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Olivas Martinez G, Orso V, Bettelli A, Gamberini L. Exploiting Mobile Gamification to Foster Physical Activity: A Remotely-Managed Field Study. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 23:2598. [PMID: 36904803 PMCID: PMC10006861 DOI: 10.3390/s23052598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Revised: 02/05/2023] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Physical inactivity is a plague for public health, especially in Western Countries. Among the countermeasures, mobile applications promoting physical activity seem particularly promising, thanks to the spread and adoption of mobile devices. However, the dropout rates of users are high, thereby calling for strategies to increase retention rates. Moreover, user testing can be problematic, because it is typically conducted in a laboratory, leading to a limited ecological validity. In the present research, we developed a custom mobile app to promote physical activity. Three versions of the app were implemented, each featuring a different pattern of gamification elements. Moreover, the app was designed to work as a self-managed experimental platform. A remote field study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the different versions of the app. Behavioral log data of physical activity and interaction with the app were collected. Our results show the feasibility of using a mobile app running on personal devices as an independently managed experimental platform. Moreover, we found that gamification elements per se do not ensure higher retention rates, rather it emerged that the richer combination of gamified elements was effective.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Valeria Orso
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Alice Bettelli
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Luciano Gamberini
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy
- Human Inspired Technologies Research Centre, University of Padua, 35121 Padua, Italy
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2
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Meeting sustainable development goals via robotics and autonomous systems. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3559. [PMID: 35729171 PMCID: PMC9211790 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31150-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Robotics and autonomous systems are reshaping the world, changing healthcare, food production and biodiversity management. While they will play a fundamental role in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals, associated opportunities and threats are yet to be considered systematically. We report on a horizon scan evaluating robotics and autonomous systems impact on all Sustainable Development Goals, involving 102 experts from around the world. Robotics and autonomous systems are likely to transform how the Sustainable Development Goals are achieved, through replacing and supporting human activities, fostering innovation, enhancing remote access and improving monitoring. Emerging threats relate to reinforcing inequalities, exacerbating environmental change, diverting resources from tried-and-tested solutions and reducing freedom and privacy through inadequate governance. Although predicting future impacts of robotics and autonomous systems on the Sustainable Development Goals is difficult, thoroughly examining technological developments early is essential to prevent unintended detrimental consequences. Additionally, robotics and autonomous systems should be considered explicitly when developing future iterations of the Sustainable Development Goals to avoid reversing progress or exacerbating inequalities. A horizon scan was used to explore possible impacts of robotics and automated systems on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Positive effects are likely. Iterative regulatory processes and continued dialogue could help avoid environmental damages and increases in inequality.
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3
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Ethics of Smart Cities: Towards Value-Sensitive Design and Co-Evolving City Life. SUSTAINABILITY 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/su132011162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The digital revolution has brought about many societal changes such as the creation of “smart cities”. The smart city concept has changed the urban ecosystem by embedding digital technologies in the city fabric to enhance the quality of life of its inhabitants. However, it has also led to some pressing issues and challenges related to data, privacy, ethics inclusion, and fairness. While the initial concept of smart cities was largely technology- and data-driven, focused on the automation of traffic, logistics and processes, this concept is currently being replaced by technology-enabled, human-centred solutions. However, this is not the end of the development, as there is now a big trend towards “design for values”. In this paper, we point out how a value-sensitive design approach could promote a more sustainable pathway of cities that better serves people and nature. Such “value-sensitive design” will have to take ethics, law and culture on board. We discuss how organising the digital world in a participatory way, as well as leveraging the concepts of self-organisation, self-regulation, and self-control, would foster synergy effects and thereby help to leverage a sustainable technological revolution on a global scale. Furthermore, a “democracy by design” approach could also promote resilience.
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4
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The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Nat Commun 2020; 11:233. [PMID: 31932590 PMCID: PMC6957485 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-14108-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 197] [Impact Index Per Article: 49.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its progressively wider impact on many sectors requires an assessment of its effect on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Using a consensus-based expert elicitation process, we find that AI can enable the accomplishment of 134 targets across all the goals, but it may also inhibit 59 targets. However, current research foci overlook important aspects. The fast development of AI needs to be supported by the necessary regulatory insight and oversight for AI-based technologies to enable sustainable development. Failure to do so could result in gaps in transparency, safety, and ethical standards. Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more common in people’s lives. Here, the authors use an expert elicitation method to understand how AI may affect the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Abstract
AbstractThe concept of anormis found widely across fields including artificial intelligence, biology, computer security, cultural studies, economics, law, organizational behaviour and psychology. The concept is studied with different terminology and perspectives, including individual, social, legal and philosophical. If a norm is an expected behaviour in a social setting, then this article considers how it can be determined whether an individual is adhering to this expected behaviour. We call this processmonitoring, and again it is a concept known with different terminology in different fields. Monitoring of norms is foundational for processes of accountability, enforcement, regulation and sanctioning. Starting with a broad focus and narrowing to the multi-agent systems literature, this survey addresses four key questions: what is monitoring, what is monitored, who does the monitoring and how the monitoring is accomplished.
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6
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Sponsored Libre Research Agreements to Create Free and Open Source Software and Hardware. INVENTIONS 2018. [DOI: 10.3390/inventions3030044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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7
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Unintended Side Effects of the Digital Transition: European Scientists’ Messages from a Proposition-Based Expert Round Table. SUSTAINABILITY 2018. [DOI: 10.3390/su10062001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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8
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Hendricks MD, Meyer MA, Gharaibeh NG, Van Zandt S, Masterson J, Cooper JT, Horney JA, Berke P. The development of a participatory assessment technique for infrastructure: Neighborhood-level monitoring towards sustainable infrastructure systems. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY 2018; 38:265-274. [PMID: 30370207 PMCID: PMC6200349 DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2017.12.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Climate change and increasing natural disasters coupled with years of deferred maintenance have added pressure to infrastructure in urban areas. Thus, monitoring for failure of these systems is crucial to prevent future impacts to life and property. Participatory assessment technique for infrastructure provides a community-based approach to assess the capacity and physical condition of infrastructure. Furthermore, a participatory assessment technique for infrastructure can encourage grassroots activism that engages residents, researchers, and planners in the identification of sustainable development concerns and solutions. As climate change impacts disproportionately affect historically disenfranchised communities, assessment data can further inform planning, aiming to balance the distribution of public resources towards sustainability and justice. This paper explains the development of the participatory assessment technique for infrastructure that can provide empirical data about the condition of infrastructure at the neighborhood-level, using stormwater systems in a vulnerable neighborhood in Houston, Texas as a case study. This paper argues for the opportunity of participatory methods to address needs in infrastructure assessment and describes the ongoing project testing the best use of these methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marccus D Hendricks
- Urban Studies and Planning Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
| | - Michelle A Meyer
- Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
| | - Nasir G Gharaibeh
- Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Shannon Van Zandt
- Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Jaimie Masterson
- Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - John T Cooper
- Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Jennifer A Horney
- School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Philip Berke
- Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
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Klinglmayr J, Bergmair B, Klaffenböck MA, Hörmann L, Pournaras E. Sustainable Consumerism via Context-Aware Shopping. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES 2017. [DOI: 10.4018/ijdst.2017100104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
We are living in a world of vast information. The means of the Internet allow access to diverse sources of information, with social media and Internet of Things technologies significantly expanding the informational ecosystem. With the use of social media, it is easy for ‘like-minded' people to group up and initiate movements. One way to articulate such movements is via political consumerism. Users group together and boycott or buycott (boost purchases) for certain products with a concrete collective goal in mind. If, however, the collective goal is vague and abstract, as in the case of sustainability, this bottom-up strategy may lose its popularity and attraction. In this paper, we introduce a new concept of how individual consumers can follow their own understanding of sustainability, while at the same time benefiting from collective and participatory actions. We discuss how the means of ICT can be used to develop political consumerism further to transform individual policies into collective statements.
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10
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk Helbing
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Peter Seele
- University of Lugano (USI), Lugano, Switzerland
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11
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Mahmoodi K, West BJ, Grigolini P. Self-organizing Complex Networks: individual versus global rules. Front Physiol 2017; 8:478. [PMID: 28736534 PMCID: PMC5500654 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2017] [Accepted: 06/22/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
We introduce a form of Self-Organized Criticality (SOC) inspired by the new generation of evolutionary game theory, which ranges from physiology to sociology. The single individuals are the nodes of a composite network, equivalent to two interacting subnetworks, one leading to strategy choices made by the individuals under the influence of the choices of their nearest neighbors and the other measuring the Prisoner's Dilemma Game payoffs of these choices. The interaction between the two networks is established by making the imitation strength K increase or decrease according to whether the last two payoffs increase or decrease upon increasing or decreasing K. Although each of these imitation strengths is selected selfishly, and independently of the others as well, the social system spontaneously evolves toward the state of cooperation. Criticality is signaled by temporal complexity, namely the occurrence of non-Poisson renewal events, the time intervals between two consecutive crucial events being given by an inverse power law index μ = 1.3 rather than by avalanches with an inverse power law distribution as in the original form of SOC. This new phenomenon is herein labeled self-organized temporal criticality (SOTC). We compare this bottom-up self-organization process to the adoption of a global choice rule based on assigning to all the units the same value K, with the time evolution of common K being determined by consciousness of the social benefit, a top-down process implying the action of a leader. In this case self-organization is impeded by large intensity fluctuations and the global social benefit turns out to be much weaker. We conclude that the SOTC model fits the requests of a manifesto recently proposed by a number of European social scientists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Korosh Mahmoodi
- Center for Nonlinear Science, University of North TexasDenton, TX, United States
| | - Bruce J West
- Army Research OfficeResearch Triangle Park, NC, United States
| | - Paolo Grigolini
- Center for Nonlinear Science, University of North TexasDenton, TX, United States
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12
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Kleineberg KK, Helbing D. Collective navigation of complex networks: Participatory greedy routing. Sci Rep 2017; 7:2897. [PMID: 28588222 PMCID: PMC5460226 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-02910-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2016] [Accepted: 04/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Many networks are used to transfer information or goods, in other words, they are navigated. The larger the network, the more difficult it is to navigate efficiently. Indeed, information routing in the Internet faces serious scalability problems due to its rapid growth, recently accelerated by the rise of the Internet of Things. Large networks like the Internet can be navigated efficiently if nodes, or agents, actively forward information based on hidden maps underlying these systems. However, in reality most agents will deny to forward messages, which has a cost, and navigation is impossible. Can we design appropriate incentives that lead to participation and global navigability? Here, we present an evolutionary game where agents share the value generated by successful delivery of information or goods. We show that global navigability can emerge, but its complete breakdown is possible as well. Furthermore, we show that the system tends to self-organize into local clusters of agents who participate in the navigation. This organizational principle can be exploited to favor the emergence of global navigability in the system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaj-Kolja Kleineberg
- Computational Social Science, ETH Zurich, Clausiusstrasse 50, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Dirk Helbing
- Computational Social Science, ETH Zurich, Clausiusstrasse 50, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland
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13
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Urban Big Data and Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities. SUSTAINABILITY 2016. [DOI: 10.3390/su8121293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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