5,172 research outputs found
Three applications for mobile epidemic algorithms
This paper presents a framework for the pervasive sharing of data using wireless networks. 'FarCry' uses the mobility of users to carry files between separated networks. Through a mix of ad-hoc and infrastructure-based wireless networking, files are transferred between users without their direct involvement. As users move to different locations, files are then transmitted on to other users, spreading and sharing information. We examine three applications of this framework. Each of these exploits the physically proximate nature of social gatherings. As people group together in, for example, business meetings and cafés, this can be taken as an indication of similar interests, e.g. in the same presentation or in a type of music. MediaNet affords sharing of media files between strangers or friends, MeetingNet shares business documents in meetings, and NewsNet shares RSS feeds between mobile users. NewsNet also develops the use of pre-emptive caching: collecting information from others not for oneself, but for the predicted later sharing with others. We offer observations on developing this system for a mobile, multi-user, multi-device environment
Supporting ethnographic studies of ubiquitous computing in the wild
Ethnography has become a staple feature of IT research over the last twenty years, shaping our understanding of the social character of computing systems and informing their design in a wide variety of settings. The emergence of ubiquitous computing raises new challenges for ethnography however, distributing interaction across a burgeoning array of small, mobile devices and online environments which exploit invisible sensing systems. Understanding interaction requires ethnographers to reconcile interactions that are, for example, distributed across devices on the street with online interactions in order to assemble coherent understandings of the social character and purchase of ubiquitous computing systems. We draw upon four recent studies to show how ethnographers are replaying system recordings of interaction alongside existing resources such as video recordings to do this and identify key challenges that need to be met to support ethnographic study of ubiquitous computing in the wild
Impacts of Reducing UK Beef Consumption Using a Revised Sustainable Diets Framework
The impact of beef consumption on sustainability is a complex and evolving area, as sustainability covers many areas from human nutrient adequacy to ecosystem stability. Three sustainability assessment frameworks have been created to help policy makers unpack the complexities of sustainable food systems and healthy sustainable dietary change. However, none of these frameworks have yet to be applied to a case study or individual policy issue. This paper uses a hybrid version of the sustainability assessment frameworks to investigate the impact of reducing beef consumption (with a concurrent increase in consumption of plant-based foods, with a focus on legumes) on sustainability at a UK level. The aim of this paper is to understand the applicability of these overarching frameworks at the scale of an individual policy. Such an assessment is important, as this application of previously high-level frameworks to individual policies makes it possible to summarise, at a glance, the various co-benefits and trade-offs associated with a given policy, which may be of particular value in terms of stakeholder decision-making. We find that many of the proposed metrics found within the sustainability assessment frameworks are difficult to implement at an individual issue level; however, overall they show that a reduction in beef consumption and an increase in consumption of general plant-based foods, with a focus around legumes production, would be expected to be strongly beneficial in five of the eight overarching measures which were assessed
Caring for continence in stroke care settings: a qualitative study of patientsâ and staff perspectives on the implementation of a new continence care intervention
Objectives: Investigate the perspectives of patients and nursing staff on the implementation of an augmented continence care intervention after stroke.
Design: Qualitative data were elicited during semi-structured interviews with patients (nâ=â15) and staff (14 nurses; nine nursing assistants) and analysed using thematic analysis.
Setting: Mixed acute and rehabilitation stroke ward.
Participants: Stroke patients and nursing staff that experienced an enhanced continence care intervention.
Results: Four themes emerged from patientsâ interviews describing: (a) challenges communicating about continence (initiating conversations and information exchange); (b) mixed perceptions of continence care; (c) ambiguity of focus between mobility and continence issues; and (d) inconsistent involvement in continence care decision making. Patientsâ perceptions reflected the severity of their urinary incontinence. Staff described changes in: (i) knowledge as a consequence of specialist training; (ii) continence interventions (including the development of nurse-led initiatives to reduce the incidence of unnecessary catheterisation among patients admitted to their ward); (iii) changes in attitude towards continence from containment approaches to continence rehabilitation; and (iv) the challenges of providing continence care within a stroke care context including limitations in access to continence care equipment or products, and institutional attitudes towards continence.
Conclusion: Patients (particularly those with severe urinary incontinence) described challenges communicating about and involvement in continence care decisions. In contrast, nurses described improved continence knowledge, attitudes and confidence alongside a shift from containment to rehabilitative approaches. Contextual components including care from point of hospital admission, equipment accessibility and interdisciplinary approaches were perceived as important factors to enhancing continence care
Institutional and Post-Institutional Treatment of the Sex Offender
The problem of the sex offender is as old as society itself. Today, as in the distant past, man is more concerned, in the first instance, with protecting himself and his loved ones from the corrupting touch of the so-called sex-fiend than he is with the punishment, treatment or cure of such persons. This phenomenon of social psychology still prevails in spite of the growing preachments of the doctor, psychologist, criminologist and more recently, of the lawyer prosecutor, the lawyer law-maker and the lawyer practitioner,\u27 to the effect that the primarily desirable end of protecting society can best be achieved by a greater emphasis on penological, therapeutic and hygienic techniques applicable in the institutional and post-institutional treatment of such offenders. Much of what is herein proposed in the way of legislative and administrative improvement is generally applicable to the whole field of correction, but the special problem of the sex offender requires that it be underlined
Aspirated capacitor measurements of air conductivity and ion mobility spectra
Measurements of ions in atmospheric air are used to investigate atmospheric
electricity and particulate pollution. Commonly studied ion parameters are (1)
air conductivity, related to the total ion number concentration, and (2) the
ion mobility spectrum, which varies with atmospheric composition. The physical
principles of air ion instrumentation are long-established. A recent
development is the computerised aspirated capacitor, which measures ions from
(a) the current of charged particles at a sensing electrode, and (b) the rate
of charge exchange with an electrode at a known initial potential, relaxing to
a lower potential. As the voltage decays, only ions of higher and higher
mobility are collected by the central electrode and contribute to the further
decay of the voltage. This enables extension of the classical theory to
calculate ion mobility spectra by inverting voltage decay time series. In
indoor air, ion mobility spectra determined from both the novel voltage decay
inversion, and an established voltage switching technique, were compared and
shown to be of similar shape. Air conductivities calculated by integration
were: 5.3 +- 2.5 fS/m and 2.7 +- 1.1 fS/m respectively, with conductivity
determined to be 3 fS/m by direct measurement at a constant voltage.
Applications of the new Relaxation Potential Inversion Method (RPIM) include
air ion mobility spectrum retrieval from historical data, and computation of
ion mobility spectra in planetary atmospheres.Comment: To be published in Review of Scientific Instrument
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