The U.S. Army Telemedicine and m-Health Program: Making a Difference at Home and Abroad

This article highlights the deployment of telemedicine by the U.S. Army through the various echelons of care and in overseas locations, including range and scope of health services provided by telemedicine in a challenging environment. This is followed by a discussion of technological developments advances in mobile communications likely to change the practice of telemedicine in the military from limited fixed-point access to a highly mobile individual with handheld communication devices.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140278/1/tmj.2012.0297.pd

Blended reality: an analysis through the recent evolution of digital media art ecosystems

This chapter proposes an analysis of the impacts that three economic concepts that gained traction in the last decades of neoliberalism – experience, attention and ubiquity – cause in digital arts and artists, driving the establishment of blended-reality as the current inhabited space, and altering the relationships between artists, audience, curating, public spaces, academia, industry and markets. Using the Internet as a technological backbone, the global digital art ecosystem has become a network of relationships and relational mechanisms, where creativity and innovation are being commoditised, organised and consumed like products. By analysing pairs of concepts and the paradoxes involved, it also offers insights on how the blending concept is also being applied to what could have once been considered as extreme opposites. It concludes by showing how artivism and hacktivism rise as the new innovation forces in a networked environment that is written and reads itself, blending materiality and virtuality.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In the act of playing you forget where you are

This written thesis serves as a companion to the body of work I developed while pursuing my MFA at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. It traces the trajectory of my graduate school experience and culminates with my series, In the Act of Playing You Forget Where You Are. Beginning with my desire to challenge the authority of traditional sculpture, this document follows the evolution of my studio practice as I transition from the autonomy of sculpture-in-the-round to the development of more nuanced installations that claim the physicality of space as artistic medium. Paying close attention to the barriers and demarcations that influence how individuals navigate space, both physical and conceptual, my work probes the collective human experience through the lens of my own personal idiosyncrasies. Focusing on themes such as intimacy verses privacy, nostalgic longing and the humorously absurd, I encourage the reader to consider engaging with art itself as an act of play, one I believe may build a better understanding of ourselves and the world we inhabit

McPublic Spaces

This paper analyses the role of McDonald’s in Hong Kong as a consumption-oriented place where the production of social space happens under the constraints of the market’s spectacle and speculations. McDonald’s in Hong Kong have evolved from the original aesthetics of the company, with a colorful postmodern cafeteria look, to the latest concept “Next” with a bold design, neat materiality, touch screens and open layout. Throughout this process, its restaurant design and polices have evolved by appropriating the rhythms of the city and its citizens. Whereas Hong Kong’s city escape is commonly perceived as the product of top down strategies carried out by “coalitions” between public institutions and private corporations, McDonald’s offers a case study of informal activities influencing the way a global enterprise develops. Its new “Next” concept might be seen as an attempt to anticipate informality. Two opposing ideas underlie this “open look”: the aim to homogenize customers through the sanitation of the space, versus the provision of neutral spaces to allow for the occurrence of heterogeneity. The presence of the screen as an intermediary between the restaurant and its customers empowers a dichotomy between an impersonal fast food service and current paradigms that aim to prioritize people and food

Getting back to the future: the role of management services in the alpha - beta generations

In an article published in Management Services Journal almost 25 years ago, the reported results of an industry study concluded that for most organisations, improvement initiatives and interventions had failed, wholly or partially, to deliver on their promise. One wonders if the results would be the same today? After reading the article once again, the problems of some of today’s businesses seem to have changed very little. But arguably, the future will be very different. Moreover, the role of management services and our practitioner skills will be in much greater need. Saying that, what will the future be recognised for? Can we predict with any confidence the next generation’s needs – the alpha-beta generations? How will society, business and commerce change from that of today? What are the likely scenarios

Space, place, and the self: reimagining selfies as thirdspace

The rise of digital and visual communication has brought an increased focus to the places that people occupy. While places are created through various meaning-making processes, one way of establishing the meaning of a place is by inserting oneself into spaces by taking selfies. The places depicted in selfies may reflect a desire to associate oneself with the place, to make a statement challenging that place or the dominant meaning associated with it, or to create new meaning concerning the place and the self. Drawing on the concepts of Thirdspace and heterotopias, we proffer a framework for the practice of taking and sharing selfies that depict a place. We argue that people colonize points in space to reproduce, counter, or mix the meanings of places. People then both draw from and contribute to the construction of places and are motivated to “place” themselves to provide alternative or personalized perspectives of these places but also to represent their self.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Global (Sustainable) Commercial Urbanism and Culture

The decision makers of western cities have utilized commercial urbanism to help improve urban livability for several decades. The upgrade and redesign of shopping areas as well as the modernization of small and medium size retail establishments appear central to this goal. However, the unpredictability of technological innovations, lifestyles, consumer demand, and the uncertainty of global and regional markets contribute to the difficulty in delivering the most adequate and long-lasting urbanistic solutions. To what extent can professionals and elected officials utilize local cultures and regional identities to craft urban policies and programs capable of enabling flourishing businesses with both positive impacts in local economies and urban cultures? The purpose of this paper is to revisit a series of urban planning research programs, which the author studied over the past three decades in the Iberian Peninsula, the Americas, and Macau SAR. The research methods comprised literature reviews, public policy and case study analyses, teaching and research engagements, residence periods, and extended visits in Portugal, the northeast and southwest of the United States, Latin America, and Macau SAR. The argument is twofold: First, globalization is simultaneously homogenizing commercial landscapes while contributing to environmentally damaging car dependent lifestyles; and second, professionals ought to establish localized and culture-based (sustainable) commercial urbanism programs capable of assuring the long-term success of cities. The key finding is that livability assurance guarantees and cultural patterns are highly dependent on each city’s idiosyncratic characteristics such as size, place in the urban hierarchy, as well as historic roles performed in regional, national, and global dynamics

A Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of Three Formative Period Wankarani Sites Located in the Department of Oruro, Bolivia

The Wankarani people are often cited as an example of early camelid pastoralism in South America. However, research on early camelid pastoralism has ignored the importance of plants, especially the cultivation of domesticated plants in this region. The Wankarani people lived in the central altiplano of the south-central Andes during the Formative period: 2000 B.C.-A.D. 400). Previous research has assumed that the Wankarani people were cultivating domestic plants. This research explores the evidence for both wild and domesticated plant use among the Wankarani while furthering the understanding of the development of subsistence strategies of pastoralists cultures. Using paleoethnobotanical methods of analysis of samples from three different sites, this research identifies wild plant use and domesticated plant use of the Wankarani. The samples analyzed were derived from excavations carried out in 2008 in the Department of Oruro, Bolivia by José Capriles, a doctoral candidate at Washington University in St. Louis. These data provide insight into the importance of the plant economy during the Formative period in the central altiplano. The identification of carbonized parenchyma: plant storage tissue) and seeds confirm that the Wankarani people cultivated tubers and Chenopodium plants. Furthermore, the high quantities of remains of these plants at all three sites are evidence that they were important components of the Wankarani economy. Preliminary analysis of chenopod seed demonstrates the cultivation of at least two domesticated Chenopodium species. In addition, a fungus that grew on tubers was identified. High quantities of carbonized tubers and fungus fragments indicate that the Wankarani struggled with a plant pathogen. These data confirm the importance of wild and domesticated plant use among the Wankarani peoples and the importance of plants to pastoral populations in the highlands of the Andes