Mediating chance encounters through opportunistic social matching

Chance encounters, the unintended meeting between people unfamiliar with each other, serve as an important social lubricant helping people to create new social ties, such as making new friends or finding an activity, study or collaboration partner. Unfortunately, social barriers often prevent chance encounters in environments where people do not know each other and people have to rely on serendipity to meet or be introduced to interesting people around them. Little is known about the underlying dynamics of chance encounters and how systems could utilize contextual data to mediate chance encounters. This dissertation addresses this gap in research literature by exploring the design space of opportunistic social matching systems that aim to introduce relevant people to each other in the opportune moment and the opportune place in order to encourage face-to-face interaction. A theoretical framework of relational, social and personal context as predictors of encounter opportunities is proposed and validated through a mixed method approach using interviews, experience sampling and a field study of a design prototype. Key contributions of the field interview study (n=58) include novel context-aware social matching concepts such as: sociability of others as an indicator of opportune social context; activity involvement as an indicator of opportune personal context; and contextual rarity as an indicator of opportune relational context. The following study combining Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and participant interviews extends prior research on social matching by providing an empirical foundation for the design of opportunistic social matching systems. A generalized linear mixed model analysis (n=1781) shows that personal context (mood and busyness) together with the sociability of others nearby are the strongest predictors of people’s interest in a social match. Interview findings provide novel approaches on how to operationalize relational context based on social network rarity and discoverable rarity. Moreover, insights from this study highlight that additional meta-information about user interests is needed to operationalize relational context, such as users’ passion level for an interest and their skill levels for an activity. Based on these findings, the novel design concept of passive context-awareness for social matching is put forward. In the last study, Encount’r, an instantiation of an opportunistic social matching system, is designed and evaluated through a field study and participant interviews. A large-scale user profiling survey provides baseline rarity measures to operationalize relational context using rarity, passion levels, skills, needs, and offers. Findings show that attribute type, computed attribute rarity, self-reported passion levels for interest, and response time are associated with people’s interest in a match opportunity. Moreover, this study extends prior work by showing how the concept of passive context-awareness for opportunistic social matching is promising. Collectively, contributions of this work include a theoretical framework encompassing relational, social, and personal context; new innovative concepts to operationalize each of these aspects for opportunistic social matching; and field-tested design affordances for opportunistic social matching systems. This is important because opportunistic social matching systems can lead to new social ties and improved social capital

Effectiveness of music therapy for autism spectrum disorder, dementia, depression, insomnia and schizophrenia: Update of systematic reviews

Background Music therapy (MT) aims at maintaining, restoring and furthering physical/emotional/mental health. This review assesses effectiveness of MT and its methods for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), dementia, depression, insomnia and schizophrenia. Methods A search for systematic reviews and health technology assessment reports was conducted and yielded 139 hits. Given the large amount, we focused on five frequent diagnostic groups with available Cochrane reviews. A second search was conducted in four databases. Two authors independently performed study selection, data extraction and assessed methodological quality. Only trials with moderate/low risk of bias (RoB) were selected. Results Ten randomized controlled trials (1.248 participants) met inclusion criteria. For schizophrenia, no studies with low/moderate RoB were found; therefore, updating was not possible. The Cochrane authors stated that quality of life (QoL), social functioning, global/mental state improved for schizophrenia, but not global functioning. For ASD, MT improved behaviour, social communication, brain connectivity and parent–child relationship. For depression, mood was enhanced, and for insomnia, sleep quality, stress, anxiety, total sleep time, disease severity and psychological QoL improved. MT positively affected mood, neuropsychiatric behaviour, apathy, communication and physical functions for dementia; behavioural/psychological symptoms improved only in severe, and memory and verbal fluency only in mild Alzheimer’s disease. Cognition improved for dementia in one of four studies. Both active (playing music) and receptive (listening to music) methods were used for dementia, whereas for ASD and depression, active methods were applied. For insomnia, only receptive methods were used. Conclusion These findings provide evidence that MT helps patients improving their physical/psychosocial health. More research investigating long-term effects is needed.publishedVersio

While corporate UK was for Remain, their business strategies tell a different story

While corporate UK was strongly opposed to Brexit, their strategies tell a slightly different story, write Michael Mayer, Julia Hautz, Christian Stadler and Richard Whittington. In contrast to their European counterparts, British businesses have long looked for markets primarily outside of Europe

A close look at British business: Was it destined to leave the EU?

While corporate UK was strongly opposed to Brexit, their strategies tell a slightly different story, write Michael Mayer, Julia Hautz, Christian Stadler and Richard Whittingto

Was British business destined to leave the EU?

Was British business destined to leave the EU? While corporate UK was strongly opposed to Brexit, their strategies tell a slightly different story, write Michael Mayer, Julia Hautz, Christian Stadler and Richard Whittington. Always good to start with a confession: we are what Brexiteers call Remoaners. As Michael Bloomberg says, "it is really hard to understand why a country that was doing ..

Aerial Thermographic Image-Based Assessment of Thermal Bridges Using Representative Classifications and Calculations

Since the middle of the 20th century many any buildings were built without any energy standards and still have a comparably poor energy quality. To obtain an overview of the current thermal quality of buildings in a whole city district, it may be promising to work with thermographic images obtained by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Aerial thermography represents a fast and cost-efficient approach compared to traditional terrestrial thermography. In this paper, we describe an approach to finding thermal bridges on aerial thermographic images and characterizing them in terms of their risk of mold formation, energy losses, retrofit costs, and retrofit benefits. To identify thermal bridge types that can be detected reliably on aerial thermographic images, we use a dataset collected with a UAV in an urban district of the German city of Karlsruhe. We classify and characterize 14 relevant thermal bridge types for the German building cohorts of the 1950s and 1960s. Concerning the criterion of mold formation, thermal bridges of window components, basement ceiling slabs, balcony slabs, floor slabs, and attics are found to be particularly relevant to retrofit projects. Regarding energy savings, the retrofit of thermal bridges of window sills, window lintels, and attics shows high potential. The retrofit of attics seems to be less attractive, when also taking into account the necessary retrofit costs

Stressed dogs at the veterinary clinic

Det kommer många hundar till veterinärkliniker varje år och både hund och ägare kan uppleva det som en stressande situation. En stressad hund kan lätt bli aggressiv och personalen som hanterar hunden kan bli skadad. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie är att undersöka frågeställningarna hur man ser på hunden att den är stressad samt vilka metoder det finns för att minska stressen för hundar på kliniken. Även att diskutera för-och nackdelar med de olika metoder som finns. Det finns flera sätt att mäta stress. Antingen med hjälp av fysiologiska indikatorer, som hjärtfrekvens och kortisolnivå, eller med beteendeindikatorer. I denna litteraturstudie fokuserar vi på beteendeindikatorerna. Det är viktigt att tidigt kunna tolka hundens signaler och se på dess beteende om den är stressad. Tidiga beteendeindikatorer på stress är subtila men går att se, det kan vara att hunden vänder bort huvudet, slickar sig om munnen eller gäspar. Dessa lugnande beteenden utför hunden innan den visar mer tydliga signaler, som att kura ihop sig. Om inget hjälper kan hunden gå över i aggressiva beteenden som att den morrar och visar tänderna. Till sist kan den bitas. Om vi kan tyda dessa tidiga beteendeindikatorer så finns det flera sätt att göra hunden tryggare i miljön, både förebyggande och på undersökningsbordet. Förebyggande kan vara att sätta upp skärmar i väntrummet så hunden inte behöver bli stressad direkt när den kommer till kliniken. Djurägaren kan även hjälpa till och träna på undersökningar hemma innan hunden kommer till kliniken så att hunden är van att bli hanterad. Väl i undersökningsrummet finns ”low stress handling” metoder som veterinären kan använda sig av för att underlätta situationen för hunden, t.ex. genom att hälsa på hunden från sidan istället för uppifrån samt hålla hunden på ett sätt som minskar stressen är att föredra. Att belöna hunden på kliniken i form av hundgodis visar sig vara effektivt för att minska stressen hos hundar. Det finns dock en del veterinärer som är oroliga för komplikationer med den metoden. Komplikationer kan vara att hundar blir överviktiga. Om hunden är allergisk eller om hunden ska sövas är många veterinärer oroliga för aspirationspneumoni (AP). I denna artikel diskuteras dessa komplikationer och de flesta går att lösa. Aspirationspneumoni är det som orsakar mest oro hos veterinärer, en del nyare studier menar dock att en stressad hund som får hundgodis innan sedering kan ge motsatt effekt. Det verkar troligt att en hund som är stressad precis innan anestesi har lättare att utveckla aspirationspneumoni än en lugn hund.Many dogs visit the veterinary clinic every year. For many dogs and their owners it is a stressful experience because the dog gets anxious. A stressed dog can easily become an aggressive dog and the handlers could get hurt in the process. The purpose of this article is to determine what a stressed dog looks like and examine different methods to use at the clinic to reduce stress and discuss their pros and cons. There are several ways to measure stress. There are physiological indicators like heart rate and cortisol level as well as behavioural indicators. This article will mostly focus on the behavioural indicators. It is important to be able to recognize the early indicators of stress, they are usually subtle but with practice they get easier to interpret. Examples of the early indicators are nose licking, yawning or that the dog is turning its head away. If the threat doesn’t disappear the dog will show more apparent signs like crouching. If that does not help it may try more aggressive behaviours like growling and showing its teeth. As a last resort it will bite. If we are able to pick up on the early signs there are multiple ways to make the dog feel safer in the environment. This can be accomplished by using methods both preventive as well as during the exam. One preventive measure can be to put up screens in the waiting room so the dog won’t get stressed by looking at other dogs on arrival to the clinic. The owner can also get the dog used to the examination at home before it gets to the clinic. In the exam room the practitioner can use “low stress handling” methods to reduce the stress for the dog. One way of reducing stress is greeting the dog sideways instead of leaning over it, which can seem threatening to the dog. Rewarding the dog with treats is also an effective way to reduce stress. There are some concerns with this method; some dogs may be allergic to certain types of treats or they may be overweight. If the dog is to be sedated later veterinarians express concerns about aspiration pneumonia. This article will discuss these complications and show that most of them are solvable. Aspiration pneumonia cause most concerns with veterinarians, though more recent studies show that feeding treats may have the opposite effect. It seems to be possible that if a dog is stressed before anaesthesia it will be more likely to develop aspiration pneumonia than a dog that is calm

To understand and predict the dogs stress level : The way towards a stress-free veterinary clinic

Så gott som alla hundar upplever veterinärbesök under sin livstid. Flertalet hundar förknippar dessa besök med stress och/eller rädsla. Detta är inte bra för hunden och kan leda till en ökad arbetsmiljörisk för veterinären som undersöker med risk att bli biten. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om man på ett icke-invasivt sätt kan bedöma om en hund är stressad på veterinärkliniken. Detta kan leda till kunskap om hur man bäst bör hantera hundar under deras besök till kliniken. Andra frågor studien sökte svar på är hur bra hundägaren är på att uppskatta stress hos sin egen hund på veterinärkliniken och hur väl deras uppskattning stämmer överens med testledarens och veterinärens uppskattning. En annan fråga är hur hundens ansiktsuttryck förändras innan och efter vaccinationen. Även hur god kunskap hundägare har om vanliga tecken på stress hos hundar undersöktes. Tjugo hundar med en bokad tid för vaccination ingick i studiepopulationen. Utifrån en studie av Lind, et al. (2017) gjordes ett socialt kontakttest på samtliga hundar. Hjärtfrekvens på hundarna uppmättes i fyra faser, utomhus, i väntrummet, under undersökningen och utomhus igen. Hundens stressnivå uppskattades även av testledaren, veterinären och hundägaren på en 10-gradig likert skala. Underökningen analyserades med avseende på interaktioner mellan hundägare och hund samt veterinär och hund från film tagen från en stationär kamera i undersökningsrummet. Hundarnas ansiktsuttryck analyserades med hjälp av DogFACS teknik som registrerade ansiktsmusklernas rörelser utifrån film tagen av testledaren under underökningen. Det registrerades i 3 olika sekvenser; innan undersökningen, precis innan injektionen och precis efter injektionen. De signifikanta resultat som uppvisades var att hälsning från socialt kontakttest var signifikant korrelerat till veterinärens bedömning (R = -0,46, P = 0,04) samt samarbete som var signifikant korrelerat till hjärtfrekvensen i undersökningen (R = -0,56, P = 0,02). Detta resultat stämmer delvis med de resultaten från Lind et al. (2017) där alla tre parametrar i det sociala kontakttestet var signifikant korrelerade till ägarens och testledarens stressbedömningar. Tydliga signifikanta resultat som påvisades av studien var att hundägarens positiva kontakt med hunden ledde till lägre hjärtfrekvens (R = 0,50, P = 0,048) och lägre stressbedömning av testledaren (R = -0,50, P = 0,03) och veterinären (R = -0,56, P = 0,01) vilket stämmer väl överens med tidigare litteratur (Kostarczyk & Fonberg, 1982; Csoltova et al., 2017). Testledarens och veterinärens stressuppskattningar var signifikant korrelerade (R = 0,63, P = 0,003) likaså testledarens och hundägarens bedömningar (R = 0,59, P = 0,006). Hundägaren fick innan undersökningen uppskatta hur stressad den trodde hunden skulle vara under undersökningen, detta visade sig stämma väl överens med hur de sedan bedömde stressen under undersökningen (R = 0,48, P = 0,03). Innan undersökningen hade hundarna ett uttryck med höga ögonbryn, detta beteende minskade allteftersom undersökningen fortsatte. Analysen av ansiktsmimiken påvisade att hundar efter injektionen uppvisade mer blinkningar och orala beteenden. Hundarna är generellt mer vända mot veterinären än hundägaren i alla sekvenser men mest efter injektionen. Slutsatsen är för att kunna använda socialt kontakttest som en förutsägande faktor för stress hos hundar på kliniken behövs ytterligare validering. Hundägare som vill ha mindre stressade hundar på kliniken bör ha mycket positiv kontakt med hunden så är vi ett steg närmare målet mot en stressfri veterinärklinikA visit to the veterinarian is something almost every dog experiences during its lifetime and many dogs associates the visits with stress or fear. This is not good for the dog, but it also increases the risk that the veterinarian examining the dog may be bitten. The objective of this study was to investigate if it is possible to assess how stressed a dog is using only non-invasive observations and tests. In the future, such knowledge could contribute to decisions about how best to handle a dog during its visit to the clinic. Other questions the study aimed to answer included; how good the owner is at predicting the stress level of their own dog, and if this correlates with the level of stress as judged by the testleader and veterinarian, the owner’s knowledge of basic behavioural indicators of stress in dogs, and how dogs’ facial expressions change before and after an injection. Twenty dogs participated in the study, all of them had a visit booked at the clinic for a vaccination. A social contact test from a study by Lind, et al. (2017), was performed on the dog when it first arrived at the clinic. The dog’s heart rate was measured in four different phases; outside the clinic, in the waiting room, during the exam and again outside the clinic. The dog’s stress level was assessed by the test leader, veterinarian and owner according on a likert scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being very stressed. Interactions between the owner and the dog, as well as the veterinarian and the dog during the exam ware analyzed from the films taken by a stationary camera in the examination room. The movements of the dog’s facial muscles were analyzed using the DogFACS technique using films taken with a camera held by the test leader. The dog’s facial expression was analyzed during three different time periods; five seconds before the veterinarian started the exam, five seconds before the injection and five seconds after the injection. Regarding the social contact test, there were significant correlations between the behavior of the dog during initial contact with the test leader and the stress score from the veterinarian (R = -0,46, P = 0,04), and between the dog’s willingness to cooperate and its heart rate during the exam (R = -0,56, P = 0,02). Although somewhat similar to the earlier results, Lind et al. (2017) found that all three social contact tests were correlated to the test leader’s and owner’s assessments of stress. Other results in the study were that the owner’s positive interactions were correlated to a lower heart rate of the dog during the exam (R = -0,50, P = 0,048) and to a lower stress assessment by both the test leader (R = -0,50, P = 0,03) and the veterinarian (R = -0,56, P = 0,01). These results support those of earlier studies (Kostarczyk & Fonberg, 1982; Csoltova et al., 2017). The test leader and the veterinarian’s assessments of dogs’ stress levels were correlated (R = 0,63, P = 0,003) as were the test leader and the owner’s assessments (R = 0,59, P = 0,006)). Furthermore, the owner’s predicted the stress level of the dog, made before the exam, correlated well with their assessment of its stress level during the exam (R = 0,48, P = 0,03). Before the examination dogs had a facial expression with raised eye brows, and this decreased as the examination progressed. Dogs blinked more and showed more oral behaviours, such as nose licks, after the injection, which are behaviours previously linked to stress. The dog’s head was generally more turned toward the veterinarian than the owner, especially after the injection. The conclusions are that further validation is needed before being able to use the social contact test as a predictor factor for stress in the clinic, owners who want a less stressed dog in the the clinic should pet it more and, that we are a step closer to the goal of a stress free veterinary clinic

The formation of Jupiter by hybrid pebble-planetesimal accretion

The standard model for giant planet formation is based on the accretion of solids by a growing planetary embryo, followed by rapid gas accretion once the planet exceeds a so-called critical mass. The dominant size of the accreted solids (cm-size particles named pebbles or km to hundred km-size bodies named planetesimals) is, however, unknown. Recently, high-precision measurements of isotopes in meteorites provided evidence for the existence of two reservoirs in the early Solar System. These reservoirs remained separated from ~1 until ~ 3 Myr after the beginning of the Solar System's formation. This separation is interpreted as resulting from Jupiter growing and becoming a barrier for material transport. In this framework, Jupiter reached ~20 Earth masses within ~1 Myr and slowly grew to ~50 Earth masses in the subsequent 2 Myr before reaching its present-day mass. The evidence that Jupiter slowed down its growth after reaching 20 Earth masses for at least 2 Myr is puzzling because a planet of this mass is expected to trigger fast runaway gas accretion. Here, we use theoretical models to describe the conditions allowing for such a slow accretion and show that Jupiter grew in three distinct phases. First, rapid pebble accretion brought the major part of Jupiter's core mass. Second, slow planetesimal accretion provided the energy required to hinder runaway gas accretion during 2 Myr. Third, runaway gas accretion proceeded. Both pebbles and planetesimals therefore have an important role in Jupiter's formation.Comment: Published in Nature Astronomy on August 27, 201