A Game Theory Approach for Estimating Reliability of Crowdsourced Relevance Assessments

In this article, we propose an approach to improve quality in crowdsourcing (CS) tasks using Task Completion Time (TCT) as a source of information about the reliability of workers in a game-theoretical competitive scenario. Our approach is based on the hypothesis that some workers are more risk-inclined and tend to gamble with their use of time when put to compete with other workers. This hypothesis is supported by our previous simulation study. We test our approach with 35 topics from experiments on the TREC-8 collection being assessed as relevant or non-relevant by crowdsourced workers both in a competitive (referred to as “Game”) and non-competitive (referred to as “Base”) scenario. We find that competition changes the distributions of TCT, making them sensitive to the quality (i.e., wrong or right) and outcome (i.e., relevant or non-relevant) of the assessments. We also test an optimal function of TCT as weights in a weighted majority voting scheme. From probabilistic considerations, we derive a theoretical upper bound for the weighted majority performance of cohorts of 2, 3, 4, and 5 workers, which we use as a criterion to evaluate the performance of our weighting scheme. We find our approach achieves a remarkable performance, significantly closing the gap between the accuracy of the obtained relevance judgements and the upper bound. Since our approach takes advantage of TCT, which is an available quantity in any CS tasks, we believe it is cost-effective and, therefore, can be applied for quality assurance in crowdsourcing for micro-tasks.

Closing the Gap on COVID-19 Vaccinations in First Responders and Beyond: Increasing Trust

Although COVID-19 vaccines are widely available in the U.S. and much of the world, many have chosen to forgo this vaccination. Emergency medical services (EMS) professionals, despite their role on the frontlines and interactions with COVID-positive patients, are not immune to vaccine hesitancy. Via a survey conducted in April 2021, we investigated the extent to which first responders in the U.S. trusted various information sources to provide reliable information about COVID-19 vaccines. Those vaccinated generally trusted healthcare providers as a source of information, but unvaccinated first responders had fairly low trust in this information source—a group to which they, themselves, belong. Additionally, regardless of vaccination status, trust in all levels of government, employers, and their community as sources of information was low. Free-response explanations provided some context to these findings, such as preference for other COVID-19 management options, including drugs proven ineffective. A trusted source of COVID-19 vaccination information is not readily apparent. Individuals expressed a strong desire for the autonomy to make vaccination decisions for themselves, as opposed to mandates. Potential reasons for low trust, possible solutions to address them, generalizability to the broader public, and implications of low trust in official institutions are discussed.

Virtual and Augmented Reality Awareness Tools for Universal Design

This chapter will be focused on contributing to the increase of universal design competencies of future engineers, educators, and designers through the use of mixed reality technologies, closing the gap between theory and field application of principles, towards a more inclusive world and promoting health and wellbeing for all. The experience of a situation where limitations arise in relation to what is taken for granted is an important experience that leads to a personal knowledge of the difficulties. By the use of simulators, especially virtual (VR) and mixed reality (MR) technologies, it is possible to create such experiences. Training based on MR can prepare future and current professionals for up-to-date requirements of the labor market. In addition, it can ensure that the standards such as barrier-free concepts, broader accessibility, adaptive and assistive technology will be familiar to trainees.

CLOSING THE GAP FOR PHARMACOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF PAINFUL DIABETIC NEUROPATHY : THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF VITAMIN D

Painful neuropathic pain is a challenging chronic pain to treat. It is heterogeneous in symptoms and could be resistant to the available treatments regimen. Current pharmacological treatments fail to achieve adequate pain relief in a most patients. The previous review showed that only less than 50% of patients can achieve good pain reduction with standard adjuvant treatment. The available adjuvants analgesic only focus in the symptom control, and do not interfere with the progressing damage of the nerve. Vit D insufficiency is quite frequent in type 2 diabetes patients.diabetes, particularly those with symptoms of DPN. The studies also showed that low serum vitamin D levels are an independent predictor of DPN development. Vitamin D supplementation is necessary for diabetic neuropathy patients since it promotes the synthesis of neurotrophins and neurotransmitters. Additional vitamin D therapy have big role in nerve growth factor and the regulation of neurotrophin and Ca2+ homeostasis in neurons, and provides protection for neurons in the peripheral nervous system. In this review, we do systematically search the studies about Vitamin D for the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathic condition. We used PubMed, Cochrane, Clinical Key, and search Google Scholar for papers that used vitamin D phrases. and painful diabetic neuropathy as our major database for this review and we make a systematic table to explain our review. However, there is still an unmet need in the management of neuropathic pain. The unmet needs maybe caused by the gap between pharmacological treatmnet in pain reduction in painful diabetic neuropathy patients. Therefore, in this review we discuss about the potential use of vitamin D as an add-on therapy to closing the gap in the management of neuropathic pain.

How the mind comes to life: The physics and metaphysics of dissipative structures

This monograph tries to illuminate the process of live and mind by focusing on a thermodynamic perspective. In doing so a fundamental link is offered between psychology and neuroscience on the one hand and physics on the other hand. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics applied on human structures leads to explanations for highly complex processes like self-healing, the forecast of the structuring of stable neuronal connections or the importance of feedback loops for the formation of metastable neuronal structures. Besides energy there is evidence for the necessity of a second concept: information. To integrate this into a resilient ontology a new definition for „biological information” is required and will be provided. Transferring in analogy the thermodynamic framework of energy to biological information leads to what I shall call Dual Dissipation Theory (DDT). Its essentials will be presented and a short introduction, why dualism can be supported if introduced correctly. Finally, DDT suggests the following insight:The common concept for life is „energy flow“ and „information flow“, grounded in dissipative structures. It could offer a plausible heuristic for the explanation of mind and consciousness closing the gap from physics, i.e. non-ecquilibrium thermodynamics, to neuroscience and psychology.