Discrete Single-hand Gestures for Wrist-worn Device Control

Interaction with wrist-worn devices is currently constrained to either voice control or opposing hand control through physical touch on the device screen, crown, or buttons. With one handed control involving full hand extension and hand clenching in a fist, these movements are not discrete. Traditional smartwatch placement on one hand is controlled using the other hand. This is a discrete, yet inconvenient mode of control, especially in situations where the other hand is involved in another function. Some technologies enable one-handed control with hand clenching into a fist / extending into an open palm. However, this isn\u27t discrete or necessarily ergonomic. This disclosure describes discrete, finger-based, single-hand gestures for controlling wrist-based devices. The described gestures are performed using the hand on which the device is worn, with no involvement from the other hand. The gestures include movements for core inputs, e.g., navigation, scrolling, confirmation, selection, etc., within a menu. The described finger gestures are ergonomic and work well for repetitive actions. The gestures advantageously use a single hand and rely on the user’s fine motor skills

Sustaining allied health telehealth services beyond the rapid response to COVID-19 : Learning from patient and staff experiences at a large quaternary hospital

The patient, clinician and administration staff perspectives of telehealth (specifically videoconferencing) services provided by Allied Health Professions (AHP) at a large quaternary hospital were explored. The purpose was to understand stakeholders’ perceptions of the service during initial COVID-19 restrictions and examine factors that influenced the implementation and sustained use of telehealth. A sequential mixed-methods approach was undertaken. Stage 1 involved surveys completed by patients (n = 109) and clinicians (n = 66) who received and provided care via telehealth, respectively, across six AHP departments. Stage 2 involved focus groups with clinicians (n = 24) and administrative staff (n = 13) to further examine implementation and sustainability factors. All participant groups confirmed that telehealth was a valid service model and valued the benefits it afforded, particularly during COVID-19 restrictions. Both patients and clinicians reported that not all AHP services could be delivered via telehealth and preferred a blended model of telehealth and in-person care. Increased administrative staff assistance was needed to support growing telehealth demand. Main factors to address are the need to expand AHP telehealth models and workforce/patient training, improve workflow processes and enhance technical support. Despite rapid implementation, telehealth experiences were overall positive. Study findings are being used to generate solutions to enhance and sustain AHP telehealth services

State business: gender, sex and marriage in Tajikistan

This article examines the relation of the state to masculinity and sexuality by way of an exploration of the sexual problems of a young man and his wife in Tajikistan at the end of the Soviet era. It suggests that the regime’s inattention to this kind of issue was bound up with the importance to the state of projecting appropriate versions of masculinity. It further posits the idea that the continued refusal of the independent Tajik state to offer appropriate treatments for sexual dysfunction is consistent with the image of modernity President Rahmon wishes to present to the world. The article shows that as masculinity discursively occupies the superior gender position, with men expected to dominate, the state is itself impotent to respond when they are, in fact, unable to do so in sexual practice. However, the myth of male dominance persists to the point that it may prevent women from seeing beyond their subordination and finding mutually beneficial solutions in their familial and sexual relationships

The challenges facing public libraries in the Big Society: The role of volunteers, and the issues that surround their use in England

The use of volunteers in English public libraries is nothing new, however their use is becoming ever greater and one may argue that we are increasingly seeing a mixed economy of public library provision, in the wider arena of the Big Society. This paper presents the findings of a Delphi Study of 15 library managers undertaken as part of a Professional Doctorate exploring the challenges facing public libraries in England today, particularly focusing on volunteer use. An overview of relevant supporting literature is provided to help contextualize the research, particularly focusing on concepts such as the political background surrounding policy development, community engagement, the Big Society, and volunteering. Explanation of how the Delphi Study was conducted is given, together with a discussion of the key findings. Results show that opinions of library managers cover a broad spectrum. Although volunteer use is generally viewed by the respondents as a good thing, with potential to further enhance a service and aid community engagement, there are also a number of concerns. These concerns particularly relate to the idea of the volunteer as a replacement to paid staff rather than an enhancement to the service. Other key concerns relate to the quality of service provision, the rationale behind volunteer use, and the capacity of communities to deliver. Volunteer use in public libraries on this scale is a new phenomenon, and the longevity of such a development is largely unknown. This raises the question as to whether this is simply a large scale ideological experiment, or a move to even greater community engagement

Citizen Science and Food: A Review

Citizen science and food is part of a new programme of work to explore how we can involve the communities we serve when building the evidence-base on which policy decisions are made. Citizen science is an approach that can provide high volumes of data with a wide geographic spread. It is relatively quick to deploy and allows access to evidence we would ordinarily have difficulty collating. This methodology has been endorsed by the European Commission for Research, Science and Innovation. There is no one size fits all definition, but citizen science projects involves engaging with communities and asking them to be part of the project, either through engaging them in data collection or through other ways of co-creation. For participants, citizen science offers learning opportunities, the satisfaction of contributing to scientific evidence and the potential to influence policy. It can also give us data which is high in volume, has wide geographical spread, is relatively quick to deploy and that we couldn’t access any other way. Projects using these methods often involve engaging with communities and asking them to be part of the project. This can be either through working with them in data collection, or through co-creation. This report demonstrates that the research community are already undertaking numerous pieces of research that align with FSA’s evidence needs. This includes examples from the UK and other global communities. Participants in such research have collected data on topics ranging from food preparation in the home to levels of chemical contaminant in foods. The findings of this report outline that citizen science could allow the FSA to target and facilitate more systematic engagement with UK and global research communities, to help address key research priorities of the FSA

Organisational participation and women - an attitude problem?

Employee participation is a dynamic and contested area of organisational behaviour, attracting continuing academic, practitioner and policy interest and debate. This chapter focuses on organisational participation and women

Coercion and the labour contract – revisiting Glasbrook Brothers and the political fiction of Lewis Jones

Author's draft. Final version published in International Journal of Law in Context Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012. Available online at http://journals.cambridge.org/In his tale of the struggles and privations of the mining community in the industrial south of Wales in the early decades of the 20th century, Lewis Jones, ex-miner and socialist activist, put aside the usual tools of political activism – of oratory and pamphlet propaganda – and instead turned to fiction as a means of educating and mobilising the political energy of the workforce.. In doing so, Jones represented the extent to which the law was pivotal to the social organisation delivering injustice to working people. When one turns to history and to the legal record, the contestable accounts, elisions and absences from the record speak eloquently of the extent to which selective doctrine contribute to that injustice. The resultant message resonates with debates on the relationship between society, politics and the rule of law itself

Codes of Commitment to Crime and Resistance: Determining Social and Cultural Factors over the Behaviors of Italian Mafia Women

This article categorizes thirty-three women in four main Italian Mafia groups and explores social and cultural behaviors of these women. This study introduces the feminist theory of belief and action. The theoretical inquiry investigates the sometimes conflicting behaviors of women when they are subject to systematic oppression. I argue that there is a cultural polarization among the categorized sub-groups. Conservative radicals give their support to the Mafia while defectors and rebels resist the Mafia. After testing the theory, I assert that emancipation of women depends on the strength of their beliefs to perform actions against the Mafiosi culture

Citizen science for the food system

The food system is hugely complex, encompassing many different actors, geographic areas and cultural contexts. Although the citizen science literature related to food and food systems is concentrated primarily on a few key areas of this complex system (i.e. on health and food production); citizen science has the potential to help address many grand challenges related to food and agriculture. In this chapter we make use of multiple desk-based reviews of the literature, and draw on our own experiences of citizen science projects. We provide examples of existing citizen science projects in the UK (as well as global initiatives) that can be adapted for use to help address food policy areas of research interest. We conclude that making use of citizen science approaches in food policy reseaarch can help the transition toward a more equitable and sustainable food and agriculture system

The lady vanishes: what's missing from the stem cell debate

Most opponents of somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryonic stem cell technologies base their arguments on the twin assertions that the embryo is either a human being or a potential human being, and that it is wrong to destroy a human being or potential human being in order to produce stem cell lines. Proponents’ justifications of stem cell research are more varied, but not enough to escape the charge of obsession with the status of the embryo. What unites the two warring sides in ‘the stem cell wars’ is that women are equally invisible to both: ‘the lady vanishes’. Yet the only legitimate property in the body is that which women possess in their reproductive tissue and the products of their reproductive labour. By drawing on the accepted characterisation in law of property as a bundle of rights, and on a Hegelian model of contract as mutual recognition, we can lessen the impact of the tendency to regard women and their eggs as merely receptacles and women’s reproductive labour as unimportant