Hasil untuk "Human ecology. Anthropogeography"

B. Pijanowski, A. Farina, S. Gage et al.

Alexandre De Masi

While research on AI agents focuses on enabling them to operate graphical user interfaces, the most effective and widely adopted agent tools in practice are terminal-based. We argue that this convergence is not coincidental. It reflects three design properties central to effective human-AI-UI collaboration: representational compatibility between agent and interface, transparency of agent actions within the interaction medium, and low barriers to entry for human participants. We ground each property in established HCI theory, show how terminal-based tools satisfy them by default, and argue that any modality, including graphical and spatial interfaces, must be deliberately engineered to achieve them. Rather than a legacy artifact, the terminal serves as a design exemplar whose properties any agent-facing modality must replicate.

D. A. M. Schwieger, Faith Munyebvu - Chambara, Ndamonenghenda Hamunyela et al.

Desertification poses significant environmental and socio-economic threats to pastoral systems within the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa. However, there remains a paucity of interdisciplinary studies delving into the anthropogenic drivers of desertification at the local level of social-ecological systems, resulting in an inadequate understanding of its human-induced causes. This research aims to bridge this gap by presenting three case studies from Namibia’s eastern communal areas. Through an integrated approach drawing from rangeland ecology and anthropology, we offer a comparative analysis revealing nuanced differences among individual pastoral settlements, shaped by their distinct social contexts. Our findings elucidate the social determinants influencing varying degrees of desertification at the village level, highlighting local factors that mitigate the adverse impacts of grazing pressure and aridity on perennial grass populations. Notably, the study identifies the role of social institutions in managing critical environmental conditions and physical infrastructures, such as extensive pastures and cattle posts, which contribute to maintaining grassland resilience. Despite observable signs of desertification, the presence of perennial grasses both aboveground and in the soil seed bank across all settlements suggests that a tipping point has not yet been reached, emphasizing the window of opportunity for intervention. The discussion extends to the potential transferability of these findings to other Namibian communities within the existing socio-ecological framework, aiming to avert impending tipping points. Ultimately, the study challenges the notion of desertification in pastoral social-ecological systems as solely a tragedy of the commons, emphasizing the imperative of developing and implementing suitable social institutions within colonial and post-colonial contexts.

Rebeca Roysen, G. M. Fagundes, Lasse Kos et al.

This article contributes to discussions on just energy transitions by analyzing a community project in the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Instituto Favela da Paz (IFDP) is an urban ecovillage created by slum-dwellers who develop projects and courses on renewable energies, urban permaculture, healthy food, and arts. We draw upon decolonial ecology framework (DEF) developed by Caribbean scholar Malcom Ferdinand to analyze their innovations. Based on participatory network mapping, participant observations, interviews, and focus groups, we address the following research questions: In what ways does IFDP promote just energy transitions? And how can the DEF help us understand these types of grassroots innovations that are emerging in the peripheries of the Global South? Instituto Favela da Paz promotes just energy transitions through the dissemination and democratization of renewable technologies, and by reframing narratives that keep in place the exploitation of cheap labor, especially from racialized groups. Instituto Favela da Paz and its partners engage in activities that reframe meanings associated with time, energy, money, and Black identity through their practices of aquilombamento. We conclude that the DEF enriches the theoretical tools available to analyze just energy transitions by bringing to the forefront the exploitation of human body energy—be it in the form of slavery, cheap labor, or gender inequality—that maintains unsustainable ways of inhabiting the Earth. It also helps to identify the emergence of alternative ways of living that contribute to the creation of a more just and shared world.

Irfan Haider Khan, Taiyaba Munawer

PurposeThis study aims to examine the thermal performance of vertical greenery systems (VGS) in composite climates with seasonal fluctuations, focusing on their impact on indoor thermal comfort in naturally ventilated buildings during the monsoon season.Design/methodology/approachA case–control experiment was conducted in Delhi, India, to compare the hygrothermal effects of a direct green facade (GF) against a bare wall in a naturally ventilated residential building. Data were collected throughout the monsoon season to evaluate the impact on surface temperatures, indoor air temperatures and humidity levels.FindingsThe GF reduced surface temperatures by up to 16.6°C and indoor air temperatures by up to 5°C, demonstrating significant cooling benefits. However, it also elevated the indoor humidity to 81%, which influenced the perceived comfort. Despite this, the system extended the thermal comfort hours owing to the reduction in air temperatures, highlighting its potential to enhance indoor thermal conditions in monsoon-dominated regions.Originality/valueThis study addresses a critical gap in the understanding of the dual effects of VGS on temperature and humidity in composite climates, specifically during high-humidity monsoon seasons. It provides empirical evidence of the benefits and challenges of implementing GFs in naturally ventilated residences, offering insights into their role in urban sustainability and thermal comfort. These findings advocate region-specific research and strategic integration of VGS into urban design to optimize their effectiveness across diverse climatic conditions.

Paluck Deep, Monica Bharadhidasan, A. Baki Kocaballi

Personas have been widely used to understand and communicate user needs in human-centred design. Despite their utility, they may fail to meet the demands of iterative workflows due to their static nature, limited engagement, and inability to adapt to evolving design needs. Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) pave the way for more engaging and adaptive approaches to user representation. This paper introduces Interactive Virtual Personas (IVPs): multimodal, LLM-driven, conversational user simulations that designers can interview, brainstorm with, and gather feedback from in real time via voice interface. We conducted a qualitative study with eight professional UX designers, employing an IVP named "Alice" across three design activities: user research, ideation, and prototype evaluation. Our findings demonstrate the potential of IVPs to expedite information gathering, inspire design solutions, and provide rapid user-like feedback. However, designers raised concerns about biases, over-optimism, the challenge of ensuring authenticity without real stakeholder input, and the inability of the IVP to fully replicate the nuances of human interaction. Our participants emphasised that IVPs should be viewed as a complement to, not a replacement for, real user engagement. We discuss strategies for prompt engineering, human-in-the-loop integration, and ethical considerations for effective and responsible IVP use in design. Finally, our work contributes to the growing body of research on generative AI in the design process by providing insights into UX designers' experiences of LLM-powered interactive personas.

Yun Dai

This chapter explores human creativity in AI-assisted learning environments through the lens of student agency. We begin by examining four theoretical perspectives on agency, including instrumental, effortful, dynamically emergent, and authorial agency, and analyze how each frames the relationship between agency and creativity. Under each theoretical perspective, we discuss how the integration of generative AI (GenAI) tools reshapes these dynamics by altering students' roles in cognitive, social, and creative processes. In the second part, we introduce a theoretical framework for AI agentic engagement, contextualizing agency within specific cognitive, relational, and ethical dynamics introduced by GenAI tools. This framework is linked to the concept of Mini-c creativity, emphasizing personal relevance and self-directed learning. Together, these perspectives support a shift from viewing creativity as product-oriented to understanding it as a process of agentive participation and meaning-making. We conclude with two directions for future research focused on the creative process and performance in AI-assisted learning.

Yuhao Sun, Albert Tenesa, John Vines

Precision Medicine (PM) transforms the traditional "one-drug-fits-all" paradigm by customising treatments based on individual characteristics, and is an emerging topic for HCI research on digital health. A key element of PM, the Polygenic Risk Score (PRS), uses genetic data to predict an individual's disease risk. Despite its potential, PRS faces barriers to adoption, such as data inclusivity, psychological impact, and public trust. We conducted a mixed-methods study to explore how people perceive PRS, formed of surveys (n=254) and interviews (n=11) with UK-based participants. The interviews were supplemented by interactive storyboards with the ContraVision technique to provoke deeper reflection and discussion. We identified ten key barriers and five themes to PRS adoption and proposed design implications for a responsible PRS framework. To address the complexities of PRS and enhance broader PM practices, we introduce the term Human-Precision Medicine Interaction (HPMI), which integrates, adapts, and extends HCI approaches to better meet these challenges.

Yun Wan, Yoram M Kalman

Recent studies suggest that while generative AI (GenAI) can enhance individual creativity, it often reduces the diversity of collective outputs. A well-known example of this homogenization effect is by Doshi and Hauser (2024) who found that GenAI-generated plot ideas improved story writing creativity but led to convergence across writers' outputs. This study extends their experiment, identifying the design choices behind the apparent creativity-diversity trade-off. In Phase 1, we used structured prompting with 10 diverse GenAI personas to generate 300 story plots, and confirmed the plots' diversity using text embedding analysis. In Phase 2, participants wrote stories with or without access to these plots. Results show that diverse GenAI inputs can preserve story diversity compared to a human-only baseline, with some evidence of enhancement in the 1-plot condition. Beyond addressing the diversity component of the trade-off, our findings offer broader insights for human-AI system design. Our findings suggest that the trade-off may emerge from uniform deployment practices rather than from an inherent limitation of GenAI, and that diversity can be intentionally built into AI-mediated collaboration. Our study highlights the risks of over-standardization, the importance of prompt variation, and the value of treating GenAI not as a static tool but as a configurable partner. These insights have important implications for the design of GenAI systems that support, not constrain, collective creativity.

Kaitlynn Taylor Pineda, Ethan Brown, Chien-Ming Huang

Small talk can foster rapport building in human-human teamwork; yet how non-anthropomorphic robots, such as collaborative manipulators commonly used in industry, may capitalize on these social communications remains unclear. This work investigates how robot-initiated small talk influences task performance, rapport, and interaction dynamics in human-robot collaboration. We developed an autonomous robot system that assists a human in an assembly task while initiating and engaging in small talk. A user study ($N = 58$) was conducted in which participants worked with either a functional robot, which engaged in only task-oriented speech, or a social robot, which also initiated small talk. Our study found that participants in the social condition reported significantly higher levels of rapport with the robot. Moreover, all participants in the social condition responded to the robot's small talk attempts; 59% initiated questions to the robot, and 73% engaged in lingering conversations after requesting the final task item. Although active working times were similar across conditions, participants in the social condition recorded longer task durations than those in the functional condition. We discuss the design and implications of robot small talk in shaping human-robot collaboration.

Nina Kreibig

Das Sterben ist eine alltägliche Praxis, nicht nur in den urbanen Zentren. Doch zeigen sich aus geschichtswissenschaftlicher Perspektive erhebliche Desiderate. Obgleich seit einigen Jahren eine „neue Sichtbarkeit des Todes“ postuliert wird, verweist diese neue Beschäftigung vielfach auf Vorstellungen über den Tod und das Sterben und weniger auf Realitäten des Todes. Der folgende Beitrag fokussiert auf die architektonischen und institutionellen städtischen Strukturen, die als Topoi des Todes mit Tod und Sterben verbunden sind. Unter dem Schlagwort „Recht auf Stadt“ wird an dieser Stelle auf Ansprüche, aktuelle Transformationen und historische Prozesse verwiesen und damit die Frage aufgeworfen, welchen Stellenwert die Thematik in unserer heutigen Gesellschaft einnimmt.

Ardiatno Yanuadi, Lilis Sri Mulyawati, Indarti Komala Dewi

Abstract. This research is driven by the great potential of tourism in improving the economy and affecting social and environmental aspects in Ketapang Urban Aquaculture (KUA). Although, the number of tourists tends to decrease. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the existing conditions in the main aspects of the 4A (Attractions, Amenities, Accessibility, and Ancillary) and analyze the perception of tourists so that it can be known what aspects need to be improved. The existing condition of KUA was analyzed using the descriptive analysis method, while the perception of tourists was analyzed using the scoring method. Analysis of existing conditions shows that KUA has a unique attraction: a mangrove park integrated with shrimp cultivation areas. KUA has an iconic amenity: the main building is shaped like a horseshoe crab and a Mangrove Plaza. The condition of the road to KUA is quite good and equipped with signposts. Analysis of tourist perception on the aspect of attraction with the highest score (1.97), namely mangrove park attractions, the lowest score (1.24) for mangrove plant education activities. The amenity aspect with the highest score (2.23) is cleanliness, and the lowest score (1.20) is for toilet facilities. The accessibility aspect of the highest score (2.54) is the main gate, and the lowest score (1.36) is the availability of public transportation modes. The ancillary aspect has the highest score (1.77) in management, and the lowest score (1.29) is promotion.

Ivan Durango, Jose A. Gallud, Victor M. R. Penichet

In an age defined by rapid data expansion, the connection between individuals and their digital footprints has become more intricate. The Human-Data Interaction (HDI) framework has become an essential approach to tackling the challenges and ethical issues associated with data governance and utilization in the modern digital world. This paper outlines the fundamental steps required for organizations to seamlessly integrate HDI principles, emphasizing auditing, aligning, formulating considerations, and the need for continuous monitoring and adaptation. Through a thorough audit, organizations can critically assess their current data management practices, trace the data lifecycle from collection to disposal, and evaluate the effectiveness of existing policies, security protocols, and user interfaces. The next step involves aligning these practices with the main HDI principles, such as informed consent, data transparency, user control, algorithm transparency, and ethical data use, to identify gaps that need strategic action. Formulating preliminary considerations includes developing policies and technical solutions to close identified gaps, ensuring that these practices not only meet legal standards, but also promote fairness and accountability in data interactions. The final step, monitoring and adaptation, highlights the need for setting up continuous evaluation mechanisms and being responsive to technological, regulatory, and societal developments, ensuring HDI practices stay up-to-date and effective. Successful implementation of the HDI framework requires multi-disciplinary collaboration, incorporating insights from technology, law, ethics, and user experience design. The paper posits that this comprehensive approach is vital for building trust and legitimacy in digital environments, ultimately leading to more ethical, transparent, and user-centric data interactions.

Di Fu, Fares Abawi, Philipp Allgeuer et al.

Mirroring non-verbal social cues such as affect or movement can enhance human-human and human-robot interactions in the real world. The robotic platforms and control methods also impact people's perception of human-robot interaction. However, limited studies have compared robot imitation across different platforms and control methods. Our research addresses this gap by conducting two experiments comparing people's perception of affective mirroring between the iCub and Pepper robots and movement mirroring between vision-based iCub control and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)-based iCub control. We discovered that the iCub robot was perceived as more humanlike than the Pepper robot when mirroring affect. A vision-based controlled iCub outperformed the IMU-based controlled one in the movement mirroring task. Our findings suggest that different robotic platforms impact people's perception of robots' mirroring during HRI. The control method also contributes to the robot's mirroring performance. Our work sheds light on the design and application of different humanoid robots in the real world.

Charles Sims, Paul R. Armsworth, Julie Blackwood et al.

Abstract Managing social‐ecological systems (SES) requires balancing the need to tailor actions to local heterogeneity and the need to work over large areas to accommodate the extent of SES. This balance is particularly challenging for policy since the level of government where the policy is being developed determines the extent and resolution of action. We make the case for a new research agenda focused on ecological federalism that seeks to address this challenge by capitalizing on the flexibility afforded by a federalist system of governance. Ecological federalism synthesizes the environmental federalism literature from law and economics with relevant ecological and biological literature to address a fundamental question: What aspects of SES should be managed by federal governments and which should be allocated to decentralized state governments? This new research agenda considers the bio‐geo‐physical processes that characterize state‐federal management tradeoffs for biodiversity conservation, resource management, infectious disease prevention, and invasive species control. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Catholijn M. Jonker, Luciano Cavalcante Siebert, Pradeep K. Murukannaiah

With the growing capabilities and pervasiveness of AI systems, societies must collectively choose between reduced human autonomy, endangered democracies and limited human rights, and AI that is aligned to human and social values, nurturing collaboration, resilience, knowledge and ethical behaviour. In this chapter, we introduce the notion of self-reflective AI systems for meaningful human control over AI systems. Focusing on decision support systems, we propose a framework that integrates knowledge from psychology and philosophy with formal reasoning methods and machine learning approaches to create AI systems responsive to human values and social norms. We also propose a possible research approach to design and develop self-reflective capability in AI systems. Finally, we argue that self-reflective AI systems can lead to self-reflective hybrid systems (human + AI), thus increasing meaningful human control and empowering human moral reasoning by providing comprehensible information and insights on possible human moral blind spots.

Rachael H. Carrie, Lindsay C. Stringer, Le Thi Van Hue et al.

Change in mangrove extent and condition has potential consequences for social disparity in terms of who can adapt to change in ecosystem services and places perceived important for providing them. Participatory GIS can elicit spatial variation in the importance attached to ecosystem service places, but disaggregated research that can reveal difference over the small spatial extents often covered by mangroves is underdeveloped. Using mixed-methods (quantitative, qualitative and spatial) in a rehabilitated mangrove system in Vietnam, this study assesses if and why perspectives about ecosystem services and their providing places vary among households with different capacities to adapt to mangrove change.Three household groups with different adaptive capacities were characterised using quantitative adaptive capacity indicators, demographic and economic data, and trajectory interviews spanning three decades: accumulating, coping and flexible households Coastal protection was identified as beneficial by all, and sediment, habitat provisioning and food services were also frequently associated with mangroves. Only food was identified significantly more or less by different groups. Spatial hotspots generated for each group by quantifying overlap in places perceived important for providing these four services, revealed greatest difference in locations important for food. Interviews indicated change in the characteristics of mangrove localities and different abilities to adapt to them enabled some households to prosper while others struggled. We consider adaptive capacities that helped temper mangrove change, and who might be most impacted by continuing change. We conclude by identifying ways forward for rehabilitation strategies centred on local people’s differential adaptive capacity and multiple ecosystem service needs.

Jediah R. Clark, Mohammad Naiseh, Joel Fischer et al.

In the domain of unmanned vehicles, autonomous robotic swarms promise to deliver increased efficiency and collective autonomy. How these swarms will operate in the future, and what communication requirements and operational boundaries will arise are yet to be sufficiently defined. A workshop was conducted with 11 professional unmanned-vehicle operators and designers with the objective of identifying use-cases for developing and testing robotic swarms. Three scenarios were defined by experts and were then compiled to produce a single use case outlining the scenario, objectives, agents, communication requirements and stages of operation when collaborating with highly autonomous swarms. Our compiled use case is intended for researchers, designers, and manufacturers alike to test and tailor their design pipeline to accommodate for some of the key issues in human-swarm ininteraction. Examples of application include informing simulation development, forming the basis of further design workshops, and identifying trust issues that may arise between human operators and the swarm.

Sean McGregor

Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications often balance the preferences and impacts among diverse and contentious stakeholder groups. Accommodating these stakeholder groups during system design, development, and deployment requires tools for the elicitation of disparate system interests and collaboration interfaces supporting negotiation balancing those interests. This paper introduces interactive visual "participation interfaces" for Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) and collaborative ranking problems as examples restoring a human-centered locus of control.

Emilio Berti, M. Davoli, R. Buitenwerf et al.

Ecological processes and biodiversity patterns are strongly affected by how animals move through the landscape. However, it remains challenging to predict animal movement and space use. Here we present our new r package enerscape to quantify and predict animal movement in real landscapes based on energy expenditure. enerscape integrates a general locomotory model for terrestrial animals with GIS tools in order to map energy costs of movement in a given environment, resulting in energy landscapes that reflect how energy expenditures may shape habitat use. enerscape only requires topographic data (elevation) and the body mass of the studied animal. To illustrate the potential of enerscape, we analyse the energy landscape for the Marsican bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus) in a protected area in central Italy in order to identify least‐cost paths and high‐connectivity areas with low energy costs of travel. enerscape allowed us to identify travel routes for the bear that minimize energy costs of movement and regions that have high landscape connectivity based on movement efficiency, highlighting potential corridors. It also identifies areas where high energy costs may prevent movement and dispersal, potentially exacerbating human–wildlife conflicts in the park. A major strength of enerscape is that it requires only widely available topographic and body size data. As such, enerscape permits a first cost‐effective way to estimate landscape use and movement corridors even when telemetry data are not readily available, such as for the example with the bear. enerscape is built in a modular way and other movement modes and ecosystem types can be implemented when appropriate locomotory models are available. In summary, enerscape is a new general tool that quantifies, using minimal and widely available data, the energy costs of moving through a landscape. This can clarify how and why animals move in real landscapes and inform practical conservation and restoration decisions.