Rebooting an Old Script by New Means: Teledildonics—The Technological Return to the ‘Coital Imperative’

Teledildonics, a form of digital-mediated sexual interaction, opens new possibilities for the understanding of sexual activity. At first glance, it disrupts conventional preconditions and assumptions about sexual interaction, by allowing the dimension of touch despite the physical distance between partners and, ultimately, promoting a sexual dimension definitely disconnected from the reproductive model of sexuality. However, by scrutinizing the design and functionality of the devices, as well as the discourses presented by three commercial companies—LovePalz, Lovense and Kiiroo—I suggest that this technology reinforces the ‘coital imperative’, by equating sexual interaction with penetration of the vagina by the penis. Although permitting other formulations, specifically for non-heterosexual couples, the penetrative act remains a presupposition. In spite of structurally disrupting the reproductive model of sex, teledildonics promotes its strongest corollary.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Designing for Light-Weight Collaboration: The Case of Interactive Citizens’ Advisory Services

This paper reports on the design of a collaborative system to support citizens' advisory services. Recent research on the adoption of collaborative technologies indicates that: a) successful collaborative technologies diffuse from the private sector to the business sector and not vice versa, b) collaborative processes evolve and therefore cannot be prestructured in detail, and c) creative collaboration can be characterized as creating and sharing mental models. We demonstrate how these insights informed our design of a citizens' advisory system and provide data from an evaluation in a German city. Implications for the design of our collaborative system are offered

Metaheurísticas híbridas para resolução do problema do caixeiro viajante com coleta de prêmios Hybrid metaheuristics for solve the prize collecting traveling salesman problem

O Problema do Caixeiro Viajante com Coleta de Prêmios (PCVCP) pode ser associado a um caixeiro que coleta um prêmio em cada cidade visitada e paga uma penalidade para cada cidade não visitada, com um custo de deslocamento entre as cidades. O problema encontra-se em minimizar o somatório dos custos da viagem e penalidades, enquanto inclui na sua rota um número suficiente de cidades que lhe permita coletar um prêmio mínimo preestabelecido. Este trabalho contribui com o desenvolvimento de metaheurísticas híbridas para o PCVCP, baseadas em GRASP e métodos de busca em vizinhança variável (VNS/VND) para solucionar aproximadamente o PCVCP. De forma a validar as soluções obtidas, propõe-se uma formulação matemática a ser resolvida por um solver comercial, objetivando encontrar a solução ótima para o problema, sendo este solver aplicado a problemas de pequeno porte. Resultados computacionais demonstram a eficiência da abordagem híbrida proposta, tanto em relação à qualidade da solução final obtida quanto em relação ao tempo de execução.<br>The Prize Collecting Traveling Salesman Problem (PCTSP) can be associated to a salesman who collects a prize in each city visited and pays a penalty for each city not visited, with travel costs among the cities. The objective is to minimize the sum of the travel costs and penalties, including in the tour enough number of cities that allow collecting a minimum prize. This paper contributes with the development of a hybrid metaheuristic to PCTSP, based on GRASP and search methods in variable neighborhood (VNS/VND) to solve PCTSP approximately. In order to validate the obtained solutions, we proposed a mathematical formulation to be solved by a commercial solver to find the best solution to the problem, being this solver applied to small problems. Computational results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method, as much in relation to the quality of the obtained final solution as in relation to the time of execution