bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Non-operative treatment of acute appendicitis in children: clinical efficacy of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid in a retrospective single-centre study
Authors: Picard Clémence , Abbo Olivier , Munzer Caroline , Ricco Lucas , Dubois Damien , Lemoine Cécile , Claudet Isabelle , Bréhin Camille
Published: October 2023

Background

The success rate of non-operative treatment (NOT) of acute uncomplicated appendicitis (AUA) in children varies from 65% to 95%. There are no recommendations on the appropriate antibiotic therapy.

Objective

To determine the clinical efficacy of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid for NOT of AUA in children.

Methods

Design: Cross-sectional study in a single medical centre. Settings: Emergency department and Paediatric Visceral Surgery department of the Children Hospital in Toulouse, France. Patients: Patients 5–15 years old who were diagnosed with appendicitis, (1) With abdominal pain and a first episode of acute appendicitis, (2) With no radiological or ultrasound evidence of appendicolith, appendiceal perforation, pelvic abscess nor peritonitis, and (3) With non-septic general aspect, were included. Interventions: NOT consisted of hospital admission. The antibiotic treatment was a combination of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid (80 mg/kg/day of amoxicillin): intravenous regimen during 48 hours followed by oral route during 7 days. Main outcome measure: Success rate of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid NOT in children with AUA at 2 years.

Results

The initial success rate of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid NOT in children with AUA was 100% (104/104 patients). The success rate at 2 years was 85.6% (89/104) at discharge. None of the 15 patients who underwent surgery after recurrence of appendicitis presented with peritonitis, appendiceal perforation nor pelvic abscess.

Conclusion

Narrowed antibiotic therapy with amoxicillin and clavulanic acid seems to be an alternative to surgery in children with AUA. It is necessary to wait for the results of ongoing studies to confirm these results.
Oregon Death with Dignity Act access: 25 year analysis
Authors: Regnard Claud , Worthington Ana , Finlay Ilora
Published: October 2023

Objectives

Assisted dying has been legally available in Oregon in the USA for 25 years, since when official reports have been published each year detailing the number of people who have used this option as well as sociodemographic and information about the process. The aim of this study was to examine changes over time in these data.

Methods

We collated and reviewed data on 2454 assisted deaths included in annual reports on assisted deaths published by the Oregon Health Authority from 1998 to 2022. Descriptive statistics were used to describe time trends.

Results

The number of assisted deaths in Oregon increased from 16 in 1998 to 278 in 2022. Over this time, patients’ health funding status changed from predominantly private (65%) to predominantly government support (79.5%), and there was an increase in patients feeling a burden and describing financial concerns as reasons for choosing an assisted death. There has been a reduction in the length of the physician–patient relationship from 18 weeks in 2010 to 5 weeks in 2022, and the proportion referred for psychiatric assessment remains low (1%). Data are frequently missing, particularly around complications.

Conclusions

The number and characteristics of people accessing assisted deaths, and the process, have changed since data collection started in 1998. Prospective studies are needed to examine the relationship between socioeconomic factors and the desire for an assisted death in Oregon.
Retinal artery/arteriole occlusion risks after endovascular treatment for unruptured intracranial aneurysm
Authors: Kim Hae Rang , Kim Min Jeoung , Kim Sunyeup , Chang Myung Soo , Kim Dong Joon , Kim Byung Moon , Park Keun Young , Kim Yong Bae , Lee Christopher Seungkyu , Byeon Suk Ho , Kim Sung Soo , Lee Seung Won , Kim Yong Joon
Published: October 2023

Background

To evaluate the association between retinal artery/arteriole occlusion (RAO) and unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA).

Methods

Incident UIA patients from a nationwide cohort (n=253 240) were categorised into three groups based on subsequent treatment: observation (n=208 993), microsurgical clipping (n=14 168) and endovascular treatment (EVT) groups (n=30 079). The incidence and the incident time of RAO were analysed. HRs of RAO and associated risk factors were evaluated. Additionally, a hospital cohort comprising 2569 consecutive UIA patients treated at a tertiary hospital was analysed with detailed clinical information of UIAs.

Results

In the nationwide cohort analysis, the incidence of RAO was significantly higher in EVT group than in observation and clipping groups, especially within 60 days (early RAO (within 60 days): HR=4.00, 95% CI: 2.44 to 6.56); delayed RAO (after 60 days): HR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.13 to 2.68). Multivariable analysis showed that the presence of chronic kidney disease (p=0.009) and use of a balloon microcatheter during the procedure (p=0.013) were associated with a higher risk of RAO. In hospital cohort analysis, 11 (0.8%) cases of RAO occurred after EVT, whereas none occurred after microsurgical clipping (p<0.001). Patients with RAO were younger and received balloon microcatheters more frequently than their counterparts. Ten cases of RAO (90.9%) occurred in paraclinoid aneurysms, where EVT was preferred over microsurgical clipping.

Conclusions

Performing EVT for UIA may increase the risk of subsequent RAO. Care should be taken when treating paraclinoid aneurysms with balloon microcatheters.
Fish oil divergently enriches broiler meat with long chain ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCω-3PUFAs) by modulating the ratio of ω-3 to ω-6 PUFAs without disrupting gut morphology and cardio-pulmonary morphometry
Authors: Hossain Md. Emran , Das Goutam Buddha , Bhowmik Priunka , Adhikary Kona , Sultan Md. Nahid , Islam Shilpi , Akter Nasima
Published: October 2023

A trial was conducted for 35 days to investigate if replacement of soybean oil (SO) for fish oil (FO) influenced average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG), final live weight (FLW), feed efficiency (FE), haemato-biochemical indices, carcass traits, cardio-pulmonary morphometry, gut morphology, nutrient digestibility, and fatty acid profile of the broiler chicken. A total of 350, day-old Ross-308 male broilers were distributed in a completely randomized design into five dietary treatment groups designated as FO0% (diet without FO, i.e., 100% SO), FO25% (diet containing 25% FO + 75% SO), FO50% (diet containing 50% FO + 50% SO), FO75% (diet containing 75% FO + 25% SO), and FO100% (diet containing 100% FO). Each treatment was replicated seven times containing 10 birds per replicate. Results indicated that complete replacement of SO for FO increased 4.7% FLW, 12.4% ADFI, 3.9% ADG, 16.2% HDL, and 8.6% CP. Although, FO contained 471.1% more ∑LCω-3PUFAs than SO, the FO-supplemented breast meat was enriched with net increment of 45.0% ∑LCω-3PUFAs and 81.0% ∑ω-3: ∑ω-6 at the expense of 7.1% FE and 26.8% MDA. Complete replacement of SO for FO did not compromise net profit. Hence, replacement of SO for FO may be commercially plausible.
An Accelerated Double-Proximal Gradient Algorithm for DC Programming
Authors: Li Gaoxi , Yi Ying , Huang Yingquan
Published: October 2023

The double-proximal gradient algorithm (DPGA) is a new variant of the classical difference-of-convex algorithm (DCA) for solving difference-of-convex (DC) optimization problems. In this paper, we propose an accelerated version of the double-proximal gradient algorithm for DC programming, in which the objective function consists of three convex modules (only one module is smooth). We establish convergence of the sequence generated by our algorithm if the objective function satisfies the Kurdyka–[Formula: see text]ojasiewicz (K[Formula: see text]) property and show that its convergence rate is not weaker than DPGA. Compared with DPGA, the numerical experiments on an image processing model show that the number of iterations of ADPGA is reduced by 43.57% and the running time is reduced by 43.47% on average.
Proximal Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers with Convex Combination Proximal Centers
Authors: Zhou Danqing , Xu Haiwen , Yang Junfeng
Published: October 2023

Proximal alternating direction method of multipliers (PADMM) is a classical primal-dual splitting method for solving separable convex optimization problems with linear equality constraints, which have numerous applications in, e.g., signal and image processing, machine learning, and statistics. In this paper, we propose a new variant of PADMM, called PADMC, whose proximal centers are constructed by convex combinations of the iterates. PADMC is able to take advantage of problem structures and preserves the desirable properties of the classical PADMM. We establish iterate convergence as well as [Formula: see text] ergodic and [Formula: see text] nonergodic sublinear convergence rate results measured by function residual and feasibility violation, where [Formula: see text] denotes the iteration number. Moreover, we propose two fast variants of PADMC, one achieves faster [Formula: see text] ergodic convergence rate when one of the component functions is strongly convex, and the other ensures faster [Formula: see text] nonergodic convergence rate measured by constraint violation. Finally, preliminary numerical results on the LASSO and the elastic-net regularization problems are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed methods.
Thermodynamic and cosmological parameters of early stages of the universe
Authors: Faisel Gaber , Al-Rahman Youssef Amr Abd , Akyildirim Hakan
Published: October 2023

The early Universe was characterized by the presence of heavy particles that decoupled at different temperatures leading to different phases of the Universe. This had some consequences on the time evolution of the thermodynamic and the cosmological parameters characterizing each phase of the early Universe. In this study, we derive the analytic expressions of the equations governing the time evolution of these parameters using the equations of state of the MIT bag model describing the quark–gluon plasma era. In addition, using the equations of state derived from considering the recent results of the lattice QCD simulations, we solve numerically the differential equation governing the time evolution of the energy density in the early Universe. The time evolution of the parameters under concern including the energy density, entropy density, temperature, pressure in addition to Hubble parameter and scale factor can then be estimated as will be presented in this work.
An exact analysis of radiation absorption and Dufour effect on MHD convective flow of Cu-water nanofluid with heat generation and chemical reaction
Authors: Bordoloi Rajdeep , Gohain Dipunja , Ahmed Nazibuddin , Chamkha Ali J.
Published: October 2023

The combined effects of diffusion-thermo and radiative absorption on free convective hydromagnetic heat-generating chemically reactive flow of Cu-water nanofluid past an instantaneously accelerated unlimited vertical plate nested in a porous medium are investigated. A comparative analysis is executed for both isothermal and ramped conditions. The set of transformed domain equations has been obtained using a closed form of the Laplace transform method with the help of the Heaviside step function. Graphical and tabular explanations are provided for the physical characteristics of several flow parameters affecting the problem. Graphs are generated using MATLAB computing software. Findings of the problem manifest that the diffusion-thermo parameter and the radiation absorption parameter intensify the velocity and fluid temperature in the entire fluid area. This augmentation is most prominent for copper nanoparticles. Concentration, temperature, and velocity profiles in the case of ramped conditions are less than in isothermal conditions. Furthermore, the ramped parameter amplifies the heat transfer rate while reversing the mass transfer rate. It is also established that the volume concentration of nanoparticles enhances the heat transfer rate. The present study is of great interest in numerous fields of industry and machine-building applications.
Investigation of electron acceleration in a perpendicularly magnetized plasma wave
Authors: Kargarian Ameneh , Zare Somayeh , Ghapanvari Maryam
Published: October 2023

Electron acceleration is investigated in a plasma wake generated via the interaction of a high-intensity laser pulse with the plasma in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. For this purpose, using the Maxwell equation, the wakefield profile in the perpendicularly magnetized plasma is obtained and then using the magnetized wakefied the electron energy and momentum equations are numerically solved. It turns out that the electron acceleration in a magnetized wake having a different profile than unmagnetized one increases with the perpendicular magnetic field strength so that in presence of a magnetic field with a strong enough amplitude the acceleration goes beyond the resonance regime. The numerical results demonstrate that the electron could be significantly accelerated in a low-amplitude laser-driven wake in presence of an external perpendicular magnetic field which can be superseded the high-amplitude laser-driven wake acceleration regime. Furthermore, we concluded in such systems that the electron acceleration is drastically sensitive to amplitude and initial phase of the wakefield as well as the initial energy of the electron.
PREDICTIVE MODELING AND OPTIMIZATION OF CUTTING PARAMETERS IN HIGH SPEED HARDENED TURNING OF AISI D2 STEEL USING RSM, ANN AND DESIRABILITY FUNCTION
Authors: MEBREK HAMAMA , MANSOURI SALAH , TOUGGUI YOUSSEF , AMEDDAH HACENE , YALLESE MOHAMED ATHMANE , BENIA HADJ MOHAMED
Published: October 2023

High speed machining (HSM) is an attractive process for numerous applications due to its potential to increase production rates, reduce lead times, lower costs, and enhance part quality. In this study, high-speed turning operations on AISI D2 steel using a coated carbide cutting tool under dry conditions were conducted. The cutting parameters examined in this investigation were Vc, [Formula: see text], and ap, while the outputs measured were surface roughness (Ra), cutting temperature ([Formula: see text]), and flank wear (VB). To obtain reliable and accurate results, a Taguchi L27 orthogonal array for the 27 experimental runs was employed as well as analysis of variance (ANOVA), response surface methodology (RSM), and artificial neural network (ANN) to develop a constitutive relationship between prediction responses and the cutting parameters. The ANOVA results showed that Vc had a significant effect on [Formula: see text] (36.81%) and VB (27.58%), while [Formula: see text] had a considerable influence on Ra (24.21%). Additionally, nonlinear prediction models were created for each measured output and their accuracy was evaluated using three statistical indices: coefficient of determination ([Formula: see text]2), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and root mean square error (RMSE). Finally, multi-objective optimization was successfully carried out using the desirability function (DF) approach to propose an optimal set of cutting parameters that simultaneously minimized Ra, [Formula: see text], and VB. The optimized cutting parameters were Vc = 477.28 m/min, [Formula: see text] = 0.08 rev/min, and ap = 0.8 mm, resulting in Ra = 1.23 [Formula: see text]m, [Formula: see text] = [Formula: see text]C, and VB = 0.049 mm.
Data-driven method to extract mean exit time and escape probability for dynamical systems driven by Lévy noises
Authors: Lu Linghongzhi , Li Yang , Liu Xianbin
Published: October 2023

Complex dynamical systems have been investigated through many data-driven methods with easily accessible and massive data from observations, experiments or simulations in recent decades. However, few works dealt with the stochastical non-Gaussian perturbation case. In this paper, for a class of systems perturbed by non-Gaussian [Formula: see text]-stable Lévy noises, we devise a data-driven approach to extract the mean exit time and escape probability of rare transition dynamics. The theories are based on the non-local Kramers–Moyal formulas and non-local partial differential equations generated by Kolmogorov backward operator, accompanied with the corresponding numerical algorithms. Specifically, we first identify governing laws by a machine learning framework according to non-local Kramers–Moyal formulas. With learned systems, the mean exit time and escape probability are obtained by solving corresponding partial differential equations. The feasibility and accuracy of the method are checked by one- and two-dimensional examples. This method will serve as an example to study stochastic systems with non-Gaussian perturbations from data and illuminate some insights into the extraction of other dynamical indicators like the maximum likelihood transition path.
Dynamics of a stochastic phytoplankton–zooplankton system with defensive and offensive effects
Authors: Wang Yi , Guo Qing , Zhao Min , Dai Chuanjun , Liu He
Published: October 2023

In this paper, we propose a stochastic phytoplankton–zooplankton system considering phytoplankton defensive and zooplankton offensive effects. The aim of this paper is to study the effects of environmental fluctuations on plankton population dynamics. We prove the existence, uniqueness and stochastically ultimately boundedness of global positive solutions, and the extinction and persistence in the mean of plankton populations. When the system is persistent in the mean, there exists a unique stationary distribution. To further investigate the dynamics of the stochastic plankton system, we perform some numerical simulations and find that the white noise can directly affect the survival of plankton populations. The phytoplankton defense can strengthen the capability of phytoplankton protection that will benefit the plankton survival and weaken the impact of environmental fluctuations, but it has a negative effect on zooplankton population. Our findings reveal that zooplankton offense is beneficial to the survival of phytoplankton but may threaten the persistence of zooplankton population. An appropriate increase of phytoplankton defense or decrease of zooplankton offense can potentially change the survival state of the plankton system.
A large deviation principle for reflected SPDEs on infinite spatial domain
Authors: Wang Ran , Zhang Beibei
Published: October 2023

In this paper, we study a large deviation principle for a reflected stochastic partial differential equation on infinite spatial domain. A new sufficient condition for the weak convergence criterion proposed by Matoussi, Sabbagh and Zhang [A. Matoussi, W. Sabbagh and T.-S. Zhang, Large deviation principles of obstacle problems for quasilinear stochastic PDEs, Appl. Math. Optim. 83(2) (2021) 849–879] plays an important role in the proof.
The ideals of the monoid of all full transformations with restricted range
Authors: Zhao Ping , Hu Huabi
Published: October 2023

Let [Formula: see text] be a non-empty set and let [Formula: see text] be the monoid of all full transformations of [Formula: see text]. Given a non-empty subset [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text], we denote by [Formula: see text] the subsemigroup of [Formula: see text] of all full transformations with range contained in [Formula: see text] and by [Formula: see text] the monoid of all full transformations of [Formula: see text]. In 2011, Sanwong investigated the subsemigroup [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text]. For [Formula: see text] is a finite set with [Formula: see text], put [Formula: see text] We characterize the connections between the maximal regular subsemigroups of ideals of [Formula: see text] and the maximal regular subsemigroups of ideals of [Formula: see text]. Moreover, we determine the maximal subsemigroups of [Formula: see text] and classify completely the maximal regular subsemigroups of the ideals [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text], for [Formula: see text]. We also show that, for [Formula: see text], any maximal regular subsemigroup of [Formula: see text] is idempotent generated.
Spectra of zero-divisor graphs of finite reduced rings
Authors: Sonawane Gahininath , Kadu Ganesh S. , Borse Y. M.
Published: October 2023

Let [Formula: see text] be a finite reduced ring with [Formula: see text] maximal ideals [Formula: see text] and let [Formula: see text] be the zero-divisor graph associated to [Formula: see text] The class of rings [Formula: see text] contains the Boolean rings as a subclass. When [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] is a finite field, we associate two [Formula: see text] sized matrices [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] to the graph [Formula: see text] having combinatorial entries and use these matrices to determine the spectrum of this graph. More precisely, we show that every eigenvalue of [Formula: see text] and of [Formula: see text] is an eigenvalue of [Formula: see text] To do this, we give a recursive description of the adjacency matrix of this graph and also exhibit its equitable partition. This is used in computing the determinant, rank and nullity of the adjacency matrix. Further, we propose that the eigenvalues of [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] and the eigenvalue [Formula: see text] exhaust all the eigenvalues of [Formula: see text]
Degenerations of Poisson algebras
Authors: Abdelwahab Hani , Ouaridi Amir Fernández , González Cándido Martín
Published: October 2023

We construct a method to obtain the algebraic classification of Poisson algebras defined on a commutative associative algebra, and we apply it to obtain the classification of the [Formula: see text]-dimensional Poisson algebras. In addition, we study the geometric classification, the graph of degenerations and the closures of the orbits of the variety of [Formula: see text]-dimensional Poisson algebras. Finally, we also study the algebraic classification of the Poisson algebras defined on a commutative associative null-filiform or filiform algebra and, to enrich this classification, we study the degenerations between these particular Poisson algebras.
A note on Sylow numbers of finite p-soluble groups
Authors: Liu WenTao , Meng HangYang , Qiao ShouHong , Su Ning
Published: October 2023

Let [Formula: see text] be a finite group. Let [Formula: see text] be a prime dividing the order of [Formula: see text], denoted by [Formula: see text] the number of Sylow [Formula: see text]-subgroups of [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we present some characterizations of a finite [Formula: see text]-soluble group [Formula: see text] with the property that [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] for some subgroups [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text].
"Enjoy, but Moderately!": Designing a Social Companion Robot for Social Engagement and Behavior Moderation in Solitary Drinking Context
Authors: Jung Yugyeong , Jung Gyuwon , Jeong Sooyeon , Kim Chaewon , Woo Woontack , Hong Hwajung , Lee Uichin
Published: October 2023

Socially assistive robots can support people in making behavior changes by socially engaging in or moderating certain behaviors, such as physical exercise and snacking. However, there has not been much work on designing social robots that aim to support both social engagement and behavior moderation, i.e., offering social interactions for engaging in behaviors without over-engagement. This work explores how social robots can moderate alcohol consumption while socially engaging them in a solitary drinking context. As alcohol consumption can have benefits when done in moderation, this companion robot aims to guide the user toward moderate drinking by using social engagement (i.e., creating an enjoyable atmosphere) and drinking moderation (i.e., regulating the drinking pace). Our preliminary user study (n=20) reveals that the robot is perceived as a friendly companion, and its human-likeness is partly attributed to the robot's intervention. Most participants followed the robot's guidance and perceived it as an intelligent friend due to its social interactions and behavior tracking features. We discuss the benefit of physical interactions for social engagement, utilizing interaction rituals for enjoyable but moderate commensality, and ethical considerations in solitary drinking contexts.
"Thoughts & Prayers" or " ❤️ & 🙏 ": How the Release of New Reactions on CaringBridge Reshapes Supportive Communication in Health Crises
Authors: Smith C. Estelle , Miller Hillberg Hannah , Levonian Zachary
Published: October 2023

Following Facebook's introduction of the "Like" in 2009, CaringBridge (a nonprofit health journaling platform) implemented a "Heart" symbol as a single-click reaction affordance in 2012. In 2016, Facebook expanded its Like into a set of emotion-based reactions. In 2021, CaringBridge likewise added three new reactions: "Prayer", "Happy", and "Sad." Through user surveys (N=808) and interviews (N=13), we evaluated this product launch. Unlike Likes on mainstream social media, CaringBridge's single-click Heart was consistently interpreted as a simple, meaningful expression of acknowledgement and support. Although most users accepted the new reactions, the product launch transformed user perceptions of the feature and ignited major disagreement regarding the meanings and functions of reactions in the high stakes context of health crises. Some users found the new reactions to be useful, convenient, and reducing of caregiver burden; others felt they cause emotional harms by stripping communication of meaningful expression and authentic care. Overall, these results surface tensions for small social media platforms that need to survive amidst giants, as well as highlighting crucial trade-offs between the cognitive effort, meaningfulness, and efficiency of different forms of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). Our work provides three contributions to support researchers and designers in navigating these tensions: (1) empirical knowledge of how users perceived the reactions launch on CaringBridge; (2) design implications for improving health-focused CMC; and (3) concrete questions to guide future research into reactions and health-focused CMC.
Building Causal Agency in Autistic Students through Iterative Reflection in Collaborative Transition Planning
Authors: Lowy Rachel , Lee Chung Eun , Abowd Gregory D. , Kim Jennifer G.
Published: October 2023

Transition planning is a collaborative process to promote agency in students with disabilities by encouraging them to participate in setting their own goals with team members and learn ways to assess their progress towards the goals. For autistic young adults who experience a lower employment rate, less stability in employment, and lower community connections than those with other disabilities, successful transition planning is an important opportunity to develop agency towards preparing and attaining success in employment and other areas meaningful to them. However, a failure of consistent information sharing among team members and opportunities for agency in students has prevented successful transition planning for autistic students. Therefore, this work brings causal agency theory and the collaborative reflection framework together to uncover ways transition teams can develop students' agency by collaboratively reflecting on students' inputs related to transition goals and progress. By interviewing autistic students, parents of autistic students, and professionals who were involved in transition planning, we uncovered that teams can better support student agency by accommodating their needs and encouraging their input in annual meetings, building relationships through transparent and frequent communication about day-to-day activities, centering goals on student's interests, and supporting student's skill-building in areas related to their transition goals. However, we found that many teams were not enacting these practices, leading to frustration and negative outcomes for young adults. Based on our findings, we propose a role for autistic students in the collaborative reflection framework that encouraged participation and builds causal agency. We also make design recommendations to encourage autistic students' participation in collaborative reflection around long-term and short-term needs in ways that promote their causal agency.
52 Weeks Later: Attitudes Towards COVID-19 Apps for Different Purposes Over Time
Authors: Kowalewski Marvin , Utz Christine , Degeling Martin , Schnitzler Theodor , Herbert Franziska , Schaewitz Leonie , Farke Florian M. , Becker Steffen , Dürmuth Markus
Published: October 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted countries around the world to introduce smartphone apps to support disease control efforts. Their purposes range from digital contact tracing to quarantine enforcement to vaccination passports, and their effectiveness often depends on widespread adoption. While previous work has identified factors that promote or hinder adoption, it has typically examined data collected at a single point in time or focused exclusively on digital contact tracing apps. In this work, we conduct the first representative study that examines changes in people's attitudes towards COVID-19-related smartphone apps for five different purposes over the first 1.5 years of the pandemic. In three survey rounds conducted between Summer 2020 and Summer 2021 in the United States and Germany, with approximately 1,000 participants per round and country, we investigate people's willingness to use such apps, their perceived utility, and people's attitudes towards them in different stages of the pandemic. Our results indicate that privacy is a consistent concern for participants, even in a public health crisis, and the collection of identity-related data significantly decreases acceptance of COVID-19 apps. Trust in authorities is essential to increase confidence in government-backed apps and foster citizens' willingness to contribute to crisis management. There is a need for continuous communication with app users to emphasize the benefits of health crisis apps both for individuals and society, thus counteracting decreasing willingness to use them and perceived usefulness as the pandemic evolves.
Understanding Extrafamilial Intergenerational Communication: A Case Analysis of an Age-Integrated Online Community
Authors: Li Lin , Tang Xinru , Piper Anne Marie
Published: October 2023

In today's society, the relationship between younger and older generations is increasingly characterized by tension and conflict, with each generation holding deep-seated biases and stereotypes against each other. Fostering meaningful communication among generations is one way to avoid age segregation and dismantle associated biases. This paper presents a case analysis of an age-integrated online community (r/AskOldPeople) with an in-depth analysis of the most popular types of questions as well as the types of discussions within this community. Using content analysis of the top 999 posts, we describe the exchanges between different generations in this community, with people sharing experiences and perspectives, seeking advice, reminiscing about the past, and engaging in community building. Using thematic analysis of the same corpus, we also identified four themes characterizing the types of discussions prompted by the questions. We find that younger and older generations use the community to learn about experiences of the past, co-navigate psychosocial challenges across the lifespan, understand and commiserate about aging, and collectively make sense of crises and changes in the pandemic era. We discuss the meanings behind the themes and how r/AskOldPeople, as an age-integrated online community, supports intergenerational communication.
FinerMe: Examining App-level and Feature-level Interventions to Regulate Mobile Social Media Use
Authors: Orzikulova Adiba , Cho Hyunsung , Chung Hye-Young , Hong Hwajung , Lee Uichin , Lee Sung-Ju
Published: October 2023

Many digital wellbeing tools help users monitor and control social media use on their smartphones by tracking and setting limits on their usage time. Tracking is typically done at the granularity of phone- or app-level; however, recent social media apps provide various features such as direct messaging, comment reading/posting, and content uploading/viewing. While it is possible to track and analyze within-app feature usage, little is known about the effect of granularity on smartphone interventions. We designed and developed FinerMe to explore how the granularity of interventions (app-level vs. feature-level) affects the usage of popular social media such as Instagram and YouTube on smartphones. We conducted a field study with 56 participants over 16 days that consisted of three phases: baseline collection, self-reflection, and self-reflection with restrictive interventions. The results showed that while both app-level and feature-level interventions similarly reduced social media use, feature-level interventions enabled users to spend less time on passive app features related to content consumption (e.g., following feed on Instagram, and viewing comments on YouTube) than app-level interventions. Moreover, when self-reflection is combined with restrictive interventions at the feature-level, users were more reflective on their usage behavior than when done at the app-level.
How Stated Accuracy of an AI System and Analogies to Explain Accuracy Affect Human Reliance on the System
Authors: He Gaole , Buijsman Stefan , Gadiraju Ujwal
Published: October 2023

AI systems are increasingly being used to support human decision making. It is important that AI advice is followed appropriately. However, according to existing literature, users typically under-rely or over-rely on AI systems, and this leads to sub-optimal team performance. In this context, we investigate the role of stated system accuracy by contrasting the lack of system information with the presence of system accuracy in a loan prediction task. We explore how the degree to which humans understand system accuracy influences their reliance on the AI system, by investigating numeracy levels and with the aid of analogies to explain system accuracy in a first of its kind between-subjects study (N=281). We found that explaining the stated accuracy of a system using analogies failed to help users rely on the AI systemappropriately (i.e., the tendency of users to rely on the system when the system is correct, or on themselves otherwise). To eliminate the impact of subjective attitudes towards analogy domains, we conducted a within-subjects study (N=248) where each participant worked on tasks with analogy-based explanations from different domains. Results from this second study confirmed that explaining stated accuracy of the system with analogies was not sufficient to facilitate appropriate reliance on the AI system in the context of loan prediction tasks, irrespective of individual user differences. Based on our findings from the two studies, we reason that the under-reliance on the AI system may be a result of users' overestimation of their own ability to solve the given task. Thus, although familiar analogies can be effective in improving the intelligibility of stated accuracy of the system, an improved understanding of system accuracy does not necessarily lead to improved system reliance and team performance.
How Do Users Experience Moderation?: A Systematic Literature Review
Authors: Ma Renkai , You Yue , Gui Xinning , Kou Yubo
Published: October 2023

Researchers across various fields have investigated how users experience moderation through different perspectives and methodologies. At present, there is a pressing need of synthesizing and extracting key insights from prior literature to formulate a systematic understanding of what constitutes a moderation experience and to explore how such understanding could further inform moderation-related research and practices. To answer this question, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) by analyzing 42 empirical studies related to moderation experiences and published between January 2016 and March 2022. We describe these studies' characteristics and how they characterize users' moderation experiences. We further identify five primary perspectives that prior researchers use to conceptualize moderation experiences. These findings suggest an expansive scope of research interests in understanding moderation experiences and considering moderated users as an important stakeholder group to reflect on current moderation design but also pertain to the dominance of the punitive, solutionist logic in moderation and ample implications for future moderation research, design, and practice.
It Takes Two to Avoid Pregnancy: Addressing Conflicting Perceptions of Birth Control Pill Responsibility in Romantic Relationships
Authors: Ma Marcus , Kim Chae Hyun , Hall Kaely , Kim Jennifer G.
Published: October 2023

While birth control pills are one of the most common forms of contraception, their usage has several emotional and physical costs, such as taking the pill daily and experiencing hormonal side effects. The burden of these tasks in relationships generally falls on the pill user with minimal involvement from their partner. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with pill users and their partners to investigate the differences between their perceived current and ideal divisions of birth control responsibility. During the interview, we presented a collaborative birth control tracking app prototype to examine how such technology can overcome these discrepancies. We found that pill users were unsatisfied with their partners' engagement in contraceptive tasks but did not communicate this well. Meanwhile, partners wanted to contribute more to pregnancy prevention but did not know how. When presented with our app prototype, users and partners stated that our design could address these issues by improving communication between users and partners. In particular, users appreciated how technology could increase engagement and support from their partner, and partners liked that our app presented several concrete ways to become more involved and show emotional support. However, privacy issues exist given the sensitive nature of contraception. We highlight design considerations that should be kept in mind about privacy while recognizing pill users' efforts and promoting partners' involvement.
Measuring User-Moderator Alignment on r/ChangeMyView
Authors: Koshy Vinay , Bajpai Tanvi , Chandrasekharan Eshwar , Sundaram Hari , Karahalios Karrie
Published: October 2023

Social media sites like Reddit, Discord, and Clubhouse utilize a community-reliant approach to content moderation. Under this model, volunteer moderators are tasked with setting and enforcing content rules within the platforms' sub-communities. However, few mechanisms exist to ensure that the rules set by moderators reflect the values of their community. Misalignments between users and moderators can be detrimental to community health. Yet little quantitative work has been done to evaluate the prevalence or nature of user-moderator misalignment. Through a survey of 798 users on r/ChangeMyView, we evaluate user-moderator alignment at the level of policy-awareness (does users know what the rules are?), practice-awareness (do users know how the rules are applied?) and policy-/practice-support (do users agree with the rules and how they are applied?). We find that policy-support is high, while practice-support is low -- using a hierarchical Bayesian model we estimate the correlation between community opinion and moderator decisions to range from .14 to .45 across subreddit rules. Surprisingly, these correlations were only slightly higher when users were asked to predict moderator actions, demonstrating low awareness of moderation practices. Our findings demonstrate the need for careful analysis of user-moderator alignment at multiple levels. We argue that future work should focus on building tools to empower communities to conduct these analyses themselves.
Rethinking People Analytics With Inverse Transparency by Design
Authors: Zieglmeier Valentin , Pretschner Alexander
Published: October 2023

Employees work in increasingly digital environments that enable advanced analytics. Yet, they lack oversight over the systems that process their data. That means that potential analysis errors or hidden biases are hard to uncover. Recent data protection legislation tries to tackle these issues, but it is inadequate. It does not prevent data misusage while at the same time stifling sensible use cases for data.

We think the conflict between data protection and increasingly data-driven systems should be solved differently. When access to an employees' data is given, all usages should be made transparent to them, according to the concept of inverse transparency. This allows individuals to benefit from sensible data usage while addressing the potentially harmful consequences of data misusage. To accomplish this, we propose a new design approach for workforce analytics software we refer to as inverse transparency by design.

To understand the developer and user perspectives on the proposal, we conduct two exploratory studies with students. First, we let small teams of developers implement analytics tools with inverse transparency by design to uncover how they judge the approach and how it materializes in their developed tools. We find that architectural changes are made without inhibiting core functionality. The developers consider our approach valuable and technically feasible. Second, we conduct a user study over three months to let participants experience the provided inverse transparency and reflect on their experience. The study models a software development workplace where most work processes are already digital. Participants perceive the transparency as beneficial and feel empowered by it. They unanimously agree that it would be an improvement for the workplace. We conclude that inverse transparency by design is a promising approach to realize accepted and responsible people analytics.
Retrospector: Rapid collaborative reflection to improve collaborative practices
Authors: Park Soya , Kulkarni Chinmay
Published: October 2023

Online platforms for freelancing allow teams performing complex work to be assembled in a matter of minutes and dispersed nearly as quickly. With such short time frames, ad hoc and virtual teams have few opportunities to learn strategies and effective team practices to work with their colleagues. Without such practices, teams are prone to work sub-optimally and lack direction. One key challenge in virtual teams discovering effective team practices is that because the practices ought to involve situated knowledge, it takes time to coalesce, as team members learn about each other over time.

This work introduces Retrospector, that ad hoc teams can use to reflect collaboratively and reinforce effective team practices. Our interface accelerates the discovery of practices in situ and then guides them in reinforcing and applying these practices to future tasks. We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N=75) to assess our design with crowdworkers from the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. This randomized controlled experiment showed that teams using our system for approximately six minutes of collaborative reflection were able to discover effective practices more successfully and had significantly improved team performance and viability. These results indicate that deliberate support for improving team practices can improve outcomes even through very short interaction. We conclude with design implications and opportunities for future work.
Social Media and College-Related Social Support Exchange for First-Generation, Low-Income Students: The Role of Identity Disclosures
Authors: Pyle Cassidy , Ellison Nicole B. , Andalibi Nazanin
Published: October 2023

First-generation, low-income (FGLI) students face barriers to college access and retention that reproduce socioeconomic inequities. These students turn to social media for college-related social support. However, while students can reap benefits from social media, it is crucial to investigate under what conditions social media interactions facilitate or hinder students' access to college-related social support. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 20 FGLI students in the United States who applied for college in the 2020-2021 application cycle. Our findings illustrate how FGLI identity disclosures on social media can facilitate access to college-related social support when met with supportive or neutral responses, while stigmatizing reactions can disrupt access to these benefits. We draw from the lenses of the "doubly disadvantaged'' and "privileged poor'' used to describe FGLI students in post-secondary education to argue that engaging in FGLI identity disclosures on social media can help students become academically and psychosocially prepared for collegiate environments. Finally, we discuss the implications of this work for theoretical frameworks centering social media and social support, consider when stigma might lead to support space abandonment, and describe the potential implications for social media design.
Taboo and Collaborative Knowledge Production: Evidence from Wikipedia
Authors: Champion Kaylea , Hill Benjamin Mako
Published: October 2023

By definition, people are reticent or even unwilling to talk about taboo subjects. Because subjects like sexuality, health, and violence are taboo in most cultures, important information on each of these subjects can be difficult to obtain. Are peer produced knowledge bases like Wikipedia a promising approach for providing people with information on taboo subjects? With its reliance on volunteers who might also be averse to taboo, can the peer production model produce high-quality information on taboo subjects? In this paper, we seek to understand the role of taboo in knowledge bases produced by volunteers. We do so by developing a novel computational approach to identify taboo subjects and by using this method to identify a set of articles on taboo subjects in English Wikipedia. We find that articles on taboo subjects are more popular than non-taboo articles and that they are frequently vandalized. Despite frequent vandalism attacks, we also find that taboo articles are higher quality than non-taboo articles. We hypothesize that stigmatizing societal attitudes will lead contributors to taboo subjects to seek to be less identifiable. Although our results are consistent with this proposal in several ways, we surprisingly find that contributors make themselves more identifiable in others.
"Why do you need 400 photographs of 400 different Lockheed Constellation?": Value Expressions by Contributors and Users of Wikimedia Commons
Authors: Yu Yihan , McDonald David W.
Published: October 2023

Understanding the values that collaborators bring to a collaboration is important for the design of new systems. In collaborative systems understanding differing values could help design solutions to mitigate conflicts and more effectively coordinate collaboration. We review prior studies of Commons-Based Peer Production (CBPP) identifying four common value dimensions previously noted as present in CBPP: usage value, social value, ideological value, and monetary value. We use this synthetic framework to analyze a dataset of 32 interviews with contributors to Wikimedia Commons and editors of Wikipedia who use Commons resources. Our analysis supports the prior values categories while expanding how some dimensions are expressed by participants. We also highlight four additional value dimensions that were not previously identified in CBPP: cultural heritage value, rarity value, aesthetic value, and administrative value. We discuss the implications of our findings for the design of collaborative systems.