Social capital and university–business collaboration in doctoral education

University–business collaboration in doctoral education has been promoted by governments and universities. In contexts where there is limited contact between the academic and business sectors, individuals and their social capital might play an important role in the formation and success of such partnerships, including the frequency of interaction and continuity of partnerships. Here, data from a survey of directors of doctoral programmes in Portugal were used to explore these aspects. The social capital of the directors seems to increase both the intensity and continuity of collaboration, especially in scientific fields considered to be more distant from companies and in which university–business collaboration is less common. Previous collaboration will create relational capital, resulting in mutual knowledge and trust which, in turn, lead to more intense and sustainable collaboration. Academic experience with companies—reflecting cognitive aspects of social capital—increases the diversity of university–business collaboration in doctoral programmes, while also reinforcing the possibility of long-term collaborations. The findings indicate that academics’ social capital is an important factor in determining the success of collaborative doctoral education, and should be taken into account when designing and supporting collaborative doctoral programmes.

Representations in Intergroup Relations: Reflexivity, Meta-Representations, and Interobjectivity

Social and cultural groups are characterised by shared systems of social objects and issues that constitute their objective reality and their members' identity. It is argued that interpersonal interactions within such groups require a system of comprehensive representations to enable concerted interaction between individuals. Comprehensive representations include bits and pieces of the interactant's representational constitution and potential values and behaviours to reduce possible friction in interactions. On a larger scale, the same is true in encounters, communication, and interaction between members of different cultural groups where interactants need to dispose of a rough knowledge of the other culture's relevant characteristics. This mutual knowledge is called meta-representations that complement the actors' own values and ways of thinking. This concept complements Social Representation Theory when applied to cross-cultural and inter-ethnic interactions.

Training and Integrating Public Service Interpreters in a Refugee Health Clinic: A Mixed-Method Approach to Evaluate an Innovative Program

Language barriers can harm refugees’ health, and trained interpreters are a solution to overcome these barriers in all health consultations. This study trained interpreters and integrated them in a refugee clinic. Nepali-speaking migrants were recruited and underwent 50 hours of training to serve as interpreters for recently arrived Bhutanese refugees in Quebec City. To evaluate the project, mixed data were collected. At baseline and follow-up, patients’ health (as perceived by practitioners) and satisfaction were evaluated. Interpreters and practitioners were also interviewed and took part in joint discussion workshops. Patients’ health remained stable but, interestingly, patients were slightly less satisfied at follow-up. Practitioners and interpreters described both benefits and difficulties of the program. For example, integrating interpreters within the clinical team allowed for better collaboration and mutual knowledge of cultures. Challenges included work overload, conflicts between interpreters and practitioners, and role conflicts for interpreters. Overall, the full-time integration of trained interpreters in the clinic facilitated communication and case administration. This practice could be especially beneficial for refugee clients. In future interventions, interpreter roles should be better clarified to patients and practitioners, and particular attention should be paid to selection criteria for interpreters.

The enigma of Pacini’s Vibrio cholerae discovery

During the 1854 cholera outbreak in Florence, Italy, Filippo Pacini documented that the cause of the infection was a bacterium. This conclusion was also independently reached by John Snow during the 1854 cholera outbreak in London. By using an epidemiological method, Snow found that the infection spread through a polluted water network. Snow identified a water pump as the source of the disease. After removing the infected handle of this pump, the cases of cholera rapidly began to decrease. A microscopic examination of the water showed organic impurities but no bacteria. This discovery was ignored during Snow’s lifetime. In contrast, through microscopy during the autopsies of cholera victims, Pacini observed that the disruption of their intestinal mucosa was closely associated with millions of the bacteria that he called Vibrio cholerae . Via histological techniques, Pacini detected that intestinal mucosa reabsorption dysfunction was the cause of debilitating diarrhoea, vomiting, severe dehydration and death. Nevertheless, his discovery of Vibrio cholerae was ignored during Pacini’s lifetime. A survey of Pacini’s autographic manuscripts suggests that Pacini and Snow may have shared mutual knowledge within their respective seminal papers. This survey also facilitates, for the first time, the creation of maps that illustrate the worldwide distribution of Pacini’s cholera papers from 1854 to 1881. The consistent neglect of Pacini’s discovery remains a true enigma.

INTEGRATION OF INTERNET OF THINGS AND BLOCKCHAIN TO INCREASE HUMANITARIAN AID SUPPLY CHAINS PERFORMANCE

This paper provide an overview of the benefits that the integration of IoT and Blockchain can produce on the Humanitarian Aid Supply Chain (HASC). Consdering the large number of partner involved in HASC, traditional centralized information systems become very vulnerable. In the same sense, the lack of mutual knowledge obstruct the needed cooperation. The joint use of IoT and Blockchain can overcome these problems. Main benefit as well as barriers to this implementation is analyzed, considering the diferent phases of the HASC. KeywordsCovid19, Blockchain, Supply Chain Management, Internet of Things, Humanitarian Supply Chain

Trust as Extended Control: Human-Machine Interactions as Active Inference

In order to interact seamlessly with robots, users must infer the causes of a robot’s behavior–and be confident about that inference (and its predictions). Hence, trust is a necessary condition for human-robot collaboration (HRC). However, and despite its crucial role, it is still largely unknown how trust emerges, develops, and supports human relationship to technological systems. In the following paper we review the literature on trust, human-robot interaction, HRC, and human interaction at large. Early models of trust suggest that it is a trade-off between benevolence and competence; while studies of human to human interaction emphasize the role of shared behavior and mutual knowledge in the gradual building of trust. We go on to introduce a model of trust as an agent’ best explanation for reliable sensory exchange with an extended motor plant or partner. This model is based on the cognitive neuroscience of active inference and suggests that, in the context of HRC, trust can be casted in terms of virtual control over an artificial agent. Interactive feedback is a necessary condition to the extension of the trustor’s perception-action cycle. This model has important implications for understanding human-robot interaction and collaboration–as it allows the traditional determinants of human trust, such as the benevolence and competence attributed to the trustee, to be defined in terms of hierarchical active inference, while vulnerability can be described in terms of information exchange and empowerment. Furthermore, this model emphasizes the role of user feedback during HRC and suggests that boredom and surprise may be used in personalized interactions as markers for under and over-reliance on the system. The description of trust as a sense of virtual control offers a crucial step toward grounding human factors in cognitive neuroscience and improving the design of human-centered technology. Furthermore, we examine the role of shared behavior in the genesis of trust, especially in the context of dyadic collaboration, suggesting important consequences for the acceptability and design of human-robot collaborative systems.

The mystery and the unity of the Church: Considerations from an Eastern Orthodox perspective

This article attempts an approach to discuss the mystery and the unity of the church and firstly, it underlined that the church cannot have a formal definition as the divine life extended from Christ’s resurrected body into those who believe and receive the Holy Mysteria. At the same time, the process of becoming part of the church is a mystical one. In order for life in Christ to be possible, Christ must be formed in the human being. Becoming a Christian is described in terms specific to the process of birth (cf. Gl 4:19), its end being the formation of Christ in us. Then, the theme of unity is dealt with from an Eastern Orthodox perspective, not in isolation, but in connection with the Roman Catholic, Protestant and ecumenical concerns for unity and collaboration amongst Christians. The cosmic unifying vocation of the church was accomplished because of the five syntheses realised by her Head, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Then there are references to the Theotokological aspect of the church, Holy Baptism as the bond of church unity; Holy Eucharist as the Mysterion of ecclesial unity, the ministry of the bishop for unity and the unity of Christians in the one Church.Contribution: The author, having experience in ecumenical dialogues as a former member of the Commmission on World Mission and Evangelism and, at present, of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches, tried to offer a balanced perspective on the sensitive theme of the unity of the Christians in the one Church, referring to some of the main relevant sources, which facilitate dialogue, mutual knowledge and collaboration.

Oxytocin facilitates communicative adjustment by upregulating broadband aperiodic neural activity

Oxytocin modulates various social behaviors. In humans, oxytocin has been shown to modulate recipient design, i.e. how communicators adjust to their presumed mutual knowledge. Here, we investigate electrophysiological correlates of the oxytocinergic modulation of recipient design. Fifty-one males were randomly assigned to receive double-blind intranasal administration of oxytocin or placebo. While acquiring magnetoencephalography, the participants engaged in a live communicative task with two different addressees, a child and an adult. Unbeknownst to the participants, a confederate played the role of both addressees, with matched communicative behaviors. All participants started the task by putting more emphasis on their communicative behaviors when they thought to be interacting with the child addressee. As the communication progressed, the oxytocin group reduced variability in their communicative adjustments, adapting more effectively than the placebo group to the matched communicative behavior of the addressees. The magnitude of this oxytocin-related dynamic communicative adjustment was proportional to increased broadband aperiodic power, an index of local synaptic activity, in the right prefrontal-temporal circuit. These findings indicate that oxytocin facilitates dynamic adjustments in recipient design by enhancing cortical signal-to-noise in a portion of the same cortical circuit known to support the production of novel communicative behaviors.