Search Results (69)

Sloman and Rabb found support for the existence of the community of knowledge (CK) effect, which occurs when individuals are more likely to report understanding and being able to explain even fake scientific information when told that an expert understands the information. To date, no studies have been conducted that attempted to replicate original findings, let alone test the presence of the CK effect in realistic, legal scenarios. Therefore, Study One replicated original CK effect studies in a jury-eligible M-Turk sample (N = 291) using both Sloman and Rabb’s experimental stimuli as well as new stimuli. Study Two then tested the presence of the CK effect using scientific testimony in a mock court hearing from a forensic evaluator (N = 396). Not only did the CK effect improve laypeople’s perceptions of the scientific information in court, but it also improved their perceptions of the expert witness’s credibility, increased the weight assigned to the scientific information, and increased the weight assigned to the expert testimony. This effect was mediated by participants’ perceived similarity to the expert, supporting the theory behind the CK effect. These studies have important implications for the use of scientific information in court, which are discussed. Full article

When cells remain permanently trapped in a particular cell cycle stage, they are in senescence. This also occurs in the liver. Such cells are often referred to as “zombie cells”, and an entire organ filled with these “zombie cells” is said to be in a “zombie-like” state, characterized by a lack of function. The senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) encompasses the substances these “zombie cells” release, which can significantly affect nearby cells and tissues. While cellular senescence and SASP are related concepts, they are distinct. This scoping review aims to clarify the role of hepatocyte senescence and hepatocyte SASP in the administration of pharmaceuticals, as well as their relevance to medico-legal practice, disability claims, and insurance coverage. In this context, the effects of pharmaceuticals on senescent hepatocytes are discussed, particularly regarding the medico-legal implications of substances likely to be abused. In conclusion, hepatocyte senescence may be relevant in clinical or medico-legal work because it sheds a new light on interpreting clinical findings and expert witness statements. Full article

Mental reconstruction (MRC) and Free Recall (FR) have been recognized for enhancing the quality of witness statements. However, the mechanisms underlying this association remain insufficiently understood. This study explores how the time allocated to MRC and FR and variations in educational level influence the quality of eyewitness testimonies. Testimony quality is evaluated based on manually annotated content information provided by experts in testimony assessment, which measures adherence to the events. This is further complemented by fine-grained linguistic features, automatically extracted using linguistic analysis tools, to capture stylistic aspects. As a proof of concept, the analysis is performed on a corpus of 96 testimonies in Spanish describing two robbery cases. The results suggest that both mental reconstruction and narration times positively impact the accuracy of testimonies, as inaccuracies predominantly involve peripheral details. Furthermore, while the study confirms that educational level affects testimony quality, no significant differences were observed in the frequency of erroneous reports. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between cognitive strategies and the accuracy of witness statements, proposing an analysis approach applicable to forensic psychology for witness assessment. Full article

Digital supply chains (DSCs) are value-driven and collaborative digital systems designed to generate business value for firms through various innovative technologies. Today, we are witnessing companies transitioning from traditional supply chain models to DSCs through digital technologies. The effective selection of digital suppliers during these digital transformation processes is a strategic research topic. Additionally, factors such as the proliferation of information and communication technologies, globalization, and the pandemic have contributed to the expansion of e-commerce platforms. In this rapid growth phase, identifying the right supplier is crucial for the success of e-commerce sites. This study aims to develop an innovative, integrated, and comprehensive decision-making methodology to assist e-commerce platforms in selecting appropriate suppliers for their DSCs. To achieve this, an extended fuzzy VlseKriterijuska Optimizacija I Komoromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method is tested, where criteria and alternative evaluations made by decision-makers (DMs) are characterized by interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IVIFNs). The proposed decision mechanism is tested on the DSS problem of an e-commerce platform specializing in household products. Findings of the application, which uses three experts’ opinion to evaluate four digital suppliers based on the seven criteria, are discussed to help e-commerce sites conduct the DSS process more effectively. Full article

In this work, combined efforts by Greek and Turkish scientists produced an updated validated NIS inventory of the Aegean ecoregion, covering 120 years of records up to August 2024. Of the 342 NIS currently present in the Aegean Sea, the majority (281 species) have invaded the South Aegean, followed by the North Aegean (128 species out of 206 NIS). A total of 73 species were added to the list, while 56 were removed. Overall, unaided spread of Lessepsian immigrants from the Levantine Sea and shipping are equally responsible for NIS reported at the regional level. An increase in publications addressing NIS matches the upward trend of NIS since the mid-1990s, which continues to the present day. While unaided introductions of Lessepsian species and/or direct introductions via the Suez Canal peaked in the South Aegean during 2000–2005, they peaked in 2012–2017 in the North Aegean—a decade later. The opposite pattern was observed in ship-transferred NIS. The spatial distribution of introduction hotspots largely reflects the following phenomena/processes: unaided introduction is witnessed initially in the southeastern Aegean Sea; monitoring efforts are concentrated in vulnerable and at-risk areas; and research efforts relate to the spatial allocation of institutions and marine experts working on marine NIS along the Aegean coasts. Full article

The Northern Triangle countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, are sources of a significant number of asylum seekers in the United States today. This article examines the underlying societal dynamics in these countries and considers the typical profile of transgender immigrant women seeking asylum in the U.S. on the legal grounds of having faced gender-based violence in their countries of origin. It analyzes the relevant international conventions as well as the social determinants of the health and mental health of transgender asylum seekers. It draws from 35 cases of transgender immigrant women subjected to child sexual abuse; sexual assault, including assault by police; and forced sex work; it reviews examples from the academic and gray literature, including a precedent-setting case heard before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. It discusses the implications for social science professionals, including the role of experts of country conditions. It provides guidance for immigrant service providers and advocates, particularly the importance of gender-affirming policies and healthcare to this population deserving of protection. Full article

This study assessed the past changes in extreme precipitation and temperature events across the Himalayan Mountains of Pakistan. This cold and mountainous environmental region has witnessed a significant increase in climate-related disasters over the past few decades. Spatiotemporal changes in extreme temperature and precipitation events were analyzed using 24 indices developed by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). For this study, in situ data of 16 national meteorological stations were obtained from the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for the past three decades (1991–2020). The significance of the trends was assessed using the modified Mann–Kendall (MMK) test, and the Theil–Sen (TS) slope estimator was used to estimate the slope of the trend. The results showed that there has been a consistent decline in the total precipitation amount across the Himalayan Mountains of Pakistan. The trend exhibited a decrease in the annual average precipitation at a rate of −6.56 mm/year. Simultaneously, there was an increasing trend in the annual average minimum and maximum temperatures at rates of 0.02 °C/year and 0.07 °C/year, respectively. The frequencies of consecutive wet days (CWDs) and maximum 5-day precipitation (RX5day) have decreased significantly, with decreasing rates of −0.40 days/year and −1.18 mm/year, respectively. The amount of precipitation during very wet days (R95p) and extremely wet days was decreased by −19.20 and −13.60 mm/decade, respectively. The warm spell duration (WSDI) and the frequency of warm days (TX90p) across the Himalayan Range both increased by 1.5 and 1.4 days/decade. The number of cold days (TX10p) and cold nights (TN10p) decreased by 2.9 and 3.4 days/decade. The average temperature of the hottest nights (TXn) and the diurnal temperature range (DTR) were increased by 0.10 and 0.30 °C/decade. The results indicated an increasing tendency of dry and warm weather in the Himalayan region of Pakistan, which could have adverse consequences for water resources, agriculture, and disaster management in the country. Therefore, it is essential to prioritize the implementation of localized adaptation techniques in order to enhance sustainable climate resilience and effectively address the emerging climate challenges faced by these mountainous regions. Full article

In recent years, we have witnessed a massive increase in the number of startups, which are also producing significant amounts of digital data. This poses a new challenge for expert analysts due to their limited attention spans and knowledge, also considering the low success rate of empirical startup evaluation. However, this new era also presents a great opportunity for the application of artificial intelligence (AI) towards intelligent startup investments. There are only a few works that have considered the potential of AI for startup recommendation, and they have not paid attention to the actual requirements of investors, also neglecting to investigate the desirability, feasibility, and value proposition of this venture. In this paper, we answer these questions by conducting a survey in collaboration with three major organizations of the Greek startup ecosystem. Furthermore, this paper also presents the design specifications for an AI-based decision support system for forecasting startup sustainability that is aligned with the requirements of expert analysts. Preliminary experiments with 44 Greek startups demonstrate Random Forest’s strong ability to predict sustainability scores. Full article

The origin of Ko-Kutani porcelain and its decoration style have been debated for over a century. Despite the well-established theory that identified the wares as the result of porcelain production in Kaga (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture) in the 17th century, there still is no general agreement as to where they were first incepted and fired. In recent years, curatorial traditional criteria have formed the basis upon which a new theory has been gaining popularity in Japan, identifying Arita (present-day Saga Prefecture) as their actual place of birth. Such a new theory, however, has proven insufficient to cast new light on many of the unexplained facts that characterize the history of the wares. Furthermore, scientific evidence has been lacking, as no systematic analyses of the porcelains were carried out until the present work. In order to define univocally the dynamics behind this period of Japanese history, the most important and complete Ko-Kutani collection extant in Japan today (Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art) was analyzed by portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF). The scientific investigation was also extended to the very scarce shards excavated at the Kaga kiln site and Nonomura Ninsei’s masterpieces. For the first time ever, the results herein presented clarify the missing points crucial to reaching a definitive conclusion. Full article

The Grand Canal has been fundamental in supporting Chinese industrialization, as evidenced in the great changes witnessed across industrial lands, but few studies have approached this issue from a cultural perspective. After an extensive industrial recession in the early 21st century, canal cities like Hangzhou have seen changes in the cultural functions of industrial lands, relocating, transforming, and demolishing factories and other constructions to develop new cultural spaces and products. A deep analysis of these cultural changes is, therefore, quite helpful to appreciate the features of and reasons for Chinese national policy setting in the cultural sections of the Grand Canal, such as the UNESCO World Heritage-recognized purpose of the Grand Canal, etc. Therefore, by focusing on the Hangzhou section of the Canal, and via the integration of high-resolution Google Earth images with a 1.5 spatial resolution, we dynamically monitored the land use of the 10 specifically selected industrial lands and interpretated the various uses of the areas from 2000 to 2020. Then, with archival data from 1950 to 2024 and fieldwork conducted over 1 year, and in consultation with major experts, we designed a mark sheet with factors and scores to comprehensively assess cultural changes in those lands. Consequently, the history of industrialization along the Hangzhou section was thoroughly analyzed with these investigations and data, and the reasons for and influence of cultural changes were presented in detail; subsequently, the outstanding problems were addressed, and suggestions were offered. This study contributes to a better understanding of Chinese cultural policy regarding cities along the Canal after the industrial decline, especially the critical implication of cultural loss within these cities. In addition, it also provides novel perspectives for cultural research, heritage conservation, and urban planning of canals or waterfront spaces for world heritage. Full article

The implementation of low-carbon healthcare practices will be significantly enhanced by the role of anesthesia personnel. While there is a lack of data on the specific measures being implemented by anesthesia departments in Austria, we conducted interviews with six experts in sustainability within anesthesia to address this knowledge gap. These experts provided insights on strategies for reducing the CO₂ impact in the operating theatre, the level of interest among anesthetists in sustainability, the role of green teams in hospitals, and future prospects for sustainable anesthesia. While Austria has made progress in reducing the use of Desfluran, waste separation within operating theatres remains a significant issue. Green teams are present in hospitals, but there is a need for the greater inclusion of anesthetists and clinical staff. The topic of sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the field of anesthesia, and the past three years have witnessed a significant push towards reducing CO₂ emissions in hospitals across Austria. The experts identified key steps towards achieving sustainable anesthesia, emphasizing the need for an internal motivation to drive meaningful change. This study highlights the numerous measures that have already been implemented in the pursuit of sustainability in anesthesia and the ongoing efforts towards further improvement. Full article

The interplay between two paradigms, artificial intelligence (AI) and optical metasurfaces, nowadays appears obvious and unavoidable. AI is permeating literally all facets of human activity, from science and arts to everyday life. On the other hand, optical metasurfaces offer diverse and sophisticated multifunctionalities, many of which appeared impossible only a short time ago. The use of AI for optimization is a general approach that has become ubiquitous. However, here we are witnessing a two-way process—AI is improving metasurfaces but some metasurfaces are also improving AI. AI helps design, analyze and utilize metasurfaces, while metasurfaces ensure the creation of all-optical AI chips. This ensures positive feedback where each of the two enhances the other one: this may well be a revolution in the making. A vast number of publications already cover either the first or the second direction; only a modest number includes both. This is an attempt to make a reader-friendly critical overview of this emerging synergy. It first succinctly reviews the research trends, stressing the most recent findings. Then, it considers possible future developments and challenges. The author hopes that this broad interdisciplinary overview will be useful both to dedicated experts and a general scholarly audience. Full article

The recent past has witnessed a growing interest in technologies for creating chatbots. Advances in Large Language Models for natural language processing are underpinning rapid progress in chatbot development, and experts predict revolutionary changes in the labour market as many manual tasks are replaced by virtual assistants in a range of business functions. As the new technology becomes more accessible and advanced, more companies are exploring the possibilities of implementing virtual assistants to automate routine tasks and improve service. This article reports on qualitative inductive research undertaken within a chatbot development team operating in a major international enterprise. The findings identify critical success factors for chatbot projects, and a model is developed and validated to support the planning and implementation of chatbot projects. The presented model can serve as an exemplary guide for researchers and practitioners working in this field. It is flexible and applicable in a wide range of business contexts, linking strategic business goals with execution steps. It is particularly applicable for teams with no experience in chatbot implementation, reducing uncertainty and managing decisions and risks throughout the project lifecycle, thereby increasing the likelihood of project success. Full article

The field of interior home design has witnessed a growing utilization of machine learning. However, the subjective nature of aesthetics poses a significant challenge due to its variability among individuals and cultures. This paper proposes an applied machine learning method to enhance manufactured custom doors in a proper and aesthetic home design environment. Since there are millions of possible custom door models based on door types, wood species, dyeing, paint, and glass types, it is impossible to foresee a home design model fitting every custom door. To generate the classification data, a home design expert has to label thousands of door/home design combinations with the different colors and shades utilized in home designs. These data train a random forest classifier in a supervised learning context. The classifier predicts a home design according to a particular custom door. This method is applied in the following context: A web page displays a choice of doors to a customer. The customer selects the desired door properties, which are sent to a server that returns an aesthetic home design model for this door. This door configuration generates a series of images through the Unity 3D engine module, which are returned to the web client. The customer finally visualizes their door in an aesthetic home design context. The results show the random forest classifier’s good performance, with an accuracy level of 86.8%, in predicting suitable home design, marking the way for future developments requiring subjective evaluations. The results are also explained using a feature importance graphic, a decision tree, a confusion matrix, and text. Full article

Blockchain’s potential to revolutionize supply chain and logistics with transparency and equitable stakeholder engagement is significant. However, challenges like scalability, privacy, and interoperability persist. This study explores the scarcity of real-world blockchain implementations in supply chain and logistics since we have not witnessed many real-world deployments of blockchain-based solutions in the field. Puzzled by this, we integrate technology, user experience, and operational efficiency to illuminate the complex landscape of blockchain integration. We present blockchain-based solutions in three use cases, comparing them with alternative designs and analyzing them in terms of technical, economic, and operational aspects. Insights from a tailored questionnaire of 50 questions addressed to practitioners and experts offer crucial perspectives on blockchain adoption. One of the key findings from our work shows that half of the companies interviewed agree that they will miss the potential for competitive advantage if they do not invest in blockchain technology, and 61% of the companies surveyed claimed that their customers ask for more transparency in supply chain-related transactions. However, only one-third of the companies were aware of the main features of blockchain technology, which shows a lack of knowledge among the companies that may lead to a weaker blockchain adaption in supply chain use cases. Our readers should note that our study is specifically contextualized in a Netherlands-funded national project. We hope that researchers as well as stakeholders in supply chain and logistics can benefit from the insights of our work. Full article