Yiannis Laouris

This chapter is a discussion about both process and content in several weekly Sunday morning conversations. It explores re-inventing democracy in the digital era, governance and areas of concern with youth leaders and the young at heart from Africa and Indonesia. Overall, we reflect on social, economic and environmental challenges. Some of the part...

A social contract assumes that rights are given in return for responsibilities. The argument in this chapter (and volume) is that rights should be accorded simply because sentient beings exist in relationship to multiple species. The chapter will reflect on the lessons learned whilst fostering and learning with a community of practice. The aim is t...

This study presents a dialogic design theory of change through a three-stage process—developing a shared vision, identifying challenges (Problématique), and formulating effective actions—illustrated by the "Famagusta Revival Project" in Cyprus. This action research project engaged participants in three Structured Democratic Dialogues to envision an...

The paper examines the impact of virtual rendering of the Structured Democratic Dialogue (SDD) process. The authors discuss the implications of implementing each process stage virtually and suggest necessary adaptations to the relevant practices. They provide recommendations for improving the overall quality of online sessions and propose qualitati...

The paper reviews the evolution of Interactive Management, later referred to as Structured Democratic Dialogue, starting from the early 1970s up to this date. The authors propose a generational classification scheme consisting of five periods based primarily on whether some or all stages of the process were implemented synchronously or asynchronous...

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We present a method that broadens the application of structured democratic dialogue (SDD). After completing the final stage of the SDD process, during which the participants explore collectively and synchronously possible influence relations between ideas using the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) algorithm, they continue the ISM process ind...

This is chapter TWO of a book edited by: Alain L. Fymat, Norma R.A. Romm, and Joachim Kapalanga entitled Covid-19: Perspectives Across Africa. This chapter is authored by Norma RA Romm & Yiannis Laouris with Abiba Abdallah, Bill Graham Osei Akomea, Daniel Ehagi, James Gondwe, Melvis Kimbi, Georgina Mabezere, Abel Mavura, Apollo Murigi, Abdulkarim T...

This chapter elucidates how ten young adults (in their 20s to mid-30s) from various African countries have experienced their individual and collective agency as impacting social and ecological outcomes in their societies. The chapter also considers how their agency has been crucial

This article discusses the African cohort’s contribution to the “re-inventing democracy in the digital era” project, funded by a UN Democracy Fund. The project involved almost 100 youth from five regions of the globe in deliberating upon the future of democracy, using a methodology called structured dialogical design. We explain the utility of this...

This article proposes the importance of admitting into the repertoire of Problem Structuring Methods for (Community) Operational Research, the methodology called Structured Dialogical Design (SDD). Problem Structuring Methods are described in the literature as facilitating transparent and participative ways of formulating and systemically modelling...

Facial expressions have significant communicative functions; any changes in the facial muscles help disentangle meaning, control the conversational flow, provide information as to the speaker/listener’s emotional state and inform about intention. Abnormalities in the recognition of facial expressions have been associated with psychiatric disorders....

This preprint is a Chapter in a book (Chapter TWO of the book) which are Conference Proceedings of a SASA Conference held virtually in 2020-2021 (Society for the Advancement of Science in Africa).The book is edited by Alain Fymat, Norma Romm and Joachim Kapalanga. This chapter is authored by Yiannis Laouris and Norma Romm with Abiba Abdallah, Bill...

The MARINA project was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme with the aim to create an all-inclusive Knowledge Sharing Platform for catalysing and federating the convergence of already existing networks, communities, online platforms and services by addressing marine research issues and topics according to Re...

This paper reports on a Community Operational Research (Community OR) project consisting of ten applications of a problem structuring method (PSM) with the Local Government Authorities of Cyprus. The PSM, Structured Democratic Dialogue Process (SDDP), is a systemic methodology that sits somewhere between Soft OR and traditional OR methods. It uses...

The paper reports results of a structured democratic dialogue Co-Laboratory that aimed to explore actions that could alleviate obstacles preventing the development of practical broadband applications for elderly people and people with disabilities. Thirty-three experts representing stakeholders from 20 European countries and one from the USA partic...

This chapter discusses two issues that might appear unrelated, but both call for re–engineering and re-invention. The first section describes how the digital era opens tremendous possibilities for real-time feedback, frequent polling, and even online voting for virtually anything and from anywhere. It is argued that “direct democracy” (everybody ge...

Working towards this Manifesto has been a most inspiring experience; being among philosophers in this think tank, I was initially somewhat skeptical as to the feasibility of quite different-minded scientists, some with very strong views, managing to converge on a text that satisfactorily draws attention to key concepts that require reengineering. I...

The exponential growth of the web, in connection with all its derivatives and all scientific, social, economic and other consequences, created the widely accepted notion that the future(s) is (are) digital. This could not be more wrong and more misleading. Indeed, at least for the next couple of decades, the futures are hybrid in all aspects and in...

This paper reports the results of a series of three co-laboratories organized by the Civil Society Dialogue Project (between July and October 2007) that aimed at bringing together Turkish-speaking and Greek-speaking Cypriot citizens to share their experiences and work together to create a citizens' platform, as well as to devise an action plan for...

This chapter frames one of the greatest challenges of our time: the inven-tion of methods and technologies that harness the collective intelligence and wis-dom of thousands of stakeholders working together on a complex societal systemic problem. The worldwide failures of democracy to respond to global challenges, especially in the domain of governa...

The educational model of the twentieth century has become obsolete partly because we did not pay enough attention to facilitating interaction and col- laboration between learners and partly because it has been rendered irrelevant to real life. The replacement of the teacher-centered paradigm with the child- centered paradigm is not a sufficient con...

This book integrates research, action research, best practice and case studies detailing how some educators have embraced the opportunities afforded by mobile learning. In particular, it brings together a range of scenarios, solutions and discussions relating to mobile learning in development and other resource challenged contexts. The book will ap...

This chapter presents how online experimentation with the self changes with the child's age and gender and how the prevalence of pretending to be a different kind of person (online identity) and different age online than a child's real identity and age vary between European countries. It explores how children's experimentation with self-identity an...

Introduction Developmental theories assume that at the beginning stages of adolescence, young people's developmental tasks and the instability of their ‘selves’ motivate them to experiment with their identities and self-presentation. There is growing evidence that adolescents use the internet to experiment in this way, especially on social networki...

The paper exemplifies why the capacity of a community of stakeholders to implement a plan of action effectively depends strongly on the true engagement of the stakeholders in designing it and that disregarding their participation is not only unethical, but also any plans made are bound to fail (Law of Requisite Action). As a layman's introduction t...

The Mental Attributes Profiling System was developed in 2002 (Laouris and Makris, Proceedings of multilingual & cross-cultural perspectives on Dyslexia, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C, 2002), to provide a multimodal evaluation of the learning potential and abilities of young children's brains. The method is based on the assessment of non-verb...

This article presents the initial results from the first road-mapping event organised on the theme technology-transfer in the field of assistive and ICT products by the FP7 Coordination Action CARDIAC (Coordination Action in R&D in Accessible and Assistive ICT). The paper will first of all set out the context of technology transfer within the field...

The objective of CARDIAC (Coordinated Action funded by EU’s 7th FP) is to create a platform that can bring together the various stakeholders in the area of accessible and assistive ICT with a view of identifying R&D gaps and emerging trends and generating a research agenda roadmap. The project consists of three pan-European structured dialogues. Th...

Associations were quantified between the control force and fatigue-induced force decline in 22 single fast-twitch-fatigable motor units of 5 deeply anesthetized adult cats. The units were subjected to intermittent stimulation at 1 train/s for 360 s. Two stimulation patterns were delivered in a pseudo-random manner. The first was a 500-ms train with...

Children with limitations in their abilities to encode and decode emotions through corresponding facial expressions may be excluded from social and educational processes. Previous research has demonstrated that children with learning difficulties may suffer differentially in their ability to recognize and denominate facial expressions that corresp...

In the context of the European Safer Internet project EU Kids Online, the aim of this article is to address how young people deal with privacy issues in social networking sites, using Facebook as an example. The study on which it is based examined the type of personal and contact information young people disclose through their profiles. In addition...

This paper summarizes results of a co-laboratory that took place 33months after the negative outcome of the referendum on the UN’s proposal for the solution of the Cyprus problem, and which was a follow-up (3 months later) of a previous co-laboratory. The earlier co-laboratory explored factors contributing to the increasing gap between the two conf...

This chapter focuses on children and young people's access to inappropriate content online. The aim is to provide a description of the empirical evidence available within the EU Kids Online network, and where appropriate within the wider literature, regarding inappropriate material encountered by children online. The review focuses on (a) pornograp...

Introduction Use of the internet and its associated services is becoming an increasingly popular pastime, particularly among children and young people, but despite the many benefits offered there are also risks which they must be made aware of. The possibility that children could encounter inappropriate content online receives less public attention...

The Web 3D presents theoretical possibilities to render many physical and mental disabilities disappear. It allows users to do things they may not be able to do in the real world. This paper examines the requirements regarding accessibility and discusses the impact that 3D worlds could have on the socialization and integration of people with specia...

This paper reports the results of the first of a series of co-laboratories organized by Cypriot peace pioneers 30months after the negative outcome of the referendum concerning UN General Secretary’s plan for reunification of the island. The purpose of this co-laboratory was to support a diverse group of disengaged and disappointed peace pioneers an...

In this paper we challenge current definitions of mobile learning and suggest that the direction of progress, both in theoretical/applied research as well as its role as a tool that serves social transformation and development, will be determined and even dictated by the availability of an adequate definition. A new framework for the definition of...

The emergence of information, and more recently, mobile broadband telecommunication technologies, was accompanied by the hype that they could serve to close the economic, educational, digital, and social gaps of our planet among the rich and the poor regions. The hopes, which were based on a number of assumptions, were partly dismissed at the dawn...

This paper proposes the thesis that it is unethical to plan an action for social change without excavating the knowledge and wisdom of the people who are responsible for implementing the plans of action and the people whose lives will be affected. But the people, being immersed in contemporary complexity, do not know what they know until they know...

The authors propose the thesis that today’s children immersed in cyberspace need to rely on different skills and mental attributes in order to interact successfully with knowledge. It is argued that learning pedagogies as well as corresponding assessment tools must comply with the multi-modality principle. The paper describes a multimodal evaluatio...

Current literature has put special attention to the issue of reading difficulties. Poor reading performance can suggest possible problems such as dyslexia and other learning disabilities. It is thus important to ensure the early identification of the problem when this exists and provide early intervention to children when needed. The authors of thi...

To help reduce the gap between the cellular physiology of motoneurons (MNs) as studied "bottom-up" in animal preparations and the "top-down" study of the firing patterns of human motor units (MUs), this article addresses the question of whether motoneuron adaptation contributes to muscle fatigue. Findings are reviewed on the intracellularly recorde...

This paper describes the application of Structured Dialogic Design Process (SDDP) within the context of a rich web-based communication environment. Using a combination of asynchronous and synchronous communication tools for engaging stakeholders at different places in a disciplined dialogue, the authors evaluate the extent to which the SDDP can be...

Computers have been making it to classrooms for over four decades. Their use evolved yet the educational outcome did not meet promised expectations. More than a few studies around the world examined and evaluated computer integration in numerous different educational settings. Unfortunately, the majority of them report failures, repeated mistakes,...

The paper proposes a new scientific discipline with the name zoinetics. It is defined as the science that uses "reverse bionics" to understand, decode, reveal design and predict constrains, principles-or patterns of design of the human mind-matter. Zoinetics is developed around the axiom that whatever humans create inevitably inherit and reflect in...

Cyprus, an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, has been divided by force since 1974. Citizens of the two partitions have not been allowed to cross the cease-fire line, controlled by the United Nations Force, or to have any kind of communication between them. This article describes the innovative use of information technology to break the communica...

Spinal recurrent inhibition via Renshaw cells and proprioceptive feedback via skeletal muscle and muscle spindle afferents have been hypothesized to constitute a compound feedback system [Windhorst (1989) Afferent Control of Posture and Locomotion; Windhorst (1993) Robots and Biological Systems—Towards a New Bionics]. To assess their detailed funct...

1. The main purpose of this study was to quantify the adaptation of spina] motoneurons to sustained and intermittent activation, using an extracellular route of stimulating current application to single test cells, in contrast to an intracellular route, as has been used previously. In addition, associations were tested between firing rate propertie...

The fatigue of fast-twitch, glycolytic mammalian motor units [i.e., type FF; nomenclature of (3)] is dependent, in part, on the stimulation regimen (total number of stimuli, frequency, duty cycle, temporal patterning of stimuli, etc.) used to induce fatigue. To study the effect of the temporal pattern of the stimulus train on the rate and extend of...

1. The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two subtly different stimulus patterns on the force developed by fast-twitch, fatiguable motor units in a cat hindlimb muscle during control (pre-fatigue) and fatiguing contractions. 2. The peak force and the force-time integral responses of nineteen high fatigue (FF) and three interme...

The purpose of this study was to quantify the changes in motor-unit action potentials (MUAP) and force during a standard motor-unit fatigue test. MUAP waveforms were characterized by the measurement of amplitude, duration, area, and shape (as reflected in a coefficient of proportionality). Fatigue-resistant motor units exhibited small, but statisti...

Measurement systems used in the collection and processing of laboratory data must be calibrated periodically to obtain accurate results. Because calibration factors can change over time or may be reset to optimize measurements for specific tests, care must be taken to assure that calibration factors and data are aligned correctly. Users should be a...

A full circuit description is provided for a triggering module used to assist a small laboratory computer in digitizing muscle force- and EMG waveforms. During the stimulation of individual motor units using a standard fatigue test, a train of 13 pulses are delivered at a rate of 40 pps either intracellularly to a motor neuron, or extracellularly t...

A software-based system is presented for feature extraction of compound, action-potential (EMG) recordings from single motor units. It simplifies and automates the measurement and analysis of several parameters of the action potential: peak-to-peak amplitude, total duration, peak-to-peak duration, and total area. The software is based on a simple a...

The experiments were performed on 18 albino newborn rats of both sexes. The postnatal development of the air-righting-reaction (ARR) of the rats was tested for 4 different falling heights (30, 40, 50 and 60 cm) with 3 different loading conditions: artificial alteration of the head, thorax and pelvis mass, respectively. The reaction was analyzed in...

The aim of this study was to describe the ontogenesis of the air-righting reaction (ARR) in rats. The first experiment was performed on 6 newborn albino rats of both sexes and followed the development of the ARR over postnatal days 1-21. The degree of rotation achieved after falling from different heights was quantified according to a rating scheme...

The system between cutaneous (suralis) afferents and dorsal horn neurons was studied for comparison with studies previously performed on the motor axon-Renshaw cell system, using the same methods. In anaesthetized or decerebrated cats, 27 dorsal horn neurons of segments L5 to S1 were recorded extracellularly in depths of 1-2.3 mm from cord dorsum....

Renshaw cell responses to random motor axon stimulation exhibit second-order non-linearities in that they depend on the occurrence of a preceding stimulus, although these non-linearities are not strong enough to significantly depress the coherence. However, higher-order non-linearities have not been checked for so far. This is carried out here. Lum...

The unitary EMG that is elicited by stimulation of a small bundle of axons, part of a muscle nerve, or the whole muscle nerve, is often used to test for the failure of neuromuscular propagation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether it is necessary to describe changes in the evoked EMG by measurement of EMG area, or whether the measure...

We used professional and amateur baseball players to correlate the two most significant parameters of the swing of a baseball bat: bat weight and maximum bat velocity. Subjects swung six bats weighing between 14 and 49 oz. Each subject swung each bat through the instrument five times. The order of presentation was randomized. The Bat Chooser instru...

We here present a method to study the interaction of parallel neural input channels regarding their effects on a neurone. In particular, the method allows to disclose the effects of oligosynaptic pathways that may exist in parallel to direct monosynaptic connections to the cell. Two (or more) inputs (nerves) are stimulated with random patterns of s...

Cat spinal Renshaw cells were activated by stimulating muscle nerves or ventral roots with random (pseudo-Poisson) patterns of brief electrical stimuli. This input pattern is optimal for a comparative study in both the frequency- and time-domain. The frequency-dependent variable of particular interest in this study was the coherence as a measure of...

Lumbosacral Renshaw cells were activated by random stimulation of motor axons in muscle nerves or ventral roots. The stimulus patterns had mean rates of 9.5-13 or 20-23 pulses per second. The Renshaw cell responses were evaluated by two kinds of peristimulus-time histograms. "Conventional" peristimulus-time histograms were calculated by averaging t...

1. We investigated the responses of cat lumbosacral Renshaw cells to pseudo-Poison stimulus sequences (of three different mean rates) delivered to motor axons in ventral roots or various muscle nerves. The Renshaw cell responses were evaluated by computation of peristimulus time histograms (PSTHs). 2. PSTHs computed with respect to all the stimuli...

In pentobarbitone-anesthetized cats, the spike sequences of dorsal horn neurons were recorded in response to random stimulation of branches of the suralis nerve. Combined frequency- and time-domain analysis was performed on the stimulus and spike trains. Coherence function estimates computed by spectral analysis were compared with peristimulus time...

In 9 adult anaesthetized cats, 22 lumbosacral Renshaw cells recorded with NaCl-filled micropipettes were activated by random stimulation of ventral roots or peripheral nerves. The stimulus patterns had mean rates of 9.5-13 or 20-23 or 45 pulses per second and were pseudo-Poisson; short intervals below ca. 5 ms (except in two cases) were excluded. T...

In 1992, we launched a nation-wide experiment based on a concept we then called the "profitable dream." We envisioned that introducing advanced computer technology in the lives of a critical number of young children using an educationally relevant and socially responsible, peace-enhancing curriculum would allow us to "transcend" the country's educa...

This chapter summarizes the results of two workshops,that were held in Ayia Napa,Cyprus and in Seville,Spain.The purpose of the workshops was to develop a shared understanding regarding the obstacles that prevent the exploitation of broadband technologies and to build commitment within the COST 219ter community to an action agenda for collaborative...

In this paper we challenge current definitions of mobile learning and suggest that the direction of progress, both in theoretical/a pplied research as well as its role as a tool that serves social transformation and development, will be determined and even dictated by the availability of an adequate definition. A new framework for the definition of...

Position paper that attempts a holistic overview of the transition from e-learning to m-learning. The authors make the case that pressure of global competition in a knowledge-based, net-centric economy poses challenges for transforming our educational system. At the same time, they alarm about the dangers that accompany unwise use of new technologi...

In this study we report experiences gained through the application of KnowledgePackets in the context of IT curricula delivered at CYBER Kids (www.cyber-kids.com) computer learning centres. Students, in- structors, parents, curriculum developers and managers have been interviewed in order to record and evaluate their corresponding attitudes and ex...

Abstract As our educational paradigms,shift towards using multimedia-based learning,objects delivered through mobile computer technologies, success will heavily depend on the relevance and quality of the retrieved learning objects. The necessary condition for improvement,and optimization of existing learning objects is their usability and re- usabi...

In the context of a regular COST 298 management meeting, the authors have organized a structured democratic dialogue co-laboratory to study the obstacles, which the Cost298 community faces in their effort to engage the wider public in the wideband society. Through a process known as Structured Design Process (SDP), the experts of the COST 298 netwo...

Language barriers between individuals of different ethnic groups living in the same country, or Europeans visiting other countries, hinder natural interaction. Communication in a foreign language can hold back the establishment of friendships and closer relationships, thus preventing fruitful intercultural exchange and dialogue. Basic language know...