Exploring design trade-offs for achieving social inclusion in multi-tiered design problems

ABSTRACT

The digital age of the future is ‘not out there to be discovered’, but it needs to be ‘designed’. The design challenge has to address questions about how we want to live, work, and learn (as individuals and as communities) and what we value and appreciate, e.g.: reflecting on quality of life and creating inclusive societies. An overriding design trade-off for the digital age is whether new developments will increase the digital divide or will create more inclusive societies. Sustaining inclusive societies means allowing people of all ages and all abilities to exploit information technologies for personally meaningful activities. Meta-design fosters the design of socio-technical environments that end-user developers can modify and evolve at use time to improve their quality of life and favour their inclusion in the society. This paper describes three case studies in the domain of assistive technologies in which end users themselves cannot act as end-user developers, but someone else (e.g.: a caregiver or a clinician) must accept this role requiring multi-tiered architectures. The design trade-offs and requirements for meta-design identified in the context of the case studies and other researchers’ projects are described to inform the development of future socio-technical environments focused on social inclusion.     

社交网络中基于网络结构支撑模型的谣言传播研究

结合结构支撑理论，探究节点网络结构支持力的一些性质，提出了社交网络结构中的全网支持力和被支持力的总量一致性，并进一步提出计算节点支持力的方法。谣言作为特殊信息，在支持力不同节点之间的传播特性有所不同，借鉴随机游走模型中的PageRank计算方法，对不同节点支持力的谣言传播以及传播后的辟谣状况进行了仿真模拟，结果表明支持力不同的节点对于谣言传播和辟谣影响明显。     

Long-run urban dynamics: understanding local housing market change in London

Abstract

Recently, a literature has emerged using empirical techniques to study the evolution of international cities over many centuries; however, few studies examine long-run change within cities. Conventional models and concepts are not always appropriate and data issues make long-run neighbourhood analysis particularly problematic. This paper addresses some of these points. First, it discusses why the analysis of long-run urban change is important for modern urban policy and considers the most important concepts. Second, it constructs a novel data set at the micro level, which allows consistent comparisons of London neighbourhoods in 1881 and 2001. Third, the paper models some of the key factors that affected long-run change, including the role of housing. There is evidence that the relative social positions of local urban areas persist over time but, nevertheless, at fine spatial scales, local areas still exhibit change, arising from aggregate population dynamics, from advances in technology, and also from the effects of shocks, such as wars. In general, where small areas are considered, long-run changes are likely to be greater, because individuals are more mobile over short than long distances. Finally, the paper considers the implications for policy.     

川西彭州地区雷口坡组潮坪相薄储层辨识机理研究

川西彭州地区三叠系雷口坡组雷四上亚段潮坪相薄储层识别难度极大。围绕如何从复合地震强反射中区分并识别上、下两套储层面临的地球物理难题,采用先“分”后“合”的研究思路,基于实际地层结构及不同储层叠加样式建立正演模型,利用全波场波动方程正演模拟技术,剖析了不同主频条件下薄储层的地震响应特征,通过波形差异化分析,从复合地震响应中“剥离”出了两套储层所引起的地震响应特征及变化规律,明确了两套储层在不同频带下的地震识别标志和识别方法,为该区强反射界面干扰下两套薄互层储层辨识机理分析及精准预测奠定了基础。基于不同频带下薄储层辨识机理的分析结果,定性预测了薄储层平面展布,提出了深层潮坪相薄储层识别和预测难题的解决方案,为该区地震资料品质评价、面向薄储层的地震采集技术设计、地震资料处理及薄储层预测提供了依据和指导。     

Salivary Proteome Changes in Response to Acute Psychological Stress Due to an Oral Exam Simulation in University Students: Effect of an Olfactory Stimulus

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays a crucial role both in acute and chronic psychological stress eliciting changes in many local and systemic physiological and biochemical processes. Salivary secretion is also regulated by ANS. In this study, we explored salivary proteome changes produced in thirty-eight University students by a test stress, which simulated an oral exam. Students underwent a relaxation phase followed by the stress test during which an electrocardiogram was recorded. To evaluate the effect of an olfactory stimulus, half of the students were exposed to a pleasant odor diffused in the room throughout the whole session. Saliva samples were collected after the relaxation phase (T0) and the stress test (T1). State anxiety was also evaluated at T0 and T1. Salivary proteins were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis, and patterns at different times were compared. Spots differentially expressed were trypsin digested and identified by mass spectrometry. Western blot analysis was used to validate proteomic results. Anxiety scores and heart rate changes indicated that the fake exam induced anxiety. Significant changes of α-amylase, polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (PIGR), and immunoglobulin α chain (IGHA) secretion were observed after the stress test was performed in the two conditions. Moreover, the presence of pleasant odor reduced the acute social stress affecting salivary proteome changes. Therefore, saliva proteomic analysis was a useful approach to evaluate the rapid responses associated to an acute stress test also highlighting known biomarkers.     

Understanding trust in ms-commerce: The roles of reported experience,linguistic style,profile photo,emotional, and cognitive trust

This paper examines what influences trust in mobile social commerce environment. Drawing on trust-based acceptance model (i.e. cognitive and emotional trust) and online review features (i.e. profile photo, linguistic style, and reported experience), we examine how these factors affect trust in mobile social commerce. Hypotheses were tested using survey data. The results of our model showed that there are significant influences of profile photo, reported experience, cognitive, and emotional trust towards trust in ms-commerce. This work contributes to existing literature by examining the roles of previous trust in mobile payments and online reviews on trust in mobile social commerce.     

Social licence: power imbalances and levels of consciousness – two case studies

ABSTRACT

Social licence to operate (SLO) is a term that is finding increasing acceptance in a number of industries. Like all new terms, its precise meaning and implications are still being investigated. Using data from previous studies, this paper offers an analysis of the SLO of two case studies with each study being viewed separately through the grid of a distinct theoretical framework. Case study 1 looks at the development of differential social licence negotiated in the Hamlet of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, as a result of an impact and benefit agreement negotiated between Tahera Diamond Corp. and the Kitikmeot Inuit Organisation in 2004. The study demonstrates that general acceptance of resource development can be uneven and reflect an unequal distribution of decision-making power. In case study 2, stakeholders of a failed mineral development project were queried across time about the specifics of the proposed mine development and were queried about resource development across different levels of consciousness. Perhaps, SLO is variable across different levels of consciousness. The paper concludes with observations about the variable nature of SLO acceptance across populations and across levels of consciousness within individuals. Perhaps, the concept of SLO is, in fact, complex, difficult to define and measure and, at this point, of limited utility as a measure of resource development acceptance.     

Sustainable supply chain management in Indian organisations: an empirical investigation

The present work is an attempt to investigate the adoption of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices amongst manufacturing and process based organisations in India and its impact on organisational performance encompassing all three dimensions of sustainability. SSCM practices conceived in the present study include environmental management practices (EMP), socially inclusive practices for employees (SPE), socially inclusive practices for community (SPC), operations practices (OP) and supply chain integration (SCI) which were treated as exogenous variables. Organisational performance considered in this study includes five dimensions, namely environmental performance (EPR), employee-centred social performance (ESP), community-centred social performance (CSP), operations performance (OPR) and competitiveness, which were regarded as endogenous variables. The analysis was carried out with the help of structural equation modelling considering natural logarithm of manpower as a control variable. Few major findings are mentioned. EMP does not have any significant association with OPR, nor does it result in competitiveness. However, when jointly mediated through both EPR and OPR, EMP leads to competitiveness. SPC has significant negative association with competitiveness, when only direct relationship is considered. However, indirect relationship between SPC and competitiveness shows significant positive association when mediated through CSP. The resultant total effect between SPC and competitiveness turns out to be insignificant. Further, OPR fully mediates the relationship between OP and competitiveness. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed.     

基于注意力机制与文本信息的用户关系抽取

随着社交媒体的发展,用户之间的关系网络对于社交媒体的分析有很大的帮助。因此,该文主要研究用户好友关系检测。以往的关于用户好友关系抽取的研究主要基于社交媒体上的结构化信息,比如其他好友关系,用户的不同属性等。但是,很多时候用户本身并没有大量的好友信息存在,同时也不一定有很多确定的属性。因此,我们希望基于用户发表的文本信息来对用户关系进行预测。不同于以往的潜在好友推荐算法,该文提出了一种基于注意力机制以及长短时记忆网络(long short-term memory,LSTM)的好友关系预测模型,将好友之间的评论分开处理,通过分析用户之间的评论来判断是否具备一定的好友关系。该模型将好友双方信息拼接后的结果作为输入,并将注意力机制应用于LSTM的输出。实验表明,用户之间的评论对于好友关系预测确实有较大的实际意义,该文提出的模型较之于多个基准系统的效果,取得了明显的提升。在不加入任何其它非文本特征的情况下,实验结果的准确率达到了77%。     

Detector physics and simulation of resistive plate chambers

We present a simulation model suited to study efficiency, timing and pulse-height spectra of Resistive Plate Chambers. After discussing the details of primary ionisation, avalanche multiplication, signal induction and frontend electronics, we apply the model to timing RPCs with time resolution down to 50 ps and trigger RPCs with time resolution of about 1 ns.