinical advantages of MenSC, there is currently little understanding of potential donors' attitudes regarding menstrual blood donation and MenSC. Methods: One hundred women 18 years of age or over were surveyed to understand attitudes and potential barriers to menstrual blood donation. The questionnaire assessed participant age and brief medical history (giving birth, donating blood, donating stem cells), menstrual experience (period rating, preferred menstrual hygiene products), and whether participants would donate MenSC or accept MenSC therapy. Results: MenSC was met with a generally positive response, with 78% of menstruating women willing to donate menstrual blood. No significant relationship was recognized between willingness to donate menstrual blood with age, history of childbirth or blood donation, menstruation perception, and preferred menstrual hygiene product. Women rated their period experience better after being made aware of the ability to donate menstrual blood, meaning MenSC therapy can be beneficial for donors as well as patients. Conclusions: Considering women's attitudes to MenSC and donation of menstrual blood, the future of MenSC therapy is positive; women are generally willing to donate menstrual blood, independent of age, perception of periods, and history of childbirth and blood donation

Patient-maintained versus anaesthetist-controlled propofol sedation during elective primary lower limb arthroplasty performed under spinal anaesthesia: a randomised controlled trial

Background: Patient-maintained propofol sedation (PMPS) allows patients to titrate their own target-controlled infusion (TCI) delivery of propofol sedation using a handheld button. The aim of this randomised controlled trial was to compare PMPS with anaesthetist-controlled propofol TCI sedation (ACPS) in patients undergoing elective primary lower limb arthroplasty surgery under spinal anaesthesia. Methods: In this single-centre, open-label, investigator-led study, adult patients were randomly assigned to either PMPS or ACPS during their surgery. Both sedation regimes used Schnider effect-site TCI modelling. The primary outcome measure was infusion rate adjusted for weight (expressed as mg kg-1 hr-1). Secondary outcomes measures included depth of sedation, occurrence of sedation-related adverse events and time to medical readiness for discharge from the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU). Results: Eighty patients (48 females) were randomised. Patients using PMPS used 39.3% less propofol during the sedation period compared to patients in group ACPS (1.56 (0.57) vs 2.56 (1.33) mg kg-1 hr-1; p < 0.001), experienced fewer discrete episodes of deep sedation (0 vs 6, p = 0.0256), fewer airway/breathing adverse events (odds ratio (95% CI) 2.94 (1.31 –6.64); p = 0.009) and were ready for discharge from PACU more quickly (8.94 (5.5) vs 13.51 (7.2) minutes; p = 0.0027). Conclusion: PMPS during lower limb arthroplasty under spinal anaesthesia results in reduced drug exposure and fewer episodes of sedation related adverse events compared to ACPS. To facilitate further investigation of this procedural sedation technique, PMPS-capable TCI infusion devices should be submitted for regulatory approval for clinical use

Task workflow design and its impact on performance and volunteers' subjective preference in virtual citizen science

Virtual citizen science platforms allow non-scientists to take part in scientific research across a range of disciplines. What they ask of volunteers varies considerably in terms of task type, variety, user judgement required and user freedom, which has received little direct investigation. A study was performed with the Planet Four: Craters project to investigate the effect of task workflow design on both volunteer experience and the scientific results they produce. Participants' feedback through questionnaire responses indicated a preference for interfaces providing greater autonomy and variety, with free-text responses suggesting that autonomy was the more important. This did not translate into improved performance however, with the most autonomous interface not resulting in significantly better performance in data volume, agreement or accuracy compared to other less autonomous interfaces. The interface with the least number of task types, variety and autonomy resulted in the greatest data coverage. Agreement, both between participants and with the expert equivalent, was significantly improved when the interface most directly afforded tasks that captured the required underlying data (i.e. crater position or diameter). The implications for the designers of virtual citizen science platforms is that they have a balancing act to perform, weighing up the importance of user satisfaction, the data needs of the science case and the resources that can be committed both in terms of time and data reduction

Run spot run: capturing and tagging footage of a race by crowds of spectators

There has been a massive growth in the number of people who film and upload amateur footage of events to services such as Facebook and Youtube, or even stream live to services such as LiveStream. We present an exploratory study that investigates the potential of these spectators in creating footage en masse; in this case, during a live trial at a local marathon. We deployed a prototype app, RunSpotRun, as a technology probe to see what kinds of footage spectators would produce. We present an analysis of this footage in terms of its coverage, quality, and contents, and also discuss the implications for a) spectators enjoying the race, and b) extracting the stories of individual runners throughout the race. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges that remain for deploying such technology at a larger scale

Anaesthetist-controlled versus patient-maintained effect-site targeted propofol sedation during elective primary lower-limb arthroplasty performed under spinal anaesthesia (ACCEPTS): study protocol for a parallel-group randomised comparison trial

Background: The clinical efficacy of effect-site targeted patient-maintained propofol sedation (PMPS) compared to anaesthetist-controlled propofol sedation (ACPS) for patients undergoing awake joint replacement surgery is currently unknown. There is no commercially available medical device capable of delivering PMPS so we have designed and built such a device. We plan a clinical trial to compare PMPS to ACPS and to collect data relating to the safety of our prototype device in delivering sedation. Methods: The trial is an open-label, randomised, controlled superiority trial recruiting adults who are undergoing elective primary lower-limb arthroplasty with sedation by propofol infusion by effect-site targeting into two equal-sized parallel arms: PMPS and ACPS. The primary research objective is to compare the body-weight-normalised rate of propofol consumption when sedation for surgery on adults undergoing elective primary lower-limb arthroplasty under spinal anaesthesia is patient-maintained versus when it is anaesthetist-controlled. The study primary null hypothesis is that there is no difference in the rate of propofol consumption when sedation is patient-maintained versus anaesthetist-controlled. Discussion: This is the first trial to test the superiority of effect-site-targeted patient-maintained propofol sedation versus anaesthetist-controlled propofol sedation in terms of total propofol consumption during the sedation period. The results of this trial will help inform clinicians and device manufacturers of the clinical efficacy and safety of patient-maintained propofol sedation applied to a common operative setting. Trial registration: International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Registry, ISRCTN29129799. Prospectively registered on 12 June 2018

Designing task workflows to ensure the best scientific outcomes in citizen science

Citizen science, or ‘public participation in scientific research’, can be described as research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional participants often through crowd-sourcing techniques. The advance of modern day internet technology that has made the world a more connected place has resulted in a surge of citizen science projects, especially online platforms which allow volunteers to take part in research in both an asynchronous and geographically abstract manner. Due to this increased interest, citizen science is becoming a distinct field of research in its own right beyond the original scientific problems it was devised to address. Although some of this research has considered interface HCI and functionality, there has been relatively little attention paid specifically to human factors issues. Through this work we attempt to address this shortfall, by considering citizen science as a form of ‘work’. Due to its similarities in terms of repetition with production lines of the early 20th century and more recently on-screen visual inspection tasks, some of the many decades of ergonomics research in this field are applied specifically to the virtual citizen science arena. We make a first step in considering how virtual citizen science systems can be better designed for the needs of the volunteer, exploring how manipulating task flow affects both the quality of information collected, and the volunteers’ experience of using the interface. A hierarchical task analysis of 12 Zooniverse projects revealed that the types of tasks, judgements and the way they are presented to the volunteer varies greatly, independent of the science discipline involved. Furthermore, through differing designs of the Zooniverse’s ‘Planet Four: Craters’ platform, it was shown that task workflow design factors such as autonomy, variety, task type and volunteer judgement required can influence the amount of data collected, the accuracy of this data and both volunteer engagement and motivation. Simpler tasks with fewer volunteer judgements required resulted in a significantly greater volume of data collected, however accuracy is affected with an increase of false-positive classifications. Volunteers reported a preference for greater autonomy and task variety, a stance reflected in the number of times they visited and returned to the platform, however this also significantly reduced the accuracy of classifications – both in terms of inter-participant agreement and expert judgement comparison. The interplay of task workflow factors and their effect has been shown to be a complex affair. Through the empirical data collected, a model has been derived predicting the influence of different task workflow configurations on classification numbers over time since a platforms’ launch. It demonstrates that when considering task workflow design, developers of future citizen science platforms will need to perform a balancing act. The importance of user engagement, the data needs of the science case and the resources that can be committed both in terms of time and data reduction will need to be weighed, and balanced with the realistic public reach and promotion the science case can be predicted to generate