790 research outputs found

    Plug-in healthcare:Development, ruination, and repair in health information exchange

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    This dissertation explores the work done by people and things in emerging infrastructures for health information exchange. It shows how this work relates to processes of development, production, and growth, as well as to abandonment, ruination, and loss. It argues for a revaluation of repair work: a form of articulation work that attends to gaps and disruptions in the margins of technological development. Often ignored by engineers, policy makers, and researchers, repair sensitizes us to different ways of caring for people and things that do not fit, fall in between categories, and resist social norms and conventions. It reminds us that infrastructures emerge in messy and unevenly distributed sociotechnical configurations, and that technological solutions cannot be simply ‘plugged in’ at will, but require all kinds of work. With that, repair emphasizes the need for more democratic, critical, and reflexive engagements with (and interventions in) health information exchange. Empirically, this study aims to understand how ‘integration’ in health information exchange is done in practice, and to develop concepts and insights that may help us to rethink technological development accordingly. It starts from the premise that the introduction of IT in healthcare is all too often regarded as a neutral process, and as a rational implementation challenge. These widespread views among professionals, managers, and policy makers need to be addressed, as they have very real – and mostly undesirable – consequences. Spanning a period of more than ten years, this study traces the birth and demise of an online regional health portal in the Netherlands (2009-2019). Combining ethnographic research with an experimental form of archive work, it describes sociotechnical networks that expanded, collapsed, and reconfigured around a variety of problems – from access to information and data ownership to business cases, financial sustainability, and regional care. It puts a spotlight on the integration of standards, infrastructures, and users in the portal project, and on elements of collapsing networks that quietly resurfaced elsewhere. The reconstruction of these processes foregrounds different instances of repair work in the portal’s development and subsequent abandonment, repurposing, and erasure. Conceptually, this study contributes to academic debates in health information exchange, including the politics of technology, practices of participatory design, and the role of language in emerging information infrastructures. It latches on to ethnographic studies on information systems and infrastructural work, and brings together insights from actor-network theory, science and technology studies, and figurational sociology to rethink and extend current (reflexive and critical) understandings of technological development. It raises three questions: What work is done in the development and demise of an online health portal? How are relations between people and things shaped in that process? And how can insights from this study help us to understand changing sociotechnical figurations in health information exchange? The final analysis includes five key concepts: the act of building network extensions, the method of tracing phantom networks, the notion of sociotechnical figurations, the logic of plug-in healthcare, and repair as a heuristic device.<br/

    Expectations and expertise in artificial intelligence: specialist views and historical perspectives on conceptualisation, promise, and funding

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    Artificial intelligence’s (AI) distinctiveness as a technoscientific field that imitates the ability to think went through a resurgence of interest post-2010, attracting a flood of scientific and popular expectations as to its utopian or dystopian transformative consequences. This thesis offers observations about the formation and dynamics of expectations based on documentary material from the previous periods of perceived AI hype (1960-1975 and 1980-1990, including in-between periods of perceived dormancy), and 25 interviews with UK-based AI specialists, directly involved with its development, who commented on the issues during the crucial period of uncertainty (2017-2019) and intense negotiation through which AI gained momentum prior to its regulation and relatively stabilised new rounds of long-term investment (2020-2021). This examination applies and contributes to longitudinal studies in the sociology of expectations (SoE) and studies of experience and expertise (SEE) frameworks, proposing a historical sociology of expertise and expectations framework. The research questions, focusing on the interplay between hype mobilisation and governance, are: (1) What is the relationship between AI practical development and the broader expectational environment, in terms of funding and conceptualisation of AI? (2) To what extent does informal and non-developer assessment of expectations influence formal articulations of foresight? (3) What can historical examinations of AI’s conceptual and promissory settings tell about the current rebranding of AI? The following contributions are made: (1) I extend SEE by paying greater attention to the interplay between technoscientific experts and wider collective arenas of discourse amongst non-specialists and showing how AI’s contemporary research cultures are overwhelmingly influenced by the hype environment but also contribute to it. This further highlights the interaction between competing rationales focusing on exploratory, curiosity-driven scientific research against exploitation-oriented strategies at formal and informal levels. (2) I suggest benefits of examining promissory environments in AI and related technoscientific fields longitudinally, treating contemporary expectations as historical products of sociotechnical trajectories through an authoritative historical reading of AI’s shifting conceptualisation and attached expectations as a response to availability of funding and broader national imaginaries. This comes with the benefit of better perceiving technological hype as migrating from social group to social group instead of fading through reductionist cycles of disillusionment; either by rebranding of technical operations, or by the investigation of a given field by non-technical practitioners. It also sensitises to critically examine broader social expectations as factors for shifts in perception about theoretical/basic science research transforming into applied technological fields. Finally, (3) I offer a model for understanding the significance of interplay between conceptualisations, promising, and motivations across groups within competing dynamics of collective and individual expectations and diverse sources of expertise

    DDoS Capability and Readiness - Evidence from Australian Organisations

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    A common perception of cyber defence is that it should protect systems and data from malicious attacks, ideally keeping attackers outside of secure perimeters and preventing entry. Much of the effort in traditional cyber security defence is focused on removing gaps in security design and preventing those with legitimate permissions from becoming a gateway or resource for those seeking illegitimate access. By contrast, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks do not use application backdoors or software vulnerabilities to create their impact. They instead utilise legitimate entry points and knowledge of system processes for illegitimate purposes. DDoS seeks to overwhelm system and infrastructure resources so that legitimate requests are prevented from reaching their intended destination. For this thesis, a literature review was performed using sources from two perspectives. Reviews of both industry literature and academic literature were combined to build a balanced view of knowledge of this area. Industry and academic literature revealed that DDoS is outpacing internet growth, with vandalism, criminal and ideological motivations rising to prominence. From a defence perspective, the human factor remains a weak link in cyber security due to proneness for mistakes, oversights and the variance in approach and methods expressed by differing cultures. How cyber security is perceived, approached, and applied can have a critical effect on the overall outcome achieved, even when similar technologies are implemented. In addition, variance in the technical capabilities of those responsible for the implementation may create further gaps and vulnerabilities. While discussing technical challenges and theoretical concepts, existing literature failed to cover the experiences held by the victim organisations, or the thoughts and feelings of their personnel. This thesis addresses these identified gaps through exploratory research, which used a mix of descriptive and qualitative analysis to develop results and conclusions. The websites of 60 Australian organisations were analysed to uncover the level and quality of cyber security information they were willing to share and the methods and processes they used to engage with their audience. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 employees from around half of those websites analysed. These were analysed using NVivo12 qualitative analysis software. The difficulty experienced with attracting willing participants reflected the comfort that organisations showed with sharing cyber security information and experiences. However, themes found within the results show that, while DDoS is considered a valid threat, without encouragement to collaborate and standardise minimum security levels, firms may be missing out on valuable strategies to improve their cyber security postures. Further, this reluctance to share leads organisations to rely on their own internal skill and expertise, thus failing to realise the benefits of established frameworks and increased diversity in the workforce. Along with the size of the participant pool, other limitations included the diversity of participants and the impact of COVID-19 which may have influenced participants' thoughts and reflections. These limitations however, present opportunity for future studies using greater participant numbers or a narrower target focus. Either option would be beneficial to the recommendations of this study which were made from a practical, social, theoretical and policy perspective. On a practical and social level, organisational capabilities suffer due to the lack of information sharing and this extends to the community when similar restrictions prevent collaboration. Sharing of knowledge and experiences while protecting sensitive information is a worthy goal and this is something that can lead to improved defence. However, while improved understanding is one way to reduce the impact of cyber-attacks, the introduction of minimum cyber security standards for products, could reduce the ease at which devices can be used to facilitate attacks, but only if policy and effective governance ensures product compliance with legislation. One positive side to COVID-19's push to remote working, was an increase in digital literacy. As more roles were temporarily removed from their traditional physical workplace, many employees needed to rapidly accelerate their digital competency to continue their employment. To assist this transition, organisations acted to implement technology solutions that eased the ability for these roles to be undertaken remotely and as a consequence, they opened up these roles to a greater pool of available candidates. Many of these roles are no longer limited to the geographical location of potential employees or traditional hours of availability. Many of these roles could be accessed from almost anywhere, at any time, which had a positive effect on organisational capability and digital sustainability

    Towards the convergence of music, mathematics and computing in the primary school through the use of a visual programming system designed for in-the-wild delivery

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    A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.In comparison to the 2014 changes concerning the UK National Curriculum (NC) for Information Communication Technology (ICT) and maths, the NC for music has remained relatively unchanged. A decline in the number of students studying music in UK schools has also been noted throughout the last decade. Considering the NC statutory requirements for music, maths and computing at Key Stage (KS) One, this thesis argues that in a visual programming context, music harbours interdisciplinary symmetric correlations concerning both maths and computing. Thus, the NC statutory requirements for music, maths and computing at KS One are drawn together in a bespoke visual programming system called Music And Mathematics In Collaboration (MAMIC). MAMIC is a thematic-based interdisciplinary curricular connection visual programming system designed for inthe- wild use. MAMIC has been delivered by several non-expert practitioners from varying backgrounds (with minimal training), as part of four case studies across KS One and Two in situ. Based on the results from the case studies, the MAMIC library topology model is presented as a central contribution. This model employs multiple layers of visual programming abstractions which house the symmetric correlations across the music, maths and computing NC statutory requirements. The sequence number is presented at the syntegration concept of this model. From these findings, the MAMIC library topology model and the MAMIC interdisciplinary model can be used to design interdisciplinary visual programming systems for in-the-wild curricula. A pedagogical framework is also presented to illustrate ways that interdisciplinary visual programming can be incorporated into the primary school curriculum. Music’s potential as an interdisciplinary vehicle in a visual programming context is also explored. However, it seems this potential is difficult to access by in-the-wild nonexpert practitioners and students alike. Finally, this thesis presents several recommendations that aim to reposition music in a new interdisciplinary space by using a set of KS One interdisciplinary NC statutory requirements for the subjects of music, maths and computing

    Systematic Approaches for Telemedicine and Data Coordination for COVID-19 in Baja California, Mexico

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    Conference proceedings info: ICICT 2023: 2023 The 6th International Conference on Information and Computer Technologies Raleigh, HI, United States, March 24-26, 2023 Pages 529-542We provide a model for systematic implementation of telemedicine within a large evaluation center for COVID-19 in the area of Baja California, Mexico. Our model is based on human-centric design factors and cross disciplinary collaborations for scalable data-driven enablement of smartphone, cellular, and video Teleconsul-tation technologies to link hospitals, clinics, and emergency medical services for point-of-care assessments of COVID testing, and for subsequent treatment and quar-antine decisions. A multidisciplinary team was rapidly created, in cooperation with different institutions, including: the Autonomous University of Baja California, the Ministry of Health, the Command, Communication and Computer Control Center of the Ministry of the State of Baja California (C4), Colleges of Medicine, and the College of Psychologists. Our objective is to provide information to the public and to evaluate COVID-19 in real time and to track, regional, municipal, and state-wide data in real time that informs supply chains and resource allocation with the anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 cases. RESUMEN Proporcionamos un modelo para la implementación sistemática de la telemedicina dentro de un gran centro de evaluación de COVID-19 en el área de Baja California, México. Nuestro modelo se basa en factores de diseño centrados en el ser humano y colaboraciones interdisciplinarias para la habilitación escalable basada en datos de tecnologías de teleconsulta de teléfonos inteligentes, celulares y video para vincular hospitales, clínicas y servicios médicos de emergencia para evaluaciones de COVID en el punto de atención. pruebas, y para el tratamiento posterior y decisiones de cuarentena. Rápidamente se creó un equipo multidisciplinario, en cooperación con diferentes instituciones, entre ellas: la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, la Secretaría de Salud, el Centro de Comando, Comunicaciones y Control Informático. de la Secretaría del Estado de Baja California (C4), Facultades de Medicina y Colegio de Psicólogos. Nuestro objetivo es proporcionar información al público y evaluar COVID-19 en tiempo real y rastrear datos regionales, municipales y estatales en tiempo real que informan las cadenas de suministro y la asignación de recursos con la anticipación de un aumento de COVID-19. 19 casos.ICICT 2023: 2023 The 6th International Conference on Information and Computer Technologieshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3236-
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