New image analysis of large food particles can discriminate experimentally suppressed mastication

Objective parameters that could provide a basis for food texture selection for elderly or dysphagic patients have not been established. We, therefore, aimed to develop a precise method of measuring large particles (>2 mm in diameter) in a bolus and an analytical method to provide a scientific rationale for food selection under masticatory dysfunction conditions. We developed a new illumination system to evaluate the ability of twenty female participants (mean age, 23·4 ± 4·3 years) to masticate carrots, peanuts and beef with full, half and one quarter of the number of masticatory strokes. We also evaluated mastication under suppressed force, regulated by 20% electromyographic of the masseter muscle. The intercept and inclination of the regression line for the distribution of large particles were adopted as coefficients for the discrimination of masticatory efficiency. Single set of coefficient thresholds of 0·10 for the intercept and 1·62 for the inclination showed excellent discrimination of masticatory conditions for all three test foods with high specificity and sensitivity. These results suggested that our method of analysing the distribution of particles >2 mm in diameter might provide the basis for the appropriate selection of food texture for masticatory dysfunction patients from the standpoint of comminution

PREGLED DOSTIGNUĆA PRIMJENE BIM KONCEPTA U HRVATSKOJ, ČEŠKOJ, NJEMAČKOJ I SLOVENIJI

Building information modelling (BIM) may currently be considered the fastest developing concept in the field of construction management, aiming to become a global standard. Although the roots of the concept date back to the mid-1970s, some original expectations are still missing from its implementation. There has been a time gap between its theoretical and practical implementations. While the simultaneous development of information technologies is one reason for the implementation delay, other reasons remain unclear. This paper analyzes the gaps between theoretical and practical BIM application, as well as the legislation regarding BIM implementation in four countries (in alphabetical order: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia). The paper additionally presents a survey of current practical BIM applications as well as general and theoretical feedback from construction projects that implemented BIM.Jedan od najbrže razvijajućih koncepata u domeni metoda i alata za upravljanje građevinskim projektima, uz konačni cilj da postane globalni standard, je informacijsko modeliranje građevina, tj. BIM. Iako se koncept razvija od sredine 1970-ih, neka od originalnih očekivanja u njegovoj primjeni i danas nedostaju. Očito je da postoji vremensko odstojanje između njegove teorijske i praktične primjene. Istovremeno, razvijanje nužnih alata informacijske tehnologije je jedan od razloga zašto praktična primjena zaostaje, no ostali razlozi su još nejasni. U ovome radu autori analiziraju razlike između teoretske i praktične primjene BIM-a u zemljama odakle dolaze (Hrvatske, Češke, Njemačke i Slovenije). Rad predstavlja pregled trenutačnih dostignuća primjene BIM-a te povratnih informacija s projekata na kojima je BIM primijenjen

Why Augsburg College? A Look at Major Influences in the College Decision-Making Process for TRIO Eligible Students

At Augsburg College, diversity plays an important role in delivering transforming education for its students and is instrumental in defining the college community. This research identifies major influencers in the college decision-making process for TRIO participants. Federally funded TRIO programs like SSS provide access to higher education for students with academic need, financial need, who are first generation college students, or students who have disabilities. In order to assess the major influencers in the college decision-making process, current TRIO students at Augsburg College were asked to complete a survey. Students were asked to rate their feelings towards predetermined influencers when they were active in their college search. This research identified the most frequent influencers as urban location, financial aid, and starting the college search early. This research has produced results that will allow the college to develop strategic methods of recruitment for this population

Measuring Service Encounter Satisfaction with Customer Service Chatbots using Sentiment Analysis

Chatbots are software-based systems designed to interact with humans using text-based natural language and have attracted considerable interest in online service encounters. In this context, service providers face the challenge of measuring chatbot service encounter satisfaction (CSES), as most approaches are limited to post-interaction surveys that are rarely answered and often biased. Asa result, service providers cannot react quickly to service failures and dissatisfied customers. To address this challenge, we investigate the application of automated sentiment analysis methods as a proxy to measure CSES. Therefore, we first compare different sentiment analysis methods. Second, we investigate the relationship between objectively computed sentiment scores of dialogs and subjectively measured CSES values. Third, we evaluate whether this relationship also exists for utterance sequences throughout the dialog. The paper contributes by proposing and applying an automatic and objective approach to use sentiment scores as a proxy to measure CSES

Designing a Chatbot Social Cue Configuration System

Social cues (e.g., gender, age) are important design features of chatbots. However, choosing a social cue design is challenging. Although much research has empirically investigated social cues, chatbot engineers have difficulties to access this knowledge. Descriptive knowledge is usually embedded in research articles and difficult to apply as prescriptive knowledge. To address this challenge, we propose a chatbot social cue configuration system that supports chatbot engineers to access descriptive knowledge in order to make justified social cue design decisions (i.e., grounded in empirical research). We derive two design principles that describe how to extract and transform descriptive knowledge into a prescriptive and machine-executable representation. In addition, we evaluate the prototypical instantiations in an exploratory focus group and at two practitioner symposia. Our research addresses a contemporary problem and contributes with a generalizable concept to support researchers as well as practitioners to leverage existing descriptive knowledge in the design of artifacts

Wortbildung mit exogenen Einheiten

Productive word formation of present-day German lexemes with exogenous elements, particularly confixes, has increased notably over the last few years. Consequentially these formations containing foreign elements have also attracted a great deal of attention among word formation researchers. Working towards an encyclopedic compilation of exogenous elements in German word formation it is demanded to crucially analyze these foreign elements in terms of etymological, structural, semantico-functional and textlinguistico-pragmatic criteria. This article provides insight into these aspects of analysis by examples of word-formation using exogenous elements such as -itis, -manie, -phob, and -aholic.Productive word formation of present-day German lexemes with exogenous elements, particularly confixes, has increased notably over the last few years. Consequentially these formations containing foreign elements have also attracted a great deal of attention among word formation researchers. Working towards an encyclopedic compilation of exogenous elements in German word formation it is demanded to crucially analyze these foreign elements in terms of etymological, structural, semantico-functional and textlinguistico-pragmatic criteria. This article provides insight into these aspects of analysis by examples of word-formation using exogenous elements such as -itis, -manie, -phob, and -aholic

Charactzrization of sizing yarns

Current technological advances require materials which always go further in terms of physical performances while respecting more and more exigent standards towards the environment, with the objective of supporting this progress in a sustainable way. Composite materials provide a solution for this industrial challenge, as they combine the advantages of different types of materials. The purpose of this internship is to obtain a complete overview of a product manufactured by Saint Gobain Quartz, which is used in combination with other materials to meet high mechanical and thermal requirements in sectors such as aerospace and aeronautics. This characterization work is focused on a state-of-the-art product, a quartz-based amorphous silica yarn. This material is made by using complex and confidential industrial processes and has very interesting properties from an industry aspect. This thesis work aims at performing some tests to make a review of all the abilities of this silica yarn. Through its basic properties such as its hairiness, torsion, tensile strength, linear mass, humidity, sizing and composition. State-of-the-art equipment specializing in these measurements was used to determine the values of these different characteristics. The results are presented in the form of image graphs or data tables, with a consideration of the possible improvements and satisfactions that this product has given as a result

Digital Matchmakers: How Chatbots Use Positive Emotions to Influence Human Self-Disclosure

Despite the growing popularity of chatbots, their success depends on humans disclosing personal and sensitive information. Prior research indicates that human-like chatbots enhance self-disclosure by subconsciously applying social scripts and mirroring user characteristics. However, the role of emotions in chatbot-human interactions, especially regarding privacy tradeoffs, remains complex. This study aims to improve understanding of how chatbots’ use of positive emojis influences self-disclosure in online dating contexts. We developed an experimental matchmaking chatbot, TinderBot, and conducted two randomized experiments with 759 participants. Experiment 1 manipulated the chatbot’s use of emojis, while experiment 2 also varied the sensitivity of personal questions. The results suggest that chatbots using positive emojis significantly increase perceived friendliness of the chatbot, which positively influences users’ emotional state and self-disclosure behavior. This effect is substantial for highly sensitive questions but negligible for less sensitive ones. Our findings highlight the potential of emotion-driven chatbot design to foster trust and enhance user engagement and information sharing in digital matchmaking platforms, while also underscoring the importance of being aware of privacy tradeoffs

On Implementing Ethical Principles in Design Science Research

Technological innovations raise axiological questions such as what is right or wrong, good and bad, and so on (i.e., ethical considerations). These considerations have particular importance in design science research (DSR) projects since the developed artifacts often actively intervene into human affairs and, thus, cannot be free from value. To account for this fact, Myers and Venable (2014) proposed six ethical principles for DSR in order to support researchers to conduct ethical DSR. However, ethical principles per se—and the ethical DSR principles that Myers and Venable propose— have an abstract nature so that they can apply to a broad range of contexts. As a consequence, they do not necessarily apply to specific research projects, which means researchers need to contextualize them for each specific DSR project. Because doing so involves much challenge, we explore how contemporary DSR publications have dealt with this contextualization task and how they implemented the six ethical principles for DSR. Our results reveal that DSR publications have not discussed ethical principles in sufficient depth. To further promote ethical considerations in DSR, we argue that both DSR researchers and reviewers should be supported in implementing ethical principles. Therefore, we outline two pathways toward ethical DSR. First, we propose that researchers need to articulate the next generation of ethical principles for DSR using prescriptive knowledge structures from DSR. Second, we propose extending established DSR conceptualizations with an ethical dimension and specifically introduce the concept of ethical DSR process models. With this work, we contribute to the IS literature by reviewing ethical principles and their implementation in DSR, identifying potential challenges hindering efforts to implement ethics in DSR, and providing two pathways towards ethical DSR