Transitioning towards human–robot synergy in agriculture: A systems thinking perspective

Digital transformation has unveiled new prospects for increased performance and productivity in the agricultural sector to meet rising food security needs. Continuous industrialization and unexpected disruptions (e.g., workforce mobility restrictions due to the COVID‐19 pandemic) call for the adoption of agricultural robots. However, automated solutions could be associated with societal challenges in rural areas;unemployment growth has been perceived as a major threat that jeopardizes societal welfare, potentially hindering the implementation of digital technologies. In this context, human–robot synergistic systems could act as a promising socially viable alternative. Through systems thinking, this research investigates the complex interconnections and key feedback mechanisms of automation diffusion (conventional and human–robot interactive) under the socio‐economic perceptions (drivers and barriers) of agribusinesses and rural communities. Overall, this study contributes towards eliciting the mental models that underpin the transition from agricultural robots to human–robot collaboration by transforming automation‐related societal risks into opportunities for sustainable rural development.

Thinking like a system in the turbulent world of outdoor recreation management

The world is turbulent, everchanging, non-linear and uncertain. COVID-19 demonstrated this uncertainty at all social scales. A consequence of this situation is that surprises are a universal occurence. Systems thinking is a way of thinking about the wholes and making sense of what appears to be chaos. Systems thinking is oriented toward developing understanding how the parts of a system, which outdoor recreation and tourism form, relate to the system as a whole. But systems thinking is not enough to create action in this situation. We need to do three things: Dive deeper to better understand the mental models at play;Think differently to develop resolutions to challenges based on new mental models;and Act Holistically to ensure that new ideas and all voices are included and respected. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The cooperative breeding model 2.0 - postpartum social support and maternal mental health in Ecatepec, Veracruz, Mexico

To deliver the level of care infants need for survival, the Homo genus evolved to engage in cooperative breeding. In fact, a large cross-cultural review found that most cultures have a set of structured postpartum practices to protect women and infants during the immediate postpartum - all requiring social support. Cooperative breeding researchers have focused on non-maternal support to older offspring and on infant outcomes, without regard for the vulnerable immediate postpartum or the reciprocal mother-infant impact. Considering the well-being of the infant without consideration for that of the mother, or vice versa, limits understanding of this integrated system. By including maternal mental health in the immediate postpartum, my project served to advance the cooperative breeding model, thereby providing a conceptual framework to further understand the development of postpartum depression. Finally, cooperative breeding models have examined social support primarily in terms of its presence or absence overlooking the fact that practices vary locally and recipients will thus expect and value different forms of support.Postpartum depression afflicts approximately 13% of women globally, with exceptionally high rates in Latin America. While it often resolves with only minor impact on subsequent quality of life, it does not always do so. In addition to creating serious mental health consequences for mothers, postpartum depression can result in serious and sometimes fatal results for infants. Despite our species' expectation of postpartum social support, very few studies have examined the relationship between mental health and postpartum practices, and among the few that have, there are methodological limitations that I addressed in this dissertation.My study objectives were: (1) describe the local cultural model of postpartum social support in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico;(2) determine the congruence of women's postpartum experiences with their cultural expectations;and (3) determine if there is a relationship between the degree of congruence and maternal depressive symptoms. I hypothesized that mothers whose postpartum experience was more closely aligned with their cultural expectations would experience fewer postpartum depressive symptoms than those whose experience was less aligned with expectations.Eighteen local women were interviewed to detail their postpartum practice, the cuarentena. Forty-eight additional women were interviewed during their third trimester, and approximately 40 days postpartum. The prenatal interview gathered demographics and baseline depression. The postpartum interview assessed depression, congruence of received with expected support, infant health, and birth experiences. Onset of COVID-19 allowed post hoc assessment of its impact on maternal mental health and cuarentena adherence.In Coatepec, the cuarentena is highly valued, widely practiced, and requires social support. Practice of the cuarentena made women feel comforted and good. There was no statistically significant association between adherence and depressive symptoms, yet postpartum depressive scores were higher for women who practiced the cuarentena ?a little? compared to those who practiced "a lot." Despite the pandemic, most followed the cuarentena with only minor modifications. The modification with the most salient impact was limiting visitors to adhere to public health recommendations. Maternal mood was reportedly negatively affected when women received fewer visitors than they would normally during the cuarentena. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Building Community Capabilities in Pandemic Response: Role of Mental Models held by Lay- People of Phenomena related to Covid-19

Various behavioural and other policy measures such as lockdown, information campaigns were implemented by different government agencies to contain the spread of Covid-19. Success of these policy measures is critically dependent on responses of lay-people to these measures. These responses are determined by mental models held by them of different phenomena involved in the spread of the disease. Understanding mental models of lay-people will help devise effective policy instruments for Covid-19 and future pandemics. Mental models are cognitive tools used by human beings to understand, explain, and make sense of physical and social phenomena around them. As a result, mental models determine their decisions and behaviour pertaining to these phenomena. This paper focuses on mental models held by lay-people of four core phenomena involved in spread of Covid, namely, transmission of the virus to the host body, entry of infection in the host body, its effect on the body, and recovery from the disease. Thematic analysis was carried out of the qualitative data collected using different methods at different public sites. The analysis will help articulate coalesced mental models to draw policy and theoretical lessons. © 2023 DMICS.

Users' Expectations, Experiences, and Concerns With COVID Alert, an Exposure-Notification App

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 users of Canada's exposure-notification app, COVID Alert. We identified several types of users' mental models for the app. Participants' concerns were found to correlate with their level of understanding of the app. Compared to a centralized contact-tracing app, COVID Alert was favored for its more efficient notification delivery method, its higher privacy protection, and its optional level of cooperation. Based on our findings, we suggest decision-makers rethink the app's privacy-utility trade-off and improve its utility by giving users more control over their data. We also suggest technology companies build and maintain trust with the public. Further, we recommend increasing diagnosed users' motivation to notify the app and encouraging exposed users to follow the guidelines. Last, we provide design suggestions to help users with Unsound and Innocent mental models to better understand the app. © 2022 ACM.

Analysis of Drawings on Representations of COVID-19 among Senior High School Students: Case of the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab Region, Morocco

Since the coronavirus COVID-19 was identified as an international public health emergency in 2020, many studies on the perceptions of students in higher education have been published concerning it. Although young students' perceptions also influence decision making and actions, their perceptions of COVID-19 have, so far, been little studied. Therefore, to increase knowledge about their understanding of COVID-19, a cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted as a drawing survey in two schools in the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab region, Morocco. The participants were 94 high school students (aged 14-19). The drawings were analyzed by inductive and deductive content analysis. The findings show that the majority of the students knew the archetypal representation of COVID-19. They had a good grasp of the COVID-19, how it spreads, and how to stop it from spreading. Some students were aware of the potential dangers associated with COVID-19. Admittedly, misrepresentations related to fear and unfamiliarity with COVID-19 lead to mental health issues that undermine the key factors in students' academic success. Younger children's representations were dominated by magical thinking that reduces COVID-19 to preventive measures. Overall, the results made it possible to deduce that COVID-19 is strongly associated with terms that are both characteristic and socially valued (disease, prevention, barrier measures, etc.) and, conversely, with rather negative terms (fear of dying, anxiety, sadness, helplessness, etc.). The identification of these representations is very useful because they make it possible to apprehend and understand the attitudes and behaviors of these students, which, therefore, implies the need to define the appropriate teaching methods to try to align these behaviors with the behaviors desired.

Decision-making in immature projects organisational environment: A mental model approach that influences conscientious critical thinking

Hepworth Construction, a consultancy organisation for Oil and Gas project management offices, identified a decision-making problem in the project office environments and the field because of continued erroneous decisions and the processes used. Erroneous decisions led to poor project performances that impacted projects cost, time, and resource allocation. The research intervention aimed to develop a shared mental decision model to improve project performances and decision-making processes in both the project office and the field and influence critical and conscientious thinking. Moreover, a successful decision model could lead to speeding up project maturity processes and reducing project risk.The research methodology used was a qualitative, thematic analysis approach that used an action research focus using colleague participants from two action learning sets. One learning set was based in Azerbaijan the other learning set was established in Iraq. The individual sets attended cycle events using an online platform to participate and interact. Each set attended three separate action cycle events. Before the action cycle events, seven initial interviews were conducted online to develop concepts that focused on decision models. Further interview cycles were performed to authenticate action cycle data and identify new theories relating to the discussed concepts. Data was analysed between action cycles that informed the next cycle event. The data was processed using NVivo for open and thematic coding, identifying the main categories, and capturing memos and annotations. Thematic diagrams were also used to determine the linkages and relationships between critical concepts and add meaning to the theories (see Appendix K) (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). Axial coding was the output from the thematic diagrams that presented the six selected themes and interpreted them into actionable knowledge.The findings were espoused through the learning sets participant's reflections crossing three action cycles. Each learning cycle progressed with new insights and evolved the main categories. The transcribed and analysed data led to discovering the selected themes and interpretation of actionable knowledge. The selected theme findings: situation, conscience, experience, listening, confidence, and sensemaking were interpreted into actionable knowledge and the shared mental model framework and the critical components: situation, experience, priorities, prompts, proposed action, and sensemaking. The mental model framework influences practical approaches to decision-making, which logically justifies decisions. The organisation accepted the research in January 2021, and the framework was implemented in the project office and field. The research implications were the successful methodology used and drawing on participants responses and the interview data that enriched the action cycles and influenced the success and co-development of the mental model framework. Furthermore, the practical consequences of the research were the outbreak of COVID-19 forcing an online study. However, the online study approach evolved to a diverse opportunity using two learning set locations and selected interviewees worldwide. Future practice organisational change should consider a similar approach using insider empowered participants. And future research might focus on a mental model implementation's complexity, a shift of mind towards system thinking, or how organisational learning bridges both vision and system acceptance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Mental models, meaning, & games: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of player meaning making in a complex STEM themed video game

This research addressed increasing understanding of how players make meaning during play of a complex STEM game and explores to what extent player mental models of STEM concepts shift as a result of interacting with the game simulation. Game based learning is attracting increased attention and interest as a novel platform for experiential learning, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The affordances of real-time interactive simulations in video games are being leveraged to create complex games for learning, designed with components arranged to reflect models of real-world systems in physical, biological, and social sciences. To build these models, designers use the complex multimedia nature of video games to encode and represent information in an array of game components with key attributes and relationships with one another, to provide a system that players can interact with to achieve game goals. Much work has been done to study outcomes of learning games in terms of post-intervention knowledge assessments, but relatively little has been done to explore the process of player mental model construction and adaptation at the level of specific interactions with components over time. This research aims to expand understanding of how players make meaning during gameplay in the STEM themed game Oxygen not Included, specifically through their interaction with game objects and their relationships. Using the approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis, in conjunction with formal analysis of gameplay and continuous think-aloud interview techniques, this work endeavored to collect rich qualitative data on player meaning-making processes during gameplay to address the following research questions: What major themes of interpretation can be identified for youth meaning making of knowledge structures in games for learning? To what extent do player mental models of STEM phenomena that are modeled in game shift during play? What are design implications and recommendations for learning game designers based on these results? (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Severe Acute Hepatitis in Children: An Analysis from Philosophy of Science Using the Concept of Reduction

The present paper uses Carnap's reduction concept to address the problem of new severe acute hepatitis in children. First, it tries to show how that concept can help understand why some previous hypotheses of causality on the new hepatitis in children should be rejected. Second, Carnap's reduction concept is used to explain a complex hypothesis about the causes of that disease proposed in The Lancet in 2022. The latter hypothesis combines several factors: infection by SARS-CoV-2, a build-up of this virus in the bowel that comes in contact with blood circulation, and another infection by adenovirus. One of the points of the paper is to argue that a hypothesis can be described by means of a bilateral reduction sentence, which in turn would allow empirically comparison of the hypothesis in an easy way. Finally, the author considers a current cognitive framework, namely, the theory of mental models, to propose that bilateral reduction sentences should not be hard to handle for physicians or scientists. © 2022 Aesthetics Media Services. All rights reserved.

Differences in comprehending and acting on pandemic health risk information: a qualitative study using mental models.

BACKGROUND: A worldwide pandemic of a new and unknown virus is characterised by scientific uncertainty. However, despite this uncertainty, health authorities must still communicate complex health risk information to the public. The mental models approach to risk communication describes how people perceive and make decisions about complex risks, with the aim of identifying decision-relevant information that can be incorporated into risk communication interventions. This study explored how people use mental models to make sense of scientific information and apply it to their lives and behaviour in the context of COVID-19. METHODS: This qualitative study enrolled 15 male and female participants of different ages, with different levels of education and occupational backgrounds and from different geographical regions of Norway. The participants were interviewed individually, and the interview data were subjected to thematic analysis. The interview data were compared to a expert model of COVID-19 health risk communication based on online information from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Materials in the interview data not represented by expert model codes were coded inductively. The participants' perceptions of and behaviours related to health risk information were analysed across three themes: virus transmission, risk mitigation and consequences of COVID-19. RESULTS: The results indicate that people placed different meanings on the medical and scientific words used by experts to explain the pandemic (e.g., virus transmission and the reproduction number). While some people wanted to understand why certain behaviour and activities were considered high risk, others preferred simple, clear messages explaining what to do and how to protect themselves. Similarly, information about health consequences produced panic in some interviewees and awareness in others. CONCLUSION: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to public health risk communication. Empowering people with decision-relevant information necessitates targeted and balanced risk communication.

Okunskap och riskkommunikation: Att knuffa eller ge en karta

Around the world Covid-19 has been battled by trying to get the public to change how they behave: to reduce social interactions and the risks associated with them. In order to change behaviour it is not enough, however, to simply tell people what to do. Successful interventions also need to communicate how to do it. Here I discuss the difference between nudges (influencing behaviour) and boosts (developing decison making compentencies), and I describe the role that the publics' mental models of the pandemic play in determining their actions.

Security Mental Models and Personal Security Practices of Internet Users in Africa

Recent trends show an increase in risks for personal cyberattacks, in part due to an increase in remote work that has been imposed by worldwide Covid-19 lockdowns. These attacks have further exposed the inefficiencies of the paternalistic design of Internet security systems and security configuration frameworks. Prior research has shown that users often have inadequate Internet security and privacy mental models. However, little is known about the causes of flawed mental models. Using mixed methods over a period of nine months, we investigate Internet security mental models of users in Africa and the implications of these mental models on personal security practice. Consistent with prior research, we find inadequate Internet security mental models in self-reported expert and non-expert Internet users. In addition, our mental modelling and task analysis reveal that the flawed security practice does not only result from users’ negligence, but also from lack of sufficient Internet security knowledge. Our findings motivate for reinforcing users’ Internet security mental models through personalised security configuration frameworks to allow users, especially those with limited technical skills, to easily configure their desired security levels. © 2022, ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.

Mental Models of Illness during the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its profound global effects may be changing the way we think about illness. In summer 2020, 120 American adults were asked to diagnose symptoms of COVID-19, a cold, and cancer, and to answer questions related to the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, time-course, and transmission of each disease. Results showed that participants were more likely to correctly diagnose COVID-19 (91% accuracy) compared to a cold (58% accuracy) or cancer (52% accuracy). We also found that 7% of participants misdiagnosed cold symptoms as COVID-19, and, interestingly, over twice as many participants (16%) misdiagnosed symptoms of cancer as COVID-19. Our findings suggest a distinct mental model for COVID-19 compared to other illnesses. Further, the prevalence of COVID-19 in everyday discourse-especially early in the pandemic-may lead to biased responding, similar to errors in medical diagnosis that result from physicians' expertise. We also discuss how the focus of public-health messaging on prevention of COVID-19 might contribute to participants' mental models.

Health Information Seeking Behaviour, Risk Communication, and Mobility During COVID-19

The existence of physical and financial barriers in the provision of healthcare leads to an increasing recognition that alternative sources of information are being used to supplement or replace the advice of healthcare professionals. Internet search engines are a common means to obtain health information. However. information, misinformation, and disinformation are all available concurrently, leaving health information seekers to distinguish these categories of information. Following a review of theories directly and indirectly related to health information-seeking behaviour (HISB). we examine how public announcements made by credible sources (e.g.. health professionals and politicians) in varying geographic regions (globally, nationally (Canada). and regionally (New York State) influenced both HISB (represented by Google Searches) and whether this influences human behaviour (represented by Google Mobility Data). Across these analyses, we demonstrate that there are strong correlations between information search behaviour and mobility around the time of public health announcements suggesting that, directly or indirectly, health communication was associated with changes in individual behaviour.

Design of a VR-Based Campus Tour Platform with a User-Friendly Scene Asset Management System

Virtual reality tours have become a desire for many educational institutions due to the potential difficulties for students to attend in person, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Having the ability for a student to explore the buildings and locations on a university campus is a crucial part of convincing them to enroll in classes. Many institutions have already installed tour applications that they have either designed themselves or contracted to a third party. However, they lack a convenient way for non-maintainers, such as faculty, to manage and personalize their classrooms and offices in a simple way. In this paper, we propose a platform to not only provide a full virtual experience of the campus but also feature a user-friendly content management system designed for staff and faculty to customize their assigned scenes. The tour uses the Unity3D engine, which communicates to a university server hosting a custom.NET API and SQL database to obtain information about the virtual rooms through a role-based access system to the faculty and staff. We believe this system for managing tour scenes will solve both time and expense for the tour development team and allow them to focus on implementing other features, rather than having to fulfill requests for editing locations in the tour. We expect this framework to function as a tour platform for other universities, as well as small businesses and communities. We seek to demonstrate the feasibility of this platform through our developed prototype application. Based on small sample testing, we have received overall positive responses and constructive critique that has played a role in improving the application moving forward. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Potential Usability Design Strategies Based on Mental Models, Behavioral Model and Art Therapy for User Experience in Post-COVID-19 Era

The arrival of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has accelerated the replacement of old lifestyles by new lifestyles. In the post-COVID-19 era, the various behavioral changes, emotional and psychological problems caused by the COVID-19 epidemic may not yet be over, forcing the public to face a variety of experiential changes. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to summarize the influence of COVID-19 on the psychology, emotion, behavior and experience of the public through literature review, and analyze the causal relationship between them. Then this paper looks for a usability design strategy to solve the user experience from the perspective of design and 'creation of cure'. Finally, the logical framework of the design strategy is summarized to deal with the realistic needs of the post-COVID-19 era. Based on the analysis of the existing literature, this paper proposes: 1) the potential design strategies of mental models and art therapy for psychological and emotional experience, 2) the potential design strategy of behavioral model and art therapy is proposed for behavioral experience, and 3) user experience models in different fields are proposed for the change of user experience.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the mental health symptoms during the Covid-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia

Aims: The Covid-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the mental health of the general public and high-risk groups worldwide. Due to its proximity and close links to China, Southeast Asia was one of the first regions to be affected by the outbreak. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the prevalence of anxiety, depression and insomnia in the general adult population and healthcare workers (HCWs) in Southeast Asia during the course of the first year of the pandemic. Methods: Several literature databases were systemically searched for articles published up to February 2021 and two reviewers independently evaluated all relevant studies using pre-determined criteria. The prevalence rates of mental health symptoms were calculated using a random-effect meta-analysis model. Results: In total, 32 samples from 25 studies with 20 352 participants were included. Anxiety was assessed in all 25 studies and depression in 15 studies with pooled prevalence rates of 22% and 16%, respectively. Only two studies assessed insomnia, which was estimated at 19%. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was similar among frontline HCWs (18%), general HCWs (17%), and students (20%) while being noticeably higher in the general population (27%). Conclusions: This is the first systematic review to investigate the mental health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia. A considerable proportion of the general population and HCWs reported mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety and depression;the pooled prevalence rater, however, remain significantly lower than those reported in other areas such as China and Europe. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Disrupting the racialized power imbalance between home and school: Working toward a new mental model for family engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally rearranged the boundaries between home and school. Chelsea Public Schools (CPS), which was fully remote for most of the 20-21 school year, sought to make use of this historic opening to improve partnerships between families and educators. The challenge, as research tells us, is that educators across America have not typically been trained or exposed to examples of successful family engagement, and many hold deficit-based views of families that are often rooted in racial bias. This is particularly relevant in Chelsea, where 90% of teachers are white and 94% of students are children of color (87% Latinx), and where the renewed national reckoning on racial injustice has coincided with a new equity agenda being led by the district's first Latina Superintendent. My residency, housed in the Superintendent's office, was designed to support teachers and administrators in building a new mental model for a solidarity-driven and equity-focused family engagement practice, with the goal of setting a foundation for sustained improvements over time. There were three phases to this work. First, a broad districtwide effort introduced trust as the indispensable component of strong partnerships with families. This included professional development and 1-on-1 family-teacher "trust visits" with each family in the district. Second was a series of focused co-design teams that involved families, teachers and administrators, which deliberately interjected upon racialized power imbalances by centering family voices in addressing remote learning challenges. Third, co-design teams went through an organizational learning process that made use of their shared experience to reflect publicly on their past and future family engagement practice. This capstone offers a critical analysis of these efforts, as well as implications for CPS and school districts across the country. It suggests that the key to improving home- school partnerships is for districts to invest in building the infrastructure that provides educators the time and professional learning experiences they need to strengthen their family engagement practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Thinking like a system in the turbulent world of outdoor recreation management

The world is turbulent, everchanging, non-linear and uncertain. COVID-19 demonstrated this uncertainty at all social scales. A consequence of this situation is that surprises are a universal occurence. Systems thinking is a way of thinking about the wholes and making sense of what appears to be chaos. Systems thinking is oriented toward developing understanding how the parts of a system, which outdoor recreation and tourism form, relate to the system as a whole. But systems thinking is not enough to create action in this situation. We need to do three things: Dive deeper to better understand the mental models at play;Think differently to develop resolutions to challenges based on new mental models;and Act Holistically to ensure that new ideas and all voices are included and respected.

Exploring Psychological Factors for COVID-19 Vaccination Intention in Taiwan.

To underpin the psychological factors for vaccination intention, we explored the variables related to positive and negative attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination in Taiwan. The data were collected via an online survey platform with a sample size of 1100 in April 2021. We found that people's interpretations of the origin of the virus were relevant. People who tended to believe that the virus was artificially created felt powerless and were more concerned about the possible side-effects of the vaccines, which was negatively associated with their vaccination intention. The source of vaccine recommendation was found to be relevant to vaccination intention. People's vaccination intention was highest if the vaccines were recommended by health professionals, followed by friends and the government, and then mainstream media and social media. The analysis of the demographic variables showed that men tended to be more receptive to vaccines than women. Our findings should provide insights into developing communication strategies to effectively promote vaccination intentions.