Unfamiliar Systems Research Articles

Surgeon perspectives on preference cards and environmental stewardship.

Refinement of surgical preference cards may reduce waste from surgery. This study aimed to characterize surgeon perceptions and practices regarding preference card maintenance, identify barriers to updating preference cards, and explore whether opinions on environmental stewardship relate to preference card maintenance. This was a mixed methods survey performed at a single tertiary academic medical center. Surgeons completed questions on accuracy, frequency of updates, and perceived environmental impact of their preference cards. Responses were compared between early career and mid-to late-career surgeons using Kruskal-Wallis, chi-squared, and Fisher's exact tests. The response rate was 46.4% (n=89/192). Among respondents, 46.1% (n=41/89) rarely or never updated preference cards. Nearly all (98.9%, n=87/88) said some of their cases had unused items on their cards. Most (87.6%, n=78/89) made updates via verbal requests. Unfamiliar processes (83.7%, n=72/86) and effort required (64.0%, n=55/86) were viewed as barriers to card maintenance. Most agreed that more frequent updates would reduce waste (80.5%, n=70/87), but respondents did not feel knowledgeable about the environmental impact of items on their cards (62.1%, n=54/87). Mid-to late-career surgeons were less likely to update their cards annually or more often compared to early career surgeons (18.9%, n=7/37 vs. 57.1%, n=24/42, p<0.001). No other responses varied significantly between early career and mid-to late-career surgeons. Surgeons acknowledged the utility of preference card maintenance in environmental stewardship, but unfamiliar systems and perceived effort hindered preference card review. Greater attention to preference card maintenance would promote environmentally sustainable practices in surgery.

Ukrainian Forced Migrants in Edinburgh: How the Homes for Ukraine Scheme Worked

The article presents an in-deep analysis of the implementation the Homes for Ukraine Scheme (HFUS) for Ukrainian forced migrants fleeing the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022. It is noteworthy that the HFUS does not provide for official refugee status in the UK but allows Ukrainians to seek asylum. The HFUS is unique, as it involves, in particular, the settlement of Ukrainian refugees in the same housing with their sponsors, which should contribute to the adaptation and assimilation of new residents in Scotland. Our interviews with Ukrainians and sponsors who hosted Ukrainians aimed to analyse the challenges faced by both groups involved in HFUS. The study aimed to explore the challenges faced by Ukrainians adapting to new conditions in Scotland, their self-identification in a new environment, and their future plans. The primary difficulties identified for Ukrainians in Scotland included limited English language proficiency, challenges in securing employment in their field, navigating unfamiliar systems, and instability hindering long-term planning. Conversely, Scots highlighted challenges related to the lack of clarity in the HFUS, in communication with local councils, and in understanding the consequences of using the scheme. Based on analysis of interviews and other open sources, the authors identified certain aspects that they believe should be considered in Scotland's migrant integration policy, in particular, the effectiveness of the HFUS and the work of state and volunteer organisations that assist Ukrainians and other forced migrants. Additionally, the authors suggest that the gathered data could inform policies for repatriating Ukrainian citizens once the conflict concludes.

African immigrant students’ participation in Canadian health-promoting schools

Background: Students are key stakeholders in schools, and their participation in the work of health-promoting schools (HPS) is crucial. This study focused on African immigrant students to Canada, who face the unique challenge of navigating unfamiliar school systems. The purpose of the study was to understand how immigrant students imagined, felt and thought about themselves in relation to education and health-related programmes from their perspective as Nova Scotia school stakeholders. Methods: The investigation was informed by critical race theory and social constructivism and involved three research methods: photovoice, individual interviews and focus groups. Study participants were 15 secondary school students of colour, aged between 12 and 21 years, who had migrated to Nova Scotia from Africa and the Caribbean region within the last 10 years. Findings: Three overarching themes were developed from the study relating to: the pedagogy of the HPS, Black consciousness and school health culture. Conclusion: Research participants perceived their participation in HPS as racially and pedagogically challenging, to a variable extent. Study findings highlight the significance to HPS programming of authentically representing Blackness, familiarity or love, and Afro-Caribbean cultural food.

Statistical Physics through the Lens of Real-Space Mutual Information.

Identifying the relevant degrees of freedom in a complex physical system is a key stage in developing effective theories in and out of equilibrium. The celebrated renormalization group provides a framework for this, but its practical execution in unfamiliar systems is fraught with adhoc choices, whereas machine learning approaches, though promising, lack formal interpretability. Here we present an algorithm employing state-of-the-art results in machine-learning-based estimation of information-theoretic quantities, overcoming these challenges, and use this advance to develop a new paradigm in identifying the most relevant operators describing properties of the system. We demonstrate this on an interacting model, where the emergent degrees of freedom are qualitatively different from the microscopic constituents. Our results push the boundary of formally interpretable applications of machine learning, conceptually paving the way toward automated theory building.

Amount of Learning and Signal Stability Modulate Emergence of Structure and Iconicity in Novel Signaling Systems

Iterated language learning experiments that explore the emergence of linguistic structure in the laboratory vary considerably in methodological implementation, limiting the generalizability of findings. Most studies also restrict themselves to exploring the emergence of combinatorial and compositional structure in isolation. Here, we use a novel signal space comprising binary auditory and visual sequences and manipulate the amount of learning and temporal stability of these signals. Participants had to learn signals for meanings differing in size, shape, and brightness; their productions in the test phase were transmitted to the next participant. Across transmission chains of 10 generations each, Experiment 1 varied how much learning of auditory signals took place, and Experiment 2 varied temporal stability of visual signals. We found that combinatorial structure emerged only for auditory signals, and iconicity emerged when the amount of learning was reduced, as an opportunity for rote‐memorization hampers the exploration of the iconic affordances of the signal space. In addition, compositionality followed an inverted u‐shaped trajectory raising across several generations before declining again toward the end of the transmission chains. This suggests that detection of systematic form‐meaning linkages requires stable combinatorial units that can guide learners toward the structural properties of signals, but these combinatorial units had not yet emerged in these unfamiliar systems. Our findings underscore the importance of systematically manipulating training conditions and signal characteristics in iterated language learning experiments to study the interactions between the emergence of iconicity, combinatorial and compositional structure in novel signaling systems.

Military and demographic predictors of mental ill-health and socioeconomic hardship among UK veterans

BackgroundAround 8% of the UK Armed Forces leave in any given year, and must navigate unfamiliar civilian systems to acquire employment, healthcare, and other necessities. This paper determines longer-term prevalences of mental ill health and socioeconomic outcomes in UK Service leavers, and how they are related to demographic factors, military history, and pre-enlistment adversity.MethodsThis study utilised data from a longitudinal sample of a cohort study UK Armed Forces personnel since 2003. A range of self-reported military and sociodemographic factors were analysed as predictors of probable Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, common mental disorders, alcohol misuse, unemployment and financial hardship. Prevalences and odds ratios of associations between predictors and outcomes were estimated for regular veterans in this cohort.ResultsVeteran hardship was mostly associated with factors linked to socio-economic status: age, education, and childhood adversity. Few military-specific factors predicted mental health or socio-economic hardship, except method of leaving (where those leaving due to medical or unplanned discharge were more likely to encounter most forms of hardship as veterans), and rank which is itself related to socioeconomic status.ConclusionTransition and resettlement provisions become increasingly generous with longer service, yet this paper shows the need for those services becomes progressively less necessary as personnel acquire seniority and skills, and instead could be best targeted at unplanned leavers, taking socioeconomic status into consideration. Many will agree that longer service should be more rewarded, but the opposite is true if provision instead reflects need rather than length of service. This is a social, political and ethical dilemma.

Temperament systems influence emotion induction but not makam recognition performance in Turkish makam music

We tested how induced emotions and Turkish makam recognition are influenced by participation in an ear training class and whether either is influenced by the temperament system employed. The ear training class was attended by 19 music students and was based on the Hicaz makam presented as a between-subjects factor in either unfamiliar Turkish original temperament (OT, pitches unequally divided into 24 intervals) or familiar Western equal temperament (ET, pitches equally divided into 12 intervals). Before and after the class, participants listened to 20 music excerpts from five different Turkish makams (in both OT and ET versions). Emotion induction was assessed via the 25-item version of Geneva Emotion Music Scales (GEMS-25), and participants were also asked to identify the makam that was present in the excerpt. The unfamiliar OT was experienced as less vital and more uneasy before the ear training class, and recognition of the Hicaz makam increased after ear training classes (independent of the temperament system employed). Results suggest that unfamiliar temperament systems are experienced as less vital and more uneasy. Furthermore, being exposed to this temperament system for just 1 hr does not seem to be enough to change participants’ mental representations of it or their emotional responses to it.

Proposal and testing goals-guided interaction for occasional users

The latest shifts in technology have brought about new kinds of users who occasionally access unfamiliar systems in new scenarios. This way of use should not request any learning curve. There have been many attempts to help this kind of users: agents, floating help, tooltips, direct video demonstrations, etc., elements that support the appealing direct manipulation style (DM), but add indeed an extra layer of supporting material over it. In this paper, we describe an analyse goals-guided Interaction, GGI, as the basis for a different approach. We do not expect the user to understand or use a metaphor but guide them throughout the whole interaction process. This help system is integrated in the interface. The user will be closely guided on the “what to do” and on the “how to do,” always according to their current goal. This no-previous-knowledge-required way of interaction shortens significantly the learning curve. In order to support this proposal, a complete study based on user testing is performed. The results show that, for non-expert occasional users, GGI is more efficient in time and less error prone than the classic Direct Manipulation. Participants also showed a strong preference for GGI. This research offers an alternative way of interaction for designers and developers of human-centric interactive systems who have occasional users as their main target users.

AI for drug discovery came into its own

Artificial intelligence algorithms can make accurate predictions about unfamiliar systems using data they’ve been exposed to. In the vast and complex space of molecules, reactions, and biological interactions, that makes AI an attractive alternative to human drug hunters. But if AI will lead a revolution in drug discovery, it didn’t happen in 2019. “We have bits and pieces where people have made really good advances,” says Mike Tarselli, scientific director of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening, but he saw no transformative breakthrough. Among the advances: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed off a system that uses AI and robotics to plan and execute syntheses of drug molecules, which could help chemists search for and evaluate potential therapies. The researchers behind Synthia, an AI-based retrosynthesis planner, introduced an algorithm that could help drug chemists avoid synthetic routes that are already patent protected. And the start-up Insilico Medicine

Modeling Agrilus planipennis F. (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) Spread in New Jersey

Pests and disease have become an increasingly common issue as globalized trade brings non-native species into unfamiliar systems. Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), is an Asiatic species of boring beetle currently devastating the native population of ash (Fraxinus) trees in the northern forests of the United States, with 85 million trees having already succumbed across much of the Midwest. We have developed a reaction-diffusion partial differential equation model to predict the spread of emerald ash borer over a heterogeneous 2-D landscape, with the initial ash tree distribution given by data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis. As expected, the model predictions show that emerald ash borer consumes ash which causes the local ash population to decline, while emerald ash borer spreads outward to other areas. Once the local ash population begins to decline emerald ash borer also declines due to the loss of available habitat. Our model's strength lies with its focus on the county scale and its linkage between emerald ash borer population growth and ash density. This enables one to make accurate predictions regarding emerald ash borer spread which allows one to consider various methods of control as well as to accurately study the economic effects of emerald ash borer spread.

SWOT Analysis of Biomimicry for Sustainable Buildings – A Literature Review of the Importance of Kinetic Architecture Applications in Sustainable Construction Projects

Biomimicry is a term to explain the use of genius in nature. It basically aims to use of resources in the most effective manner while satisfying human needs. Likewise, kinetic architecture implementations and biomimicry both tend to imitate the excellent mobility of nature and kinetic architecture implementations are somehow investigated in biomimicry studies. These two inspirational concepts of nature nested each other and were integrated over time contributing to the development of sustainable building system design. However, integration of biomimicry and kinetic architecture is essential to explain sustainable buildings and their certification systems. There is still lack of knowledge in the construction industry in terms of kinetic architecture and biomimicry practices since the concepts are dynamic and perceived to be complex by the industry practitioners. Moreover, traditional structure of the construction industry considering short term profits and project-based nature makes these concepts even more challenging for the projects. Hence, it is essential to apply strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis in biomimicry and kinetic architecture implementation so that construction industry practitioners might conduct projects more effectively and satisfy project requirements in sustainable building projects. Therefore, this study adopts SWOT as the research methodology and aims to guide construction professionals to better understand these concepts. Within this perspective, this study proposes five major strengths, namely the effective use of energy, higher prestige level, climate adaptation ability, enhancing comfort and higher value and rental costs, where weaknesses are higher initial or maintenance costs, lack of systems expertise, the need for coordination of different professions, special production requirements and complexity in design. Moreover, five major opportunities and threats are suggested as top management support, sustainability focused development strategy, technological improvements, the demand increase to the environmentally responsible buildings, incentives from the governmental bodies are opportunities; unfamiliar systems, system failures, difficulties in project financing, materials do not comply with standards, and market conditions, respectively. The study is expected to reinforce the link between the design and construction processes to apply the above-mentioned concepts in sustainable buildings.

Assessing Multicultural Parenting Values and Practices in Prevention Programs for Latino Youth

As communities become increasingly diverse, it is important to consider how cultural navigation interacts with adolescent development. We examined immigrant parenting values and practices to promote healthy development when developing Padres Informados/Jóvenes Preparados (Padres). Three focus groups were conducted with Latino immigrant parents (n = 27). Parents strove to foster a strong Latino identity to protect their children from detrimental preconceived notions about Latinos in the broader American culture. They conveyed a Latino identity by speaking Spanish and teaching the values of respect and familism. Parents expressed tremendous stress in parenting while navigating difficult policies, socioeconomic conditions, and unfamiliar systems. They actively sought practices to protect their children. Parents also held misconceptions about cultural influences and normative development. These findings provided cultural grounding for Padres, which demonstrated success in improving youth–parent relationships. Family-focused programs serving Latino youth need to consider strengthening cultural identity to improve youth–parent relationships and promote optimal development.

Experiencing and Teaching Pilgrimage in a Sacred Spaces Course

As part of an integrated studies curriculum at the author’s college, all juniors must take a Reflections course in which students consider personal values and analyze familiar and unfamiliar systems of thought and belief, in order to explore their own and others’ ideas about the ultimate meaning and purposes of life. “Sacred Places Past and Present”, is a course designed to fulfil this requirement. This course focuses on a number of important religious sites in the ancient Mediterranean and in the modern world, including the Parthenon, Olympia, Delphi, Stonehenge, and Muir Woods. These places are compared and contrasted in terms of what makes them sacred. Two pilgrimage experiences are part of this course: the hajj to Mecca and the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. In the past, the unit on the Camino focused on Emilio Estevez’s 2010 film “The Way”; however, during the summer of 2016, the author walked the Camino de Santiago. As a result, the course was substantially revised to reflect the author’s own personal experiences as a pilgrim. In particular, Paulo Coelho’s The Pilgrimage was incorporated into the course and students were given an opportunity to participate in a one-day pilgrimage walk in western Illinois.

Memory for melodies in unfamiliar tuning systems: Investigating effects of recency and number of intervening items.

In a continuous recognition paradigm, most stimuli elicit superior recognition performance when the item to be recognised is the most recent stimulus (a recency-in-memory effect). Furthermore, increasing the number of intervening items cumulatively disrupts memory in most domains. Memory for melodies composed in familiar tuning systems also shows superior recognition for the most recent melody, but no disruptive effects from the number of intervening melodies. A possible explanation has been offered in a novel regenerative multiple representations (RMR) conjecture. The RMR assumes that prior knowledge informs perception and perception influences memory representations. It postulates that melodies are perceived, thus also represented, simultaneously as integrated entities and also their components (such as pitches, pitch intervals, short phrases, and rhythm). Multiple representations of the melody components and melody as a whole can restore one another, thus providing resilience against disruptive effects from intervening items. The conjecture predicts that melodies in an unfamiliar tuning system are not perceived as integrated melodies and should: a) disrupt recency-in-memory advantages; and b) facilitate disruptive effects from the number of intervening items. We test these two predictions in three experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 show that no recency-in-memory effects emerge for melodies in an unfamiliar tuning system. In Experiment 3, disruptive effects occurred as the number of intervening items and unfamiliarity of the stimuli increased. Overall, results are coherent with the predictions of the RMR conjecture. Further investigation of the conjecture's predictions may lead to greater understanding of the fundamental relationships between memory, perception, and behavior.

When quantitative meets qualitative: enhancing OPM conceptual systems modeling with MATLAB computational capabilities

Conceptual modeling is an important initial stage in the life cycle of engineered systems. It is also highly instrumental in studying existing unfamiliar systems—the focus of scientific inquiry. Conceptual modeling methodologies convey key qualitative system aspects, often at the expense of suppressing quantitative ones. We present and assess two approaches for solving this computational simplification problem by combining Object-Process Methodology (OPM), the new ISO/PAS 19450 standard, with MATLAB or Simulink without compromising the holism and simplicity of the OPM conceptual model. The first approach, AUTOMATLAB, expands the OPM model to a full-fledged MATLAB-based simulation. In the second approach, OPM computational subcontractor, computation-enhanced functions replace low-level processes of the OPM model with MATLAB or Simulink models. We demonstrate the OPM computational subcontractor on a radar system computation. Experimenting with students on a model of an online shopping system with and without AUTOMATLAB has indicated important benefits of employing this computation layer on top of the native conceptual OPM model.

Flexibility in Statistical Word Segmentation: Finding Words in Foreign Speech

The present experiments investigated the flexibility of statistical word segmentation. There is ample evidence that infants can use statistical cues (e.g., syllable transitional probabilities) to segment fluent speech. However, it is unclear how effectively infants track these patterns in unfamiliar phonological systems. We examined whether English-learning 14-month-olds could segment continuous speech in an artificial language consisting of Mandarin Chinese syllables. Syllable transitional probabilities provided the only reliable word boundary cues. In Experiment 1, we found that males segmented the language; they reliably discriminated words from the language versus across-word sequences. Females did not display reliable discrimination. In Experiment 2, when the test items were designed to have less overlap in their statistical structure, males and females displayed successful learning. Variation in direction of preference was revealing about infants’ processing in the tasks. Taken together, the findings indicate that infants’ statistical word segmentation abilities are sufficiently robust for processing speech streams containing foreign sounds.

Treatment of Long Bones with a Universal Intramedullary Nail-System in a Developing Country at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti

Objective: To evaluate long bone fracture care in a resource-poor hospital by a European midterm volunteer orthopedic surgeon, using a tactile intramedullary nail system without intraoperative image intensifier or fracture table. Methods: The first twenty cases treated by a single orthopedic surgeon using a universal intramedullary nail system (SIGN-nail) were analyzed using six-week to three-month follow-up series. Clinical follow-up occurred two weeks postoperatively with additional clinical and radiological follow-up at six-week and three-month timepoints. Results: All twenty cases were negative for signs of infection, broken interlocking screws, or need for revision at respective three-month timepoints. All patients were at full weight-bearing capacity after six weeks. The SIGN-nail system also provided succesfull management of a complex 3D-correctionosteotomy case. Conclusions: The SIGN-nail system is an effective, tactile system that can be used with satisfactory results without the need for an intraoperative image intensifier or fracture table. Its practical and minimalist nature makes it a favorable solution for long bone fracture care in resource-poor settings. A six-month time period seems to be adequate for midterm volunteer orthopedic-surgeons, as it allows adaptation to new settings and unfamiliar systems.

Teaching the Unfamiliar to a Crowd

AbstractThe experience both of being exposed to unfamiliar systems and places and of being an anonymous face in a large class can be not just alienating for undergraduates, but antithetical to effective learning. We propose a number of active learning strategies designed to help students fully master the material presented even in very large classes in comparative politics and international relations, while also improving students' attendance and interest and developing critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, without overburdening the instructor. Among these strategies are Team-Based Learning, interactive approaches such as debates and simulations, and low-stakes assignments such as “minute writing.”

How developers perform feature location tasks: a human‐centric and process‐oriented exploratory study

SUMMARYDevelopers often have to locate the parts of source code that contribute to a specific feature during software maintenance tasks. This activity, referred to as feature location in software engineering, is a human‐intensive and knowledge‐intensive process. Researchers have investigated (semi‐)automatic analysis‐based techniques to assist developers in such feature location activities. However, little work has been carried out on better understanding how developers perform feature location tasks. In this paper, we report an exploratory study of feature location process, consisting of three experiments in which developers were given unfamiliar systems and asked to complete six feature location tasks. Our study suggests that feature location process can be understood hierarchically at three levels of granularity: phase, pattern, and action. Furthermore, our statistical analysis shows that these feature location phases, patterns, and actions can be effectively imparted to junior developers and consequently improve their performance on feature location tasks. Our qualitative observations and interviews also suggest that external factors, for example, human factors, task properties, and in‐process feedbacks, affect the choices and usage of different feature location patterns and actions. Our results open up new opportunities to feature location research, which could lead to better tool support and more rigorous feature location process. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Expectations in culturally unfamiliar music: influences of proximal and distal cues and timbral characteristics

Listeners' musical perception is influenced by cues that can be stored in short-term memory (e.g., within the same musical piece) or long-term memory (e.g., based on one's own musical culture). The present study tested how these cues (referred to as, respectively, proximal and distal cues) influence the perception of music from an unfamiliar culture. Western listeners who were naïve to Gamelan music judged completeness and coherence for newly constructed melodies in the Balinese gamelan tradition. In these melodies, we manipulated the final tone with three possibilities: the original gong tone, an in-scale tone replacement or an out-of-scale tone replacement. We also manipulated the musical timbre employed in Gamelan pieces. We hypothesized that novice listeners are sensitive to out-of-scale changes, but not in-scale changes, and that this might be influenced by the more unfamiliar timbre created by Gamelan “sister” instruments whose harmonics beat with the harmonics of the other instrument, creating a timbrally “shimmering” sound. The results showed: (1) out-of-scale endings were judged less complete than original gong and in-scale endings; (2) for melodies played with “sister” instruments, in-scale endings were judged as less complete than original endings. Furthermore, melodies using the original scale tones were judged more coherent than melodies containing few or multiple tone replacements; melodies played on single instruments were judged more coherent than the same melodies played on sister instruments. Additionally, there is some indication of within-session statistical learning, with expectations for the initially-novel materials developing during the course of the experiment. The data suggest the influence of both distal cues (e.g., previously unfamiliar timbres) and proximal cues (within the same sequence and over the experimental session) on the perception of melodies from other cultural systems based on unfamiliar tunings and scale systems.