Search results for "societal impact"

Social process of adaptation to environmental changes: How eastern african societies intervene between crops and climate

2014

Abstract Studies on climate change can only be conducted on a long time scale, and observing how societies adapt their sowing practices to climate variability is challenging and costly. As an alternative, a space and time substitution design was used, changes in space corresponding to that induced in time by environmental change. On the eastern slope of Mount Kenya, the Tharaka community, originating from the lowlands (750 m), moved up to the midlands (950 m) with their lowland-adapted resources, whereas the Mwimbi, originating from wetter upland (1100 m), moved down to the midlands with their highland-adapted genetic resources. A weather station was installed at 950 and 1100 m, and a logis…

Managing stress during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and beyond: Reappraisal and mindset approaches

2020

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic is a global public health crisis of a scale not previously experienced in modern times (Kickbusch et al., 2020). Governmental ‘lockdown’ measures aimed at minimizing virus transmission including ‘stay at home’ orders, closure of businesses and places of congregation, and travel restrictions have had a substantive societal impact that permeates almost every facet of daily life (Gostin & Wiley, 2020; Shanafelt, Ripp, & Trockel, 2020). These widespread changes represent considerable sources of stress in the population and will have deleterious effects on mental and physical health going forward. As nations begin to emerge from ‘lockdown’, …

"Nanodentistry": exploring the beauty of miniature

2011

Feynman’s early vision in 1959 gave birth to the concept of nanotechnology. He saw it as an unavoidable development in the progress of science and said that there is plenty of room at the bottom. Since then, nanotechnology has been part of mainstream scientific theory with potential medical and dental applications. Numerous theoretical predictions have been made based on the potential applications of nanotechnology in dentistry, with varying levels of optimism. While a few layers of nanotechnologic capability have become a reality for oral health in the last decade, many of these applications are still in their puerile stage .The most substantial contribution of nanotechnology to dentistry …

Co-creation with Companies: A Means to Enhance Societal Impact of University Researchers?

2019

AbstractIn this chapter, we explore co-creation as a form of societal interaction of science. We approach co-creation as a goal-oriented form of dynamic interaction aiming at mutual benefit of all parties. As such, we exclude technology transfer and other linear societal interaction forms that follow a closed-model innovation format. We argue that focusing solely on tapping the needs of researchers and ‘pure’ science would lead to ignoring the broader context in which researchers work. An excessive focus on meeting the needs of external stakeholders could jeopardize the preconditions of science. Hence, this chapter explores how researcher-company co-creation can be nurtured in a heavily ins…

Predicting Cryptocurrency Defaults

2019

We examine all available 146 Proof-of-Work based cryptocurrencies that started trading prior to the end of 2014 and track their performance until December 2018. We find that about 60% of those cryptocurrencies were eventually in default. The substantial sums of money involved mean those bankruptcies will have an enormous societal impact. Employing cryptocurrency-specific data, we estimate a model based on linear discriminant analysis to predict such defaults. Our model is capable of explaining 87% of cryptocurrency bankruptcies after only one month of trading and could serve as a screening tool for investors keen to boost overall portfolio performance and avoid investing in unreliable crypt…

Case study: developing campus spaces through co-creation

2016

ABSTRACTHigher education institutions are designed to support their core processes – learning, teaching, research, and societal impact. In order for university facilities to support these activities, it is crucial to determine together with the users what these activities are and how they are supposed to be developed in the future. This article examines the relationship between user needs and the service level in construction projects through a case study where a university cafeteria was renovated using a participatory design (PD) method called charrette. The aim of this case study was to study the effects of collaborative ways of working when applied to a space retrofit project, and how th…

On the Tail Risk of Cyberattacks in the Bitcoin Market

2020

In the era of digitalization, cryptocurrencies have become an alternative asset for both retail and institutional investors. While the new emerging digital ecosystem based on blockchain technology has been praised for offering plenty of advantages such as decentralization, discretion or increased efficiency in terms of faster settlements among others, investors need to be aware of new types of risks such as hacking incidents. In the 2011-2018 period, about 1.7 million unit of Bitcoin have been stolen corresponding to losses accumulating more than $655 million highlighting the societal impact of this criminal activity. The novel aspect of our study is that it employs a recently proposed appr…

How Much Are We Willing To Lose in Cyberspace? On the Tail Risk of Scam in the Market for Initial Coin Offerings

2020

From an entrepreneurial perspective, Initial Coin Offering (ICO) has become an alternative way for attaining funding for business projects using the new evolving digital financial market for tokens. Unfortunately, the majority of all ICOs are subject to scam which casts doubt on this new innovative tool for acquiring funding. Using a unique intensively hand-collected data set covering more than 5000 ICOs which have been launched in the August 2014–December 2019 period, we could identify 1014 ICOs exhibiting data on raised funding whereof 576 turned out to be scams projects. The cumulative losses due to scam in the ICO market correspond to $10.12 billion which is 66% of our identified overal…

Navigating multiple logics: Legitimacy and the quest for societal impact in science

2022

Academic scientists are encouraged to pursue research that delivers both scientific and societal impact. This may involve a search for alternative mechanisms of social approval which lead to endorsement of scientists’ research goals. We explore how scientists mobilise and accumulate different forms of legitimacy, which might favour their participation in practices related to innovation and societal impact. We propose three specific sources of scientific legitimacy: i) scientists’ social networks (research-related legitimacy ties), ii) prominence in the relevant academic community (reputation-based legitimacy); and direct contact with the primary beneficiaries of the research (beneficiary-ba…

2019

Impact is increasingly important for science policy-makers; science policy studies has reacted this heightened urgency by studying these policy-interventions meaning that policy has developed more quickly than theory. This has led to the prevalence of a ‘common sense’ impact definition: research’s societal impact are direct economic effects, such as income generated by licenses, patents and spin-out companies. These indicators are recognised as weak proxies for research’s societal benefits, and in response, science policy has undertaken a huge descriptive effort to more precisely define impact. SSH disciplines have been highly active in this because economic metrics are very poor measures o…