New Kinds Of Information Research Articles

Ecosocial compensation of nature-based social values in Turku, South-West Finland

Complementary building is one of the key objectives in current urban planning as cities attempt to mitigate climate change. However, this development often reduces the urban green space. This incremental encroachment can negatively affect both the well-being of residents and biodiversity. Compensation is a way to safeguard the urban green space under the pressure of complementary construction. In the spirit of creative democracy, in this study, we examined the preconditions for ecosocial compensation and the mitigation of the harmful effects of incremental encroachment, as well as the mitigation hierarchy, in the context of land-use planning. We organised three workshops for planners and civil society associations at which we examined the preconditions for ecosocial compensation and other mitigation options using co-creation methods. We also carried out a PPGIS survey for the residents of Turku and were able to insert one question into the voting advice application of the municipal election in 2021. Our results show that there is a need for a new kind of information regarding nature-based social values when considering mitigation options and compensation. A comprehensive planning approach instead of incremental planning practices is important for considering compensation. Residents’ initiative is essential in the ecosocial approach, and the compensation process may become a way for residents to step up and introduce concerns and new opportunities to the public discussion and actual decisions about urban green space.

Book Review: Digital Cultures, Lived Stories and Virtual Reality by Thomas Maschio, Anthropology and Business Series. London and New York: Routledge

The author of this book, Thomas Maschio, has lived two anthropological lives; an earlier one as an academic anthropologist and a later one as an anthropologist running a company (Maschio Consulting) that specializes in the use of ethnographic research methods to help solve business problems and provide new kinds of information for business decisions. This combined background shows, as this volume is full of insights that translate both to the rough and tumble world of business practices and the more abstract world of academic understandings. This is to say that it offers readers insights into common social practices, such as the use of personal devices (for instance, smart phones) or the production of contemporary journalism, that can be utilized by both business practitioners and university-based researchers to think more about the ever-increasing role that digital technology is playing in our lives. As such, I could see this volume being used as a standard textbook in different kinds of social science or business courses, as well as being of interest to those who are simply curious about the intersection between business and anthropology or who want to gain a greater understanding of contemporary digital practices.

Quantifying coastal ecosystem trophic state at a macroscale using a Bayesian analytical framework

One of the goals of coastal ecological research is to describe, quantify and predict human effects on coastal ecosystems. Broad cross-systems assessments to classify ecosystem status or condition have been developed, but are not updated frequently, likely because a lot of information and effort is needed to implement them. Such assessments could be more useful if the probability of being in a class indicating status or condition could be predicted using widely available data and information, providing a useful way to interpret changes in underlying predictors by considering their expected impact on ecosystem condition. To illustrate a possible approach, we used chlorophyll-a as an indicator of condition, in place of the intended comprehensive condition assessment. We demonstrated a predictive approach starting with a random forest model to inform variable selection, then used a Bayesian multilevel ordered categorical regression to quantify a coastal trophic state index and predict system status. We initially fit the model using non-informative priors to water quality data (total nitrogen and phosphorus, dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus, secchi depth) from 2010 and a regional factor. We then updated the model using prior distributions based on posterior parameter distributions from the initial fit and data from 2015. The Bayesian model demonstrates an intuitive way to update a model or analysis with new data while retaining the benefit of prior knowledge and maintaining flexibility to consider new kinds of information. To illustrate how the model could be used, we applied our developed trophic state index and classification to a time series of water quality data from Boston Harbor, a coastal ecosystem that has undergone significant changes in nutrient inputs. The analysis shows how water quality status and trends in Boston Harbor can be understood in the comparative ecological context provided by data from estuaries around the continental US and illustrates how the analytical approach could be used as an interpretive tool by non-practitioners of Bayesian statistics as well as a framework for further model development and analysis.

Learning technology acceptance and continuance intention among business students: The mediating effects of confirmation, flow, and engagement

The emergence of mobile applications has opened the door to a new kind of information and communication technology tool and educational support which is vital for students’ positive learning behaviours. The aims of this study were to examine the effects of three mediators (confirmation, flow, and student engagement) on students’ learning technology acceptance and information systems continuance intention, and to explore the functions of these variables in the mediating process between learning technology acceptance and continuance intention. Using PROCESS macro program where the bootstrap confidence interval was adopted, a parallel multiple mediation model and a serial multiple mediation model were tested. Two of the three proposed hypotheses were supported. Business students’ confirmation and flow, elicited by the m-learning app, were two mediating factors with high ratios (0.6655, 95% CI = 0.2635 to 0.6085) of the overall indirect effect to the total effect, which related to students’ decisions in continuous usages of the technology. We concluded that the continuous use of the m-learning app was driven not only by students’ flexible thinking skills in accepting new learning technology, but also by a set of cognitive attributes reflecting users’ positive experiences with the system. Implications for practice or policy: Business students who have positive mindsets for accepting new technology will try their best to overcome challenges of learning unfamiliar technologies. Business students’ confirmation and flow experience elicited by the m-learning app aids in understanding of their intention to continue using the system. Instructors must develop partnerships with instructional designers to enhance student confirmation, flow and engagement for better acceptance and continued use of mobile learning technologies.

The Impact Of SARS Cov-2 Pandemic On Children’s Behaviour In Society And Their Reintegration Through Drama Classes

Abstract The aim of this article is to point out the acute need of artistic classes for children with ages between 5 and 12 years after one year and a half of online activitities imposed by the SARS CoV-2 pandemic. The 2021 school year brought to the parents’ attention the gaps their children have experienced in terms of sociability. The ease they used to have in communicating with the others has almost disappeared along with the joy of interaction. They got so used to the virtual world that they began to see it as routine and to believe that this is the way our lives should be looking like from now on. As a result, the inauguration of this new school year in comparison to other typical school years, except for the pandemic years, has been registered as the year with the highest number of requests for children’s theatre classes. Teachers saw their students regressing and they also observed that it was very difficult for their students to assimilate any kind of new information, a reason why they came up with the idea of participating in such classes. The worst challenge for the students was to start coming back again physically to classes. Their enthusiasm disappeared alongside with their inability to concentrate and their difficulty in paying attention to the teaching process. The masks on their faces represented another disadvantage that they didn’t have to comply with any longer while attending online classes. Anyhow, it was the first year as a freelance theatre teacher in which the demand increased in such a manner that neither I nor my guild colleagues could honor all the requests we received in terms of drama classes for children at this age. The benefits of such classes in the education and in the evolution of its participants have already been demonstrated by many theatre personalities and they are now being amplified with the increased interest coming from the children’s parents who noticed serious disorders in their children’s’ behavior. In the next lines we are going to analyse the outcome results after questioning 60 children with ages between 5 and 12 years old.

Herding Behavior in the Indian Stock Market : An Empirical Study

The herding behavior in financial markets indicates the process whereby the different participants of the market trade in a similar direction simultaneously. This kind of trading pattern seems like a consensus in the market. There are different reasons for herding to exist : to be part of a group, to avoid the feeling of being left out, reaction to some kind of new information, etc. In this paper, we tried to identify the existence of herding behavior in the Indian stock market. The markets were examined over a time frame of the last 15 years to determine the existence of herding behavior at various points of time. The three time periods selected for the study were 2003 – 2007 (pre - financial crisis), 2008 – 2012 (sub-prime crisis), and 2013 – 2017 (post) crisis. The study used security return dispersion as a substitute for herd behavior. In order to test the presence of herding behavior, linear regression model using dummy variables was used. The evidence supported the presence of herding in the Indian stock market during the financial crisis time period and the post-crisis period. In the pre - financial crisis period, there was no herding phenomenon observed.

High-speed multifunctional scanning ion conductance microscopy: Innovative strategies to study dynamic cellular processes

The latest contributions of scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) to current research in life sciences are reviewed. The continued efforts toward technical improvements in SICM hardware and software resulted in development of new scanning strategies and instrumental designs. Enhanced high-speed mapping supported the capture of very fast cellular processes at the nanoscale, such as secretory events or cilia movements or the contraction cycle of a cardiomyocyte. The noninvasive scanning capability allowed researchers to monitor the response of individual live cells to chemical stimulations in real time. Access to new kinds of information that can be extracted from experimental data with the support of numerical simulations was demonstrated, thus extending further SICM multifunction capability.

Halal Consumption as Ethical Practice: Negotiating Halal Certification in South Africa

Abstract In recent decades, the halal certification logo has emerged as a global phenomenon. Halal certification is an attempt to produce a new discursive and material basis for the practice of halal. Halal is extended into new places and products. In South Africa Muslim consumers now query the halal status of tomato sauce, bottled water and even food consumed at the homes of friends and family. Certification is a technology of halal whereby consumers self-regulate practice in new ways. However, the transformations of halal certification have not been complete. Documentary inspection and molecular investigation linked to new kinds of information and new technology have not necessarily eclipsed the importance of intra-Muslim trade, niyya (orientation/intention) and trust for the practice of halal. This paper considers the narratives and practices of middle-class Muslims in South Africa towards an understanding of the complex ways in which halal is practiced and transformed.

Η εννοιολογική αλλαγή στη μάθηση της φυσικής και ο ρόλος της σχετικής με τη φυσική προσωπικής επιστημολογίας

The present paper presents a skeletal theoretical model for understanding the role of physics-related personal epistemology in conceptual change in physics learning. It is argued that personal beliefs regarding the nature of knowledge and knowing in physics can function as constraints on the knowledge acquisition process, just like ontologicalpresuppositions and other beliefs of a motivational and affective character can do. Beliefs about knowledge and knowing can have a direct impact on the kind of new information that is picked up from the physical and social-cultural context and the way it is explained. They can also have an indirect impact on picking up and explaining information, by influencing certain mediating cognitive and metacognitive functions, such as study strategies used to accomplish learning goals and self-regulation of knowledge acquisition. Evidence from a number of studies supporting the theoretical model is presented.

A Data-Analytics Approach for Risk Evaluation in Peer-to-Peer Lending Platforms

The goal of this article is to investigate the roles of individual behavior characteristics and Internet finance industry risk in the light of bank run theory for P2P. We know that risk evaluation is clearly important for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms in China, as during the last two years, the industry has experienced thousands of platform crashes. Traditional approaches to evaluate enterprise risk are increasingly ineffective in this industry, due to the difficulty of assessing the real information. In addition, the Internet business model makes it possible to record new kinds of information. By applying a data-driven analytics method, we build an intelligent risk evaluation model for P2P platforms that have comparable targeting platforms. The case study shows that our risk evaluation method can generate early warning signals regarding platform or industry risk, which is able to provide effective supporting for P2P business in practice.

The Current State and Future Prospects of Population Pharmacokinetic Research in Post-marketing Clinical Studies in Japan

Population pharmacokinetics (PPK) is a useful approach to the evaluation of drug pharmacokinetics in patients and is a widely used method for the evaluation of pharmacokinetics in clinical trials. PPK uses a statistical model to calculate population parameters, their variance, and covariates from sparse and unbalanced data in a large target population. Population parameters can subsequently be used to establish individual prescribing regimens for specific patients. Post-marketing clinical studies using PPK analysis have been reported by medical and academic institutions in order to complement the poor pharmacokinetics information, thus increasing the available pharmacokinetics information. However, because, in many cases, PPK information is not indicated in the package insert (PI), pharmacokinetics information such as pharmacokinetics parameters and associated variable factors is insufficient. We investigated what kind of new information was obtained in the post-marketing clinical studies using PPK analysis and whether these PPK results were described in Japan PI and/or interview form (IF). We showed that many post-marketing clinical studies were conducted as a single-center and observational study in order to supplement deficient pharmacokinetics data. Also, most PPK results obtained from post-marketing studies were not included in Japan PI and/or IF presumably due to lack of quality of PPK models. If sufficient post-marketing clinical studies using high-quality PPK models are performed, PPK models based on patients with diverse backgrounds, which take inter-individual variability into consideration, can be constructed and PPK information can contribute to the proper use of drugs and the promotion of individualized treatment strategies.

Interpreting Past Human Mobility Patterns: A Model

In the last decade, the exponential increase in migration studies focusing on the mobility of groups and single individuals—mostly based on aDNA and strontium isotope analyses—has provided an important extra layer of information regarding past social dynamics. The current relatively large quantity of data and their constant increase provide an opportunity to examine human mobility in unprecedented detail. In short, the course of academic dialogue is changing from producing evidence for movement to examining differences or similarities in human mobilities across temporal and geographical barriers. Moreover, the amount and type of new data are beginning to provide new kinds of information that can help us grasp why that movement first came about. We present the first potential mobility model focusing on single individuals during different life stages based on in vivo movement patterns. We draw on previous studies in recent mobility research that provide a variety of case studies to illustrate the model. We hope that this model will prove valuable for future discussions regarding human mobility by integrating the present archaeological contextual discourse with the increasing body of data being produced.

A means for liquid water to retain information

The possibility of information storage in chemically pure water is controversial. Storage of digital information is impossible because hydrogen bonds constantly rearrange themselves; specific protons are not stably coupled to specific oxygen atoms. If information is to be stored, its retention must be by other means. Nevertheless, some scientists have contended that information retention in water is not inconceivable, suggesting that water’s microstructure may be involved. The purpose of this paper is to show how these make it possible for water to retain information of a kind different from any previously conceived. Two kinds of entropy can be defined in water, classical due to heat, and quantum attributable to microstates. The method adopted is to compare the two, and to show that the first produces limitations on the second. The number of polymolecules is so vast that the quantum entropy might exceed the heat entropy. Since the classical, heat entropy cannot be exceeded, the number of polymolecules accessible at a given temperature, T, is restricted, yielding a new form of information, IR(T). The new form of information is entirely different from the four kinds previously known: Fisher Information in Statistics, Digital Information used in IT, Quantum Information, and Experience Information in biological systems at criticality. The new kind of information retained in water is analogous to Fisher Information in that it arises from restriction on the range of a variable, i.e. attributable to limitations on a statistical variable’s values. We therefore propose to name it, ‘Quantum Fisher Information’. Like the process of homoeopathic dilution, which has a limiting temperature around 70° C, Quantum Fisher Information is predicted to have a limiting temperature, TL. This qualitative agreement is encouraging. Prediction of TL requires calculating exact numbers of polymolecules. Information retention in water arises from the structure of quantum entropy, and the vast number of possible water polymolecules. Containing both classical and quantum components, the new information is analogous to Fisher Information in statistics.

Toward Global IoT-Enabled Smart Cities Interworking Using Adaptive Semantic Adapter

Since the Internet-of-Things (IoT) has been introduced, it is considered as one of the emerging technologies providing great opportunities to many vertical industries. One of the major IoT application areas that gets significant attention is smart city. Since it is unrealistic to expect full convergence toward a single IoT platform in the near future, it is mandatory to enable interworking between different platforms based on multiple standards, coexisting in the emerging smart cities. In this paper, we take the example of two global IoT standards, FIWARE and oneM2M, which are actively used in many smart city projects, and analyze them to show the feasibility of IoT platforms interworking. Based on the analysis, we design and implement a novel IoT interworking architecture providing a semantic driven integration framework suitable for smart city. The core idea behind our approach is to introduce interworking proxies that: 1) conduct a static mapping of sensor information between IoT platforms and 2) perform semantic interoperability using semantically annotated resources via a semantic interworking proxy that dynamically discovers new kinds of information and adapts itself to enable automatic translation of semantic data between given source and target IoT platforms while it is running. We present the system based on these proxies and evaluate it in Santander smart city. The results demonstrate that it is able to discover and manage IoT sensors connected to both oneM2M and FIWARE. It appears that the semantic approach provides the flexibility and dynamic adaptivity needed for fast growing and rapidly changing urban environments.

Making Syndromic Surveillance Relevant and Valuable for Emergency Managers

Making Syndromic Surveillance Relevant and Valuable for Emergency Managers

The Political Space between Words and Things: Health Claims as Referential Displacement

ABSTRACTIn the EU today, health claims on food labels are regulated as a form of information. Before the 2000s, statements referring to health on packaged food were subject to different national regulations across the EU, with different perspectives on where the boundary lies between food and drugs. The turn to more horizontal legislation in EU food law and increased emphasis on the role of information for the functioning of the Single Market does not in itself explain why, and especially how, health-related statements on food products have been turned into information and what consequences this has produced. Construction of such a European ‘technological zone’, where health claims circulate as a form of information, can be understood as ‘information's constitutive outside’ (Barry, A. (2006) Technological zones, European Journal of Social Theory, 9(2), pp. 239–253; Barry, A. (2013) Material Politics: Disputes along the Pipeline (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell)). This outside hinges on techno-political discussion, lobbying and decisions where the boundary between health and disease is at stake, along with food's materiality. The concept of referential displacement shows how decisions in the regulatory process have transformed controversial references to human health on food labels into ‘health claims’ as an informational category by shifting the relation between the health claim and its material referents: food itself, health and the body. Referential displacement produces a new kind of information that implies similar efficacy to pharmaceutical drugs, without interfering with the zone or market of pharmaceuticals.

Влияние масс-медиа на сознание человека в пьесах Александра Марданя

Nowadays the influence comprehension of the mass media as one of the most significant factors affecting contemporary culture, acquires the special significance. All kinds of new information receiving by media channels obtain the stereotyped, frequently repeatedly cultural and axiological orientations, which become fixed in people's consciousness. Skillful manipulation of information makes the power of suggestion from mass media practically unlimited. Therefore, the public opinion is created by the mass media. Being so closely intertwined with the mass media, the modern mass culture is coming through all elements of people's lives. Moreover, it appears in the literary works, which reflect the influence of the mass media on the consciousness, mentality, point of view and decisions of the literature characters, using their set example in the literature. Odessian playwright Aleksander Mardan presents his characters in the context of the events, which entails new circumstances both due to the characters decisions and out of more extensive economic and political changes. One may notice the presence of mass media in the form of music, information broadcasts and press almost in all Mardan's play. One may track out the influence on the character’s consciousness and reveal the difference between the official version and what happened in the real life. Using the performance tool, there is the action in the play showing the influence of the stereotypes implicated by the mass media. The performance reveals not only the stereotypes affection influencing the mentality of the characters, but also the viewers whose interpretation of the play’s direction is not always critical enough. Therefore, the question about the relationship between the society and mass media, about the level of freedom in mass media from the society and concerning the influence exerted by mass media on the modern culture and the human's consciousness is repeatedly presented in Alexander Mardаn’s plays.

Integrated Information Theory, Searle, and the Arbitrariness Question

Integrated Information Theory (IIT) posits a new kind of information, which, given certain constraints, constitutes consciousness. Searle objects to IIT because its appeal to information relies on observer-relative features. This misses the point that IIT’s notion of integrated information is intrinsic, the opposite of observer-relative. Moreover, Searle overlooks the possibility that IIT could be embraced as an extension of his theory. While he insists that causal powers of the brain account for consciousness, he maintains that these causal powers aren’t tied to protoplasmic material. Whatever these causal powers are (Searle doesn’t offer a positive account), they don’t consist in mere information-processing or computation. IIT agrees, and also positively characterizes the relevant causal powers as those involved in generating integrated information. Examining the further commitments of each theory reveals that IIT renews a fundamentally ontological challenge to information-processing and computational theories of mind.

Conformational Fingerprinting Using Monoclonal Antibodies (on the Example of Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme-ACE).

During the past 30 years my laboratory has generated 40+ monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed to structural and conformational epitopes on human ACE as well as ACE from rats, mice and other species. These mAbs were successfully used for detection and quantification of ACE by ELISA, Western blotting, flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. In all these applications mainly single mAbs were used. We hypothesized that we can obtain a completely new kind of information about ACE structure and function if we use the whole set of mAbs directed to different epitopes on the ACE molecule. When we finished epitope mapping of all mAbs to ACE (and especially, those recognizing conformational epitopes), we realized that we had obtained a new tool to study ACE. First, we demonstrated that binding of some mAbs is very sensitive to local conformational changes on the ACE surface—due to local denaturation, inactivation, ACE inhibitor or mAbs binding or due to diseases. Second, we were able to detect, localize and characterize several human ACE mutations. And, finally, we established a new concept—conformational fingerprinting of ACE using mAbs that in turn allowed us to obtain evidence for tissue specificity of ACE, which has promising scientific and diagnostic perspectives. The initial goal for the generation of mAbs to ACE 30 years ago was obtaining mAbs to organ-specific endothelial cells, which could be used for organ-specific drug delivery. Our systematic work on characterization of mAbs to numerous epitopes on ACE during these years has lead not only to the generation of the most effective mAbs for specific drug/gene delivery into the lung capillaries, but also to the establishment of the concept of conformational fingerprinting of ACE, which in turn gives a theoretical base for the generation of mAbs, specific for ACE from different organs. We believe that this concept could be applicable for any glycoprotein against which there is a set of mAbs to different epitopes.

Conformational Fingerprinting Using Monoclonal Antibodies (on the Example of Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme-ACE)

During the past 30 years my laboratory has generated 40+ monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed to structural and conformational epitopes on human ACE as well as ACE from rats, mice and other species. These mAbs were successfully used for detection and quantification of ACE by ELISA, Western blotting, flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. In all these applications mainly single mAbs were used. We hypothesized that we can obtain a completely new kind of information about ACE structure and function if we use the whole set of mAbs directed to different epitopes on the ACE molecule. When we finished epitope mapping of all mAbs to ACE (and especially, those recognizing conformational epitopes), we realized that we had obtained a new tool to study ACE. First, we demonstrated that binding of some mAbs is very sensitive to local conformational changes on the ACE surface-due to local denaturation, inactivation, ACE inhibitor or mAbs binding or due to diseases. Second, we were able to detect, localize and characterize several human ACE mutations. And, finally, we established a new concept - conformational fingerprinting of ACE using mAbs that in turn allowed us to obtain evidence for tissue specificity of ACE, which has promising scientific and diagnostic perspectives. The initial goal for the generation of mAbs to ACE 30 years ago was obtaining mAbs to organ-specific endothelial cells, which could be used for organ-specific drug delivery. Our systematic work on characterization of mAbs to numerous epitopes on ACE during these years has lead not only to the generation of the most effective mAbs for specific drug/gene delivery into the lung capillaries, but also to the establishment of the concept of conformational fingerprinting of ACE, which in turn gives a theoretical base for the generation of mAbs, specific for ACE from different organs. We believe that this concept could be applicable for any glycoprotein against which there is a set of mAbs to different epitopes.