Ecologies of Public Trust: The NHS COVID-19 Contact Tracing App

In April 2020, close to the start of the first U.K. COVID-19 lockdown, the U.K. government announced the development of a COVID-19 contact tracing app, which was later trialled on the U.K. island, the Isle of Wight, in May/June 2020. United Kingdom surveys found general support for the development of such an app, which seemed strongly influenced by public trust. Institutions developing the app were called upon to fulfil the commitment to public trust by acting with trustworthiness. Such calls presuppose that public trust associated with the app can emerge if the conditions for trustworthiness are met and that public trust is simplistic, i.e., linearly the sum of each member of the publics’ individual – U.K. government trust relationship. Drawing on a synthesis of the trust literature and fifteen interviews with members of the public trialling the app on the Isle of Wight, this paper aims to explore what trust mechanisms and relationships are at play when thinking about public trust in the context of the U.K. COVID-19 app. We argue that public trust is a complex social phenomenon and not linearly correlated with institutional trustworthiness. As such, attention needs to widen from calls for trustworthy infrastructures as a way to build public trust, to a deeper understanding of those doing the trusting; in particular, what or whom do people place their trust in (or not) when considering whether using the app and why. An understanding of this will help when trying to secure public trust during the implementation of necessary public health measures.

International Activities in the Field of Language Technologies and Resources

Describes the international organizations active in the field of language technologies and resources, as well as the projects they are implementing. The following areas are highlighted: computational linguistics in general, support for endangered languages, terminology and translation activities, standardization. Highlighted organizations and projects working in the technology of the Semantic Web and related open data. Organizations and projects in the field of language technologies and resources in Europe are considered separately.

Die Zukunft der Schuldenbremse nach der Pandemie

The German constitutional fiscal rule (the „debt brake“) is increasingly subject to a reform debate that has intensified with the fiscal fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. This article presents survey evidence from the German state parliaments on views and preferences for the future of Germany’s fiscal rule. The survey among all 16 state parliaments was conducted between May and July 2020 with a participation of almost 30 per cent of all state parliamentarians. The results indicate that the debt brake still enjoys a large general support from more than two thirds of the parliamentarians. However, a reform in the direction of an investment clause is increasingly popular, much more than a clause that would support debt-financed climate policy measures.

Less is more

According to the Body-Specificity Hypothesis, humans preferentially associate positive features with their dominant side with which they interact more fluently, and negatives features with their non-dominant side with which they act more clumsily. The current research investigated implicit space-valence mappings in two clinical populations, namely, patients with unilateral stroke and individuals who suffered the loss of a limb. Across the two studies, our findings offered general support for the Body-Specificity Hypothesis with important caveats. Specifically, the body-specificity effect was more detectable in the two groups of right-handed individuals with motor fluency impairment on their left side than healthy controls. This is possibly because the former can gain more fluent experience with their dominant hand since they exclusively use the intact hand for self-sufficiency, which may increase their bias toward “right-is-good” pattern. Taken together, the results provided converging evidence that individual differences in action fluency may moderate the body-specificity effect.

Methods and Procedures Applied to Design of Production Processes and Systems

This paper is oriented to the production systems of a company that have to show increased flexibility and a permanent ability in dealing with dynamic requirements of the market and with respect to the products, their functions and variants. Innovative processes and a general support of innovative culture are the key to development and they are an important prosperity tool. They are accompanied by activities that lead to successful production and use of technical novelties and knowledge.

I Am This Widow: Social Support in Friendship After the Loss of a Spouse in Mid-Life

This paper elaborates on relational processes of social support after widowhood in mid-life. It extends knowledge in effective support by examining themes of friendship communication between widows and their friends rather than widows’ individual perceptions, and co-construction of support communication. Findings indicate that when social support is constructed between individuals with a focus on the specific relationship, support is highly valued. General support that does not consider the individual or relationship between widow and other is seen as unhelpful. It concludes by suggesting future research on social support take a dyadic approach.

Resident Perceptions of Tourism at Eleko Beach, Nigeria

An understanding of the perceptions of residents about the impacts of tourism helps planners maximize positive benefits and minimize the negative impacts the industry inevitably has. This study investigates the perception of residents in a local community in a developing country Nigeria, trying to understand whether the predominant perceptions are positive or negative. Questionnaire-based primary research was used to measure the attitudes and opinions of residents to different statements of positive and negative impacts and general support for the industry. The results show that the predominant perceptions in the community are positive ones and that there were significant relationships between the demographics data obtained and some perceptions and also that resident’s economic dependence affects how people felt either positively or negatively and their perceptions of the industry affect their support of the industry.