Design Teams as Change Agents: Diplomatic Design in the Open Data Movement

Designers and developers who want to participate in the open data movement should be more than technical experts; they should also be change agents. Realizing open data’s promise of innovation and entrepreneurialism requires the support of diverse stakeholders. Government agencies must release accessible and useful data; developers must use the data to build tools; and citizens must adopt the technology. The interests of one group may come at the expense of another. For this reason, we examine the usefulness of a diplomatic design approach, which focuses on the art and practice of conducting negotiations using specialized techniques. We conducted an exploratory case study on a national nonprofit fellowship program as it worked to design not only technology but also organizational and social change in the context of a digital government engagement

Characterizing Communication Networks Associated with Political Hashtags.

Among the diverse forms of communication and information networks found in the Web 2.0 environment, “social” and “informational” communication networks have been characterized in terms of their network metrics. Although Twitter is partly based on relationships between actors, activity has been shown to reflect characteristics of information networks. This study examines activity in Twitter within spaces defined by hashtags on political topics. We gathered our own data on a hashtag associated with the 2012 Hawaii senatorial race and compared our results to those from other political hashtag networks, and to typical social and information networks as well as random graphs. Results show that hashtag-centered reply and retweet networks in this domain do not fall clearly into the social or informational categories. There appears to be a third kind of network associated with political debate. More generally, it may be productive to conceive of communication networks in terms of multidimensional characteristics rather than categories

Hybrid media consumption: How tweeting during a televised political debate influences the vote decision

An increasing number of people are using microblogs to broadcast their thoughts in real time as they watch televised political events. Microblogging social network sites (SNSs) such as Twitter generate a parallel stream of information and opinion. It is presumed that the additional content enhances the viewing experience, but our experiment explores the validity of this assumption. We studied how tweeting, or passively observing Twitter during a debate, influenced affect, recall and vote decision. For most measures, participants’ average feeling and recall toward the candidates did not depend on Twitter activity, but Twitter activity did matter for vote choice. People who actively tweeted changed their voting choice to reflect the majority sentiment on Twitter. Results are discussed in terms of the possibility that active tweeting leads to greater engagement but that it may also make people more susceptible to social influence

Impact of Pre-Existing Treatment with Statins on the Course and Outcome of Tick-Borne Encephalitis

OBJECTIVES: Although statins have anti-inflammatory and potentially also antimicrobial (including antiviral) activity, their therapeutic impact on infectious diseases is controversial. In this study, we evaluated whether pre-existing statin use influenced the course and outcome of tick-borne encephalitis. METHODS: To assess the influence of statin usage on the severity of acute illness and the outcome of tick-borne encephalitis, univariate and multivariable analyses were performed for 700 adult patients with tick-borne encephalitis of whom 77 (11%) were being treated with statins, and for 410 patients of whom 53 (13%) were receiving statins, respectively. RESULTS: Multivariable analyses found no statistically significant association between statin usage and having a milder acute illness. There was also no statistically significant benefit with respect to a favorable outcome defined by the absence of post-encephalitic syndrome (ORs for a favorable outcome at 6 months was 0.96, 95% CI: 0.46-2.04, P = 0.926; at 12 months 0.29, 95% CI: 0.06-1.33, P = 0.111; at 2-7 years after acute illness 0.44, 95% CI: 0.09-2.22, P = 0.321), by a reduction in the frequency of six nonspecific symptoms (fatigue, myalgia/arthralgia memory disturbances, headache, concentration disturbances, irritability) occurring during the 4 week period before the last examination, or by higher SF-36 scores in any of the eight separate domains of health as well as in the physical and mental global overall component. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between patients receiving statins and those who were not in the cerebrospinal fluid or serum levels for any of the 24 cytokines/chemokines measured. CONCLUSIONS: In this observational study, we could not prove that pre-existing use of statins affected either the severity of the acute illness or the long-term outcome of tick-borne encephalitis

PENGGUNAAN LAHAN KAWASAN PERKOTAAN BERDASARKAN FUNGSI KAWASAN

Perkembangan penggunaan lahan di kecamatan airmadidi terus mengalami peningkatan khususnya di kawasan perkotaan. Hal ini terlihat dari perubahan penggunaan  lahan yang signifikan. Penggunaan lahan di kawasan perkotaan tersebut, cenderung mengalami perubahan fungsi kawasan dari ruang hijau pada kawasan hutan lindung dan resapan air, menjadi kawasan terbangun. Dampak yang terjadi akibat ketidaksesuaian penggunaan lahan berdasarkan fungsi kawasan, mengakibatkan daya dukung lahan dan kelestarian lingkungan hidup di masa yang akan datang mengalami gangguan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi dan menganalisis kesesuaian penggunaan lahan berdasarkan fungsi kawasan, di kawasan perkotaan kecamatan Airmadidi. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif dengan pendekatan analisis spasial/keruangan. Data yang diperoleh diolah menggunakan bantuan perangkat lunak/software Arcmap 10.3. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian ini ditemukan, penggunaan lahan di kawasan perkotaan kecamatan Airmadidi, terbagi atas sembilan jenis penggunaan lahan yaitu permukiman, pemerintahan, pariwisata, perindustrian, hutan, semak/belukar, pertanian campur semak, pertanian lahan kering, dan sawah. Hasil kesesuaian penggunaan lahan eksisting terhadap  fungsi kawasan berdasarkan rencana pola ruang kecamatan airmadidi yaitu, sebesar 3775.98 Ha atau 96.80% dari total luas wilayah, dan penggunaan lahan yang tidak sesuai adalah sebesar 124.77 Ha atau 3.20% dari total luas wilayah. Kata Kunci : Penggunaan Lahan, Kawasan Perkotaan, Fungsi Kawasa

Differential Regulation of PAI-1 in Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome and Hemorrhagic Fever With Renal Syndrome

We analyzed the levels of circulating tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 in acute hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The levels of tPA commonly increased in both diseases, whereas PAI-1 correlated with disease severity in HCPS but not in HFRS.Peer reviewe

Unintended Consequences: institutional artifacts, closure mechanisms and the performance gap

Renewable technologies often feature in policies to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Designers introduce predicted energy values for specific technologies, but are surprised when the technologies fail to perform as expected. Three building projects are used to explore the effect of construction processes on the energy performance of building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology. In two cases BIPV failed to deliver expected energy generation, while in the third, dramatic changes in project processes and technical specifications were needed to achieve the specified output. A social construction of technology (SCOT) analysis documents how the energy generation of BIPV disappeared from view at certain points as actors focused on building features. A contribution is made to the theoretical development of SCOT by responding to two issues: privileging of cognitive closure mechanisms and the neglect of institutional analysis. The concept of inflection mechanisms is introduced as a second type of closure mechanism. More specifically, the role of institutional artefacts (e.g. planning requirements and schedules) in the construction process is found to contribute to the performance gap. To reduce the ‘performance gap’, practitioners need to focus on the distribution of design responsibility, sequencing of work and the location of expertise

Diversity of Actinomycetes From Eka Karya Botanical Garden, Bali

A total of 229 strains of actinomycetes were isolated and identified by full sequence of 16S rRNA gene analysis. Samples consisted of 18 soil and 20 leaf-litter were collected from Eka Karya Botanical Garden, Bali Island, Indonesia. Two isolation methods, i.e. SDS-Yeast Extract (SY) and Rehydration-Centrifugation (RC) were used in this study. Based on 16S rRNA gene analysis, isolated actinomycetes may be grouped into 28 genera. Based on molecular analysis of 16S rRNA gene similarities showed that isolated actinomycetes of Eka Karya Botanical Garden origin is diverse. Analysis on 144 isolates from soil samples, resulted in 24 genera and more than 87 species. Streptomyces is the most dominant genus where 65 isolates or 45% from isolated actinomycetes belong to this genus. It was followed by Actinoplanes (25 isolates =17%). From leaf-littersamples, the total number of 85 isolates may be grouped into 9 genera and more than 41 species. The most dominated genus is Actinoplanes (42 isolates =49%) followed by Catenuloplanes (16 isolates=19%)

Overlap between general factors of psychopathology and personality : they share associations with daily life functioning and communication style

Erworben im Rahmen der Schweizer Nationallizenzen (http://www.nationallizenzen.ch)Previous studies have shown that specific personality dimensions, -e.g., the Big Five-, consistently intercorrelate, such that they form a general factor of personality (GFP). It has been hypothesized that the GFP reflects social effectiveness. Similarly, in the clinical domain, overlap between various psychopathological symptoms has also been reported, leading to a general factor of Psychopathology, or p factor. The aim of this study was to test the overlap between the higher order factors in personality and psychopathology, and how they relate to daily life functioning and communication style. We tested a sample of 165 outpatients of a psychological therapy institute, using a multi-source approach that included self-reports and other ratings. The outpatients’ self-reports of personality, general psychological problems, and interpersonal problems were available. Psychotherapists rated the outpatients’ functioning in daily life with the well-known Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. A spouse or friend also rated the impact of the patient’s communication/social behavior. Patients with lower GFP scores and higher scores on general psychopathology, displayed more distress and daily functioning deficits (i.e., lower GAF scores) and, in terms of communication styles, were also rated as being less dominant, less in control socially, and more submissive and aggressive. We proposed that part of the overlap between the general factors (GFP, psychopathology factors) may relate to a lower general life functioning and less social effectiveness