1,124,883 research outputs found
Acceptance and Gamification Models of the Agon Framework, an Acceptance Requirements Framework Based on Gamification
No full textWe have been interested in developing a generic framework for modelling, analyzing and fulfilling acceptance requirements for software systems through gamification [Piras, 2016, 2017]. Our objective is to support the systematic design of engaging software that meets acceptance requirements. To meet our objective we conducted a wide review of the literature to select the most important, effective and representative user acceptance models [Ajzen, 1991, Compeau et al., 1999, Davis, 1986, Davis et al., 1992, Moore and Benbasat, 1991, Sheppard et al., 1988, Taylor and Todd, 1995, Thompson et al., 1991, Venkatesh and Davis, 2000, Venkatesh et al., 2003]. We have integrated elements of existing models to create an Acceptance Model based on goal modeling techniques [Chung et al., 2012, Horkoff et al., 2017, Li et al., 2013, Mylopoulos et al., 1992]. This model gives a generic characterization of the problem space for acceptance requirements.We have also developed a Gamification Model [Piras, 2016, 2017] that defines a design space for gamified solutions to acceptance requirements, also through a literature review. This model includes gamification concepts such as point systems (i.e., experience, redeemable, skill, karma, reputation and training points), badges, leader-boards, levels, paths, gamified training (i.e., suggestions, tricks, tours, tutorials, training paths), gamified market (i.e., rewards and market policies of redeeming, making gifts, purchasing), game roles, powers, unlockable powers, gamified community [Deterding et al., 2011, Hamari, 2015, Schell, 2014, Zichermann and Cunningham, 2011], etc., and the alternative choices a designer has when designing a gamified solution [Deterding et al., 2011, Hamari, 2015, Schell, 2014, Zichermann and Cunningham, 2011]. Our framework, named Agon5, recognizes the importance of understanding game mechanics and dynamics by applying well-known gamification patterns and guidelines Schell [2014], Zichermann and Cunningham [2011] in producing an effective gamified design.In order to obtain more details and the description of such models, the Agon Framework and its method, "Acceptance Requirements Analysis Based on Gamification", please read the following published papers:- L. Piras, E. Paja, P. Giorgini and J. Mylopoulos, “Goal Models for Acceptance Requirements Analysis and Gamification Design”, in 36th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER), Springer, Valencia (Spain), 2017.- L. Piras, E. Paja, R. Cuel, D. Ponte, P. Giorgini and J. Mylopoulos, “Gamification Solutions for Software Acceptance: A Comparative Study of Requirements Engineering and Organizational Behavior Techniques”, in 11th IEEE International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), IEEE, Brighton (UK), 2017.- L. Piras, P. Giorgini, and J. Mylopoulos, “Acceptance Requirements and their Gamification Solutions”, in 24th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), IEEE, Beijing, 2016
Victims of scenario-thinking. On the making of optimism and unrealistic expectations about ICTs
No full textThe pervasiveness of ICTs in healthcare is modifying professional-patient relationship. The de- bate, as often happens with innovations, is polarized and technology is considered with enthusiasm or sheer pessimism. Several works have tried to move beyond this simplistic positioning and address the intricacies and complexities of adopting technologies (Pols 2012; Piras and Miele 2020). Despite such efforts, the dichotomy tends to repeat itself and to move beyond we need to understand how this is created and reinforced.
Focusing on the professional community of computer scientists, the paper analyzes techno- enthusiasm to understand how it originates, how it is re-created over time and discursively performed and enacted.
The argumentation will be twofold. Firstly, I will show how the professional culture of informatics is imbued with high expectations with regard to the possibility of reshaping society through technology. In the scientific community, these values are promoted favoring the presentation of success cases instead of reflections about failures.
Secondly, I shall focus on the role of ‘scenarios’ in shaping an enthusiastic perspective with regard to technology. Scenarios, formally created to present a realistic use case, are powerful rhetorical devices that shape the desired future and foster a culture techno-enthusiasm by oversimplifying the complexities that technology will need to address thus making possible develop over-optimistic expectations regarding its adoption.
I argue that both techno-enthusiasm and techno-pessimism, far from being personal positioning, demarcate professional boundaries they are reproduced in patterned activities. Moving beyond the dichotomy requires identifying the locus and the practices in which each professional community performs and reinforces between techno-enthusiasm or techno-pessimism.
Pols, J. (2012), Care at a distance: on the closeness of technology. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Piras, E.M. and Miele, F. (in press) On digital intimacy: redefining provider–patient relationships in remote monitoring. Sociology of Health & Illness
Dust dispersion from haul roads in complex terrain: the case of a mineral reclamation site located in Sardinia (Italy)
No full textIn recent years there has been significant research effort to investigate the use of plume dispersion models to assess the environmental impact of fugitive dust emissions from surface mining operations. In particular, the results of these studies have identified challenges to the use of traditional Gaussian plume dispersion models to satisfactorily reproduce fugitive dust dispersion and deposition experienced from low elevation release heights within complex topography. This paper presents a discussion of the results of a preliminary series of modelling studies that have employed the UK-ADMS (Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling System) model to investigate the dust dispersion and deposition from to a former mining site currently undergoing remediation. The remediation site is located within a valley in south western Sardinia that may be considered an aerodynamically complex terrain. A series of field measurement surveys were conducted along the length of an unpaved surface haul truck roadway to measure the PM2.5 and PM10 dust fractions within the emitted plumes. To investigate the potential effects that that the surrounding topography may have on the atmospheric dispersion and deposition experienced a series of UK-ADMS dispersion models were solved for a range of meteorological stability conditions typical of the area under investigation. A preliminary analysis of the results of these simulations concludes that there was a strong influence of the surrounding terrain on the dispersion and deposition phenomena predicted
Important overlooked IVs in spatial models
No full textSpatial models often contain additional endogenous variables as regressors. The complete system determining these variables is typically not known to the researcher, and so maximum likelihood or Bayesian estimation methods are precluded. This leaves instrumental variable estimation. In all likelihood, the system may contain certain forms of nonlinearities. These nonlinearities might arise because of endogenous weighting matrices, functional form differences in the endogenous variables, etc. The existence of such nonlinearities strongly suggests the use of nonlinear forms of the instruments. Issues of this sort were pointed out in Kelejian and Piras (Spatial econometrics, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2017) and Kelejian (Lett Spat Resour Sci 9(1):113–136, 2016). However, thus far Monte Carlo results relating to efficiencies gained by the use of nonlinear instrumental variables are not available. This is unfortunate because these efficiencies can be quite extensive. The purpose of this paper is to fill this void
Variations on the Author
No full text“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
Passiones martyrum Sardiniae ad fidem codicum qui adhuc exstant nec non adhibitis editionibus veteribus
No full textIl volume raccoglie in un unico corpus i documenti agiografici, altomedievali e medievali, relativi ai martiri sardi dei primi secoli: Saturnino ed Efisio di Carales, Antioco di Sulci, Lussorio di Forum Traiani, Gavino, Proto e Gianuario di Turris Libisonis. La pubblicazione di questi testi, editi con gli strumenti rigorosi della filologia, viene a colmare una lacuna negli studi di agiografia e di alcuni di essi si offre qui la prima edizione critica. Inoltre, un'accurata indagine sulla loro tradizione manoscritta ha consentito non solo di disporre di un testo filologicamente affidabile, ma anche di mettere in luce, attraverso la circolazione di fenomeni culturali e cultuali, significative relazioni tra la Sardegna e gli altri paesi europei.The present work collects a number of hagiographic documents from the Late Antiquity and early Middle Ages concerning the Sardinian martyrs of the first centuries of the Christian era: Saturninus and Ephysius of Carales, Antiochus of Sulci, Luxorius of Forum Traiani, Gavinus, Protus, and Ianuarius of Turris Libisonis. This volume, which was edited in accordance with modern philological standards by a team of Italian scholars, is also intended to fill a significant gap in the hagiographic studies. Some of these texts, in fact, are presented in their first critical edition. While, on the one hand, an accurate investigation on the Sardinian hagiographic tradition provides a philologically reliable text, on the other hand, it also highlights the existence of significant relationships between Sardinia and the other European countries, especially in the wider circulation of cultural and cultual phenomena
L’amministrazione digitale tra divari e doveri. 'Non camminare davanti a me, ma al mio fianco'
No full textIn questo lavoro l’Autrice riflette sul processo di transizione digitale della p.a esulla relazione innovazione, diritti e nuove diseguaglianze. Particolare attenzio-ne è dedicata al rapporto diritti /doveri e all’importanza di interventi utili alfine di contenere le diseguaglianze, in linea con il principio costituzionale diuguaglianza, con i diritti di cittadinanza digitale e i principi europei di solidarie-tà, integrazione, giustizia e inclusione sociale.In this paper the Author focuses on the Public Administration digital transition, innovation, rights, and new disparities. Particular attention is dedicated on
the relationship between rights and duties, and on the importance to contain
inequalities, in line with constitutional principle of equality, digital citizenship rights, and European principles of solidarity, integration, social justice, and inclusion
Neonatal ventral hippocampal lesions potentiate amphetamine-induced increments in dopamine efflux in the core, but not the shell, of the nucleus accumbens
No full textBiol Psychiatry. 2006 Dec 1;60(11):1188-95. Epub 2006 Aug 24.
Neonatal ventral hippocampal lesions potentiate amphetamine-induced increments in
dopamine efflux in the core, but not the shell, of the nucleus accumbens.
Corda MG, Piras G, Giorgi O.
Department of Toxicology, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
BACKGROUND: In rats, neonatal ventral hippocampal lesions (NVHLs) result in the
postpubertal emergence of alterations reminiscent of several features of
schizophrenia, including increased responsivity to the behavioral effects of
amphetamine (AMPH). The precise nature of presynaptic aspects of accumbal
dopamine (DA) function in these alterations is however uncertain: previous
studies have found that the exacerbated responses to AMPH of NVHL rats are
associated with either decreased or unchanged DA efflux in the nucleus accumbens
(NAc) as compared with shams. Because these studies investigated DA output in the
whole NAc, it was considered of interest to examine the impact of NVHLs on DA
transmission in NAc subregions involved in distinct aspects of goal-directed
behavior.
METHODS: The effects of AMPH (.25 mg/kg, subcutaneous) on the accumbal DA efflux
of adult rats were evaluated using brain microdialysis, and motor activity was
recorded alongside dialysate sample collection.
RESULTS: The enhanced behavioral responsivity to AMPH of NVHL rats is associated
with potentiation of AMPH-induced DA output in the NAc core and a concomitant
attenuation of DA overflow in the NAc shell.
CONCLUSIONS: The functional alterations in the NAc core induced by NVHLs provide
a link between the hippocampal damage and striatal DA hyperactivity in
schizophrenia.
PMID: 16934777 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
Aspetti linguistici e letterari della Passio Antiochi
No full textAfter a short presentation on the main features of hagiographic literature and its connection with the cult of saints, this essay will examine some linguistic and literary aspects of the Passio Antiochi that may be dated to the period between the end of the 11. and the beginnings of the 13. century. Special attention is given to seven hymns that are attached to the Office of Antiochus: they can be ascribed undoubtedly to a clever versifier of the abbey of St. Victor of Marseilles. The last part of the essay deals with an epigram that is found also in the Legenda Saturnini: the history of its traditon seems to indicate that the author is Foulcoie of Beauvais, a French poet of the 11. century.Dopo una breve esposizione dei caratteri generali della letteratura agiografica e del suo rapporto col culto dei santi, si prendono in esame alcuni aspetti linguistici e letterari della Passio Antiochi, databile al periodo compreso tra la fine dell’XI e l’inizio del XIII secolo. Particolare attenzione è data ai sette inni che corredano l’Ufficio e che presuppongono un abile versificatore di ambiente vittorino. Si illustra infine un epigramma che è presente anche nella Legenda Saturnini: la storia della sua tradizione sembra additare come autore Foulcoie di Beauvais, poeta francese dell’XI secolo
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
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