1,072 research outputs found
The Impact of Information Technology Evolution on the Forms of Knowledge in Public Sector Social Work: Examples from Canada and the UK
In recent years, governments have been enthusiastic about the potential of digital changes to transform the way the public sector operates. While such changes were originally found to deprioritize the forms of knowledge needed by UK child protection workers, instead favouring administrative forms of knowledge, it was not known whether this impact was similar in other liberal democracies, nor whether this simply represented a phase in the evolution of digital government. This study explored this question through desk research and by interviewing and observing social workers as they interacted with a new information system. The study’s findings suggest that while the experiences of social workers in a Canadian province replicate the previous UK experience, current digital changes in the UK that are built on the earlier foundation may enhance the knowledge of child protection workers. These findings suggest that forms of knowledge may evolve with technological change
When to remember and when to forget: the tension between privacy and social utility
As the quantity and persistence of personally identifiable digital information increases year over year, there is growing tension between individual privacy and the social benefit of information use. This essay explores one option for privacy protection, digital forgetting, and three arguments against this option based on observational study, paradigm, and selection bias. It concludes that there are strong policy related reasons to limit digital forgetting
Halo-independent tests of dark matter direct detection signals: local DM density, LHC, and thermal freeze-out
From an assumed signal in a Dark Matter (DM) direct detection experiment a
lower bound on the product of the DM--nucleon scattering cross section and the
local DM density is derived, which is independent of the local DM velocity
distribution. This can be combined with astrophysical determinations of the
local DM density. Within a given particle physics model the bound also allows a
robust comparison of a direct detection signal with limits from the LHC.
Furthermore, the bound can be used to formulate a condition which has to be
fulfilled if the particle responsible for the direct detection signal is a
thermal relic, regardless of whether it constitutes all DM or only part of it.
We illustrate the arguments by adopting a simplified DM model with a Z'
mediator and assuming a signal in a future xenon direct detection experiment.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure
A Developmental Study to Design, Construct, and Test a Radiographic Phantom for Exposure Programming
A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Applied Sciences and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Vocational Education by Thomas Michael Vogl on August 2, 1978
How to save the WIMP: global analysis of a dark matter model with two s-channel mediators
A reliable comparison of different dark matter (DM) searches requires models
that satisfy certain consistency requirements like gauge invariance and
perturbative unitarity. As a well-motivated example, we study two-mediator DM
(2MDM). The model is based on a spontaneously broken gauge symmetry and
contains a Majorana DM particle as well as two -channel mediators, one
vector (the ) and one scalar (the dark Higgs). We perform a global scan
over the parameters of the model assuming that the DM relic density is obtained
by thermal freeze-out in the early Universe and imposing a large set of
constraints: direct and indirect DM searches, monojet, dijet and dilepton
searches at colliders, Higgs observables, electroweak precision tests and
perturbative unitarity. We conclude that thermal DM is only allowed either
close to an -channel resonance or if at least one mediator is lighter than
the DM particle. In these cases a thermal DM abundance can be obtained although
DM couplings to the Standard Model are tiny. Interestingly, we find that
vector-mediated DM-nucleon scattering leads to relevant constraints despite the
velocity-suppressed cross section, and that indirect detection can be important
if DM annihilations into both mediators are kinematically allowed.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures + appendice
Free Hapten Molecules are Dispersed by Way of the Bloodstream During Contact Sensitization to Fluorescein Isothiocyanate
The fate of the contact sensitizer fluorescein isothiocyanate was traced by means of fluorescence spectrophotometry and flow cytometry. The hapten applied to one ear rapidly entered the circulation by way of local lymphatics and blood vessels. It was dispersed for several hours essentially as free hapten, released from a reservoir left behind at the site. Hapten molecules coupled to plasma proteins while circulating and reacted with white blood cells. Total cells of regional lymph nodes, spleen, and distant lymph nodes became fluorescent in successive order. Fluorescence of CD11c-positive dendritic cells exceeded significantly that of lymphoid cells. Total spleen cells and total nonregional lymph node cells were shown in vitro to drive committed lymph node cells to proliferation. The mechanism disclosed is proposed to counterbalance the action of epidermal Langerhans cells for regulation of contact hypersensitivity
Smart Technology and the Emergence of Algorithmic Bureaucracy:Artificial Intelligence in UK Local Authorities
In recent years, local authorities in the UK have begun to adopt a variety of ‘smart’ technological changes to enhance service delivery. These changes are producing profound impacts on the structure of public administration. Focusing on the particular case of artificial intelligence, specifically autonomous agents and predictive analytics, a combination of desk research, a survey questionnaire, and interviews were used to better understand the extent and nature of these changes in local government. Findings suggest that local authorities are beginning to adopt smart technologies and that these technologies are having an unanticipated impact on how public administrators and computational algorithms become imbricated in the delivery of public services. This imbrication is described as algorithmic bureaucracy and it provides a framework within which to explore how these technologies transform both the socio‐technical relationship between workers and their tools, as well as the ways that work is organized in the public sector
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