Scientific Venues Research Articles

People in Motion: Introduction to Transnational Movements and Transwar Connections in the Anthropological and Genetic Study of Human Populations

People in Motion: Introduction to Transnational Movements and Transwar Connections in the Anthropological and Genetic Study of Human Populations

Mexican Anthropology and Inter-American Knowledge

This essay contributes to a fuller understanding of the history and future of area studies by tracing Latin American studies back to the early twentieth century, when it took form within academic disciplines that sought to contribute to state policy-making. The essay focuses on a set of intellectual exchanges between the United States and Mexico around Native American affairs. In an era in which new inter-American scientific venues and the Good Neighbor policy attenuated the inevitable and ever present intellectual hierarchies that divided the United States from Mexico and the rest of Latin America, some scholars found resemblances and parallels between North and South America. These scholars envisioned a cosmopolitan Americanist intellectual sphere based on horizontal forms of sharing, and they looked for novel ways of reconciling the avowed need for generalization with the particulars that they confronted at home and abroad. They found themselves unable to fully escape epistemological binds that positioned the North as a model of modern nationhood and a locus of universal knowledge, and that relegated non-Western nations like Mexico to the category of the particular. They could not overcome the difficulties spawned by hierarchies among nations and, concomitantly, among their own scholarly communities.

A case study of industry–academia communication in a joint software engineering research project

AbstractEmpirical software engineering research relies on good communication with industrial partners. Conducting joint research both requires and contributes to bridging the communication gap between industry and academia (IA) in software engineering. This study aims to explore communication between the two parties in such a setting. To better understand what facilitates good IA communication and what project outcomes such communication promotes, we performed a case study, in the context of a long‐term IA joint project, followed by a validating survey among practitioners and researchers with experience of working in similar settings. We identified five facilitators of IA communication and nine project outcomes related to this communication. The facilitators concern the relevance of the research, practitioners' attitude and involvement in research, frequency of communication and longevity of the collaboration. The project outcomes promoted by this communication include, for researchers, changes in teaching and new scientific venues, and for practitioners, increased awareness, changes to practice, and new tools and source code. Besides, both parties gain new knowledge and develop social‐networks through IA communication. Our study presents empirically based insights that can provide advise on how to improve communication in IA research projects and thus the co‐creation of software engineering knowledge that is anchored in both practice and research.

Topic space trajectories

The annual number of publications at scientific venues, for example, conferences and journals, is growing quickly. Hence, even for researchers it becomes harder and harder to keep track of research topics and their progress. In this task, researchers can be supported by automated publication analysis. Yet, many such methods result in uninterpretable, purely numerical representations. As an attempt to support human analysts, we present topic space trajectories, a structure that allows for the comprehensible tracking of research topics. We demonstrate how these trajectories can be interpreted based on eight different analysis approaches. To obtain comprehensible results, we employ non-negative matrix factorization as well as suitable visualization techniques. We show the applicability of our approach on a publication corpus spanning 50 years of machine learning research from 32 publication venues. In addition to a thorough introduction of our method, our focus is on an extensive analysis of the results we achieved. Our novel analysis method may be employed for paper classification, for the prediction of future research topics, and for the recommendation of fitting conferences and journals for submitting unpublished work. An advantage in these applications over previous methods lies in the good interpretability of the results obtained through our methods.

AI K\u201312 Education Service

This article provides an overview of relevant scientific venues, journals, projects and resources in the context of AI K-12 education.

On the Commonly-Used Incorrect Visual Representation of Accuracy and Precision

We performed a Google image search using the search phrase “accuracy and precision” and, after removing unresponsive and duplicate web pages from the search results, found that 78 of the top 100 results use the bullseye chart to visually explain this concept. Unfortunately, we also found that 52 of those 78 results, i.e., an incredible two thirds, use a visual similar to what is shown in Fig. 1(i) or Fig. 1(ii), both of which are at best highly misleading and factually incorrect according to relevant standards and guidelines. In this figure, the black dots represent the values obtained by replicated measurements of the same measurand (the quantity intended to be measured), and the visual aims to present how close the measured values are to each other and to an agreed-upon reference value, represented by the red bullseye. In the search results, visuals similar to Fig. 1(i) and Fig. 1(ii) appeared 25 and 27 times, respectively. In the top 20 search results, which is where the great majority of users look for answers, the earliest correct visual appeared only at position 11, followed by 13, 15, and 19 in the rankings. The great majority of the 52 incorrect visuals were in non-peer-reviewed documents, reinforcing the notion that one should not believe everything one sees on the internet, although shockingly, a few were in papers published in peer-reviewed scientific venues, including one in Elsevier's Journal of Clinical Epidemiology and another one in the SCMR's Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, both well-cited journals. The actual numbers are probably higher, as many scientific articles are behind pay-walls and inaccessible to Google search.

Making an expert: Sources and their contributions in news coverage of orthorexia nervosa

In 1997, Steven Bratman, a physician specializing in alternative medicine, proposed he had identified a new eating disorder, a pathological fixation with healthy eating. Soon after, orthorexia nervosa, as he called it, began appearing in newspapers – long before it did in scientific venues. Using a mixed-methods analysis of 492 articles published between 1998 and 2016, I examine the various actors who have participated in orthorexia coverage, including those who were assigned expertise on the unofficial diagnosis. The findings demonstrate a variety of credentialed and non-credentialed sources contributed to media coverage in different ways. Experts in mental illness appeared less often than other healthcare providers, including Bratman and dietitians. Based on the findings, I argue for a more nuanced understanding of expertise to better evaluate source selection in medical journalism and propose a typology that considers both the nature of the claims and the qualifications of the person making them. I conclude with several hypotheses about news coverage of novel conditions undergoing biomedicalization.

The evolution of IJHCS and CHI: A quantitative analysis

In this paper we focus on the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) as a domain of analysis, to gain insights about its evolution in the past 50 years and what this evolution tells us about the research landscape associated with the journal. To this purpose we use techniques from the field of Science of Science and analyse the relevant scholarly data to identify a variety of phenomena, including significant geopolitical patterns, the key trends that emerge from a topic-centric analysis, and the insights that can be drawn from an analysis of citation data. Because the area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has always been a central focus for IJHCS, we also include in the analysis the CHI conference, which is the premiere scientific venue in HCI. Analysing both venues provides more data points to our study and allows us to consider two alternative viewpoints on the evolution of HCI research.

Randomised trial to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of offering postvisit decision support and assistance in obtaining physician-recommended colorectal cancer screening: the e-assist: Colon Health study—a protocol study

IntroductionHow to provide practice-integrated decision support to patients remains a challenge. We are testing the effectiveness of a practice-integrated programme targeting patients with a physician recommendation for colorectal cancer (CRC)...

Geoengineering and the Question of Weakened Resolve

This Chapter offers several arguments regarding geoengineering’s relationship to mitigation and adaptation. First, compared to the terms moral hazard or risk compensation, weakened resolve better captures the concern regarding the possible adverse effect of geoengineering on mitigation and adaptation. Second, the inquiry into weakened resolve needs to be framed around who actually will determine mitigation and adaptation policy. Third, the current literature on weakened resolve would benefit from a broader geographical scope (to include major emitters such as China), the attitudes of elites as opposed to the general population, and the interaction between cultural and political polarization and weakened resolve. Fourth, because there is almost certainly some potential for weakened resolve even if we cannot ex ante establish how much, efforts should be made to mitigate any weakened resolve effect by framing geoengineering as a temporary, limited, risky response to climate change. Successfully maintaining that framing in public discourse may best be served by high-quality, peer-reviewed research regarding geoengineering technologies, with clear attention to their limits and risks. Restrictions on research at mainstream scientific venues itself may poses the risk that there will be a dearth of high-quality science to rebut efforts to rebut a framing of geoengineering as an easy, quick, low-risk solution to the problem of climate change.

Prediction of Rising Venues in Citation Networks

Prediction of rising stars has become a core issue in data mining and social networks. Prediction of rising venues could unveil rapidly emerging research venues in citation network. The aim of this research is to predict the rising venues. First, we presented five effective prediction features along with their mathematical formulations for extracting rising venues. The underlying features are composed by incorporating the citation count, publications, cited to and cited by information at venue level. For prediction purpose, we employ four machine learning algorithms including Bayesian Network, Support Vector Machine, Multilayer Perceptron and Random Forest. Experimental results demonstrate that proposed features set are effective for rising venues prediction. Our empirical analysis spotlights the rising venues that demonstrate the continuous improvement over time and finally become the leading scientific venues.

SCIENTIFIC DISSENT AND A FAIR DISTRIBUTION OF EPISTEMIC RESPONSIBILITY

Abstract There is a growing concern about the epistemic harms that may be caused by what appears to be politically and economically motivated dissent within scientific communities. Acknowledging the urgency to develop criteria for normatively appropriate dissent in science, many philosophers have turned to Helen Longino’s account of epistemically ideal communities suggesting that dissenters as well as consensus scientists ought to follow the four criteria of publicly recognized scientific venues, uptake of criticism, shared standards, and tempered equality of intellectual authority. I argue that Longino’s account is in need of refinement. In order to minimize the epistemic harms that may be caused by scientific dissent, the criterion of uptake needs to include a requirement for a fair distribution of epistemic responsibility.

Does single blind peer review hinder newcomers?

Several fields of research are characterized by the coexistence of two different peer review modes to select quality contributions for scientific venues, namely double blind (DBR) and single blind (SBR) peer review. In the first, the identities of both authors and reviewers are not known to each other, whereas in the latter the authors’ identities are visible since the start of the review process. The need to adopt either one of these modes has been object of scholarly debate, which has mostly focused on issues of fairness. Past work reported that SBR is potentially associated with biases related to the gender, nationality, and language of the authors, as well as the prestige and type of their institutions. Nevertheless, evidence is lacking on whether revealing the identities of the authors favors reputed authors and hinder newcomers, a bias with potentially important consequences in terms of knowledge production. Accordingly, we investigate whether and to what extent SBR, compared to a DBR, relates to a higher ration of reputed scholars, at the expense of newcomers. This relation is pivotal for science, as past research provided evidence that newcomers support renovation and advances in a research field by introducing new and heterodox ideas and approaches, whereas inbreeding have serious detrimental effects on innovation and creativity. Our study explores the mentioned issues in the field of computer science, by exploiting a database that encompasses 21,535 research papers authored by 47,201 individuals and published in 71 among the 80 most impactful computer science conferences in 2014 and 2015. We found evidence that—other characteristics of the conferences taken in consideration—SBR indeed relates to a lower ration of contributions from newcomers to the venue and particularly newcomers that are otherwise experienced of publishing in other computer science conferences, suggesting the possible existence of ingroup–outgroup behaviors that may harm knowledge advancement in the long run.

Involving incarcerated individuals in the research process: Perspectives of key stakeholders

Given the considerable potential for participatory action research in correctional settings, this study gathered stakeholders’ perspectives on involving adults in custody throughout the research process. Using mixed methods, the study identified participants’ level of interest in involving prisoners in the research process to inform educational efforts to increase correctional participatory action research. Qualitative data were gathered from 94 prison administrators, Institutional Review Board throughout the Abstract section.] members, prisoner representatives, research ethicists, and correctional researchers; quantitative data were collected from 1228 correctional and noncorrectional mental health researchers, correctional and noncorrectional Institutional Review Board members, and prisoner representatives. Qualitative data revealed lack of understanding of participatory action research concepts and advantages along with disagreement about whether prisoner involvement is desirable. Quantitative data revealed that respondents were most supportive of involving incarcerated individuals in contributing ideas for future research, planning recruitment procedures, developing participant protection procedures, and disseminating information to correctional populations. Respondents least supported involving adults in custody in disseminating findings to scientific venues, designing research and protocols, interpreting data, and setting research agendas. Combined, findings indicate efforts are needed to educate stakeholders about participatory action research’s value in correctional settings. This is particularly true related to soliciting prisoner voices in proactive and meaningful ways and moving beyond simply seeking input about measures selection or recruitment advice.

Translating land-use science to a museum exhibit

ABSTRACTFor land-use science to engage the general public it must successfully translate its concepts and conclusions and make them public outside of traditional scientific venues. Here we explore science-art exhibits, which blend artistic presentations with specific scientific data or themes, as a possible effective way of communicating scientific information and disrupting misconceptions. We describe the process of producing a science-art exhibit on remote sensing and Puerto Rican landscape history from 1937 to the present, sited at a rural Puerto Rican community museum, and examine the visitor experience and educational outcomes of the museum exhibit through analysis of survey data. The exhibit project engaged undergraduate students from a variety of academic backgrounds, introduced land-use science concepts to the public in an engaging format, and was effective at reshaping visitors’ misconceptions of Puerto Rico’s landscape change history.

Cutting Edge Chemical Biology: Report from the 2016 International Symposium on Chemical Biology, January 13-15, Geneva, Switzerland.

The 2016 International Symposium on Chemical Biology was organized by the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Chemical Biology. The NCCR Chemical Biology is located at the University of Geneva (UniGE; Director: Prof. Howard Riezman) and the Ecole Polytechnique Fede rale de Lausanne (EPFL; Co-director: Prof. Kai Johnsson). The symposium was held on January 13−15, 2016 at the Campus Biotech, a new center for biotechnology and life science research that was formed through a unique partnership between the University of Geneva and EPFL and is located within walking distance from the city center of Geneva. This exciting scientific venue attracted more than 240 attendees from around the world. With the aim of providing a sound overview of key challenges in cutting edge chemical biology, as well as fostering an open dialogue with networking opportunities, the organizing committee selected 15 plenary lectures with diverse scope under the broad subject of chemical biology. The scientific program was rounded up by four poster sessions with over 60 posters.

Visualizing Forensic Publication Impacts and Collaborations: Presenting at a Scientific Venue Leads to Increased Collaborations between Researchers and Information Professionals

ABSTRACTThe Information Services Office (ISO) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) proactively sought out an opportunity to present the findings of a study that showed the impact of NIST’s forensic research output to its internal customers and outside researchers. ISO analyzed the impact of NIST’s contributions to the peer-reviewed forensic journal literature through citation analysis and network visualizations. The findings of this study were compiled into a poster that was presented during the Forensics@NIST Symposium in December 2014. ISO’s study informed the forensic research community where NIST has had some of the greatest scholarly impact. This article describes the methodology used to assess the impact of NIST’s forensic publications and shares the results, outcomes, and impacts of ISO’s study and poster presentation. This methodology is adaptable and applicable to other research fields and to other libraries. It has improved the recognition of ISO’s capabilities within NIST and resulted in application of the methodology to additional scientific disciplines.

Why the Small Things in Life Matter: Philosophy of Biology from the Microbial Perspective

And it is not only for physicists. In her book, Philosophy of Microbiology, Maureen O’Malley invites philosophers of biology to look more closely and more intensely at the lessons that microbes can teach them. Even those who are not easily impressed by the scientific venues that this book ventures into cannot remain entirely immune to the breadth of debates and questions, both current and historical, that the book addresses in less than 280 pages. O’Malley’s daring hypothesis is that looking “at the bottom” may not only hold important answers to vexing philosophical questions but also lead to the reorientation of philosophical discussions and to the reconceptualization of central topics in biology. A general lesson of the book is that it matters not only what ðphilosophicalÞ questions we are asking but also where we are looking for the answers.

Reassessing the Facebook experiment: critical thinking about the validity of Big Data research

ABSTRACTThe Facebook experiment of 2014 manipulated the contents of nearly 700,000 users’ News Feeds to induce changes in their emotions. This experiment was widely criticized on ethical grounds regarding informed consent. This controversy, however, diverted attention from a more important concern the experiment was intended to address, which is the impact of Facebook use on well-being. In this paper, I explore the well-being concerns raised by prior research and argue that the experiment does not alleviate them, owing to poor research design. As the question of Facebook's impact on well-being is of great importance, both to Facebook and to society overall, there is a pressing need for more experimental research that is both sensitive to informed consent and carefully designed to yield reliable results. In turn, the lessons of this case have implications for general issues of validity that emerge in Big Data research, now in vogue at major scientific venues.

Welcome to Life

Life-long learning is a trait of many scientists, faculty members, as well as editors and I am no exception. As a biologist and an experienced college faculty member, who has also spent over 12 years serving as editor of scientific journals and books, I have seen the rising cost of often hyperspecialized, scientific venues. Taking the path of being part of the solution, I am weaving my passion for the sciences and education into a novel, professional, and adventuresome professional journey. This new journey is a scientific, peer-reviewed journal entitled, Life: The Excitement of Biology, herein abbreviated LEB (http://essential.metapress.com/content/122778). I conceived the name, Life: The Excitement of Biology, in the early 1990s, when I used to live in Berkeley, California. Although back then I was not ready to use this name, it remained in my heart. Nearly 20 years later, in late 2009, as I was looking for new editorial options, Life: The Excitement of Biology, resurfaced effortlessly, like a message on a fortune-telling toy. This name represents the enthusiasm I have often been attributed and the passion I have for my scientific research, teaching, and editorial vocations. From our beautiful garden in York, Pennsylvania, USA, filled with joy, music, laughter, and sunshine, I began developing the idea of a new scientific journal early in 2010. Today, December 20, 2012, I am welcoming the world to Life: The Excitement of Biology, published by my own company, Blay Publishers LLC (www.blaypublishers.com). LEB’s mission is to provide the global scientific community with diverse, high quality, interesting, and intelligible articles on a wide variety of biological and related scientific and educational topics. Life: The Excitement of Biology aims to promote broad understanding of all forms of life, such as bacteria, plants, fungi, animals, and others at all levels of the biological hierarchical organization, from the atomic to the biospheric. Also, LEB promotes understanding of life through deep time, from the early records of life to life’s current manifestations on Earth – or elsewhere. Inclusivity is the thrust of Life: The Excitement of Biology. LEB hopes to excite scientists, nature lovers, and anyone for whom learning about the living world is in his/her heart. The first issue of LEB contains several scientific papers, two of which I highlight now. The opening scientific contribution, penned by Cabrera et al., discusses a new host plant record for the Citrus Fruit Borer, Gymnandrosoma aurantianum Lima, 1927 (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), a