Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for March 7, 2020
Harvard Working Paper suggests that occupational licensing reduces competition and fails to improve consumer satisfaction; More on the health-care robot that automates needle insertion for blood draws and fluid delivery; Glassware in Japan dates to Persian dynasty between years 226 and 551; Study in Finland finds that pet dogs are surprisingly anxious and stressed; and a Steem photo-essay with original nature-photography from Bangladesh
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*** Due to scheduling conflicts, it is likely that there will be no post in this series tomorrow (March 8, 2020). ***
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Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.
First posted on my Steem blog: SteemIt, SteemPeak*, StemGeeks.
- Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing - In the working paper, Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing, Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin, Bradley Larsen, and Erik Brynjolfsson find that more stringent occupational licensing laws restrict competition but don't lead to an increase in consumer satisfaction. The authors researched this conclusion by studying online review ratings for residential home services and comparing outcomes for work done by people with and without site-verified licensing. They further confirmed the finding with an independent consumer survey.
- Robot Uses Artificial Intelligence and Imaging to Draw Blood - Previously covered in Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for February 25, 2020, here's more about the device from New Robot Does Superior Job Sampling Blood and Deep Learning Robotic Guidance for Autonomous Vascular Access. The tabletop device uses artificial intelligence (AI) and sensors based on infrared and ultrasound imaging in order to insert needles or catheters that can be used for blood draws and fluid delivery, and it accomplishes the tasks as skillfully as expert humans. This opens the door for professional healthcare workers to devote their time to more challenging and less mundane activities. Senior author, Martin L. Yarmush summarizes the project by saying, "Using volunteers, models, and animals, our team showed that the device can accurately pinpoint blood vessels, improving success rates and procedure times compared with expert health care professionals, especially with difficult to access blood vessels." Additionally, the device can be modified to draw blood in rodents, which is a task that is important for scientific research. Finally, it can be part of a fully automatic process to draw blood and pass it along for downstream analysis. The article notes that, "The lead author is Alvin Chen and co-authors are Max L. Balter and Timothy J. Maguire, who all earned doctorates at Rutgers under the supervision of Yarmush."
- Glassware found on Okinoshima island came from ancient Persia - In a March 1 announcement, researchers at the Okinoshima island World Heritage site, described finding a fragment of glass from a bowl that originally came from "ancient Persia during the Sassanian dynasty (226-651)". The 5.6 centimeter fragment's age was determined by X-Ray imaging, which dated it to the 5th through 7th centuries. By comparing the characteristics to known samples, the glass was determined to share characteristics with other cut glass from the Sassanian dynasty. In particular, a distinguishing characteristic was the way that the molten glass had been mixed with ashes of plants. In conclusion, the article said,
Makiko Fukushima, curator of Munakata Taisha Shinpokan museum, said: “We were able to gain very precious insight into where the unearthed items were created, the route used to bring them to Japan and the degree of influence of those involved in the ceremonies where such glassware was used.”
-h/t archaeology.org - Dogs Are Surprisingly Stressed and Anxious, Study Finds - Research published on March 5th in Scientific Reports suggests that 72% of pet dogs exhibit anxiety behaviors such as fear of strangers or sensitivity to noise, and the severity of symptoms varies across breeeds. The researchers stuided 13,715 dogs of 264 breeds, including 200 mixed-breed dogs. The data came from online questionnaires that were completed by dog-owners in Finland. The article goes on to note that surveys that rely on self-reporting are often viewed with a skeptical eye, but that previous studies suggest that these methods “measure dog behavior accurately and that dog personality questionnaires are as reliable or even slightly more reliable than human personality questionnaires”. -h/t RealClear Science
- Steem @deepu7: The restless dragonfly and butterfly || Behind The Photo Contest, Edition #7 - This post is an entry in the @behindthephoto contest on the Steem blockchain. It contains original close-up nature photography of dragonflies, butterflies, bees and flowers in Bangladesh. The post describing the contest is here. (A 10% beneficiary setting has been applied to this post for @deepu7.)
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I am not surprised at all to find that mechanisms that limit competition undertaken by institutions prone to endemic corruption fail at improving service to those subject to their licensing schemes. In fact, it's exactly what I have long seen anecdotally, and would have predicted.
Thanks!
I agree. I've seen a number of other reports across the years that all reach similar conclusions. (Even from one of the agencies in the Obama administration, if I recall correctly).
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Hi,
In this issue of Curating the Internet I was particularly taken with the article on dogs. Dogs have always been important to me, and I've lived with every sort...all of them adopted. Still, I was amazed at some of the findings in the article---fear of surfaces and heights!?
I think it would be helpful to know the home situations of the dogs in the survey. Do they have plenty of room to wander around? Are they exercised outdoors freely? Do they have companions?--another pet, for example.
I did a brief search and found one study that correlates a dog's stress level with the stress level of the human companion. I found another really cruel study (on beagles of course) that shows the stress-inducing effects of social and spatial restriction.
I know the article ends on this note...looking at environmental factors that might reduce stress, but I would have liked to read more about that here.
Once again, a very interesting article. It's got me thinking about dogs I've known and their (obviously) neurotic behavior.
Thank you!
Thanks for the comment and the additional research!
I always enjoy the dog articles, too, and I was also surprised by fear of heights. It never occurred to me that a dog would experience that particular fear.
Those two links were interesting finds, and they raise good points about stress-contributions from environmental factors and the emotions of the owner. Especially when you think about working dogs that were intentionally bred to be good at interpreting human cues and performing specific activities like hunting or herding that are very different from their lives as domestic pets.
Also, I have to admit that I was (am) a little skeptical of generalizing from an online survey from a small country like Finland. It's interesting, but I'm not sure how conclusive it is, so I appreciate the additional references.
Hi,
I had the same thought about animals that have been bred for specific purposes. Domestication probably led to selective, natural adaptation of dogs to accommodate humans. Then we genetically 'designed' them to exaggerate dependence. So,we can see how dogs would be acutely tuned to our moods (and neuroses).
As limited as this study may have been, I found it enlightening. I'm still dazzled by the heights and surfaces thing. All the dogs I've ever adopted had complicated backgrounds, so they tended to be neurotic in a number of ways...which is in agreement with the finding of 'co-morbidity' described in the article.
Still, my husband and I have found that in time, love and acceptance can work miracles, even with 'damaged' animals. They may not be perfect, but they settle down and return the love.
Thanks for an interesting conversation.
AG
I just realized that you may not have seen a couple related posts from back in January, so I thought you might also be interested in these, too. Or at least in the video embed...
The top article says, "The first goal is to deal with separation anxiety, in a trial with San Francisco SPCA." The second doesn't really say much, but this video was included in both of them:
Like you said before, putting together pieces of a puzzle. ; -)
I finally checked out those references. Thank you!
Intuitively, I say,"No", but it might work for the right dog. People become intense when training and that interferes with success, think. We did have a deaf dog once that was impossible to control, so we actually paid a trainer to come to the house. She said the dog was brain damaged! The most she could do was offer us techniques to try and mitigate some of the worst behavior. That poor dog didn't live very long.
Anyway, interesting concept and I might try it with a more "normal" dog, if I had the extra change and needed help. BTW, the human trainer was less expensive.
Take care,
AG