Expert Amateur Research Articles

In Stanisław Lem's Orbit

In Stanisław Lem's Orbit

Amateurs can be experts: A new perspective on collaborations with citizen scientists

Observations made by citizen-scientists are highly regarded in many fields of biology. Public participation in research leads to increased environmental stewardship, greater data-acquisition, and multi-disciplinary advances. However, to date, there is a paucity of literature that acknowledges the professional benefits we, as scientists, gain through open consultation and two-way collaboration with interested parties. Citizen scientists often have specialised interests in particular taxa or habitats. They spend much time observing their subjects/s of interest, becoming accustomed to subtle nuances in appearance, behaviour, or dynamics that are challenging to detect without a high level of familiarity. In a world where professional researchers must increasingly balance competing demands on their time, and demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of their research, we stand to benefit by acknowledging the specific expertise of amateurs and the value their experience brings to observations. We use marine ornithology as an exemplar of this discussion – reasoning that data quality can be greatly improved by collaboration with expert amateurs, concomitantly improving the outcomes from research for conservation and management. We encourage researchers surveying wildlife, plant life, and other organisms to consider where their information and skills may come from, and close the loop between citizens and science to make the most of what amateur naturalism has to offer.

‘A powerful, spiritual, win-win situation’: commercial authenticity in professional birth photography

Against a background of occlusion and medicalized portrayals, the emergent practice of birth photography allows women to see and to depict birth from their own perspective. Thus the delivery room, the digital camera, and the direct encounter between the artisan and her client enable exploring the possibility of alternative depictions in a neoliberal economy, and the significance of professionalism in a field dominated by expert amateurs. Drawing upon interviews with photographers and clients, our analysis highlights three tensions underlying birth photography as a documentary and entrepreneurial pursuit: the formulaic depiction of an extraordinary event; the exposure of an intimate experience; and the commercialization of the sacred. We find that in terms of content, birth photographs present restrained, conventional depictions, suitable for both the family album and the photographers’ social media portfolios. In terms of practice, although desired by their clients, birth photographers’ work is unstable and they must constantly invest in relational labor that balances intimacy and publicness, friending and advertising. We propose the notion of commercial authenticity to capture this contradictory amalgam of disciplined realism, edited documentation, and professional closeness that both clients and photographers expect, produce, and regard as appropriate in the context of artisanal photography.

Over-detection of colonic abnormalities on CTAP and a decrease with experience: A simulation of machine learning.

68 Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) can potentially improve patient care by assisting physicians as demonstrated with the recent approvals for technologies that detect intracranial hemorrhage on CT exams of the head. AI also has potential for assisting early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) on routine CT abdomen and pelvis (CTAP). We assessed the difference in detection of abnormal colonic findings between an expert reader (JC) and amateur readers (ARs). Methods: ARs consisting of two third year medical students (RB - AR1, ZG - AR2) studied 20 CTAP for tracing the colon and identifying pathology. Their search pattern and assessment of the colon was then evaluated by an expert radiologist (JC). They then spent two hours reviewing abnormalities in 10 scans with JC, who highlighted suspicious neoplastic findings such as colonic wall thickening, fat stranding, edema, masses, and abnormal lymph nodes. The ARs then individually read 203 CTAP scans to assess for these suspicious findings. The studies were from a single institution and were reported in a prior study in 2019 GI-ASCO. The findings of the ARs were then compared to those of the expert reader and the initial reader for each study. Data was analyzed using t-test with 2 tails. Results: The incidence of suspicious neoplastic findings was 87% and 81% for AR1 and AR2, respectively, compared to 18% in the initial reads and 33% for expert reader (p=0.01). Greatest discordance were 94% and 87% between AR1 and AR2 to the initial reads. Additionally, the incidence of suspicious findings between the first and last 20 cases (p=0.03 and 0.17) examined by ARs declined from 79 to 40% for AR1 and 69 to 55% for AR2. Conclusions: ARs are capable of detecting CRC features on CTAP from ED, but with higher false-positive (FP) rate than trained experts. The FP rate decreases with increasing experience. ARs learning course simulates AI which will likely yield high FP rate with initial training, but with improving FP with deep training, especially with larger volume of normal variants.

Re-enactment and its information practices; tensions between the individual and the collective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices used by Australian re-enactors to achieve authenticity, a communally agreed measure of acceptability in the creation of an impression, the dress, behaviours and accoutrements of the period, through the concepts of serious leisure and information practices. Design/methodology/approach – Re-enactment is a practical, information-based performative activity. In this paper, the research styles and decision-making processes developed and employed by its enthusiasts to create authentic impressions are examined through an ethnographic case study. Findings – The re-enactors are identified as “makers and tinkerers”, in Stebbins’s categorisation of serious leisure. Research, documentation and the sharing of information, knowledge and skills are common practices among re-enactors and acknowledged as integral to the processes of creating an impression to a collectively agreed standard of authenticity. Re-enactors’ “making” includes not only the creation of the impression but also the documentation of their process of creating it. They prize individual knowledge and expertise and through this, seek to stand out from the collective. Originality/value – Although communities of re-enactors are often studied from a historical perspective, this may be the first time a study has been undertaken from an information studies perspective. The tension between the collective, social norms and standards that support the functioning of the group in understanding authenticity, and the expert amateur; the individual with specialist skills and talents, encourages a fuller investigation of the relationships between the individual and the collective in the context of information practices.

Air pollution and its effects on lichens, bryophytes, and lichen-feeding Lepidoptera: review and evidence from biological records

Changing air quality has been one of the most important drivers of change for bryophytes and lichens in Britain and Ireland over the 20th Century, with acidic pollutants such as sulphur dioxide having large effects on the ranges and abundances of many species. At the same time, expert amateur and professional naturalists have put enormous efforts into recording the distributions of species within these groups. These efforts have provided much evidence for declines and recoveries within the bryophytes and lichens, with species distribution data being linked to airborne pollutants in many different ways. We provide a broad overview of some of the changes that have occurred in affected species, using biological records collected by national recording schemes to illustrate the various effects of air pollution; we also review the direct and indirect impacts of air pollutants on these groups. Environmental change affecting one group of species is also likely to cascade to other groups where trophic or other relationships exist between them. Using data from the volunteer-based National Moth Recording Scheme, we provide the first evidence for an indirect association between reductions in air pollution and increases in lichenivorous moths. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, ●●, ●●–●●.

Tagging diversity in personal learning environments

Tagging is a prevalent practice in the Web 2.0. It has been widely used to annotate different media like video. However, in personal learning environments (PLEs), tagging is supporting not only content indexing but also the self-regulated learning process consisting of different phases like planning, learning, and reflecting. In particular, in the reflection phase, tags support the organization of learning outcomes. We have researched the interrelations of learning content, learning processes, and learning phases to provide a comprehensive overview about diverse tagging behavior in PLEs like using multi-granular tagging, semantic tagging, community-based tagging, and expert–amateur tagging. We have exemplified these behaviors by the design, realization, and evaluation of a PLE for classical Chinese poetry.

The rise of the expert amateur

We are at an important technological inflection point. Most of our computing systems have been designed and built by professionally trained experts (i.e. us -- computer scientists, engineers, and designers) for use in specific domains and to solve explicit prob-lems. Artifacts often called "user manuals" traditionally prescribed the appropriate usage of these tools and implied an acceptable etiquette for interaction and experience. A fringe group of individuals usually labeled "hackers" or "amateurs" or "makers" have challenged this producer-consumer model of technology by creating novel hardware and software features to "improve" our research and products while a similar creative group of technicians called "artists" have redirected the techniques, tools, and tenets of accepted technological usage away from their typical manifestations in practicality and product. Over time the technological artifacts of these fringe groups and the support for their rhetoric have gained them a foothold into computing culture and eroded the established power discontinuities within the practice of computing research. We now expect our computing tools to be driven by an architecture of open participation and democracy that encourages users to add value to their tools and applications as they use them. Similarly, the bar for enabling the design of novel, personal computing systems and "hardware remixes" has fallen to the point where many non-experts and novices are readily embracing and creating fascinating and ingenious computing artifacts outside of our official and traditionally sanctioned academic and industrial research communities. But how have we as "expert" practitioners been influencing this discussion? By constructing a practice around the design and development of technology for task based and problem solving applications, we have unintentionally established such work as the status quo for the human computing experience. We have failed in our duty to open up alternate forums for technology to express itself and touch our lives beyond productivity and efficiency. Blinded by our quest for "smart technologies" we have forgotten to contemplate the design of technologies to inspire us to be smarter, more curious, and more inquisitive. We owe it to ourselves to rethink the impact we desire to have on this historic moment in computing culture. We must choose to participate in and perhaps lead a dialogue that heralds an expansive new acceptable practice of designing to enable participation by experts and non-experts alike. We are in the milieu of the rise of the "expert amateur". We must change our mantra -- not just performance, completeness, and usability but openness, usefulness and relevancy to our world, its citizens, and our environment. This talk will explore elements of the DIY and maker culture and its relevancy to research questions across computational hardware, languages, and systems. Ultimately, this talk will outline and argue for expanding the design territory and potential opportunities for all of us to collaborate and benefit as a society from this cultural movement.

The rise of the expert amateur

We are at an important technological inflection point. Most of our computing systems have been designed and built by professionally trained experts (i.e. us -- computer scientists, engineers, and designers) for use in specific domains and to solve explicit prob-lems. Artifacts often called "user manuals" traditionally prescribed the appropriate usage of these tools and implied an acceptable etiquette for interaction and experience. A fringe group of individuals usually labeled "hackers" or "amateurs" or "makers" have challenged this producer-consumer model of technology by creating novel hardware and software features to "improve" our research and products while a similar creative group of technicians called "artists" have redirected the techniques, tools, and tenets of accepted technological usage away from their typical manifestations in practicality and product. Over time the technological artifacts of these fringe groups and the support for their rhetoric have gained them a foothold into computing culture and eroded the established power discontinuities within the practice of computing research. We now expect our computing tools to be driven by an architecture of open participation and democracy that encourages users to add value to their tools and applications as they use them. Similarly, the bar for enabling the design of novel, personal computing systems and "hardware remixes" has fallen to the point where many non-experts and novices are readily embracing and creating fascinating and ingenious computing artifacts outside of our official and traditionally sanctioned academic and industrial research communities. But how have we as "expert" practitioners been influencing this discussion? By constructing a practice around the design and development of technology for task based and problem solving applications, we have unintentionally established such work as the status quo for the human computing experience. We have failed in our duty to open up alternate forums for technology to express itself and touch our lives beyond productivity and efficiency. Blinded by our quest for "smart technologies" we have forgotten to contemplate the design of technologies to inspire us to be smarter, more curious, and more inquisitive. We owe it to ourselves to rethink the impact we desire to have on this historic moment in computing culture. We must choose to participate in and perhaps lead a dialogue that heralds an expansive new acceptable practice of designing to enable participation by experts and non-experts alike. We are in the milieu of the rise of the "expert amateur". We must change our mantra -- not just performance, completeness, and usability but openness, usefulness and relevancy to our world, its citizens, and our environment. This talk will explore elements of the DIY and maker culture and its relevancy to research questions across computational hardware, languages, and systems. Ultimately, this talk will outline and argue for expanding the design territory and potential opportunities for all of us to collaborate and benefit as a society from this cultural movement.

Recovery Plan for the Endangered Taxonomy Profession

The worldwide decline in taxonomists has a broad impact on biology and society. Learning from general historical patterns of science and understanding social changes caused by growing economies, we propose changes in priorities for training taxonomists to reverse these losses. Academically trained professionals, parataxonomists (local assistants trained by professional biologists), youths educated with an emphasis on natural history, and self-supported expert amateurs are the major sources of taxonomists. Recruiting effort from each category is best determined by public attitudes toward education, as well as the availability of discretionary funds and leisure time. Instead of concentrating on descriptions of species and narrow studies of morphology and DNA, the duties of the few professional taxonomists of the future also will be to use cyberspace and a wide range of skills to recruit, train, and provide direction for expert amateurs, young students, parataxonomists, the general public, and governments.

Testing Hypotheses of Bird Extinctions at Rio Palenque, Ecuador, with Informal Species Lists

Informally gathered species lists are a potential source of data for conservation biology, but most remain unused because of questions of reliability and statistical issues. We applied two alternative analytical methods (contingency tests and occupancy modeling) to a 35-year data set (1973-2007) to test hypotheses about local bird extinction. We compiled data from bird lists collected by expert amateurs and professional scientists in a 2-km(2) fragment of lowland tropical forest in coastal Ecuador. We tested the effects of the following on local extinction: trophic level, sociality, foraging specialization, light tolerance, geographical range area, and biogeographic source. First we assessed extinction on the basis of the number of years in which a species was not detected on the site and used contingency tests with each factor to compare the frequency of expected and observed extinction events among different species categories. Then we defined four multiyear periods that reflected different stages of deforestation and isolation of the study site and used occupancy modeling to test extinction hypotheses singly and in combination. Both types of analyses supported the biogeographic source hypothesis and the species-range hypothesis as causes of extinction; however, occupancy modeling indicated the model incorporating all factors except foraging specialization best fit the data.

INTENSIVE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND ALEXITHYMIA: RESULTS FROM SWIMMERS' DISCOURSE ANALYSIS1

The aim of this study was to describe and understand the relationship of swimmers' practice intensity and alexithymia features in discourse. This study investigated psychological processes in two groups of male swimmers training at different intensities. The first group was composed of 10 Expert amateurs (M age = 19.5 yr., SD=1.9), who were competing at the national or international level and trained 22 hours per week. The second group was composed of 10 Amateur swimmers (M age = 20.5 yr., SD =1.4), who competed at the regional level and trained 6 hours per week. The discourse of swimmers was analysed using the ALCESTE (Analyse de Lexèmes Coocurents dans les Enoncés Simples d'un Texte) method of discourse analysis. Discourse analysis was performed on speech samples produced by swimmers. All the swimmers showed alexithymic verbal behaviour as regards both the means of expression used and the feelings and emotions expressed. This lack of articulateness was more pronounced in the Expert than in the Amateur group. The difference of alexithymic features in correlation with the intensity of sport practice raises the question of the health benefits of intense sports practice and the need for psychological assessment of athletes.

Intensive Physical Activity and Alexithymia: Results from Swimmers' Discourse Analysis

The aim of this study was to describe and understand the relationship of swimmers' practice intensity and alexithymia features in discourse. This study investigated psychological processes in two groups of male swimmers training at different intensities. The first group was composed of 10 Expert amateurs (M age = 19.5 yr., SD = 1.9), who were competing at the national or international level and trained 22 hours per week. The second group was composed of 10 Amateur swimmers (M age = 20.5 yr., SD = 1.4), who competed at the regional level and trained 6 hours per week. The discourse of swimmers was analysed using the ALCESTE (Analyse de Lexèmes Coocurents dans les Enoncés Simples d'un Texte) method of discourse analysis. Discourse analysis was performed on speech samples produced by swimmers. All the swimmers showed alexithymic verbal behaviour as regards both the means of expression used and the feelings and emotions expressed. This lack of articulateness was more pronounced in the Expert than in the Amateur group. The difference of alexithymic features in correlation with the intensity of sport practice raises the question of the health benefits of intense sports practice and the need for psychological assessment of athletes.

Theobald Smith (1859-1934), pioneer American microbiologist.

THEOBALD SMITH (1859-1934), PIONEER AMERICAN MICROBIOLOGIST CLAUDE E. DOLMAN* Philip and Theresia Schmitt, newly married, arrived at Albany, New York, from a troubled Germany about 130 years ago, after an 8 weeks' crossing from Antwerp. They each had a sister living in Albany, but otherwise knew nobody, nor any word of English, and possessed only common skills—he as journeyman tailor, she as housekeeper. Albany had already too many tailors to meet the periodic demands of assemblymen and their wives for frock coats and new gowns, while Theresia's housekeeping talents were dedicated to her husband, the two children who arrived soon enough, and several boarders who helped to pay off the mortgage. The first child, Bertha, married a carpenter and died at 34 from an ectopic gestation, leaving three small Murphys to an uncertain future. The second child was christened in the Catholic faith— his father being Protestant. The given name, Theobald, alone sets this Smith apart. Jacob Theobald was a fellow immigrant and family benefactor . The boy temporarily adopted the name Jacob, so that he appeared in early school lists as T. J. Schmitt. His high school essays were signed Theobald J. Smith. At university he jettisoned the/ and also the Catholic faith, after being denounced from the pulpit by his parish priest for not going to confession. The Formative Years (1874-1883) The youth's academic record at Albany High School—then a remarkably progressive yet demanding institution—was impressive. Never Address presented September 17, 1980, at ajoint annual meeting of the Canadian and Australian Medical Associations, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The author is indebted to Philip H. Smith, son and executor of Dr. Theobald Smith, for access to various family papers, and to the Hannah Foundation for the History of Medicine for their sponsorship and a grant-in-aid toward a full-length biography of Theobald Smith. *Professor emeritus of microbiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1W5.© 1982 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 003 1 -5982/82/2503-0258$0 1 .00 Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 25, 3 · Spring 1982 | 417 late or absent in 4 years, he always headed his class, and in 1 876—when Robert Koch published his classic report on The Aetiology of Anthrax— Theobald Smith was named valedictorian. As secretary and president of the Philologians, the school's debating society, he learned the techniques of argument, the appraisal of evidence, the value of vocabulary, and the diversity of topics that the human mind can contemplate and sometimes comprehend. With special friends he tramped the countryside, often picking berries, occasionally filching apples, always admiring nature, whether as wild flower, distant hills, or glowing summer sun; boating and fishing on the Hudson River and its tributary, the Normans Kill; and playing the grand piano at home or the organ in whatever church allowed it. He earned pocket money and helped liquidate the debt on the piano by giving music lessons and keeping the books for a retail tailor. He also looked after the garden and was the household handyman. Spare time was devoted to study—at weekends in the state library; at night, around the kitchen stove or in his bedroom, by candlelight. Albany's harsh climate generated Theobald Smith's daily weather observations , so that he became an expert amateur meteorologist. Similarly, his lifelong frugalities can be traced to the family's early penury. His thriftiness in adulthood has been made legendary by persons as ignorant of the young boy's chapped hands and mud-caked feet and his agonized two-day search for a mislaid quarter as of his charitable contributions— for the victims of the Johnstown flood, for the purchase of his primary school teacher's gravestone, or the forgetting of a substantial loan to his laboratory assistant [I]. At Cornell University, then recently founded and full of pioneering excitements, such as academic utilitarianism and coeducation, Smith maintained his excellent record. He gained a free-tuition scholarship and resolved not to specialize. "My ideas of an education," he noted as a sophomore, "are broad, liberal, of the widest kind." Accordingly, he enrolled in courses ranging from economic geology to Faust, from the...