Listening as a prelude to architectural design

Ponència presentada a: Session 1: Educación en la universidad / University educatio

On Being Relevant to the Future of IS Practice

In this essay, we argue that being relevant to practice must imply a concern with influencing future IS practices. Discussions of IS research relevance, however, are rarely explicit about how research is meant to shape the future. Drawing on Feenberg’s (2002) critical theory of technology and his concepts of primary-secondary instrumentalization and potentialities, we consider how IS research about the past can inform the future of IS practice. We then explore implicit assumptions about shaping the future in positivism, interpretivism and critical research, and consider how design science and action research may be addressing technological potentialities. We draw attention to Zald’s (1993) enlightenment model as an alternative to suggest how IS researcher might be more open to research approaches drawn from the humanities for social and technical critique. We conclude by considering the feasibility of our suggestions

IT-based Regulation of Personal Health: Nudging, Mobile Health Apps and Personal Health Data

journal articleMobile health applications and devices (“mobile health apps”) are increasingly embedded in organizational programs to regulate the personal health behaviors of individuals and populations. In this paper, we draw on de Vaujany et al.’s (2018) framework for IT-based regulation systems to consider how regulatory outcomes can develop in such settings, in which individual actors have strong agency and regulation is indirect and voluntary. Through an instrumental case of a continuous glucose monitoring system used for self-regulation of diabetes, we examine how IT artifacts become embedded in self- regulation practices, how data generated by these apps are implicated in regulatory feedback loops, and how networks of individual, organizational and technological actors are mobilized in regulatory regimes. We examine how data about bodily states and IT features such as displays and alarms ‘nudge’ individuals towards compliance with expert rules materialized in the IT artifact. We then identify regulatory affordances of mobile health apps for predicting and surveilling personal health. We also theorize how multilevel networks of trifecta of rules, IT artifacts, and practices develop through regulatory episodes as a regulatory lattice, and how social regulation is realized as a result. We conclude by considering the theoretical and practical implications of this analytical approach to investigate IT-based regulation in the open, distributed, and indirect regulatory contexts

Studying Work in the Post Reform Era

This paper emerged from the first stage of what is to be a three-stage multi-disciplinary research project examining work in the 'post-reform era '. The key foci of that research project are the organisation of work, the determination of wages, and the well-being of workers at the workplace level. It will examine how the nature of work varies across workplaces of different sizes and in different competitive environments. The present paper draws on the first stage of the research to share some of the problems experienced while attempting to study workplaces in New Zealand today. It draws on research in 19 Auckland workplaces and reveals serious definitional, theoretical, and methodological problems that are likely to constrain any such research in the present environment. In our case, the problems raised, and the solutions offered, have led to a fundamental rethink of the larger project's research objectives, strategies, and ways to operationalise concepts into empirical measures

Contrasting TiO2 compositions in early cenozoic mafic sills of the Faroe Islands : an example of basalt formation from distinct melting regimes

The Paleocene lava succession of the Faroe Islands Basalt Group (FIBG), which is a part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP), is intruded by numerous basaltic sills. These can be grouped into three main categories according to their geochemical characteristics: A low-TiO2 sill category (TiO2 = 0.7-0.9), a relatively high-TiO2 sill category (TiO2 = 1.95-2.6) and an intermediate-TiO2 sill that displays major element compositions lying between the other two categories. Mantle normalised plots for the high-TiO2 and low-TiO2 sills display relatively uniform flat LREE trends and slightly steeper HREE slopes for high-TiO2 relative to low-TiO2 sills. The intermediate-TiO2 Morskranes Sill is LREE depleted. Mantle normalised trace elements of low-TiO2 sill samples define positive Eu and Sr anomalies, whereas high-TiO2 sill samples display negative anomalies for these same lements. Different Nb and Ta anomalies (positive versus negative) in many high-TiO2 versus low-TiO2 sill samples suggest various metasomatism of their sources prior to partial melting. The intermediate-TiO2 sill displays noticeably lower 87Sr/86Sr, 206Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb ratios relative to both the high-TiO2 and the low-TiO2 sill samples. Pb isotope compositions displayed by local contaminated basaltic lavas imply that some of these assimilated distinct crustal material from E Greenland or basement from NW Britain, while others probably assimilated only distinct E Greenland type of crustal material. A third crustal source of E Greenland or Rockall-type basement could be required in order to explain some of the range in lead isotopes displayed by the intermediate-TiO2 Morskranes Sill. Geochemical modelling suggest that Faroese high-TiO2 sills, could have formed by ~4 to 7.5% batch melting of moderately fertile lherzolites, while 16 to 21% batch melting fertile mantle sources could explain geochemical compositions of Faroese low-TiO2 sills. The intermediate-TiO2 sill samples could have formed by a range of 6 to 7% batch melting of a depleted mantle source, probably with a composition comparable to sources that gave rise to local low-TiO2 and intermediate-TiO2 host-rocks. Most Faroese sill samples probably developed outside the garnet stabilitry field and probably formed by batch melting of mantle materials comparable in composition to those reported for the sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) previously at depths of ≤ 85 km. Relative enrichments in LREE (and LILE in general), and their varying Nb and Ta anomalies point to sources affected by metasomatism

Imagining the Tar Sands 1880-1967 and Beyond

en

Vacuum Assisted Acidification: A Novel, Robust and Accurate Technique for the Measurement of CO 2 Loading in Solvents and its Application in Post Combustion Capture

AbstractA method for measuring the CO2 loading of post combustion capture solvents has been developed which first separates CO2 from the solvent by acidification of the solvent under vacuum conditions, then traps the CO2 via deposition, and finally quantifies the CO2 by pressure measurement in a calibrated volume. A preliminary comparative assessment shows that the measurement accuracy and precision of the method compares favorably to other methods currently used at post combustion capture research facilities and that there is potential for continuing development of the method for use in industrial field applications

Ethical Issues

The fact that embryos are specifically created for selection in the use of PGD entails their possible rejection. This, rather than the PGD activity itself, is thought by some to be objectionable as it is said to instrumentalise embryos. Equally, other arguments are used by opponents of PGD, for example that it may have negative effects on resultant children and that there may be risks to the child’s physical and/or emotional status. The emotional risks would be the hardest to quantify but some believe that the power of choice put into the hands of parents by PGD could alter the parent/child relationship fundamentally from one of unconditional love to one dictated by the realisation (or not) of specific ‘designer’ expectations. There are a number of arguments against PGD. One of them is the ‘Playing God’ objection which is examined from the Christian viewpoints, and from the secular standpoint in terms of interfering with the natural order. The wide and differing range of views held by the general public on the status of the embryo and foetus cannot be ignored. New Zealand legislation already permits abortion and PGD on limited grounds, and so does not reflect the conservative view of the foetus although the limits imposed might be construed as opposing a completely liberal view. There are no conclusive arguments, nor is there any crucial evidence, which can resolve the differences in views from various accounts of the status of the human embryo and foetus. The question of whether PGD should or should not be permitted is ultimately not usefully addressed by seeking an answer to the question of the status of the human embryo or foetus. The moderate or ‘gradualist’ approach to the human embryo – an approach that sees the embryo as more than a mere collection of cells, but as less than a full person – is adopted in this report. This approach requires that the embryo of the human species is worthy of respect at all stages, but that certain interventions/treatments may be permissible at certain stages, with the limits of permissibility narrowing as the embryo/foetus nears maturity. Selecting embryos on the basis of their genetic status is a matter of considerable concern for many people – particularly those speaking for the disability rights community. Attitudes vary as to whether or not the availability of PGD to screen out genetic conditions will result in disrespecting people with disabilities or whether this use of PGD sends out a eugenics signal. Discussions about these issues in New Zealand are emerging. The New Zealand Organisation for Rare Disorders is open to the use of emerging genetic technologies for parents to choose to avoid the birth of children with disabilities. For the Crippled Children’s Society, their focus has been to consider changing their constitution to emphasise that they celebrate the lives of people with disabilities. The place of people with disabilities and the impact of clinical advance on their position is sometimes seen to be somewhat marginalised, and surely deserves special protection. New Zealand does not have a Disability Rights Commission (as, for example, the UK does) although it has a Minister for Disability and an Office for Disability Issues. Additionally, even with a number of statutes relevant in this area (the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, Human Rights Act 1993, and Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994), New Zealand has no body directly responsible for issues that fall under the category of promoting good relations between people with disabilities and their communities. The bioethical analyses are informed by the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR)25 which significantly focuses on the inter-relationship between bioethics and human rights, and helps shape thinking and reflection for both the process of developing policy and determining the content of policy. At the heart of the ethical analysis of PGD is the tension between, on one hand, individual freedom and privacy to make reproductive choices and, on the other hand, social solidarity and responsibility to ensure that human dignity is not eroded or undermined