9,360 research outputs found

    Writing In and Around Video Games

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    This undergraduate course uses video games as a lens through which to explore the infinitely broader topic of digital rhetoric. Students encounter games in several different ways: as texts to analyze, raw material for video compositions, systems to create and explore. Key topics include genre conventions and constraints, audience, procedural rhetoric, interface design, and convergence culture

    A visual thesis? techniques for reporting practice-led research

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    This paper describes an approach taken to the use of visual material as a significant part of PhD thesis in an Industrial Design research project. The aspiration to make creative work central to the thesis has been debated in a wide range of disciplines, but there are few examples of successful practice, especially in design. The authors sought to make visual material central to the process of developing a PhD thesis and worked with a research student to put this into practice. The process was beneficial to both the student and his audience and it is hoped that this approach provides a starting point for further development of practice-based research</p

    On the writing, reading and publishing of digital stories

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    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a study set up to investigate and map the landscape of digital writing today. A holistic perspective has been adopted involving writers, readers and publishers alike. Design/methodology/approach – The research uses a qualitative approach and combines interviews and direct observations. In in-depth interviews 13 participants (four writers, four publishers, three readers and two on-line readers) were questioned for their opinions on issues related to writing, publishing and reading digital fiction. The three readers were also observed while interacting, for the first time, with three digital stories. Findings – Results show that the area is still unsettled though much excitement surrounds experimentations and freedom of publishing online. Readers seem uneasy with the role of co-creators that writers want to assign them and prefer linear stories to more deconstructed ones. Writers like to experiment and combine multiple media and readers like to interact with multimedia stories; this seems to open interesting perspectives over interactive narrative. Publishers are not yet involved in digital writing and this is seen simultaneously as a blessing (unfiltering of innovative ideas) and a curse (lack of economical support, lack of quality selection). Despite disagreement and ambiguity all interviewees agree that digital fiction will come, likely prompted by new reading technology. Originality/value – This paper is the first attempt to understand the phenomena of digital writing taking into consideration the perspectives of writers, readers and publishers simultaneously and comparing their different views

    Efficient isolation on Vero.DogSLAMtag cells and full genome characterization of Dolphin Morbillivirus (DMV) by next generation sequencing

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    The Dolphin Morbillivirus (DMV) genome from the frst Mediterranean epidemic (1990-\u201992) is the only cetacean Morbillivirus that has been completely sequenced. Here, we report the frst application of next generation sequencing (NGS) to morbillivirus infection of aquatic mammals. A viral isolate, representative of the 2006-\u201908 Mediterranean epidemic (DMV_IZSPLV_2008), efciently grew on Vero.DogSLAMtag cells and was submitted to whole genome characterization by NGS. The fnal genome length was 15,673 nucleotides, covering 99.82% of the DMV reference genome. Comparison of DMV_IZSPLV_2008 and 1990-\u201992 DMV strain sequences revealed 157 nucleotide mutations and 47 amino acid changes. The sequence similarity was 98.7% at the full genome level. Whole-genome phylogeny suggested that the DMV strain circulating during the 2006-\u201908 epidemics emerged from the 1990-\u201992 DMV strain. Viral isolation is considered the \u201cgold standard\u201d for morbillivirus diagnostics but efcient propagation of infectious virus is difcult to achieve. The successful cell replication of this strain allowed performing NGS directly from the viral RNA, without prior PCR amplifcation. We therefore provide to the scientifc community a second DMV genome, representative of another major outbreak. Interestingly, genome comparison revealed that the neglected L gene encompasses 74% of the genetic diversity and might serve as \u201chypervariable\u201d target for strain characterization

    Using pattern languages in participatory design

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    In this paper, we examine the contribution that pattern languages could make to user participation in the design of interactive systems, and we report on our experiences of using pattern languages in this way. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of patterns and pattern languages in the design of interactive systems. Pattern languages were originally developed by the architect, Christopher Alexander, both as a way of understanding the nature of building designs that promote a ‘humane’ or living built environment; and as a practical tool to aid in participatory design of buildings. Our experience suggests that pattern languages do have considerable potential to support participatory design in HCI, but that many pragmatic issues remain to be resolved.</p

    A Closer Look at the Global Management of Spina Bifida: The Implementation of Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy in the Treatment of Spina Bifida-Related Hydrocephalus in Africa

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    Spina bifida, specifically myelomeningocele, is a debilitating neural tube defect that affects patients and families throughout the world. Traditional management and treatment methods are described, followed by an explanation of why this is often inadequate in providing care for those in impoverished areas of the world, including many regions of Africa. Endoscopic third ventriculostomy is proposed as a promising alternative to traditional methods for treating hydrocephalus, an often associated condition, and the implementation of this treatment method in Africa is explored. In order to relieve Africa of the burden of spina bifida-related hydrocephalus and improve global management of spina bifida, it is imperative that the paucity of neurosurgeons in Africa be addressed and successful models for training be expanded

    Social Media and the Public Sector

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    {Excerpt} Social media is revolutionizing the way we live, learn, work, and play. Elements of the private sector have begun to thrive on opportunities to forge, build, and deepen relationships. Some are transforming their organizational structures and opening their corporate ecosystems in consequence. The public sector is a relative newcomer. It too can drive stakeholder involvement and satisfaction. Global conversations, especially among Generation Y, were born circa 2004. Beginning 1995 until then, the internet had hosted static, one-way websites. These were places to visit passively, retrieve information from, and perhaps post comments about by electronic mail. Sixteen years later, Web 2.0 enables many-to-many connections in numerous domains of interest and practice, powered by the increasing use of blogs, image and video sharing, mashups, podcasts, ratings, Really Simple Syndication, social bookmarking, tweets, widgets, and wikis, among others. Today, people expect the internet to be user-centric

    STARGATE : Static Repository Gateway and Toolkit. Final Project Report

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    STARGATE (Static Repository Gateway and Toolkit) was funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and is intended to demonstrate the ease of use of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) Static Repository technology, and the potential benefits offered to publishers in making their metadata available in this way This technology offers a simpler method of participating in many information discovery services than creating fully-fledged OAI-compliant repositories. It does this by allowing the infrastructure and technical support required to participate in OAI-based services to be shifted from the data provider (the journal) to a third party and allows a single third party gateway provider to provide intermediation for many data providers (journals). Specifically, STARGATE has created a series of Static Repositories of publisher metadata provided by a selection of Library and Information Science journals. It has demonstrated the interoperability of these repositories by exposing their metadata via a Static Repository Gateway for harvesting and cross-searching by external service providers. The project has conducted a critical evaluation of the Static Repository approach in conjunction with the participating publishers and service providers. The technology works. The project has demonstrated that Static Repositories are easy to create and that the differences between fully-fledged and static OAI Repositories have no impact on the participation of small journal publishers in OAI-based services. The problems for a service that arise out of the use of Static Repositories are parallel to those created by any other repository dealing with journal articles. Problems arise from the diversity of metadata element sets provided by a given journal and the lack of specific metadata elements for the articles' volume and issue details. Another issue for the use of publishers' metadata arise as the collection policies of some existing services only allow Open Access materials to be included in them. The project recommends that the use of Static Repositories continues to be explored - in particular as a flexible way to expose existing sets of structured information to OAI services and to create the opportunity to enhance the metadata as part of the process. The project further recommends that the publishing community consider the creation or adoption of an application profile for journal articles to support information discovery that can search by volume and issue. Significant further use of the Static Repository technology by small journal publishers will require the future creation and maintenance of a community-specific Static Repository Gateway. Further use will also require advocacy within the publishing community but might initially be most effectively kick-started through the creation of OAI repositories based on metadata held by the commercial services which publish or mediate access to electronic copies of journals on behalf of small publishers
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