People Talk Research Articles

“I Can’t Breathe:” The Invisible Slow Violence of Breathing Politics in Minneapolis

Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, his utterance, “I can’t breathe,” reverberated internationally as the world population grappled with the twin specters of life-threatening COVID-19 respiratory morbidities and mounting years under increasingly polarized racist regimes. Despite crisis fatigue, national and international outpourings of solidarity trended on social and mainstream media. However, in this moment, the legacy of structural and slow violences against the living, breathing Minneapolis–St. Paul communities of color were obscured. This article addresses transdisciplinary breathing politics in this mid-sized American city to integrate atmospheric indicators (concentrations of criteria pollutants including particulate matter and gaseous pollutants), traffic indicators (Minnesota Department of Transportation permanent traffic monitoring station data), and social indicators (community responses in newspaper and Twitter archives), ultimately making visible how Floyd’s utterance reflects much deeper patterns of stratified urban public health risks and socio-environmental airscape politics. Bullet Points of Findings Breathing politics are racialized in Minneapolis, demonstrating stark differences in traffic and air quality across neighborhoods. Through content analysis, it is shown that social media platforms like Twitter can be rich historical records for tracking local public discourse, providing valuable insight to the ways people talk about and conceive topics like environmental justice, breathing politics, and urban equity. While hashtag activism on social media flourished in 2020 to address anti-Black racism, it was neither a “tipping point” nor did it show a discernible impact on the nature of environmental justice discourse about breathing politics, despite the steep rise of #ICantBreathe. Integrating social, economic, and environmental indicators has the overarching benefit of addressing complex, lived systems.

The Long and Winding Road: On-Demand DNA Synthesis in High Demand

The Long and Winding Road: On-Demand DNA Synthesis in High Demand

We need to talk

We need to talk

Importance of Community Engagement in Data Decision Making.

Importance of Community Engagement in Data Decision Making.

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Katherine J. Cramer about Listening as a Way of Democratic and Scholarly Life

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Katherine J. Cramer about Listening as a Way of Democratic and Scholarly Life

Congregational Care: Philosophical Reflection on a Case Study

Congregational care strengthens relationships and supports spiritual growth. This article establishes groundwork for developing congregational care at First Baptist in Edmonton (FBC) by introducing a spiritual needs approach to engage people in conversation and by using a Spiritual Styles Assessment that has 36 questions to foster communication among congregational members. The article has four parts. The first introduces the congregation and a list of spiritual needs. The second part includes information about the Spiritual Styles Assessment and spirituality research. Parts three and four describe attitudes, skills and practices that enhance communicative action by helping people talk together and practice radical welcome as a foundation for congregational care. The purpose for establishing a foundation for congregational care is to suggest a way forward for a congregation that faces significant differences in values, beliefs, expectations, personal experience, and faith assumptions, even among people who have known each other for years. FBC is trying to find ways to reach understanding and offer care to all who enter the Sanctuary. The purpose of the article is to reflect philosophically on what congregants need from each other as signs of respect, inclusion and caring. The article outlines attitudes, skills, and practices that create communicative communities that are capable of nurturing congregational care by developing human understanding based on faith experience and communicative action.

Magic, metaphysics, and methods

Magic, metaphysics, and methods

Engaging People Living with Dementia in The Design Process

This study explores how the integration of inclusive design, participatory design (PD), collaborative design, and generative design has led to new methods and tools for involving the elderly in the design process. particularly the elderly with dementia. Dementia is one of the many health issues that become more common among the elderly (though the exact risk factors vary depending on factors like diet, exercise, and genetics). There are approximately 55 million dementia patients globally, with the majority (58%) residing in low- and middle-income nations. Annually, 7.7 million new cases of dementia are diagnosed, and the number of people with dementia is projected to increase to 75,6 million by 2030 and nearly triple to 135.5 million by 2050. In Egypt, there are approximately 600,000 dementia patients, 60% of whom have Alzheimer's, and it is anticipated that by 2030, there will be 1,200,000 dementia patients. Till this day, People living with dementia are still subjected to significant stigmatization. As a result of their exclusion from research and design processes, the majority of newer technologies, products, and services either disregard the needs of older people with dementia or lean more towards the preferences of carers, resulting in designs that are inappropriate or inaccessible to the target population. However, we are currently confronted with significant environmental, social, and cultural obstacles. To be effective, design innovations must be accessible to all stakeholders. We can only use design to solve today's problems by thinking collectively and acting inclusively. By establishing inclusive design as the backbone of the design process and integrating participatory design (PD) techniques, as well as collaborative co-design and generative design research, we are able to better meet the needs of those who will be directly impacted by the final product. People from a wide range of fields need to be brought into the design process. ‘All people are creative and can participate in co-design if they are provided with relevant tools and the appropriate settings for their use.’ Liz Sanders Dementia seniors' inclusion and participation in research and development must therefore be carefully considered. (Specifically for the first three stages of the disease or communicative patients. Therefore, the following research problem arose:• Research Questions: 1-Is it possible for older people who are living with dementia to engage in the design process? 2-How can the role and insights of an industrial designer be utilised to include and involve older people with dementia in research and development, especially in the first three stages of the disease or for patients who are still able to communicate?. Research Significance: The significance of the study lies in the need to allow dementia patients to participate in various stages of the industrial design process while refocusing design efforts on meeting their needs and requirements rather than those expressed on their behalf by others. This prompted industrial designers to create more effective solutions for this elderly population by employing inclusive and co-design strategies. Permitting people with dementia to participate fully in the design process. Research Objectives: The aim of this research is shed light on the application of generative design tools in the context of industrial design processes involving people with dementia. Research Methodology: The research follows the descriptive method by using the investigative method, then the analytical method by gathering and sorting information, and then the deductive method. Research Results & Recommendations:1-It is recommended to use a mix of participatory design (PD) methods, co-design approaches, and generative design techniques to tackle complex design problems that might come up when collaborating with older people who have dementia. 2- The industrial designer must first think about the goal of the ongoing design process and then choose the tools that will facilitate people's thinking and talking about their experiences. 3- Industrial Designers must consider research ethics, safety, and tailoring toolkits to the specific requirements of the design process, as well as selecting materials to cater to participants' (PWD) preferences and providing explanations of how to use the TOOLS

Listening to two speakers: Capacity and tradeoffs in neural speech tracking during Selective and Distributed Attention

Speech comprehension is severely compromised when several people talk at once, due to limited perceptual and cognitive resources. In such circumstances, top-down attention mechanisms can actively prioritize processing of task-relevant speech. However, behavioral and neural evidence suggest that this selection is not exclusive, and the system may have sufficient capacity to process additional speech input as well.Here we used a data-driven approach to contrast two opposing hypotheses regarding the system's capacity to co-represent competing speech: Can the brain represent two speakers equally or is the system fundamentally limited, resulting in tradeoffs between them?Neural activity was measured using magnetoencephalography (MEG) as human participants heard concurrent speech narratives and engaged in two tasks: Selective Attention, where only one speaker was task-relevant and Distributed Attention, where both speakers were equally relevant.Analysis of neural speech-tracking revealed that both tasks engaged a similar network of brain regions involved in auditory processing, attentional control and speech processing. Interestingly, during both Selective and Distributed Attention the neural representation of competing speech showed a bias towards one speaker. This is in line with proposed ‘bottlenecks’ for co-representation of concurrent speech and suggests that good performance on distributed attention tasks may be achieved by toggling attention between speakers over time.

Effect of incomplete height of partitions on acoustical parameters of operating areas

Operating areas are currently widely used in public service. They refer to rooms with a mass presence of people. The quality of customer service is influenced by a large number of people talking to each other at the same time. As a result, the audibility and intelligibility of speech in the operator-client pair decreases. Partitions of an incomplete height are arranged to improve the quality of customer service in operating areas.Purpose: Methodology is proposed to evaluate acoustic changes in rooms with a mass presence of people from the standpoint of ensuring speech intelligibility.Methodology: The method for assessing the speech intelligibility between the operator and client in space with partitions of incomplete height.Research findings: The proposed method can be used to evaluate acoustic changes rooms from the standpoint of the speech intelligibility. The example is given to the technique used to solve this problem.Practical implications: The proposed method and developed computer program for its implementation will provide a necessary acoustic mode through a purposeful design of space-planning solutions for partitions and determine their sound-absorbing and sound-insulating characteristics.

Upaya Penanggulangan Covid-19 di Kelurahan Procot, Kecamatan Slawi, Kabupaten Tegal

Covid-19 is a disease caused by a new type of coronavirus. The virus that causes Covid-19 is called Sars-CoV-2. Several types of coronavirus are known to cause respiratory infections in humans. The symptoms experienced are usually mild and appear gradually. Covid-19 can be transmitted through droplets or splashes when people talk or cough from people who have Covid-19. This Covid-19 disease must be watched out for because of its relatively fast transmission, has a mortality rate that cannot be ignored, and there is no definitive therapy. The soaring positive number of Covid in Indonesia should increase public awareness of the dangers of the pandemic. Based on observations at the beginning of the pandemic, people around Procot Village, Slawi District, Tegal District, did not all understand prevention as an effort to overcome COVID-19. Therefore, community service activities were carried out as an effort to overcome Covid-19 in Procot Village, Slawi District, Tegal Regency. With this community service activity, it is hoped that residents will be able to understand how to prevent COVID-19 and apply it, so that they can contribute to the prevention of COVID-19, especially in the Procot Village area, Slawi District, Tegal Regency.

Investigating the attentional focus to workplace-related soundscapes in a complex audio-visual-motor task using EEG.

In demanding work situations (e.g., during a surgery), the processing of complex soundscapes varies over time and can be a burden for medical personnel. Here we study, using mobile electroencephalography (EEG), how humans process workplace-related soundscapes while performing a complex audio-visual-motor task (3D Tetris). Specifically, we wanted to know how the attentional focus changes the processing of the soundscape as a whole. Participants played a game of 3D Tetris in which they had to use both hands to control falling blocks. At the same time, participants listened to a complex soundscape, similar to what is found in an operating room (i.e., the sound of machinery, people talking in the background, alarm sounds, and instructions). In this within-subject design, participants had to react to instructions (e.g., "place the next block in the upper left corner") and to sounds depending on the experimental condition, either to a specific alarm sound originating from a fixed location or to a beep sound that originated from varying locations. Attention to the alarm reflected a narrow attentional focus, as it was easy to detect and most of the soundscape could be ignored. Attention to the beep reflected a wide attentional focus, as it required the participants to monitor multiple different sound streams. Results show the robustness of the N1 and P3 event related potential response during this dynamic task with a complex auditory soundscape. Furthermore, we used temporal response functions to study auditory processing to the whole soundscape. This work is a step toward studying workplace-related sound processing in the operating room using mobile EEG.

Performing smart sexual selves: A sexual scripting analysis of youth talk about internet pornography

In this article, we explore young New Zealanders’ use of sexual scripts in talk about Internet pornography (IP) to perform ‘smart’ sexual selves. Using sexual scripting theory, as developed by feminist discursive psychologists, our analysis of interview data generated with 10 youth (aged 16–18 years) highlights two commonly constructed sexual identities across youth talk; (i) the proficient Internet pornography user, and (ii) the astute Internet pornography viewer. The way these young people talk about portrayals of sexuality and gender in IP – and their ability to discern its artifice – suggests they are savvy consumers who are capable of using IP as a cultural resource (e.g. for learning, entertainment) while at the same time acknowledging it as a flawed representation of sex and sexuality. We discuss the implications of our findings for strengths-based sexuality education that supports sexual agency, proposing a justice-orientated approach grounded in the notion of ethical sexual citizenship.

A Study on the Soundscape of Underground Commercial Space in Lu'an City and Hefei City, China.

Soundscape is an important part and one of the main factors of the underground space environment. Field surveys were conducted to evaluate the soundscape of underground commercial spaces and to compare it with the soundscape of the above-ground commercial spaces between two cities (Lu'an City and Hefei City) in China, consequently presenting the construction strategy of the soundscape of underground commercial spaces in urban areas. The results showed that the sound in the shopping center, which people found comfortable, was at the lower to intermediate level. The main sounds that people perceived as "general" sounds were environmental sounds such as music, the humming of the air conditioning, people talking, walking, and the hawking of the stores. Nevertheless, "very comfortable" sounds were background music and the sound of live performances, which were indicated in the majority of people's opinions on evaluating a comfortable feeling, thus reflecting the impact of the sound of mall music on people's cognitive psychology. Therefore, it is necessary to control the volume of environmental noise at a certain level so that people's health is not adversely affected. It also helps shoppers to feel more comfortable psychologically and physiologically.

WearMask: Fast in-browser face mask detection with serverless edge computing for COVID-19

The COVID-19 epidemic has been a significant healthcare challenge in the United States. COVID-19 is transmitted predominately by respiratory droplets generated when people breathe, talk, cough, or sneeze. Wearing a mask is the primary, effective, and convenient method of blocking 80% of respiratory infections. Therefore, many face mask detection systems have been developed to supervise hospitals, airports, publication transportation, sports venues, and retail locations. However, the current commercial solutions are typically bundled with software or hardware, impeding public accessibility. In this paper, we propose an in-browser serverless edge-computing-based face mask detection solution, called Web-based efficient AI recognition of masks (WearMask), which can be deployed on common devices (e.g., cell phones, tablets, computers) with internet connections using web browsers. The serverless edge-computing design minimizes the hardware costs (e.g., specific devices or cloud computing servers). It provides a holistic edge-computing framework for integrating (1) deep learning models (YOLO), (2) high-performance neural network inference computing framework (NCNN), and (3) a stack-based virtual machine (WebAssembly). For end-users, our solution has advantages of (1) serverless edge-computing design with minimal device limitation and privacy risk, (2) installation-free deployment, (3) low computing requirements, and (4) high detection speed. Our application has been launched with public access at facemask-detection.com.

Common sources of occupant dissatisfaction with workspace environments in 600 office buildings

Previously unpublished data from over 600 office buildings in the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) Occupant Survey database are used to perform a systematic analysis of dissatisfaction in contemporary workspaces. A total of 81% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with at least one aspect of their workspace, and 67% with more than one. Acoustics were the most common source of dissatisfaction, particularly related to people talking, speech privacy, and phones. Other challenges included a perceived lack of control over the temperature and insufficient space, along with other associated problems of densely populated offices. The analysis shows that context matters when understanding occupant dissatisfaction. Occupants of open-plan offices with low or no partitions were almost twice as likely to complain about their workspace than someone in a private, enclosed office. Being near a window decreased the likelihood of dissatisfaction compared with those who were not near a window. There was a clear relationship between self-perceived performance and satisfaction with the indoor environment. Dissatisfaction profiles found that acoustics, space, and privacy-related items co-occur for many occupants dissatisfied with more than one workspace aspect. <em><strong>Practical relevance</strong></em> Post-occupancy surveys are a useful tool for evaluating whether an office environment supports occupants while conducting their work. While highlighting the successes is important, complaints from dissatisfied occupants can identify issues and pinpoint reasons why spaces do not meet expectations. The reported challenges generally relate to the simultaneous reduction in control and personalization with increasingly open and densely populated layouts. Occupant dissatisfaction may impact performance given the reported relationship between satisfaction with the environment and feeling supported by the workspace to complete work tasks. The themes emerging from this analysis identify common dissatisfaction sources that can serve as an empirical basis to identify common problems in contemporary workspace designs.

APPEARANCES OF CODE SWITCHING AND CODE MIXING IN ONLINE CONVERSATION

Code switching and code mixing are occurred due to phenomena of bilingualism and multilingualism in communication activity. The use of code switching and code mixing are generally used when people talk to each other with friends, family, or other people. This study aimed to analyze the types of code switching by Poplack (1980) such as Intra sentential, Inter sentential and Extra sentential and code mixing by Muysken (2000) which consists of Insertion, Alternation and Congruent lexicalization which is occurred in the conversation in the conversation between Najwa Shihab and Maudy Ayunda in the “Catatan Najwa” Youtube channel. This study also analyzed type of reasons of code switching and code mixing occurred in the conversation. The mixes of qualitative and quantitative method were used by the researcher. The results of the study showed that the phenomena of code switching and code mixing appeared a lot in conversation between Najwa Shihab and Maudy Ayunda.

A Modern Expression of Primitive Art

Primitive art is the childhood period of human art, representing primitive people’s lofty ideals of nature, and its works are the materialized expression of their beliefs. However, in today’s unprecedented prosperity of modern painting, few people talk about primitive art, instead, it starts to fade into oblivion. Primitive art is generally considered crude and rough. In fact, many famous modern artists have absorbed nutrients in primitive art, and finally formed a school of their own. Primitive art has a strong ability of recreation. The implantation of primitive elements and the expression of primitivism are the manifestations of original ecological creation concepts that are rare in modern art.

Wine, sustainability, and the dynamism of changing lifestyles

Economic globalization characterizes the 21st century. A digital world has replaced the analog world. “Time is money, and thinking is money.” Thinking and time are patentable. Branding is a metaphor for a lifestyle change. The “Big Brother” described by Orwell in his novel “1984” is relevant today. We have moved from a world of thoughtful synthesis to one of analysis mediated by “likes,” “thumbs-up,” and “opinion leaders.” Wine, a social marker and cultural base, is being diluted in an interconnected world where it is easy to lose identity, principles, and economic worth (Pareto’s ofelimity). The perception of the value of the wine is changing from a cultural symbol to mercantilism. The pandemic lockdown has shown many fragilities of the wine system, fueling e-commerce and digital search, creating an immediatist, identity-less, and easy-to-disinform society. In general, people talk about “Eco-friendly,” “sustainability,” “climate change,” “resilience,” and more very lightly and without awareness, limiting themselves to hashtags for viral dissemination, influencers, and the transmission of incomplete, easy sensationalism or false documents (fake news). It outlines Italian viticulture at the great crossroads between sustainability established on a value chain or that of semi-finished products and built on years of observation, possible with a paradigm based on years of statistical and empirically significant observation It outlines Italian viticulture at the great crossroads between sustainability established on a value chain or that of semi-finished products, built on years of observation, possible with a paradigm based on statistical and empirically significant observation. By leaving its specific place centered on typicity, wine can become a commodity product, sharing the same destiny as agricultural raw materials.

Water 2050: Social and Demographic Issues

I find that when people talk about water, they talk about how they feel when they are around it—the tranquil sense they achieve as they look at the ripples on a lake, the crashing waves at a beach, or the meandering bends in a river. They share their joy of swimming in water, fishing in it, or boating on it. Rarely, however, do they talk about the engineering marvel of delivering water to their home or place of business. What does that tell us? AWWA's Water 2050 program is charting the future of water to the year 2050. It is assessing five key drivers that will determine this future: sustainability, technology, economics, governance, and social and demographic issues. By focusing on these drivers, we can develop strategies to create a better future rather than waiting for the future to come to us. Together these five drivers combine to address the processes and needs for providing water service. Yet the fifth driver—social and demographic issues—is distinct from the others. The first four drivers focus on how water systems deliver water, while the fifth is about those who drink and use the water—in simple terms, how water is supplied and who benefits. So, what might be the social and demographic change in water use by those who benefit in 2050? In November 2022, the world population reached a record eight billion; by 2050 the population could be between nine billion and 10 billion. Given this rate of growth, it is clear that by 2050 water use norms will change in order to stretch the fixed amount of water over more and more people. The top two changes that will ensure enough water in 2050, according to AWWA members, are increased use of water recycling and additional water conservation. Also, let's think about the shift in where water will be used by 2050. What if the megatrend of urbanization reverses itself? For instance, with today's ability to work from anywhere, will people continue to flock to the big cities, or will they reverse this trend and seek less crowded places to live and work—as long as, of course, there is good internet. If the demographic trends are the latter, current urban centers could easily find themselves with excess capacity in their water systems, and the more remote communities may need to quickly add capacity. In both cases, water delivery and use will change. Another social issue is the affordability of water, and sadly, only 3% of AWWA members think it will be solved by 2050. Within the framework of Water 2050, affordability has (at least) two sides to it. On one hand, as discussed in the Water 2050 Sustainability Think Tank report (available at www.awwa.org/Water-2050-Reports), affordability has great influence on the sustainability of a utility, its infrastructure investments, and cost-of-service rates. On the other hand, it is a social and societal issue for those who drink and use the water but also struggle to pay for it. The full solution, hopefully reached before 2050 and pointed out in the Sustainability Think Tank report, will “not comprise the cost-based rate-making methodology” and will provide funding for those who cannot afford their water service. As I think about it, social and demographic issues may be the most significant of the five drivers because this driver is focused on the people who drink and use water every day. Even if in 2050 these people still do not talk about the engineering marvel of delivering water to their homes, they do tell us about how water makes them feel and the joy it brings to them. That seems like a strong motivation to be prepared for the realities of a 2050 future.