Interspecies information systems

This article introduces a new class of socio-technical systems, interspecies information systems (IIS) by describing several examples of these systems emerging through the use of commercially available data-driven animal-centered technology. When animal-centered technology, such as pet wearables, cow health monitoring, or even wildlife drones captures animal data and inform humans of actions to take towards animals, interspecies information systems emerge. I discuss the importance of understanding them as information systems rather than isolated technology or technology-mediated interactions, and propose a conceptual model capturing the key components and information flow of a general interspecies information system. I conclude by proposing multiple practical challenges that are faced in the successful design, engineering and use of any IIS where animal data informs human actions

Animal-centered design needs dignity: a critical essay on ACI's core concept

Despite a massive acceptance of 'animal-centered design' being at the very heart of Animal-Computer Interaction, exactly what it means to be animal-centered often remains vague. In this position paper, I question and critique what animal-centered design really means as it is used. I argue that even though the ACI manifesto and subsequent foundational works clearly set out a focus on animal user-centered design, much work since has adopted 'animal-centered' as being a synonym for 'animal user-centered'. However, I argue, the fundamental essence of ACI's intellectual origins in human-centered design's preoccupation with human values, and in turn, human dignity — which set it apart from mere user-centered design, is lost in such a straightforward adoption of the term. I then analyze what it might mean to actually adopt a value-driven approach akin to human-centered design for animal-centered design, and how this might force us to move beyond the typical welfarist position dominant across most of ACI. Rather than consider the prevention of unnecessary suffering as a central goal of technologies developed by ACI researchers, I argue that technologies that preserve animal dignity as a core value is a more appropriate understanding of the term 'animal-centered'

Effects of Event-Free Noise Signals on Continuous-Time Simulation Performance

Generating stochastic input signals such as noise in physical systems is traditionally implemented using discrete random number generators based on discrete time-events. Within the Modelica community, random number generators free of time-events have recently been proposed in order to increase the performance of system simulations. However, the impact of such signals on commonly used solvers, such as DASSL or Radau IIA, is still under discussion. In order to provide better understanding for modeling practitioners, we examine the influence of event-free noise models on simulation performance. To this end, we conduct practical simulation experiments with systems of three sizes, two solvers, and different parameters. Results indicate that step-size control can handle event-free noise generators well and that they outperform sampled generators. The findings can be related to other time-dependent system inputs

Heeft niet-invasieve prenatale diagnostiek de toekomst?

Gerichte, niet-invasieve prenatale diagnostiek is voor sommige aandoeningen in de nabije toekomst mogelijk. Maar welke obstakels zijn te verwachten bij de invoering daarvan en is het ook wenselijk? Dat verloskundigen een verantwoordelijkheid hebben in deze discussie kwam in een eerder nummer aan de orde. Van der Linden en Stemerding legden een aantal scenario’s voor aan deskundigen en zorgverleners. Ze bleken een nuttig hulpmiddel te zijn bij het denken over de mogelijke gevolgen van de nieuwe technologische ontwikkelingen

The impact of surface features on choice of (in)secure answers by Stackoverflow readers

Existing research has shown that developers will use StackOverflow to answer programming questions: but what draws them to one particular answer over any other? The choice of answer they select can mean the difference between a secure application and insecure one, as the quality of supposedly secure answers can vary. Prior work has studied people posting on Stack Overflow—a two-way communication between the original poster and the Stack Overflow community. Instead, we study the situation of one-way communication, where people only read a Stack Overflow thread without being actively involved in it, sometimes long after a thread has closed. We report on a mixed-method study including a controlled between-groups experiment and qualitative analysis of participants' rationale (N=1188), investigating whether explanation detail, answer scoring, accepted answer marks, as well as the security of the code snippet itself affect the answers participants accept. Our findings indicate that explanation detail affects what answers participants reading a thread select (p0.05)—the inverse of what research has shown for those asking and answering questions. The qualitative analysis of participants' rationale further explains how several cognitive biases underpin these findings. Correspondence bias, in particular, plays an important role in instilling readers with a false sense of confidence in an answer through the way it looks, regardless of whether it works, is secure, or if the community agrees with it. As a result, we argue that StackOverflow's use as a knowledge base by people not actively involved in threads'when there is only one-way-communication—may inadvertently contribute to the spread of insecure code, as the community's voting mechanisms hold little power to deter them from answers