bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gender medicine: its historical roots
Authors: Lippi Donatella , Bianucci Raffaella , Donell Simon
Published: May 2020

Gender medicine as a subject began with Bernadine Healy’s 1991 article ‘The Yentl Syndrome’ which showed that women had worse outcomes following heart attacks since their symptoms are different from men. Since then gender-specific clinical research protocols have been progressively included so that evidence for guidelines can be better informed such that women are then less disadvantaged and care become more personalised. This paper traces back the historical roots of gender bias in medicine in Western culture, which is reflected in the pictorial arts and writings of each historical period, beginning with Hippocrates. It describes the changes that have led to attempts at improving the place of women, and the treatments of disease, on an equal footing with men, precipitated by Healy’s paper.
Incidence and etiology of postoperative neurological symptoms after peripheral nerve block: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Lam Karen K , Soneji Neilesh , Katzberg Hans , Xu Li , Chin Ki Jinn , Prasad Arun , Chan Vincent , Niazi Ahtsham , Perlas Anahi
Published: May 2020

Background

Nerve injury from peripheral nerve block (PNB) is an uncommon but potentially serious complication. We present a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the incidence and etiology of new postoperative neurological symptoms after surgery and regional anesthesia.

Methods

We performed a retrospective cohort study of all PNBs performed on elective orthopedic and plastic surgical patients over 6 years (2011–2017). We collected patient and surgical data, results of neurophysiological and imaging tests, neurology and chronic pain consultations, etiology and outcome for patients with prolonged neurological symptoms (lasting ≥10 days).

Results

A total of 26 251 PNBs were performed in 19 219 patients during the study period. Transient postoperative neurological symptoms (<10 days) were reported by 14.4% (95% CI 13.1% to 15.7%) of patients who were reached by telephone follow-up. Prolonged postoperative neurological symptoms (≥10 days) were identified and investigated in 20 cases (1:1000, 95% CI 0.6 to 1.6). Of these 20 cases, three (0.2:1000, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.5) were deemed to be block related, seven related to surgical causes, three due to musculoskeletal causes or pain syndromes, one was suspected of having an inflammatory etiology and six remained of undetermined etiology. Of those who completed follow-up, 56% had full recovery of their symptoms with the remaining having partial recovery.

Conclusion

This retrospective review of 19 219 patients receiving PNBs for anesthesia or analgesia suggests that determining the etiology and causative factors of postoperative neurological symptoms is a complex, often challenging process that requires a multidisciplinary approach. We suggest a classification of cases based on the etiology. A most likely cause was identified in 70% of cases. This type of classification system can help broaden the differential diagnosis, help consider non-regional anesthesia and non-surgical causes and may be useful for clinical and research purposes.
Earlier is better when treating rheumatoid arthritis: but can we detect a window of opportunity?
Authors: Bergstra Sytske Anne , Van Der Pol Joy A , Riyazi Naghmeh , Goekoop-Ruiterman Yvonne P M , Kerstens Pit J S M , Lems Willem , Huizinga Tom W J , Allaart Cornelia F
Published: May 2020

Objectives

The window of opportunity (WOO) hypothesis suggests a limited time frame to stop rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We hypothesised that a WOO could either be represented by a hyperbolic (‘curved’) decline in the chance to achieve the outcome sustained drug-free remission (sDFR) over time, after which achieving sDFR is not possible anymore, or by a more gradual linear decline approaching zero chance to achieve sDFR.

Methods

Patients with RA (symptom duration <2 years) were included from two randomised trials: BehandelStrategieën (BeSt), n=508 and Induction therapy with Methotrexate and Prednisone in Rheumatoid Or Very Early arthritic Disease (IMPROVED), n=479. Cox-regression was performed to assess the shape of the association between symptom duration and sDFR (Disease Activity Score<1.6, no disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs for ≥1 year) for patients starting slow-acting monotherapy (IMPROVED, BeSt) or fast-acting combination therapy (BeSt). Likelihood ratio tests were used to compare the fit of linear and non-linear models in both databases separately. Predictions from the best fitting models were used to assess whether the absolute risk to achieve sDFR approaches zero with increasing symptom duration.

Results

In BeSt and IMPROVED, 54/226 and 110/421 patients achieved sDFR with fast-acting treatment, and 53/243 (BeSt) with slow-acting treatment. Non-linear models did not fit better than linear models (fast-acting treatment BeSt p=0.743, IMPROVED p=0.337; slow-acting treatment BeSt p=0.609). After slow-acting monotherapy, linear models declined steeper. None of the models approached zero chance to achieve sDFR over time.

Conclusions

The chance to achieve sDFR decreased gradually over time, and decreased fastest in patients starting slow-acting monotherapy. In both treatment groups, we found no evidence for a WOO within 2 years symptom duration.
How to increase chlamydia testing in primary care: a qualitative exploration with young people and application of a meta-theoretical model
Authors: McDonagh Lorraine K , Harwood Hannah , Saunders John M , Cassell Jackie A , Rait Greta
Published: May 2020

Objective

The objective of this study was to explore young people’s perspectives barriers to chlamydia testing in general practice and potential intervention functions and implementation strategies to overcome identified barriers, using a meta-theoretical framework (the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW)).

Methods

Twenty-eight semistructured individual interviews were conducted with 16–24 year olds from across the UK. Purposive and convenience sampling methods were used (eg, youth organisations, charities, online platforms and chain-referrals). An inductive thematic analysis was first conducted, followed by thematic categorisation using the BCW.

Results

Participants identified several barriers to testing: conducting self-sampling inaccurately (physical capability); lack of information and awareness (psychological capability); testing not seen as a priority and perceived low risk (reflective motivation); embarrassment, fear and guilt (automatic motivation); the UK primary care context and location of toilets (physical opportunity) and stigma (social opportunity). Potential intervention functions raised by participants included education (eg, increase awareness of chlamydia); persuasion (eg, use of imagery/data to alter beliefs); environmental restructuring (eg, alternative sampling methods) and modelling (eg, credible sources such as celebrities). Potential implementation strategies and policy categories discussed were communication and marketing (eg, social media); service provision (eg, introduction of a young person’s health-check) and guidelines (eg, standard questions for healthcare providers).

Conclusions

The BCW provided a useful framework for conceptually exploring the wide range of barriers to testing identified and possible intervention functions and policy categories to overcome said barriers. While greater education and awareness and expanded opportunities for testing were considered important, this alone will not bring about dramatic increases in testing. A societal and structural shift towards the normalisation of chlamydia testing is needed, alongside approaches which recognise the heterogeneity of this population. To ensure optimal and inclusive healthcare, researchers, clinicians and policy makers alike must consider patient diversity and the wider health issues affecting all young people.
Thrombolysis with alteplase 3–4.5 hours after acute ischaemic stroke: the first multicentre, phase III trial in China
Authors: Zheng Huaguang , Yang Yi , Chen Huisheng , Li Chuanling , Chen Yangkun , Shi Fu-Dong , Yang Li , Cui Xiaoping , Lu Zuneng , Liang Yanling , Cui Songbiao , Xu Anding , Wu Yiqing , Sun Yaqing , Wang Yongjun
Published: May 2020

Background and purpose

Data on the efficacy and safety of alteplase for acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) administered 3–4.5 hours after the onset of stroke symptoms in Chinese patients is limited. We sought to determine whether AIS patients would benefit from thrombolysis with alteplase between 3 and 4.5 hours after the onset of stroke symptoms in a prospective, multicentre, single-arm trial in China.

Materials and methods

Eligible AIS patients were given 0.9 mg/kg alteplase intravenously. The primary efficacy endpoint was a favourable outcome at 3 months, defined as a score of 0 or 1 on the modified Rankin Scale. Thresholds for the primary efficacy endpoint were determined to be 40% based on the literature review. The primary safety endpoint was symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage (sICH) according to the European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study III (ECASS III) trial definition. Post hoc analysis between this study and the ECASS III trial were compared using the propensity score matching (PSM) method.

Results

A total of 120 eligible AIS patients from 11 sites in China received thrombolysis therapy in this study. The median time from onset of symptoms to needle was 3 hours 54 min. The percentage of patients with a favourable outcome was 63.3% (95% CI 54.4 to 71.4), significantly higher than the predefined threshold (p<0.0001). Three patients (2.5%, 95% CI 0.5 to 7.1) had sICH, including two fatal sICH. Six patients died within 3 months after treatment. The post hoc PSM analysis showed a numerically higher rate of the primary efficacy endpoint in this study (63.3%) than the matched placebo arm (56.7%) in the ECASS III trial.

Conclusions

Intravenous alteplase with a standard dose administered between 3 and 4.5 hours after onset of symptoms is effective and safe for Chinese AIS patients.

Trial registration number

NCT02930837
Multicenter assessment of the Brain Injury Guidelines and a proposal of guideline modifications
Authors: Khan Abid D , Elseth Anna J , Brosius Jacqueline A , Moskowitz Eliza , Liebscher Sean C , Anstadt Michael J , Dunn Julie A , McVicker John H , Schroeppel Thomas , Gonzalez Richard P
Published: May 2020

Background

The Brain Injury Guidelines provide an algorithm fortreating patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and intracranial hemorrhage(ICH) that does not mandate hospital admission, repeat head CT, orneurosurgical consult for all patients. The purposes of this study are toreview the guidelines’ safety, to assess resource utilization, and to proposeguideline modifications that improve patient safety and widespreadreproducibility.

Methods

A multi-institutional review of TBI patients was conducted. Patients with ICH on CT were classified as BIG 1, 2, or 3 based on the guidelines. BIG 3 patients were excluded. Variables collected included demographics, Injury Severity Score (ISS), hospital length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit LOS, number of head CTs, type of injury, progression of injury, and neurosurgical interventions performed.

Results

269 patients met inclusion criteria. 98 were classifiedas BIG 1 and 171 as BIG 2. The median length of stay (LOS) was 2 (2,4)days and the ICU LOS was 1 (0,2) days. Most patients had a neurosurgeryconsultation (95.9%) and all patients included had a repeat head CT. 370repeat head CT scans were performed, representing 1.38 repeat scans perpatient. 11.2% of BIG 1 and 11.1% of BIG 2 patients demonstratedworsening on repeat head CT. Patients who progressed exhibited a higherISS (14 vs. 10,p=0.040), and had a longer length of stay (4 vs. 2 days;p=0.015). After adjusting for other variables, the presence of epiduralhematoma (EDH) and intraparenchymal hematoma were independent predictors ofprogression. Two BIG 2 patients with EDH had clinical deteriorationrequiring intervention.

Discussion

The Brain Injury Guidelines may improve resourceallocation if utilized, but alterations are required to ensure patientsafety. The modified Brain Injury Guidelines refine the originalguidelines to enhance reproducibility and patient safety while continuing toprovide improved resource utilization in TBI management.
EEG Connectivity Analysis Using Denoising Autoencoders for the Detection of Dyslexia
Authors: Martinez-Murcia Francisco J. , Ortiz Andres , Gorriz Juan Manuel , Ramirez Javier , Lopez-Abarejo Pedro Javier , Lopez-Zamora Miguel , Luque Juan Luis
Published: May 2020

The Temporal Sampling Framework (TSF) theorizes that the characteristic phonological difficulties of dyslexia are caused by an atypical oscillatory sampling at one or more temporal rates. The LEEDUCA study conducted a series of Electroencephalography (EEG) experiments on children listening to amplitude modulated (AM) noise with slow-rythmic prosodic (0.5–1[Formula: see text]Hz), syllabic (4–8[Formula: see text]Hz) or the phoneme (12–40[Formula: see text]Hz) rates, aimed at detecting differences in perception of oscillatory sampling that could be associated with dyslexia. The purpose of this work is to check whether these differences exist and how they are related to children’s performance in different language and cognitive tasks commonly used to detect dyslexia. To this purpose, temporal and spectral inter-channel EEG connectivity was estimated, and a denoising autoencoder (DAE) was trained to learn a low-dimensional representation of the connectivity matrices. This representation was studied via correlation and classification analysis, which revealed ability in detecting dyslexic subjects with an accuracy higher than 0.8, and balanced accuracy around 0.7. Some features of the DAE representation were significantly correlated ([Formula: see text]) with children’s performance in language and cognitive tasks of the phonological hypothesis category such as phonological awareness and rapid symbolic naming, as well as reading efficiency and reading comprehension. Finally, a deeper analysis of the adjacency matrix revealed a reduced bilateral connection between electrodes of the temporal lobe (roughly the primary auditory cortex) in DD subjects, as well as an increased connectivity of the F7 electrode, placed roughly on Broca’s area. These results pave the way for a complementary assessment of dyslexia using more objective methodologies such as EEG.
A simple superconductor quantum interference device for testing gravity
Authors: Hammad Fayçal , Landry Alexandre
Published: May 2020

A simple tabletop setup based on a superconductor quantum interference device is proposed to test the gravitational interaction. A D-shaped superconducting loop has the straight segment immersed inside a massive sphere while the half-circle segment is wrapped around the sphere. The superconducting condensate within the straight arm of the loop thus bathes inside a gravitational simple harmonic oscillator potential while the condensate in the half-circle arm bathes in the constant gravitational potential around the sphere. The resulting phase difference at the Josephson junctions on both sides of the straight arm induces a sinusoidal electric current that has a frequency determined by the precise gravitational potential due to the massive sphere.
Operations with elements of transferred density matrix via unitary transformations on extended receiver
Authors: Zenchuk A. I.
Published: May 2020

We combine the long-distance quantum state transfer and simple operations with the elements of the transferred (nor perfectly) density matrix. These operations are turning some matrix elements to zero, rearranging the matrix elements and preparing their linear combinations with required coefficients. The basic tool performing these operations is the unitary transformation on the extended receiver. A system of linear algebraic equations can be solved in this way as well. Such operations are numerically simulated on the basis of 42-node spin-1/2 chain with the two-qubit sender and receiver.
Effects of English Capitals on Reading Performance of Chinese Learners: Evidence from Eye Tracking
Authors: Yang Wei , Fu Xinyu
Published: May 2020

Native English speakers need more time to recognize capital letters in reading, yet the influence of capitals upon Chinese learners’ reading performance is seldom studied. We conducted an eye tracker experiment to explore the cognitive features of Chinese learners in reading texts containing capital letters. The effect of English proficiency on capital letter reading is also studied. The results showed that capitals significantly increase the cognitive load in Chinese learners’ reading process, complicate their cognitive processing, and lower their reading efficiency. The perception of capital letters of Chinese learners is found to be an isolated event and may influence the word-superiority effect. English majors, who possess relatively stronger English logical thinking capability than non-English majors, face the same difficulty as the non-English majors do if no practice of capital letter reading has been done.
Geophysical site assessment of an active urban development site, southeastern suburb of Cairo, Egypt
Authors: Medhat N. I. , Atya M. , Ragab E. A. , El-Kenawy A. A. , Abdel Zaher M. , Pringle J. K.
Published: May 2020

There has been significant structural damage of newly built residential buildings in Quarter-27 District in the SE of Cairo, Egypt. A nearby active limestone quarry may also be affecting ground stability. This paper shows how a near-surface geophysical survey could characterize the site, unusually after the initial housing construction had already been undertaken. Geophysical surveys included seismic refraction (acquired between phases of quarry blasting), electrical resistivity and ground penetrating radar (GPR) 1D and 2D datasets. Geophysical results produced maps of a 3D ground model that also included water table depth, known major faults and a saturated layer that may have caused the building damage. Of the geophysical techniques trialled electrical resistivity tomography and GPR data were deemed optimal. This study shows that it is possible to undertake geophysical surveys to characterize a restricted urban site development.
On Resilience in Cloud Computing
Authors: Welsh Thomas , Benkhelifa Elhadj
Published: May 2020

Cloud infrastructures are highly favoured as a computing delivery model worldwide, creating a strong societal dependence. It is therefore vital to enhance their resilience, providing persistent service delivery under a variety of conditions. Cloud environments are highly complex and continuously evolving. Additionally, the plethora of use-cases ensures requirements for persistent service delivery vary. As a contribution to knowledge, this work surveys resilience techniques for cloud environments. We apply a novel perspective using a layered model of traditional and emerging cloud paradigms. Works are then classified according to the Resilinets model. For each layer, the most common techniques with limitations are derived including an actor’s strength in influencing resilience in the cloud with each technique. We conclude with some future challenges to the field of resilient cloud computing.
A Deep Journey into Super-resolution
Authors: Anwar Saeed , Khan Salman , Barnes Nick
Published: May 2020

Deep convolutional networks–based super-resolution is a fast-growing field with numerous practical applications. In this exposition, we extensively compare more than 30 state-of-the-art super-resolution Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) over three classical and three recently introduced challenging datasets to benchmark single image super-resolution. We introduce a taxonomy for deep learning–based super-resolution networks that groups existing methods into nine categories including linear, residual, multi-branch, recursive, progressive, attention-based, and adversarial designs. We also provide comparisons between the models in terms of network complexity, memory footprint, model input and output, learning details, the type of network losses, and important architectural differences (e.g., depth, skip-connections, filters). The extensive evaluation performed shows the consistent and rapid growth in the accuracy in the past few years along with a corresponding boost in model complexity and the availability of large-scale datasets. It is also observed that the pioneering methods identified as the benchmarks have been significantly outperformed by the current contenders. Despite the progress in recent years, we identify several shortcomings of existing techniques and provide future research directions towards the solution of these open problems. Datasets and codes for evaluation are publicly available at https://github.com/saeed-anwar/SRsurvey.
Improving Social Awareness Through DANTE: Deep Affinity Network for Clustering Conversational Interactants
Authors: Swofford Mason , Peruzzi John , Tsoi Nathan , Thompson Sydney , Martín-Martín Roberto , Savarese Silvio , Vázquez Marynel
Published: May 2020

We propose a data-driven approach to detect conversational groups by identifying spatial arrangements typical of these focused social encounters. Our approach uses a novel Deep Affinity Network (DANTE) to predict the likelihood that two individuals in a scene are part of the same conversational group, considering their social context. The predicted pair-wise affinities are then used in a graph clustering framework to identify both small (e.g., dyads) and large groups. The results from our evaluation on multiple, established benchmarks suggest that combining powerful deep learning methods with classical clustering techniques can improve the detection of conversational groups in comparison to prior approaches. Finally, we demonstrate the practicality of our approach in a human-robot interaction scenario. Our efforts show that our work advances group detection not only in theory, but also in practice.
Real Differences between OT and CRDT in Correctness and Complexity for Consistency Maintenance in Co-Editors
Authors: Sun David , Sun Chengzheng , Ng Agustina , Cai Weiwei
Published: May 2020

OT (Operational Transformation) was invented for supporting real-time co-editors in the late 1980s and has evolved to become core techniques widely used in today's working co-editors and adopted in industrial products. CRDT (Commutative Replicated Data Type) for co-editors was first proposed around 2006, under the name of WOOT (WithOut Operational Transformation). Follow-up CRDT variations are commonly labeled as "post-OT" techniques capable of making concurrent operations natively commutative in co-editors. On top of that, CRDT solutions have made broad claims of superiority over OT solutions, and often portrayed OT as an incorrect and inefficient technique. Over one decade later, however, CRDT is rarely found in working co-editors; OT remains the choice for building the vast majority of today's co-editors. Contradictions between the reality and CRDT's purported advantages have been the source of much confusion and debate in co-editing researcher and developer communities. To seek truth from facts, we set out to conduct a comprehensive and critical review on representative OT and CRDT solutions and working co-editors based on them. From this work, we have made important discoveries about OT and CRDT, and revealed facts and evidences that refute CRDT claims over OT on all accounts. These discoveries help explain the underlying reasons for the choice between OT and CRDT in the real world. We report these results in a series of three articles. In this article (the second in the series), we reveal the differences between OT and CRDT in their basic approaches to realizing the same general transformation and how such differences had resulted in different technical challenges and consequential correctness and complexity issues. Moreover, we reveal hidden complexity and algorithmic flaws with representative CRDT solutions, and discuss common myths and facts related to correctness and complexity of OT and CRDT. We hope the discoveries from this work help clear up common myths and confusions surrounding OT and CRDT, and accelerate progress in co-editing technology for real world applications.
How do Data Science Workers Collaborate? Roles, Workflows, and Tools
Authors: Zhang Amy X. , Muller Michael , Wang Dakuo
Published: May 2020

Today, the prominence of data science within organizations has given rise to teams of data science workers collaborating on extracting insights from data, as opposed to individual data scientists working alone. However, we still lack a deep understanding of how data science workers collaborate in practice. In this work, we conducted an online survey with 183 participants who work in various aspects of data science. We focused on their reported interactions with each other (e.g., managers with engineers) and with different tools (e.g., Jupyter Notebook). We found that data science teams are extremely collaborative and work with a variety of stakeholders and tools during the six common steps of a data science workflow (e.g., clean data and train model). We also found that the collaborative practices workers employ, such as documentation, vary according to the kinds of tools they use. Based on these findings, we discuss design implications for supporting data science team collaborations and future research directions.
How to Support Newcomers in Scientific Hackathons - An Action Research Study on Expert Mentoring
Authors: Nolte Alexander , Hayden Linda Bailey , Herbsleb James D.
Published: May 2020

Time-bounded events such as hackathons have become a global phenomenon. Scientific communities in particular show growing interest in organizing them to attract newcomers and develop technical artifacts to expand their code base. Current hackathon approaches presume that participants have sufficient expertise to work on projects on their own. They only provide occasional support by domain experts serving as mentors which might not be sufficient for newcomers. Drawing from work on workplace and educational mentoring, we developed and evaluated an approach where each hackathon team is supported by a community member who serves in a mentor role that goes beyond providing occasional support. Evaluating this approach, we found that teams who took ownership of their projects, set achievable goals early while building social ties with their mentor and receiving learning-oriented support reported positive perceptions related to their project and an increased interest in the scientific community that organized the hackathon. Our work thus contributes to our understanding of mentoring in hackathons, an area which has not been extensively studied. It also proposes a feasible approach for scientific communities to attract and integrate newcomers which is crucial for their long-term survival.
From Paper Flight Strips to Digital Strip Systems: Changes and Similarities in Air Traffic Control Work Practices
Authors: Huber Stephan , Gramlich Johanna , Grundgeiger Tobias
Published: May 2020

To increase capacity and safety in air traffic control, digital strip systems have superseded paper strips in lower airspace control centers in Europe. Previous ethnographic studies on paper strip systems anticipated a radical change in work practices with digital strip systems, but we are not aware of any studies that evaluated these predictions. We carried out contextual inquiries with controllers and focused on face-to-face and radio communication, interactions with the digital strip system and the workspace in general. In turn, we contribute (1) detailed descriptions of controllers' work practices, such as using tacit information from radio communication and 'standard advocates vs. tinkerers' operation modes, (2) respective implications for design and (3) discuss how the observed work practices are similar or different from the reported practices in the literature of the two preceding decades. Our key insights are, that documentation speed is faster with digital strips, although a high load in the case of radio frequency persists. Controllers retrieve tacit information from the radio communication and combine it with scattered cues from several displays to form empathic decisions that sometimes exceed the standard protocol. We conclude that the role of tacit information holds opportunities for future flight systems and should be considered in a holistic approach to individualized workspaces for controllers.
The Effect of Sociocultural Variables on Sarcasm Communication Online
Authors: Oprea Silviu Vlad , Magdy Walid
Published: May 2020

Online social networks (OSN) play an essential role for connecting people and allowing them to communicate online. OSN users share their thoughts, moments, and news with their network. The messages they share online can include sarcastic posts, where the intended meaning expressed by the written text is different from the literal one. This could result in miscommunication. Previous research in psycholinguistics has studied the sociocultural factors the might lead to sarcasm misunderstanding between speakers and listeners. However, there is a lack of such studies in the context of OSN. In this paper we fill this gap by performing a quantitative analysis on the influence of sociocultural variables, including gender, age, country, and English language nativeness, on the effectiveness of sarcastic communication online. We collect examples of sarcastic tweets directly from the authors who posted them. Further, we ask third-party annotators of different sociocultural backgrounds to label these tweets for sarcasm. Our analysis indicates that age, English language nativeness, and country are significantly influential and should be considered in the design of future social analysis tools that either study sarcasm directly, or look at related phenomena where sarcasm may have an influence. We also make observations about the social ecology surrounding sarcastic exchanges on OSNs. We conclude by suggesting ways in which our findings can be included in future work.
The New Reality of Reproducibility: The Role of Data Work in Scientific Research
Authors: Feinberg Melanie , Sutherland Will , Nelson Sarah Beth , Jarrahi Mohammad Hossein , Rajasekar Arcot
Published: May 2020

Although reproducibility--the idea that a valid scientific experiment can be repeated with similar results--is integral to our understanding of good scientific practice, it has remained a difficult concept to define precisely. Across scientific disciplines, the increasing prevalence of large datasets, and the computational techniques necessary to manage and analyze those datasets, has prompted new ways of thinking about reproducibility. We present findings from a qualitative study of a NSF--funded two-week workshop developed to introduce an interdisciplinary group of domain scientists to data-management techniques for data-intensive computing, with a focus on reproducible science. Our findings suggest that the introduction of data-related activities promotes a new understanding of reproducibility as a mechanism for local knowledge transfer and collaboration, particularly as regards efficient software reuse.
Shifting forms of Engagement: Volunteer Learning in Online Citizen Science
Authors: Jackson Corey Brian , Østerlund Carsten , Crowston Kevin , Harandi Mahboobeh , Trouille Laura
Published: May 2020

Peer production projects involve people in many tasks, from editing articles to analyzing datasets. To facilitate mastery of these practices, projects offer a number of learning resources, ranging from project-defined FAQsto individually-oriented search tools and communal discussion boards. However, it is not clear which project resources best support participant learning, overall and at different stages of engagement. We draw onSørensen's framework of forms of presence to distinguish three types of engagement with learning resources:authoritative, agent-centered and communal. We assigned resources from the Gravity Spy citizen-science into these three categories and analyzed trace data recording interactions with resources using a mixed-effects logistic regression with volunteer performance as an outcome variable. The findings suggest that engagement with authoritative resources (e.g., those constructed by project organizers) facilitates performance initially. However, as tasks become more difficult, volunteers seek and benefit from engagement with their own agent-centered resources and community-generated resources. These findings suggest a broader scope for the design of learning resources for peer production
Conformity of Eating Disorders through Content Moderation
Authors: Feuston Jessica L. , Taylor Alex S. , Piper Anne Marie
Published: May 2020

For individuals with mental illness, social media platforms are considered spaces for sharing and connection. However, not all expressions of mental illness are treated equally on these platforms. Different aggregates of human and technical control are used to report and ban content, accounts, and communities. Through two years of digital ethnography, including online observation and interviews, with people with eating disorders, we examine the experience of content moderation. We use a constructivist grounded theory approach to analysis that shows how practices of moderation across different platforms have particular consequences for members of marginalized groups, who are pressured to conform and compelled to resist. Above all, we argue that platform moderation is enmeshed with wider processes of conformity to specific versions of mental illness. Practices of moderation reassert certain bodies and experiences as 'normal' and valued, while rejecting others. At the same time, navigating and resisting these normative pressures further inscribes the marginal status of certain individuals. We discuss changes to the ways that platforms handle content related to eating disorders by drawing on the concept of multiplicity to inform design.
Moving Across Lands: Online Platform Migration in Fandom Communities
Authors: Fiesler Casey , Dym Brianna
Published: May 2020

When online platforms rise and fall, sometimes communities fade away, and sometimes they pack their bags and relocate to a new home. To explore the causes and effects of online community migration, we examine transformative fandom, a longstanding, technology-agnostic community surrounding the creation, sharing, and discussion of creative works based on existing media. For over three decades, community members have left and joined many different online spaces, from Usenet to Tumblr to platforms of their own design. Through analysis of 28 in-depth interviews and 1,886 survey responses from fandom participants, we traced these migrations, the reasons behind them, and their impact on the community. Our findings highlight catalysts for migration that provide insights into factors that contribute to success and failure of platforms, including issues surrounding policy, design, and community. Further insights into the disruptive consequences of migrations (such as social fragmentation and lost content) suggest ways that platforms might both support commitment and better support migration when it occurs.
Topical Focus of Political Campaigns and its Impact: Findings from Politicians' Hashtag Use during the 2019 Indian Elections
Authors: Panda Anmol , Kommiya Mothilal Ramaravind , Choudhury Monojit , Bali Kalika , Pal Joyojeet
Published: May 2020

We studied the topical preferences of social media campaigns of India's two main political parties by examining the tweets of 7382 politicians during the key phase of campaigning between Jan - May of 2019 in the run up to the 2019 general election. First, we compare the use of self-promotion and opponent attack, and their respective success online by categorizing 1208 most commonly used hashtags accordingly into the two categories. Second, we classify the tweets applying a qualitative typology to hashtags on the subjects of nationalism, corruption, religion and development. We find that the ruling BJP tended to promote itself over attacking the opposition whereas the main challenger INC was more likely to attack than promote itself. Moreover, while the INC gets more retweets on average, the BJP dominates Twitter's trends by flooding the online space with large numbers of tweets. We consider the implications of our findings hold for political communication strategies in democracies across the world.
Privacy-Preserving Script Sharing in GUI-based Programming-by-Demonstration Systems
Authors: Li Toby Jia-Jun , Chen Jingya , Canfield Brandon , Myers Brad A.
Published: May 2020

An important concern in end user development (EUD) is accidentally embedding personal information in program artifacts when sharing them. This issue is particularly important in GUI-based programming-by-demonstration (PBD) systems due to the lack of direct developer control of script contents. Prior studies reported that these privacy concerns were the main barrier to script sharing in EUD. We present a new approach that can identify and obfuscate the potential personal information in GUI-based PBD scripts based on the uniqueness of information entries with respect to the corresponding app GUI context. Compared with the prior approaches, ours supports broader types of personal information beyond explicitly pre-specified ones, requires minimal user effort, addresses the threat of re-identification attacks, and can work with third-party apps from any task domain. Our approach also recovers obfuscated fields locally on the script consumer's side to preserve the shared scripts' transparency, readability, robustness, and generalizability. Our evaluation shows that our approach (1) accurately identifies the potential personal information in scripts across different apps in diverse task domains; (2) allows end-user developers to feel comfortable sharing their own scripts; and (3) enables script consumers to understand the operation of shared scripts despite the obfuscated fields.
Configuring Audiences: A Case Study of Email Communication
Authors: Zhang Justine , Pennebaker James , Dumais Susan , Horvitz Eric
Published: May 2020

When people communicate with each other, their choice of what to say is tied to their perceptions of the audience. For many communication channels, people have some ability to explicitly specify their audience members and the different roles they can play. While existing accounts of communication behavior have largely focused on how people tailor the content of their messages, we focus on the configuring of the audience as a complementary family of decisions in communication. We formulate a general description of audience configuration choices, highlighting key aspects of the audience that people could configure to reflect a range of communicative goals. We then illustrate these ideas via a case study of email usage-a realistic domain where audience configuration choices are particularly fine-grained and explicit in how email senders fill the To and Cc address fields. In a large collection of enterprise emails, we explore how people configure their audiences, finding salient patterns relating a sender's choice of configuration to the types of participants in the email exchange, the content of the message, and the nature of the subsequent interactions. Our formulation and findings show how analyzing audience configurations can enrich and extend existing accounts of communication behavior, and frame research directions on audience configuration decisions in communication and collaboration.
Learning from Tweets: Opportunities and Challenges to Inform Policy Making During Dengue Epidemic
Authors: Shahid Farhana , Ony Shahinul Hoque , Albi Takrim Rahman , Chellappan Sriram , Vashistha Aditya , Islam A. B. M. Alim Al
Published: May 2020

Social media platforms are widely used by people to report, access, and share information during outbreaks and epidemics. Although government agencies and healthcare institutions in developed regions are increasingly relying on social media to develop epidemic forecasts and outbreak response, there is a limited understanding of how people in developing regions interact on social media during outbreaks and what useful insights this dataset could offer during public health crises. In this work, we examined 28,688 tweets to identify public health issues during dengue epidemic in Bangladesh and found several insights, such as irregularities in dengue diagnosis and treatment, shortage of blood supply for Rh negative blood groups, and high local transmission of dengue during Eid-ul-Adha, that impact disease preparedness and outbreak response. We discuss the opportunities and challenges in analyzing tweets and outline how government agencies and healthcare institutions can use social media health data to inform policy making during public health crises.
MAMAS: Supporting Parent--Child Mealtime Interactions Using Automated Tracking and Speech Recognition
Authors: Jo Eunkyung , Bang Hyeonseok , Ryu Myeonghan , Sung Eun Jee , Leem Sungmook , Hong Hwajung
Published: May 2020

Many parents of young children find it challenging to deal with their children's eating problems, and parent--child mealtime interaction is fundamental in forming children's healthy eating habits. In this paper, we present the results of a three-week study through which we deployed a mealtime assistant application, MAMAS, for monitoring parent--child mealtime conversation and food intake with 15 parent--child pairs. Our findings indicate that the use of MAMAS helped 1) increase children's autonomy during mealtime, 2) enhance parents' self-awareness of their words and behaviors, 3) promote the parent--child relationship, and 4) positively influence the mealtime experiences of the entire family. The study also revealed some challenges in eating behavior interventions due to the complex dynamics of childhood eating problems. Based on the findings, we discuss how a mealtime assistant application can be better designed for parents and children with challenging eating behaviors.
Parallel Worlds: Repeated Initializations of the Same Team to Improve Team Viability
Authors: Whiting Mark E. , Gao Irena , Xing Michelle , Diarrassouba N'godjigui Junior , Nguyen Tonya , Bernstein Michael S.
Published: May 2020

A team's early interactions are influential: small behaviors cascade, driving the team either toward successful collaboration or toward fracture. Would a team be more viable if it could undo initial interactional missteps and try again? We introduce a technique that supports online and remote teams in creating multiple parallel worlds: the same team meets many times, led to believe that each convening is with a new team due to pseudonym masking while actual membership remains static. Afterward, the team moves forward with the parallel world with the highest viability by using the same pseudonyms and conversation history from that instance. In two experiments, we find that this technique improves team viability: teams that are reconvened from the highest-viability parallel world are significantly more viable than the same group meeting in a new parallel world. Our work suggests parallel worlds can help teams start off on the right foot - and stay there.
Machine learning and computational design
Authors: Carta Silvio
Published: May 2020

The use of computers in design is substantially different today from what it was only 30 years ago, and light-years ahead of how things were designed before computers entered the scene 60 years ago. This article discusses the use of computers, more specifically computational design, as a useful tool for designers. Herein, computational design refers to the application of computational tools to design practice.
An Inverse Correlation of Serum Fibroblast Growth Factor 19 with Abdominal Pain and Inflammatory Markers in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis
Authors: Panek-Jeziorna Magdalena , Mulak Agata
Published: May 2020

Background and Aims. Bile acids (BA) play an important role in the modulation of numerous gut functions. Fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) is the ileal hormone regulating BA homeostasis. The aim of the study was to evaluate serum FGF19 level and its correlation with clinical and endoscopic disease activity indices along with inflammatory biomarkers including serum CRP and fecal calprotectin levels in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods. Fasting serum FGF19 level was measured using ELISA test in 16 patients with active UC (7 F, 9 M), 15 patients with nonactive UC (8 F, 7 M), and 19 healthy controls (11 F, 8 M). The disease activity was assessed based on the clinical and endoscopic evaluations as well as serum CRP and fecal calprotectin level measurement. Results. The median serum FGF19 level was higher in patients with nonactive UC (175.3 pg/ml (108.7-342.3)) than in patients with active UC (114.3 pg/ml (68.9-155.3), p=0.093). The median FGF19 level in healthy controls amounted to 151.6 pg/ml (90.6-224.2), and there were no statistically significant differences between the patients with active and nonactive UC compared to the healthy controls. An inverse correlation was observed between FGF19 level and abdominal pain intensity (R=–0.48, p=0.007) as well as fecal calprotectin (R=–0.38, p=0.036) and CRP levels (R=–0.36, p=0.045). The serum FGF19 level was not correlated neither with clinical nor endoscopic disease activity indices. Conclusions. The inverse correlations between FGF19 level and abdominal pain as well as inflammatory markers in UC may imply its potential analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects.
Fabrication of a Microfluidic System Using Micromolded Alginate Gel as a Sacrificial Material for Tissues Engineering
Authors: Wang Meng , Yang Xiaoning , Liang Lanju
Published: May 2020

We described a sacrificial molding for the formation of microfluidic networks. In this molding, the micromolded calcium alginate (Ca-Alg) is introduced as a sacrificial template. The basis of this procedure is fabricating a micromolded Ca-Alg hydrogel and encapsulating this model within a second gel and removing it by ion-exchange to leave a microchannel in the remaining gel. This microfluidic system can readily deliver solutes into the channels and even control the transport of solutes from channels into the bulk of the gels. Furthermore, the perfused vascular channels can sustain the metabolic activity of encapsulated cells, indicating the feasibility of this microfluidic system in the field of tissue engineering.