The Problematic of Privacy in the Namespace

In the twenty-first century, the issue of privacy--particularly the privacy of individuals with regard to their personal information and effects--has become highly contested terrain, producing a crisis that affects both national and global social formations. This crisis, or problematic, characterizes a particular historical conjuncture I term the namespace. Using cultural studies and the theory of articulation, I map the emergent ways that the namespace articulates economic, juridical, political, cultural, and technological forces, materials, practices and protocols. The cohesive articulation of the namespace requires that privacy be reframed in ways that make its diminution seem natural and inevitable. In the popular media, privacy is often depicted as the price we pay as citizens and consumers for security and convenience, respectively. This discursive ideological shift supports and underwrites the interests of state and corporate actors who leverage the ubiquitous network of digitally connected devices to engender a new regime of informational surveillance, or dataveillance. The widespread practice of dataveillance represents a strengthening of the hegemonic relations between these actors--each shares an interest in promoting an emerging surveillance society, a burgeoning security politics, and a growing information economy--that further empowers them to capture and store the personal information of citizens/consumers. In characterizing these shifts and the resulting crisis, I also identify points of articulation vulnerable to rearticulation and suggest strategies for transforming the namespace in ways that might empower stronger protections for privacy and related civil rights

Teaching data science and cloud computing in low and middle income countries

Large, publicly available data sets present a challenge and an opportunity for researchers based in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). The challenge for these researchers is how they can make use of such data sets given their poor connectivity and infrastructure. The opportunity is the ability to perform leading edge research using these data sets and hence avoid having to invest substantial resources in generating the data sets. The offshoot of this will be to generate solutions to the substantial local problems encountered in these countries and create an educated workforce in data science. Cloud computing in particular may well close the infrastructural gap here. In this paper we discuss our experiences of teaching a variety of summer schools on data intensive analysis in bioinformatics in China, Namibia and Malaysia. On the basis of these experiences we propose that a larger series of summer schools in data science and cloud computing in LMIC would create a cadre of data scientists to start this process. We finally discuss the possibility of the provision of cloud computing resources where the usage costs are controlled so that it is affordable for LMIC researchers

Safety justification of healthcare applications using synthetic datasets

Background: Increasing numbers of intelligent healthcare applications are developed by analysing big data, on which they are trained. It is necessary to assure that such applications will be safe for patients; this entails validation against datasets. But datasets cannot be shared easily, due to privacy, and consent issues, resulting in delaying innovation. Realistic Synthetic Datasets (RSDs), equivalent to the real datasets, are seen as a solution to this. Objective: To develop the outline for safety justification of an application, validated with an RSD, and identify the safety evidence the RSD developers will need to generate. Method: Assurance case argument development approaches were used, including high level data related risk identification. Result: An outline of the justification of such applications, focusing on the contribution of the RSD. Conclusions: Use of RSD will require specific arguments and evidence, which will affect the adopted methods. Mutually supporting arguments can result in a compelling justification

The effects of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services: a systematic review

Background Cash transfers and vouchers are forms of 'demand-side financing' that have been widely used to promote maternal and newborn health in low- and middle-income countries during the last 15 years. Methods This systematic review consolidates evidence from seven published systematic reviews on the effects of different types of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services, and updates the systematic searches to June 2015 using the Joanna Briggs Institute approach for systematic reviewing. The review protocol for this update was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42015020637). Results Data from 51 studies (15 more than previous reviews) and 22 cash transfer and voucher programmes suggest that approaches tied to service use (either via payment conditionalities or vouchers for selected services) can increase use of antenatal care, use of a skilled attendant at birth and in the case of vouchers, postnatal care too. The strongest evidence of positive effect was for conditional cash transfers and uptake of antenatal care, and for vouchers for maternity care services and birth with a skilled birth attendant. However, effects appear to be shaped by a complex set of social and healthcare system barriers and facilitators. Studies have typically focused on an initial programme period, usually two or three years after initiation, and many lack a counterfactual comparison with supply-side investment. There are few studies to indicate that programmes have led to improvements in quality of maternity care or maternal and newborn health outcomes. Conclusion Future research should use multiple intervention arms to compare cost-effectiveness with similar investment in public services, and should look beyond short- to medium-term service utilisation by examining programme costs, longer-term effects on service utilisation and health outcomes, and the equity of those effects

Living in the wasteland : character, worldbuilding and humanism in the Mad Max series

The long-running Mad Max series is a seminal entry in the contemporary western science fiction canon, particularly within the post-apocalyptic subgenre. This thesis argues that a major reason for the series’ enduring success is that it is a fundamentally humanist text. It further argues that Mad Max’s humanism is identifiable and trackable through the construction of its characters and the world they inhabit across the four films in the series. Subjects of analysis include the films themselves, as well as several books written on and about them.Radio-Television-Fil

Salesforce.com

Innovation! One of the most innovative companies, and also one of the best companies to work for, is losing money. This case traces the meteoric rise of the number one customer relationship management service provider against huge rivals such as Microsoft and Oracle. Detail regarding their highly innovative Scrum system is provided, along with detail regarding their marketing approach. How can Salesforce.com regain profitability while continuing to grow in a highly competitive industry

What is the Safety Case for Health IT? A Study of Assurance Practices in England

Objective Health IT (HIT) systems are increasingly becoming a core infrastructural technology in healthcare. However, failures of these systems, under certain conditions, can lead to patient harm and as such the safety case for HIT has to be explicitly made. This study focuses on safety assurance practices of HIT in England and investigates how clinicians and engineers currently analyse, control and justify HIT safety risks. Methods Three workshops were organised, involving 34 clinical and engineering stakeholders, and centred on predefined risk-based questions. This was followed by a detailed review of the Clinical Safety Case Reports for 20 different national and local systems. The data generated was analysed thematically, considering the clinical, engineering and organisational factors, and was used to examine the often implicit safety argument for HIT. Results Two areas of strength were identified: establishment of a systematic approach to risk management and close engagement by clinicians; and two areas for improvement: greater depth and clarity in hazard analysis practices and greater organisational support for assuring safety. Overall, the dynamic characteristics of healthcare combined with insufficient funding have made it challenging to generate and explain the safety evidence to the required level of detail and rigour. Conclusion Improvements in the form of practical HIT-specific safety guidelines and tools are needed. The lack of publicly available examples of credible HIT safety cases is a major deficit. The availability of these examples can help clarify the significance of the HIT risk analysis evidence and identify the necessary expertise and organisational commitments