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This study characterizes users' conceptions of web security. Seventy-two individuals, 24 each from a rural community in Maine, a suburban professional community in New Jersey, and a high-technology community in California, participated in an extensive (2-hour) semi-structured interview (including a drawing task) about Web security. The results show that many users across the three diverse communities mistakenly evaluated whether a connection is secure or not secure. Empirically-derived typologies are provided for (1) conceptions of security based on users' verbal reasoning, (2) the types of evidence users depend upon in evaluating whether a connection is secure, and (3) conceptions of security as portrayed in users' drawings. Design implications are discussed.

In this study, we analyzed Web users concerns about potential risks and harms from Web use to themselves and to society at large. In addition, we assessed how strongly users felt something should be done to address their concerns. Seventy-two individuals, 24 each from a rural community in Maine, a suburban professional community in New Jersey, and a high-technology community in California, participated in an extensive (2-hour) semistructured interview about Web security. Results show that Web users were primarily concerned about risks to Information, and secondarily about risks to People and Technology. Different sets of concerns were identified among the rural, suburban, and high-technology communities. Our discussion focuses on implications for interface design and information policy.

Self-repairing structural systems have the potential for improved performance ranges and lifetimes over conventional systems. Self-healing materials are not a new phenomenon and have been used in automotive and aeronautical applications for over a century. The bulk of these systems operate by using damage to directly initiate a repair response without any supervisory coordination. Integrating sensing and supervisory control technologies with self-healing may improve the safety and reliability of critical components and structures. This project illustrates the benefit of an integrated sensing, control, and self-healing system using laboratory scale test beds. A thermoplastic polymer embedded with resistive heating wires acts as the self-healing material. Damage is detected using an electro-optical sensing scheme based on photoresistors and a PC handling control duties. As damage occurs it is detected, located, and characterized. The key to this project is the integration of sensor feedback to control healing so that repairs are executed, monitored, and completed on the basis of continuous sensor data. This proof-of-concept prototype can likely be expanded and improved with alternative sensor options, self-healing materials, and system architecture.

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The use of optimal foraging theory in archaeology has been criticized for focusing heavily on “negative” human-environmental interactions, particularly anthropogenic resource depression, in which prey populations are reduced by foragers’ own foraging activities. In addition, some researchers have suggested the focus on resource depression is more common in the zooarchaeological literature than in the archaeobotanical literature, indicating fundamental differences in the ways zooarchaeologists and archaeobotanists approach the archaeological record. In this paper, we assess these critiques through a review of the literature between 1997 and 2017. We find that studies identifying resource depression occur at similar rates in the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological literature. In addition, while earlier archaeological applications of optimal foraging theory did focus heavily on the identification of resource depression, the literature published between 2013 and 2017 shows a wider variety of approaches.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the idea of cultural humility, distinguish it from cultural competence and explore how it fits within librarianship. Design/methodology/approach The authors use an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept of humility to understand what cultural humility means and how it differs from cultural competence and other approaches to intercultural communication in libraries. Findings Despite some reservations with the term itself, the authors find that a practice of cultural humility is more appropriate to front-line interactions in library contexts than cultural competence models. Practical implications Libraries looking to address issues in intercultural communication and services to multicultural populations will find an approach that may be better suited to their contexts than prevailing models of cultural competency. Social implications Librarians need to commit to redressing the power imbalances and other structural issues that interfere with library service, for the benefit of the patrons, the library and librarians themselves. Originality/value While cultural humility is increasingly being used in librarianship, there has not been a systematic exploration of the concept and how it applies to library contexts.

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