tag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:/trending?page=30Journal of Brief Ideas: Ideas from the last week2022-02-11T16:40:09Ztag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/9122022-02-11T16:40:09Z2022-02-26T06:00:44ZCultural impacts of the biodiversity crisis and our disconnection from naturehttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6288546Dramatic declines in global biodiversity -- i.e., the Biodiversity Crisis -- continue to motivate research on the causes and consequences of environmental degradation. High profile papers on declines in insect diversity and abundance, for example, allude to cascading negative effects on ecosystem services, including nutrient cycling, pollination, natural control of pests, and on the survival of insectivores. In a parallel and similarly complex (and probably compounding) phenomenon, sometimes referred to as Nature Deficit Disorder, humans are spending less time connecting with the natural world. These phenomena are likely having profound, measurable impacts on humans' creative cultural output.
Inspiration, for example, is another "service" that may be impacted by the phenomena described above. Insects, through their behaviors, colors, extended phenotypes, and ecological interactions, frequently catalyze and influence creativity. Insects are beautiful, lively, tranquilizing, scary, annoying, funny, etc. Fewer encounters with these arthropods, however, may lead to losses in their representation in art, poetry, music, dance, and biomimicry. Analysis of cultural outputs over time might already reveal signatures of degradation that echo declines seen in the natural world: references are less sophisticated, perhaps, and fewer taxa are represented. Contemporary references may also have a different tone (wistful or negative) than historical references.Deans, Andrewtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/9112022-02-06T21:10:15Z2022-02-26T06:00:44ZThe relationship between aesthetic and space features of day clinics and cancer patients’ well-being https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6288494Prof. Yori Gidron, Dr. Fatma Güneri
The diagnosis and treatment of cancer can be very stressful and life threatening for many patients. Ways to ameliorate patients’ well-being when receiving treatment need to be developed. Studies have shown that environmental aspects of clinics (e.g., rooms with a view) affect various health outcomes including length of stay in hospital, mood and physiological parameters. In oncology specifically, patients must repeatedly come to hospital for ongoing treatments, and this requires constant change in one’s habitual rhythm and environment. However, the effects of the quality of the clinical environment on patients’ well-being have not been studied in oncological settings, to the best of our knowledge. This study will aim to fill this gap. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between aesthetic and space parameters (ASP) of day clinics and cancer patients’ well-being. The study will examine the relationship between spatial and esthetical aspects of oncology clinics and clinical outcomes of cancer patients and their well-being. These aspects will include space, room size in relation to number of patients, esthetical aspects of the clinic (pictures, colours, etc.) and presence of nature views from windows.
Reference:
Ulrich RS. View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science. 1984, 224, 420-1.
GUNERI, FATMAtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/9102022-02-06T04:00:10Z2022-02-26T06:00:44ZA VISUAL EXPERIMENT ON POLICY DATA DURING COVID-19�https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6288458A text mining study has been realised on a sample policy « Income support to quarantined workers who cannot work from home » published by OECD on 24 july 2020, in the dataset « Policy responses to the Covid-19 crisis ». Policy texts have been analysed and descriptive word frequency resolutions produced, followed by data visualisation. The objective is to show how visualisation of texts might clarify messages by making them simpler. The sample country for this study was Australia. The totality of this country’s policies is explained by 1172 words. And the sample policy chosen for this study was 135 words. However, the word cloud created by this policy was including 40 words. This decrease in the number of words saves reading time and makes the main theme of the text quickly identifiable. Furthermore, the visualization of themes might accelerate the connection between different subjects and the creation of interpretation. During stressful periods like Covid-19 people look for quick, short information. Social media becomes a preference because of its easy access. If institutions prepare visualized reports with text mining techniques, people might be more interested in their policies. The visualisations by Tagcrowd and Infranodus:
FIGURES
https://www.oecd.org/social/Covid-19-Employment-and-Social-Policy-Responses-by-Country.xlsx
https://infranodus.com/
https://tagcrowd.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia
GUNERI, FATMAtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/9092022-02-05T18:41:28Z2022-02-26T06:00:44Z“WORKPLACE” as a subject in British Journals in 2020https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6288434
The data for this study is limited to British journals and the research focus is on the main points regarding the subject of “workplace” during 2020. This study is based on two main research questions:
1. Did Covid-19 become a regular topic regarding “workplace” issues each month in British journals in 2020?
2. What were the main insights related to the “workplace” subject in British journals in 2020 and in which frequency?
The methods for this study are compiled with the focus on 102 articles about the workplace from different online journals in Europe listed in Europe News Sources in WorldDataAi. It focuses on thirty-one articles in journals that are published in the United Kingdom. It also makes use of a text mining process on the web-based qualitative analysis tool “3rdeyeinformation”.
FIGURE
For a more in-depth and intuitive analysis of the texts, R studio was used.
FIGURE
Finally, although the articles highlight current issues in the workplace, we have not seen any keywords, which represent change, or actions, which will be taken to address the challenges in workplaces.
GUNERI, FATMAtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/9082022-02-05T11:17:45Z2022-02-26T06:00:44ZA collaborative effort to create a user-friendly installer for different mobile operating systemshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6288520Various alternative mobile operating systems are available, but installing them on third-party hardware is often too difficult for users unfamiliar with command-line tools [[1](https://spri.nz/talks/2019/36c3-lightning/)]. Since most community-based projects only have very few pre-installed devices commercially available, they will remain inaccessible to users who are not technically literate enough.
The [UBports Installer](https://github.com/ubports/ubports-installer#readme) addresses this problem for [Ubuntu Touch](https://ubuntu-touch.io/) by providing a cross-platform graphical application that bundles the command-line utilities required for installation [[2](http://www.pms.ifi.lmu.de/publikationen/#BA_Johannah.Sprinz), p. 21]. Device-specific installation instructions can be defined using a flexible YAML syntax [[3](https://github.com/ubports/installer-configs#v2)]. These files are editable through a public [GitHub repository](https://github.com/ubports/installer-configs) to enable community contributions. To allow developers to troubleshoot issues with devices they do not own themselves, users of the UBports Installer can automatically report installation results to a [logging server](https://ubports.open-cuts.org/system/5e9d746c6346e112514cfec7) [[2](http://www.pms.ifi.lmu.de/publikationen/#BA_Johannah.Sprinz), p. 57].
Initial experiments with adding other operating systems to the UBports Installer yielded promising results [[3](https://github.com/ubports/installer-configs#v2)], but further work is required to research and implement more installation procedures. Contributors from various open-source communities should be invited to contribute installation instructions. It might also be possible to automatically generate installation instructions from existing structured data, such as the [LineageOS wiki source files](https://github.com/LineageOS/lineage_wiki/tree/master/_data/devices).
### References
1. J. Sprinz, "[Exciting developments around Linux on Phones!](https://spri.nz/talks/2019/36c3-lightning/)" 36c3, 2019.
2. J. Sprinz, "[Leveraging Human Computation for Quality Assurance in Open Source Communities](http://www.pms.ifi.lmu.de/publikationen/#BA_Johannah.Sprinz)," LMU Munich, 2022.
3. J. Sprinz, "[UBports Installer configs v2](https://github.com/ubports/installer-configs#v2)," 2019.Sprinz, Johannahtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/9052022-01-23T15:19:23Z2022-01-24T06:00:36ZRising atmospheric CO2 levels and wine quality, and the possibility of artificially-lowered CO2 for viticulturehttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5895110Elevated CO2 levels increase the growth rate of plants and also modify their morphology. In particular, carbonaceous components of plant matter become more prominent. Studies have shown that elevated CO2 levels result in higher concentrations of soluble sugar in fruit, and also that the ratio of sugars to other molecule types tends to increase. Rising atmospheric CO2 levels can therefore be expected to affect the nutritional and flavour profiles of plants. For most crops this is not necessarily all that significant because the percentage changes are negligible compared to the effects of other changes in farming practice. Wine-making, however, is a finely-tuned process that is highly sensitive to environmental shifts and consequently, it can be expected that rising CO2 levels will have a sizable effect on wine quality, which will be deleterious in most instances. This phenomenon suggests that the novel practice of CO2 restriction, opposite to the common agricultural practice of CO2 enrichment, may be of benefit as a means of maintaining current flavour profiles in viticulture, or even of improving flavour and quality.Stacey, Neil Thomastag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/9002021-12-28T08:06:20Z2022-01-04T06:00:34ZCreatine as Long Covid preventative and treatmenthttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5816281Creatine is most commonly used as a sporting supplement to assist with muscle growth and anaerobic endurance, but research has shown other therapeutic benefits likely to have direct and indirect benefits as a treatment for Long Covid and possibly as a preventative.
Creatine has been reported to generally improve cognitive performance in individuals suffering from severe stress, sleep deprivation or other cognitive impairment, highlighting it as a likely candidate for mitigating the cognitive impairments associated with Long Covid. It is also used as a therapeutic in rehabilitation after immobilization or injury and in treating various muscular dystrophies, which makes it an obvious candidate for COVID patients after lengthy hospitalization.
However, it is likely that the ideal window for addressing Long Covid is during acute illness. Creatine is known to be protective against brain injury arising from concussion and one speculated mechanism for this benefit is increased ATP concentration mitigating ischemic and hypoxic effects that arise after a traumatic brain injury. The same mechanism may be similarly protective against the effects of the low oxygen saturation characteristic of COVID-19.
Stacey, Neil Thomastag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/8952021-12-13T08:08:57Z2021-12-27T06:00:33ZTime exchange for Social Inclusion facilitated by Digitalization Can this Concept be a Reality? https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5805591One of the important postulates of Digitalization is to provide government services to the citizens of the world using existing online infrastructure and developing better and enhanced online interfaces and platforms. The Digitalization campaign was initiated in order to achieve various goals; the most important of them being inclusive growth. Interestingly, inclusive growth is generally understood as a means of economic growth that aims at eradicating poverty by creating equal employment opportunities and skill development platforms for all segments of society.
I propose the establishment of a government-run time bank and skill exchange program on an online platform. The idea behind this program is to integrate professionals, craftsmen, workmen with vocational skills, and people from other diverse professions onto a common platform. This platform will facilitate them to exchange their skills in lieu of a reciprocal service from the receiver. we discard the conventional notion of monetary resources and incentives with time as both a resource and a reward. eg, if a plumber from the platform provides his service at a doctor’s residence for a particular job for a particular number of hours, he in return can avail the doctor’s services in the reciprocal quantum as per his skill value.
Patel, Malaytag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/8932021-11-16T18:02:34Z2021-12-27T06:00:33ZLoophole capitalism and tax havens: why practice matters more than placehttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5805587The leakage of the Panama, Paradise and Pandora papers have highlighted the prevalence of tax minimisation by wealthy individuals and corporations. The language used to describe this is rooted in island/maritime terminology: ‘tax *havens*’, ‘*offshore* financial centres’, ‘*archipelago* capitalism’, and ‘treasure *islands*’ (see Palan et al, 2010; Ogle, 2017; Shaxson, 2011). Yet this confuses the practices of evasion with the place where it occurs, and suggests the problems associated with taxation are mainly in exotic locations far away. In fact, the world’s biggest tax avoiding places are not island tax havens, but financial centres such as the City of London, Amsterdam, and Singapore, and avoidance and evasion practices are widely used by business and individuals beyond these centres (Garcia-Bernardo, Janský & Tørsløv, 2021). We call this ‘loophole capitalism’: seeking to accumulate capital by exploiting processual and/or regulatory loopholes in taxation systems. These include using accounting techniques to evade and avoid taxation, undertaking regulatory arbitrage––and, of course, hiding wealth in tax havens. Because loophole capitalism only exists in the interstices of extant tax systems, it is inherently parasitical. Therefore, the places of avoidance are a consequence of the wider practices of loophole capitalism, not the other way round. Clamping down on tax havens therefore only addresses a symptom, and not the cause.Mollan, Simon MichaelSævold, Kristinetag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/8882021-10-27T22:58:25Z2021-10-28T06:04:26ZExtending run-length encoding to support arbitrary byte streams with hexadecimal notationhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5606102Conventionally, run-length encoding is restricted to a fixed alphabet. Because the encoded form is often transmitted over human-readable media, this alphabet is usually restricted to printed characters. That makes run-length encoding unsuitable for transmitting arbitrary byte strings.
To address this, run-length encoding can be extended by converting the numerical value of each byte to its hexadecimal form. Hexadecimal numbers are often prefixed with `0x`. We can replacing `0` with the actual count, in decimal, to allow for parsing to be fast and unambiguous.
Consider the input string `Hello`. The following two lines illustrate the different representations in conventional run-length encoding and the extended variant proposed here:
- `1H 1e 2l 1o`
- `1x48 1x65 2x6c 1x6f`
An example implementation in Python:
```python
def run_length_encode(text, delimiter=''):
count = 1
hex_digits = [hex(ord(x)) for x in text]
encoded_fragments = []
for (i, current) in enumerate(hex_digits):
try:
next = hex_digits[i+1]
except IndexError:
next = None
if current != next:
fragment = str(count) + current[1:]
encoded_fragments.append(fragment)
count = 0
count += 1
return delimiter.join(encoded_fragments)
```McNamara, Tim