Robot companions: A legal and ethical analysis

This article addresses some of the most important legal and ethical issues posed by robot companions. Firstly, we clarify that robots are to be deemed objects and more precisely products. This on the one hand excludes the legitimacy of all such considerations involving robots as bearers of own rights and obligations, and forces a functional approach in the analysis. Secondly, pursuant to these methodological considerations we address the most relevant ethical and legal concerns, ranging from the risk of dehumanization and isolation of the user, to privacy and liability concerns, as well as financing of the diffusion of this—still expensive—technology. Solutions are briefly sketched, in order to provide the reader with sufficient indications on what strategies could and should be implemented, already in the design phase, as well as what kind of intervention ought to be favored and expected by national and European legislators. The recent Report with Recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics of January 24, 2017 by the European Parliament is specifically taken into account.     

Repeated sprint ability in young basketball players: one vs. two changes of direction (Part 2)

The aim of this study was to compare the training effects based on repeated sprint ability (RSA) (with one change of direction) with an intensive repeated sprint ability (IRSA) (with two changes of direction) on jump performance and aerobic fitness. Eighteen male basketball players were assigned to repeated sprint ability and intensive repeated sprint ability training groups (RSAG and IRSAG). RSA, IRSA, squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ) and Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 test were assessed before and after four training weeks. The RSA and IRSA trainings consisted of three sets of six sprints (first two weeks) and eight sprints (second two weeks) with 4-min sets recovery and 20-s of sprints recovery. Four weeks of training led to an overall improvement in most of the measures of RSA, but little evidence of any differences between the two training modes. Jump performance was enhanced: CMJ of 7.5% (P < 0.0001) and 3.1% (P = 0.016) in IRSAG and RSAG respectively. While SJ improved of 5.3% (P = 0.003) for IRSAG and 3.4% (P = 0.095) for RSAG. Conversely the Yo-Yo distance increased 21% (P = 0.301) and 34% (P = 0.017) in IRSAG and RSAG respectively. Therefore, short-term repeated sprint training with one/two changes of direction promotes improvements in both RSA and IRSA respectively but the better increase on jump performance shown a few changes on sprint and endurance performances.     

The challenges of setting up the evaluation of extension systems by using a systems approach: the case of Greece,Italy and Slovenia

Purpose: Considering current debates on ecosystem services’ effectiveness and the AIS/AKIS functioning, in this study we suggest a new, systemic way to evaluate extension systems (ESs). Using this model, we compared the effectiveness of ESs in three countries with essential differences but also characteristic similarities in their agricultural sectors: Greece, Italy and Slovenia.

Design/methodology/approach: Initially, we defined ‘extension system’ as a wide range of actors integrating resources with the aim of co-producing value (not for but with) farmers. To capture the value flow within this constellation of actors we distinguished between the notion of ‘value in production’ – i.e. the value embodied in service offerings – and the value emanating when service content is used in real settings or ‘value in use.’

Findings: Our approach revealed that, despite their structural and organizational differences, the ES in the three countries share common problems arising from a limited focus on the issue of value in use.

Practical implications: The application of a systemic approach – seeing farmers as co-creators and not as end-users of extension services – in the evaluation of ESs contributes to better understand the complexity of value flow within the system and can strengthen extension systems’ effectiveness.

Theoretical implications: The present study, by reconsidering traditional evaluation approaches and by focusing on value co-production, offers an alternative value-centric framework for the conceptualization of extension services and points out to the need for refining the evaluation criteria of ESs.

Originality/value: Our work, by emphasizing the reciprocal creation of value within ESs, and by adding the concept of value in use, offers a new systems approach worth considering when evaluating ESs within different organizational and sociocultural contexts.     

Longitudinal Effects of Student Mobility on Three Dimensions of Elementary School Engagement

Working within the developmental science research framework, this study sought to capture a dynamic and complex view of student mobility. Second‐ through fifth‐grade data (N = 1,003, predominantly Caucasian) were drawn from a longitudinal study, and growth curve analyses allowed for the examination of mobility effects within the context of other factors that put children at risk, including behavior problems and family stress. School changes predicted declines in academic performance and classroom participation but not positive attitude toward school. Time‐varying factors such as peer acceptance and teacher support had a positive influence on the growth trajectories of child outcomes. Additionally, teacher support had a particularly strong influence on positive attitudes toward school among children who had more school changes.     

Determinants of the half-turn with the ball in sub-elite youth soccer players

We explored the biomechanics of the 180° change-of-direction with the ball (half-turn) in soccer. We aimed at identifying movement strategies which enhance the players’ half-turning performance, by characterising technique kinematics and understanding the structure of biomechanical and anthropometrics variables. Ten Under-13 sub-elite male players were recorded with an optoelectronic motion analyser while performing a 5-m straight dribbling followed by a half-turn with the sole. Joints kinematics differences between faster and slower trials were found in support-side hip rotation, driving-side hip adduction, trunk flexion and rotation, and arms abduction. To unveil the data-set structure, a principal component (PC) analysis and a stepwise linear discriminant analysis were performed using 30 biomechanical parameters and four anthropometric variables for each trial. Seven retained PCs explained 79% of the overall variability, featuring combinations of original variables that help in understanding the factors facilitating fast half-turns: keeping short steps, minimising lateral and forward body movements, and centre-of-mass lowering, even with ample lower limbs ranges of motion (RoM); abducting the upper limbs while limiting trunk flexion and pelvic inclination RoM. Balance and task-constrained exercises may be proposed to improve this technique. Moreover, a quantitative knowledge of the movement structure could give coaches objective insights to better instruct young players.     

Evaluating the impact of the Erasmus programme: skills and European identity

The primary purpose of this study lies in the evaluation of what students acquire from studies abroad in the context of credit mobility, in terms of competence development and personal growth, compared with that gained by students completing their study or internship in their home country. A pre-post test design, with both an experimental group and a control group, was employed for students participating in the Erasmus programme and those continuing their regular course of study at their home university. The findings obtained suggest that study abroad programmes have a positive impact on the perception of university students. The highest values among Erasmus students in terms of outcomes were attributed to cultural enhancement, personal development and foreign language proficiency. Study abroad has, furthermore, a Europeanising impact inasmuch as it affects the self-identity of students.     

Inter-letter spacing,inter-word spacing,and font with dyslexia-friendly features: testing text readability in people with and without dyslexia

Over the last years, several studies have suggested a possible link between dyslexia and deficits in low-level visual processing (e.g., excessive crowding). At the same time, specially designed “dyslexia-friendly” fonts appeared on the market. This class of fonts presents two main features: the particular graphic characteristics of the letterform designed to avoid confusion between similarly shaped letters, and wider inter-letter and inter-word spacing to limit crowding. The literature testing the efficacy of “dyslexia-friendly” fonts in improving reading accuracy and increasing reading speed is controversial. We evaluated the impact of letterform (with vs. without dyslexia-friendly graphic features), inter-letter spacing (standard vs. increased), and inter-word spacing (standard vs. increased) on reading accuracy and speed. Two groups of 64 children each, with and without dyslexia, read aloud 8 equivalent texts. The data collected failed to show any effect from the letterform. As regards spacing, the data showed that reading speed is impaired by an increase in inter-letter spacing not combined with an adequate increase in inter-word spacing.     

Analysis of named entity recognition and linking for tweets

Applying natural language processing for mining and intelligent information access to tweets (a form of microblog) is a challenging, emerging research area. Unlike carefully authored news text and other longer content, tweets pose a number of new challenges, due to their short, noisy, context-dependent, and dynamic nature. Information extraction from tweets is typically performed in a pipeline, comprising consecutive stages of language identification, tokenisation, part-of-speech tagging, named entity recognition and entity disambiguation (e.g. with respect to DBpedia). In this work, we describe a new Twitter entity disambiguation dataset, and conduct an empirical analysis of named entity recognition and disambiguation, investigating how robust a number of state-of-the-art systems are on such noisy texts, what the main sources of error are, and which problems should be further investigated to improve the state of the art.     

Critical review of the TEMAS: A step within the development of thematic apperception instruments

The TEMAS (acronym for Tell‐Me‐a‐Story)—an objectively scored, projective thematic personality instrument for children and adolescents—is analyzed, reviewed, and critiqued with regard to theoretical underpinnings and rationale for development, administration, scoring, psychometric properties, and research to date. The TEMAS appears to be an improvement over existing projective personality measures used by school psychologists. Although it requires more training than other projective techniques, competency in administration, scoring, and interpretation can be achieved within a one semester course in personality assessment. The test has evidence of reliability and validity, and it is a multicultural alternative to the TAT and other thematic apperception instruments. The use of the TEMAS by psychologists may achieve more accurate assessment of Black and Hispanic children. Limitations include geographically limited standardization samples and little research conducted by individuals other than the authors. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The CIGR project for the harmonization of Agricultural Engineering University Curricula

Abstract

A project for the harmonization of Agricultural Engineering University Curricula was started in 1989 at European level. This project led to two seminars (in 1991 and 1992) and to a survey of current University organization and Curricula of Agricultural Engineering in 25 Countries. The harmonization project is still under way and has achieved world-wide interest. In this paper the main results already obtained, together with possible future developments, are presented.