The Terms of “You(s)”: How the Term of Address Used by Conversational Agents Influences User Evaluations in French and German Linguaculture

Background: Conversational agents (CAs) are a novel approach to delivering digital health interventions. In human interactions, terms of address often change depending on the context or relationship between interlocutors. In many languages, this encompasses T/V distinction—formal and informal forms of the second-person pronoun “You”—that conveys different levels of familiarity. Yet, few research articles have examined whether CAs' use of T/V distinction across language contexts affects users' evaluations of digital health applications.Methods: In an online experiment (N = 284), we manipulated a public health CA prototype to use either informal or formal T/V distinction forms in French (“tu” vs. “vous”) and German (“du” vs. “Sie”) language settings. A MANCOVA and post-hoc tests were performed to examine the effects of the independent variables (i.e., T/V distinction and Language) and the moderating role of users' demographic profile (i.e., Age and Gender) on eleven user evaluation variables. These were related to four themes: (i) Sociability, (ii) CA-User Collaboration, (iii) Service Evaluation, and (iv) Behavioral Intentions.Results: Results showed a four-way interaction between T/V Distinction, Language, Age, and Gender, influencing user evaluations across all outcome themes. For French speakers, when the informal “T form” (“Tu”) was used, higher user evaluation scores were generated for younger women and older men (e.g., the CA felt more humanlike or individuals were more likely to recommend the CA), whereas when the formal “V form” (“Vous”) was used, higher user evaluation scores were generated for younger men and older women. For German speakers, when the informal T form (“Du”) was used, younger users' evaluations were comparable regardless of Gender, however, as individuals' Age increased, the use of “Du” resulted in lower user evaluation scores, with this effect more pronounced in men. When using the formal V form (“Sie”), user evaluation scores were relatively stable, regardless of Gender, and only increasing slightly with Age.Conclusions: Results highlight how user CA evaluations vary based on the T/V distinction used and language setting, however, that even within a culturally homogenous language group, evaluations vary based on user demographics, thus highlighting the importance of personalizing CA language.

Are Preferences Useful for Better Assistance?

Assistive Robots have an inherent need of adapting to the user they are assisting. This is crucial for the correct development of the task, user safety, and comfort. However, adaptation can be performed in several manners. We believe user preferences are key to this adaptation. In this article, we evaluate the use of preferences for Physically Assistive Robotics tasks in a Human-Robot Interaction user evaluation. Three assistive tasks have been implemented consisting of assisted feeding, shoe-fitting, and jacket dressing, where the robot performs each task in a different manner based on user preferences. We assess the ability of the users to determine which execution of the task used their chosen preferences (if any). The obtained results show that most of the users were able to successfully guess the cases where their preferences were used even when they had not seen the task before. We also observe that their satisfaction with the task increases when the chosen preferences are employed. Finally, we also analyze the user’s opinions regarding assistive tasks and preferences, showing promising expectations as to the benefits of adapting the robot behavior to the user through preferences.

Finger Tapping Measures for Parkinson’s Disease: Preliminary Evaluation of an Android Application for Data Collection in Australia

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive chronic disorder with a high misdiagnosis rate. Because finger-tapping tasks correlate with its fine-motor symptoms, they could be used to help diagnose and assess PD. We first designed and developed an Android application to perform finger-tapping tasks without trained supervision, which is not always feasible for patients. Then, we conducted a preliminary user evaluation in Australia with six patients clinically diagnosed with PD and sixteen controls without PD. The application could be used in research and healthcare for regular symptom and progression assessment and feedback.

User Evaluation of Passenger Assistance System Concepts on Public Highways

There is ample research on assistance systems for drivers in conventional and automated vehicles. In the past, those systems were developed to increase safety but also to increase driver comfort. Since many common risks have by now been mitigated through such systems, the research and development focus expanded to also include comfort-related assistance. However, the passenger has rarely been taken into account explicitly, although it has been shown that passenger discomfort is a relevant problem. Therefore, this work investigated the potential of passenger assistance systems to reduce such discomfort. Three different passenger assistant system prototypes were tested in a driving study on public highway with N = 19 participants. The systems provided information about parameters related to the performance of the driver and one additionally provided a communicative means of influence. For two passenger assistant systems, it could be shown that they significantly reduced passenger discomfort in at least a subset of the evaluated situations. The majority of participants rated one or multiple of the assistant systems as more comfortable than a ride without assistance. The system providing information about the attentiveness of the driver was most effective in reducing discomfort and was rated as the most helpful system. The results show that explicitly considering the situation of passengers in the design of assistance systems can positively impact their comfort. This can be achieved using information from common systems targeting driver assistance available to the passenger.

Semantic Search and Summarization of Judgments Using Topic Modeling

Online legal document libraries, such as WorldLII, are indispensable tools for legal professionals to conduct legal research. We study how topic modeling techniques can be applied to such platforms to facilitate searching of court judgments. Specifically, we improve search effectiveness by matching judgments to queries at semantics level rather than at keyword level. Also, we design a system that summarizes a retrieved judgment by highlighting a small number of paragraphs that are semantically most relevant to the user query. This summary serves two purposes: (1) It explains to the user why the machine finds the retrieved judgment relevant to the user’s query, and (2) it helps the user quickly grasp the most salient points of the judgment, which significantly reduces the amount of time needed by the user to go through the returned search results. We further enhance our system by integrating domain knowledge provided by legal experts. The knowledge includes the features and aspects that are most important for a given category of judgments. Users can then view a judgement’s summary focusing on particular aspects only. We illustrate the effectiveness of our techniques with a user evaluation experiment on the HKLII platform. The results show that our methods are highly effective.

An OxPLORE Initiative Evaluating Children’s Surgery Resources Worldwide: A Cross-sectional Implementation of the OReCS Document

Background The Global Initiative for Children's Surgery (GICS) group produced the Optimal Resources for Children’s Surgery (OReCS) document in 2019, listing standards of children’s surgical care by level of healthcare facilities within low resource settings. We have previously created and piloted an audit tool based on the OReCS criteria in a high-income setting. In this study, we aimed to validate its use in identifying gaps in children’s surgery provision worldwide. Methods Our OReCS audit tool was implemented in 10 hospitals providing children’s surgery across eight countries. Collaborators were recruited via the Oxford Paediatrics Linking Our Research with Electives (OxPLORE) international network of medical students and trainees. The audit tool measured a hospital’s current capacity for children’s surgery. Data were analysed firstly to express the percentage of ‘essential’ criteria met for each specialty. Secondly, the ‘OxPLORE method’ was used to allocate each hospital specialty a level based on procedures performed and resources available. A User Evaluation Tool (UET) was developed to obtain feedback on the ease of use of the tool. Results The percentage of essential criteria met within each category varied widely between hospitals. The level given to hospitals for subspecialties based on OReCS criteria often did not reflect their self-defined level. The UET indicated the audit tool was practicable across multiple settings. Conclusions We recommend the use of the OReCS criteria to identify areas for local hospital improvement and inform national children’s surgical plans. We have made informed suggestions to increase usability of the OReCS audit tool.