1,720,959 research outputs found
Connecting Past with Present: A Mixed-Methods Science Ethics Course and its Evaluation
Full text linkWe present a graduate science ethics course that connects cases from the historical record to present realities and practices in the areas of social responsibility, authorship, and human/animal experimentation. This content is delivered with mixed methods, including films, debates, blogging, and practicum; even the instructional team is mixed, including a historian of science and a research scientist. What really unites all of the course's components is the experiential aspect: from acting in historical debates to participating in the current scientific enterprise. The course aims to change the students' culture into one deeply devoted to the science ethics cause. To measure the sought after cultural change, we developed and validated a relevant questionnaire. Results of this questionnaire from students who took the course, demonstrate that the course had the intended effect on them. Furthermore, results of this questionnaire from controls indicate the need for cultural change in that cohort. All these quantitative results are reinforced by qualitative outcomes
Dynamic Quantification of Migrainous Thermal Facial Patterns - A Pilot Study
Full text linkThis article documents thermophysiological patterns associated with migraine episodes, where the inner canthi and supraorbital temperatures drop significantly compared to normal conditions. These temperature drops are likely due to vasoconstriction of the ophthalmic arteries under the inner canthi and sympathetic activation of the eccrine glands in the supraorbital region, respectively. The thermal patterns were observed on eight migraine patients and meticulously quantified using advance computational methods, capable of delineating small anatomical structures in thermal imagery and tracking them automatically over time. These methods open the way for monitoring migraine episodes in nonclinical environments, where the patient maintains directional attention, such as his/her computer at home or at work. This development has the potential to significantly expand the operational envelope of migraine studies
Delineating the operational envelope of mobile and conventional EDA sensing on key body locations
No full textElectrodermal activity (EDA) is an important affective indicator, measured conventionally on the fingers with desktop sensing instruments. Recently, a new generation of wearable, battery-powered EDA devices came into being, encouraging the migration of EDA sensing to other body locations. To investigate the implications of such sensor/location shifts in psychophysiological studies we performed a validation experiment. In this experiment we used startle stimuli to instantaneously arouse the sympathetic system of n = 23 subjects while sitting. Startle stimuli are standard but minimal stressors, and thus ideal for determining the sensor and location resolution limit. The experiment revealed that precise measurement of small EDA responses on the fingers and palm is feasible either with conventional or mobile EDA sensors. By contrast, precise measurement of small EDA responses on the sole is challenging, while on the wrist even detection of such responses is problematic for both EDA modalities. Given that affective wristbands have emerged as the dominant form of EDA sensing, researchers should beware of these limitations
Dissecting Driver Behaviors under Cognitive, Emotional, Sensorimotor, and Mixed Stressors
Full text linkIn a simulation experiment we studied the effects of cognitive, emotional, sensorimotor, and mixed stressors on driver arousal and performance with respect to (wrt) baseline. In a sample of n = 59 drivers, balanced in terms of age and gender, we found that all stressors incurred significant increases in mean sympathetic arousal accompanied by significant increases in mean absolute steering. The latter, translated to significantly larger range of lane departures only in the case of sensorimotor and mixed stressors, indicating more dangerous driving wrt baseline. In the case of cognitive or emotional stressors, often a smaller range of lane departures was observed, indicating safer driving wrt baseline. This paradox suggests an effective coping mechanism at work, which compensates erroneous reactions precipitated by cognitive or emotional conflict. This mechanisms' grip slips, however, when the feedback loop is intermittently severed by sensorimotor distractions. Interestingly, mixed stressors did not affect crash rates in startling events, suggesting that the coping mechanism's compensation time scale is above the range of neurophysiological latency
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Evaluating smartphone-based user interface designs for a 2D psychological questionnaire
No full textThis study explored various user interface designs to transition a two dimensional (2D) questionnaire from its paper-and-pencil testing format to the mobile platform. The current administration of the test limits its usage beyond the lab environment. Creating a mobile version would facilitate ubiquitous administration of the test. Yet, the mobile design must be at least as good as its paper-based counterpart in terms of input accuracy and user interaction efforts. We developed four user interface designs, each of which featured a specific interaction approach. These approaches included displaying the 2D space of the questionnaire in its original form (M1), inputting one variable at a time on the 2D space (M2), dissolving the 2D space into two one-dimensional ordinal scales (M3), and orienting the input selections to the diagonal axes (M4). The designs were tested by a total of 34 participants, aged 18 to 52 years. The study results find the first three interaction approaches (M1-M3) effective but the fourth approach inefficient. Furthermore, the results indicate that the two-tap designs (M2 and M3) are equally as good as the one-tap design (M1)
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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