SUPPORT OF INFORMAL CARERS FOR PEOPLE AFTER A STROKE WITH CROWDSOURCING AND NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

For a long time, both professionals and the lay public showed little interest in informal carers. Yet these people deals with multiple and common issues in their everyday lives. As the population is aging we can observe a change of this attitude. And thanks to the advances in computer science, we can offer them some effective assistance and support by providing necessary information and connecting them with both professional and lay public community. In this work we describe a project called “Research and development of support networks and information systems for informal carers for persons after stroke” producing an information system visible to public as a web portal. It does not provide just simple a set of information but using means of artificial intelligence, text document classification and crowdsourcing further improving its accuracy, it also provides means of effective visualization and navigation over the content made by most by the community itself and personalized on a level of informal carer’s phase of the care-taking timeline. In can be beneficial for informal carers as it allows to find a content specific to their current situation. This work describes our approach to classification of text documents and its improvement through crowdsourcing. Its goal is to test text documents classifier based on documents similarity measured by N-grams method and to design evaluation and crowdsourcing-based classification improvement mechanism. Interface for crowdsourcing was created using CMS WordPress. In addition to data collection, the purpose of interface is to evaluate classification accuracy, which leads to extension of classifier test data set, thus the classification is more successful.

Narcissism Today: What We Know and What We Need to Learn

Narcissism is of great interest to behavioral scientists and the lay public. Research across the past 20 years has led to substantial progress in the conceptualization, measurement, and study of narcissism. This article reviews the current state of the field, identifying recent advances and outlining future directions. Advances include hierarchical conceptualizations of narcissism across one-factor (narcissism), two-factor (grandiose vs. vulnerable narcissism), and three-factor (agentic extraversion, antagonism, narcissistic neuroticism) levels; the development of measures to assess the components of narcissism; clarification of the relations between narcissism and self-esteem; an understanding of the behavioral and motivational dynamics underlying narcissistic actions and social outcomes; and insight regarding potential fluctuations between narcissistic states. Future directions point in general to increased research using the lower levels of the narcissism hierarchy, especially the three-factor level. At this level, more research on the etiology, heritability, stability, and centrality of the three components is required.

Narcissism_Overview_CDPS

Narcissism is of great interest to behavioral scientists and the lay public. Research across the last 20 years has led to substantial progress in the conceptualization, measurement, and study of narcissism. The present paper reviews the current state of the field, identifying recent advances and outlining future directions. Advances include hierarchical conceptualizations of narcissism across one (narcissism), two (grandiose vs. vulnerable narcissism), and three factor levels (agentic extraversion, antagonism, narcissistic neuroticism), the development of measures to assess the components of narcissism, clarification of the relations between narcissism and self-esteem, an understanding of the behavioral and motivational dynamics underlying narcissistic actions and social outcomes, and insight regarding potential fluctuations between narcissistic states. Future directions point in general to increased research using the lower levels of the narcissism hierarchy, especially the three-factor level. At this level, more research is required on the etiology, heritability, stability, and centrality of the three components.

Lay person perceptions of marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR) – Working paper

This working paper presents first insights on lay public perceptions of marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches. In seven focus groups, three in Germany and four in Norway (including one pilot) the researchers asked members of the lay public to share their views of the ocean and the effects of climate change, four CDR approaches, as well as their reflections on responsible research and innovation (RRI) of marine CDR. The four CDR methods were ocean iron fertilization, ocean alkalinity enhancement, artificial upwelling, and blue carbon management through restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems. In addition, respondents were asked to compare the four approaches. Our findings indicate that the public will be very supportive of blue carbon management irrespective of its actual carbon sequestration potential, due in part to the perceived bad state of marine ecosystems worldwide. Participants were skeptical whether any of the CDR approaches could have relevant effect on carbon sequestration and long-term storage; they reasoned about issues such as the ability to scale up treatments in time and space, unforeseen or unforeseeable effects on ecosystems in time and space, and the role of industry in the implementation process. They argued that despite the potential availability of marine CDR, industry and the general public should stop polluting behaviors and practices. Nevertheless, the participants universally agreed that further research on all four CDR methods should be pursued to better understand effects on climate, ecosystems, local communities, and the economy.

Cyber - a Digital Cultural Heritage in a Museum and University Setting

In recent years, we have registered for the professional and lay public several published scientific and popularization papers on the use of virtual reality in cultural institutions, especially from abroad. The applicability of the components of virtual reality at present is not only dependent on the technical or economic nature, but also on the degree of mutual teamwork forming the basic framework of the project. The presented study consists of a theoretical nature in the context of the analysis of museum virtualization with an impact on positive and negative use in practice. The purpose of the practical section is direct examples of use in practice with a connection to the educational environment.

Lay Public View of Neuroscience and Science-Based Brain Health Recommendations in Slovenia

Background: Brain health is one of the cornerstones of a long and full life. Active care for brain health and reduction of lifestyle-related risks for brain disorders may be a key strategy in tackling the growing prevalence of mental and neurological illnesses. Public knowledge, perception, and preventive behavior need to be considered in the planning of effective strategies for brain health promotion. Our research is the first effort aimed at assessing Slovenian lay public knowledge, search and use of scientific information about the brain, and care for brain health.Methods: An online survey was used to gather data for descriptive and associative statistical analyses of a sample of the Slovenian public (n = 2568) in August 2017. Participants with formal brain-related education were excluded, leaving the remaining sample of the lay public (n = 1012). Demographic characteristics and information regarding the perceived importance and knowledge of brain health and engagement in preventive behaviors of participants were collected, and key associative analyses were carried out.Results: The majority of respondents (89%) considered brain health to be important. Over one-third (39%) considered their knowledge of the brain as sufficient relative to their needs. Most of the respondents identified science-recommended practices to be important for brain health. No recommendation was followed daily by the majority of the respondents, primarily due to declared lack of time (59%), and lack of information (32%). Information was obtained primarily from television (38%), followed by newspapers and magazines (31%), the Internet (31%), and direct conversations (27%). However, the highest-rated, preferred source of information was lectured by experts. One-third of our sample struggled with the trustworthiness of information sources. Female gender and older age were associated with a higher frequency of healthy practices. Personal or familial diagnoses of brain disorders were not associated with a higher frequency of the behavior in favor of brain health, but did affect available time and perceived value of preventive practices.Conclusions: Our research provides an initial insight into the perceptions, knowledge, and brain health-promoting behavior of the Slovenian lay public. Our findings can inform future strategies for science communication, public education and engagement, and policy-making to improve lifelong active care for brain health.

Science needs more external evaluation, not less

When science is evaluated by bureaucrats and administrators, it is usually done by quantified performance metrics, for the purpose of economic productivity. Olof Hallonsten criticizes both the means (quantification) and purpose (economization) of such external evaluation. I share the concern that such neoliberal performance metrics are shallow, over-simplified and inaccurate, but differ in how best to oppose this reductionism. Hallonsten proposes to replace quantitative performance metrics with qualitative in-depth evaluation of science, which would keep evaluation internal to scientific communities. I argue that such qualitative internal evaluation will not be enough to challenge current external evaluation since it does little to counteract neoliberal politics, and fails to provide the accountability that science owes the public. To assure that the many worthy purposes of science (i.e. truth, democracy, well-being, justice) are valued and pursued, I argue science needs more and more diverse external evaluation. The diversification of science evaluation can go in many directions: towards both quantified performance metrics and qualitative internal assessments and beyond economic productivity to value science’s broader societal contributions. In addition to administrators and public servants, science evaluators must also include diverse counterpublics of scientists: civil society, journalists, interested lay public and scientists themselves. More diverse external evaluation is perhaps no more accurate than neoliberal quantified metrics, but by valuing the myriad contributions of science and the diversity of its producers and users, it is hopefully less partial and perhaps more just.

Virtual Geosite Communication through a WebGIS Platform: A Case Study from Santorini Island (Greece)

We document and show a state-of-the-art methodology that could allow geoheritage sites (geosites) to become accessible to scientific and non-scientific audiences through immersive and non-immersive virtual reality applications. This is achieved through a dedicated WebGIS platform, particularly handy in communicating geoscience during the COVID-19 era. For this application, we selected nine volcanic outcrops in Santorini, Greece. The latter are mainly associated with several geological processes (e.g., dyking, explosive, and effusive eruptions). In particular, they have been associated with the famous Late Bronze Age (LBA) eruption, which made them ideal for geoheritage popularization objectives since they combine scientific and educational purposes with geotourism applications. Initially, we transformed these stunning volcanological outcrops into geospatial models—the so called virtual outcrops (VOs) here defined as virtual geosites (VGs)—through UAV-based photogrammetry and 3D modeling. In the next step, we uploaded them on an online platform that is fully accessible for Earth science teaching and communication. The nine VGs are currently accessible on a PC, a smartphone, or a tablet. Each one includes a detailed description and plenty of annotations available for the viewers during 3D exploration. We hope this work will be regarded as a forward model application for Earth sciences' popularization and make geoheritage open to the scientific community and the lay public.

Ethics: use and misuse of assisted reproductive techniques across species.

The boundaries of what we are able to do using ARTs are fast moving. In both human and veterinary medicine this presents a fundamental question: ‘Just because we can, should we?’ Or, to rephrase the same question: ‘How can we distinguish between what is a use and a misuse of an ART, across species?’ This paper assesses the scientific evidence base for and against the use of ARTs, and offers a personal opinion on how we can use such evidence to inform an ethical distinction between justifiable and unjustifiable uses of the techniques. It is argued that the law provides a necessary but insufficient basis for such distinctions. Based in evidence about harms and benefits, ARTs may be classified into three groups: those which should be rarely used; those for which current evidence supports arguments both for and against their use; and those which there is an ethical imperative to use. Which category a particular ART falls into varies depending upon the species to which it is being applied and the reason we are using it. In order to ensure that our ethical oversight keeps up with our technical prowess, the medical and veterinary professions should keep discussing and debating the moral basis of the use of ARTs, not only with each other but also with the lay public.