Controlled Experimentation in Naturalistic Mobile Settings

Performing controlled user experiments on small devices in naturalistic mobile settings has always proved to be a difficult undertaking for many Human Factors researchers. Difficulties exist, not least, because mimicking natural small device usage suffers from a lack of unobtrusive data to guide experimental design, and then validate that the experiment is proceeding naturally.Here we use observational data to derive a set of protocols and a simple checklist of validations which can be built into the design of any controlled experiment focused on the user interface of a small device. These, have been used within a series of experimental designs to measure the utility and application of experimental software. The key-point is the validation checks -- based on the observed behaviour of 400 mobile users -- to ratify that a controlled experiment is being perceived as natural by the user. While the design of the experimental route which the user follows is a major factor in the experimental setup, without check validations based on unobtrusive observed data there can be no certainty that an experiment designed to be natural is actually progressing as the design implies.Comment: 12 pages, 3 table

Less users more confidence: How AOIs don’t affect scanpath trend analysis

User studies are typically difficult, recruiting enough users is often problematic and each experiment takes a considerable amount of time to be completed. In these studies, eye tracking is increasingly used which often increases time, therefore, the lower the number of users required for these studies the better for making these kinds of studies more practical in terms of economics and time expended. The possibility of achieving almost the same results with fewer users has already been raised. Specifically, the possibility of achieving 75% similarity to the results of 65 users with 27 users for searching tasks and 34 users for browsing tasks has been observed in scanpath trend analysis which discovers the most commonly followed path on a particular web page in terms of its visual elements or areas of interest (AOIs). Different approaches are available to segment or divide web pages into their visual elements or AOIs. In this paper, we investigate whether the possibility raised by the previous work is restricted to a particular page segmentation approach by replicating the experiments with two other segmentation approaches. The results are consistent with ~5% difference for the searching tasks and ~10% difference for the browsing tasks

Eye tracking scanpath analysis techniques on web pages: A survey, evaluation and comparison

Eye tracking has commonly been used to investigate how users interact with web pages, with the goal of improving their usability. This article comprehensively revisits the techniques that could be applicable to eye tracking data for analysing user scanpaths on web pages. It also uses a third-party eye tracking study to compare these techniques. This allows researchers to recognise existing techniques for their goals, understand how they work and know their strengths and limitations so that they can make an efficient choice for their studies. These techniques can mainly be used for calculating similarities/dissimilarities between scanpaths, computing transition probabilities between web page elements, detecting patterns in scanpaths and identifying common scanpaths. The scanpath analysis techniques are classified into four groups by their goals so that researchers can directly focus on the appropriate techniques for a sequential analysis of user scanpaths on web pages. This article also suggests dealing with the limitations of these techniques by pre-processing eye tracking data, considering cognitive processing and addressing their reductionist approach

Human Development Dynamics: An Agent Based Simulation of Macro Social Systems and Individual Heterogeneous Evolutionary Games

Purpose: In the context of modernization and development, a complex adaptive systems framework can help address the coupling of macro social constraint and opportunity with individual agency. Combining system dynamics and agent based modeling, we formalize a simulation approach of the Human Development (HD) perspective to explore the interactive effects of economics, culture, society and politics across multiple human scales. Methods: Based on a system of asymmetric, coupled nonlinear equations, we first capture the core qualitative logic of HD theory, empirically validated from World Values Survey (WVS) data. Using a simple evolutionary game approach, second we fuse endogenously derived individual socio-economic attribute changes with Prisoner’s Dilemma in an agent based model of the interactive political-cultural effects of heterogeneous, spatial intra-societal economic transactions. We then explore a new human development dynamics (HDD) model behavior via quasiglobal simulation methods to identify paths and pitfalls towards economic development, cultural plasticity, social and political change behavior. Results: Our preliminary results suggest strong nonlinear path dependence and complexity in three areas: adaptive development processes, co-evolutionary societal transactions and near equilibrium development trajectories, with significant implications for anticipating and managing positive development outcomes. Strong local epistatic interactions characterized by adaptive co-evolution, shape higher order global conditions and ultimately societal outcomes. Conclusions: Techno-social simulations such as this can provide scholars and policymakers alike insights into the nonlinear, complex adaptive effects of societal co-evolution. We believe complex adaptive or evolutionary systems approaches are necessary to understand both near and potentially catastrophic, far-from-equilibrium behavior and societal outcomes across all human scales of modernization

A Bounded Rationality Analysis of the Cyprus Problem

The time frame for a final decision on the Cyprus problem is narrowing very rapidly. The latest peace plan proposed by the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, known as the Annan Plan, to solve the problem between the Greek Cypriot (G/Cs) and Turkish Cypriot (T/Cs) communities underwent the last refinements in February 2003 to bridge the gap between the two sides. Yet, despite intense domestic (especially in the Turkish north) and international pressures on the two sides to sign the agreement the Turkish Cypriot leadership rejected the proposal as being insufficient in meeting their demands. Despite the apparent low in negotiations between the two sides, there is still an opportunity to revive the Annan Plan as the basis for negotiated settlement before Cyprus joins the European Union (EU) in 2004. The U.S., the E.U., and the U.N. have all given signals that they are willing to tackle the problem before Cyprus joins the EU in 2004. Given the gravity of the present situation, we provide an expected utility analysis of the problem in an attempt to determine areas of mutual cooperation between the two sides that could resolve the apparent deadlock

Corporate Governance and the Cost of Debt of Large European Firms

This paper examines the effects of different corporate governance mechanisms on the cost of debt for large European firms and documents a novel interaction effect between shareholder rights and disclosure. Improved disclosure leads to a lower credit spread only if shareholder rights are low. A possible explanation for this finding is the ‘share rights or disclose’ hypothesis. If shareholders have sufficient rights to monitor and influence management decisions, debt providers can rely upon shareholders to mitigate agency costs. Otherwise, bondholders require a premium to compensate for the information risk due to uncertainty about the true value of the firm

Evaluation of in vitro antiprotozoal activity of Ajuga laxmannii and its secondary metabolites

Abstract: Context: Some Ajuga L. (Lamiaceae) species are traditionally used for the treatment of malaria, as well as fever, which is a common symptom of many parasitic diseases. Objective: In the continuation of our studies on the identification of antiprotozoal secondary metabolites of Turkish Lamiaceae species, we have investigated the aerial parts of Ajuga laxmannii. Materials and methods: The aerial parts of A. laxmannii were extracted with MeOH. The H2O subextract was subjected to polyamide, C18-MPLC and SiO2 CCs to yield eight metabolites. The structures of the isolates were elucidated by NMR spectroscopy and MS analyses. The extract, subextracts as well as the isolates were tested for their in vitro antiprotozoal activities against Plasmodium falciparum, Trypanasoma brucei rhodesiense, T. cruzi and Leishmania donovani at concentrations of 90–0.123 μg/mL. Results: Two iridoid glycosides harpagide (1) and 8-O-acetylharpagide (2), three o-coumaric acid derivatives cis-melilotoside (3), trans-melilotoside (4) and dihydromelilotoside (5), two phenylethanoid glycosides verbascoside (6) and galactosylmartynoside (7) and a flavone-C-glycoside, isoorientin (8) were isolated. Many compounds showed moderate to good antiparasitic activity, with isoorientin (8) displaying the most significant antimalarial potential (an IC50 value of 9.7 μg/mL). Discussion and conclusion: This is the first report on the antiprotozoal evaluation of A. laxmannii extracts and isolates. Furthermore, isoorientin and dihydromelilotoside are being reported for the first time from the genus Ajuga

Bragg spectroscopy of a superfluid Bose-Hubbard gas

Bragg spectroscopy is used to measure excitations of a trapped, quantum-degenerate gas of 87Rb atoms in a 3-dimensional optical lattice. The measurements are carried out over a range of optical lattice depths in the superfluid phase of the Bose-Hubbard model. For fixed wavevector, the resonant frequency of the excitation is found to decrease with increasing lattice depth. A numerical calculation of the resonant frequencies based on Bogoliubov theory shows a less steep rate of decrease than the measurements.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Political Performance, Leadership, and Regional Integration in Europe: An Examination of the French and German Roles

Prior research on a regional leader’s role in the deepening of regional integration assumes that economic power translates directly into political capabilities. Relative political capacity among states is central to the creation and deepening of regional integration since it is this capacity that smoothes out the transition from a closed to an open economy. Should a state have low levels of this capacity but desire openness, it will partner with regional leaders given the leaders’ higher relative political capacity. However, the leaders’ subsidy of a partner’s capacity comes at a price. The leaders would trade political capacity for forming a regional bloc along its preferences. A partner will join with a regional leader so long as it is satisfied with the leaders’ preferences. By doing so, it reduces the cost of the subsidy. Our analysis of European integration indicates that French and German relative political capacities are an important factor in the continent’s unifying efforts by conditioning institutional homogeneity and capital stocks mobility, both of which are critical for political and economic union. However, the German effect contrasts with the French effect in that we discover greater German effectiveness in mitigating potential barriers to integration