Creating personas for political and social consciousness in HCI design

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limitations and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals in traditional persona research and creation. This focus, while helping designers, obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will or capacity of personas to take action. We argue that it is possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs and values. We also suggest that a phenomenographic approach to user data analysis is one way to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation

Annotation on a fixed segment of terminal ileum and its blood supply

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Correlative anatomy of the pelvic floor and the viscera which traverse it

Feci quod potui: Fa ciant meliora potentes ( I did what I could, allow others to do better) Inscriptions on graduation dissertations in old Russia.This work began with a search for the pubo-recto-analis muscle at the instigation of Professor J.H. Louw. Requests followed from surgeons and urologists for information about, and demonstration of, structure related to the pelvic floor in infants and adults, these encouraged me to go more and more deeply into the anatomy of this region in Man. I found that welding of viscera to their fascial,muscular and bony environs is not described in current textbooks. The absence of clear-cut boundaries between some of the muscles, in areas where they are contiguous,is likewise never emphasised. The beautiful drawings in atlases and textbooks have a comforting way of reassuring us that all has been revealed about the pelvic floor and its viscera. However, when the time-consuming expedient of removing the superior fascia of the levator had already yielded dividends,in that failure to do this, had led generations of anatomists to misrepresent the commonest form of the origin of the pubo-coccygeus, it seemed worthwhile to pursue the fascia,muscles and terminal viscera and their nerves, in order to fully understand their complex interwoven relationships. The unusual electrical activity of the musculature was especially intriguing and demanded an explanation. My findings,many of which fully corroborate the findings of others, led me to a consideration of the factors which combine to produce the remarkably efficient functioning of intestinal and genito-urinary outlet mechanisms. It then appeared essential to adopt a correlative approach. Accordingly I have aimed to present a selective account of the soft tissues of the pelvis and perineum which is comprehensive and I hope useful. From it certain aspects,which appear of primary importance,should emerge clearly

AM. Sub. H.B. 352: An Overview—Dogs under Control

Special Edition: Vicious-Dog Legislation—Controlling the Pit Bul

Nursing, professional curiosity and big data cocreating eHealth

This paper describes work that has taken place over the past three years in the form of an annual deep dive study track within a national conference setting. The work explores the changing influence that big data, and in particular population and social determinants of health data, makes upon the generation of co-created eHealth within a nursing domain. Working with delegates, many of whom returned year after year, the paper reports the discussion themes and ideas that evolved over time. The paper is presented as an example of connected reasoning and personal development by all those involved and is offered as a distributed think tank for further discussion and debate

The Unification of Journalism and Communication Studies: The Benefits of Change

The article discusses the advantages, implications and the feasibility of integrating journalism and communication studies. The authors comment that the fear of academic merger has prevented the integration of journalism and communication studies. According to them, school employees believe that integrating journalism and communication departments will result to lay-offs. Integrating the two studies is expected to increase the communication skills of journalism students and enhance literary skills of communication students

Exploring community planning thinking as a model for use case development

There are many vetted technical and semantic standards promulgated within the United States and the United Kingdom to operationalize eHealth interoperability in order to improve care outcomes, manage population health, and provide efficient information exchange between providers, services, patients and consumers. However, consideration must be given to the complex real world use cases in which the data and information will be exchanged between a wide variety of interested parties, including the consumer or patient. In many instances, community based use cases need development in order to serve as the model. These use cases can only be accurately described and created by using a wide lens viewpoint such as community-planning engages, which requires that all interested parties be actively involved. This poster will introduce models of community planning that can be developed and led by the Nurse Informatician

Improved Tissue-Based Analytical Test Methods for Orellanine, a Biomarker of Cortinarius Mushroom Intoxication.

Orellanine (OR) toxin is produced by mushrooms of the genus Cortinarius which grow in North America and in Europe. OR poisoning is characterized by severe oliguric acute renal failure, with a mortality rate of 10%-30%. Diagnosis of OR poisoning currently hinges on a history of ingestion of Cortinarius mushrooms and histopathology of renal biopsies. A key step in the diagnostic approach is analysis of tissues for OR. Currently, tissue-based analytical methods for OR are nonspecific and lack sensitivity. The objectives of this study were: (1) to develop definitive HPLC and LC-MS/MS tissue-based analytical methods for OR; and (2) to investigate toxicological effects of OR in mice. The HPLC limit of quantitation was 10 µg/g. For fortification levels of 15 µg/g to 50 µg/g OR in kidney, the relative standard deviation was between 1.3% and 9.8%, and accuracy was within 1.5% to 7.1%. A matrix-matched calibration curve was reproduced in this range with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.97-0.99. The limit of detection was 20 ng/g for LC-MS/MS. In OR-injected mice, kidney OR concentrations were 97 ± 51 µg/g on Day 0 and 17 ± 1 µg/g on termination Day 3. Splenic and liver injuries were novel findings in this mouse model. The new tissue-based analytical tests will improve diagnosis of OR poisoning, while the mouse model has yielded new data advancing knowledge on OR-induced pathology. The new tissue-based analytical tests will improve diagnosis of OR poisoning, while the mouse model has yielded new data advancing knowledge on OR-induced pathology

Midazolam Efficacy Against Acute Hydrogen Sulfide-Induced Mortality and Neurotoxicity.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a colorless, highly neurotoxic gas. It is not only an occupational and environmental hazard but also of concern to the Department of Homeland Security for potential nefarious use. Acute high-dose H2S exposure causes death, while survivors may develop neurological sequelae. Currently, there is no suitable antidote for treatment of acute H2S-induced neurotoxicity. Midazolam (MDZ), an anti-convulsant drug recommended for treatment of nerve agent intoxications, could also be of value in treating acute H2S intoxication. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that MDZ is effective in preventing/treating acute H2S-induced neurotoxicity. This proof-of-concept study had two objectives: to determine whether MDZ prevents/reduces H2S-induced mortality and to test whether MDZ prevents H2S-induced neurological sequelae. MDZ (4 mg/kg) was administered IM in mice, 5 min pre-exposure to a high concentration of H2S at 1000 ppm or 12 min post-exposure to 1000 ppm H2S followed by 30 min of continuous exposure. A separate experiment tested whether MDZ pre-treatment prevented neurological sequelae. Endpoints monitored included assessment of clinical signs, mortality, behavioral changes, and brain histopathological changes. MDZ significantly reduced H2S-induced lethality, seizures, knockdown, and behavioral deficits (p < 0.01). MDZ also significantly prevented H2S-induced neurological sequelae, including weight loss, behavior deficits, neuroinflammation, and histopathologic lesions (p < 0.01). Overall, our findings show that MDZ is a promising drug for reducing H2S-induced acute mortality, neurotoxicity, and neurological sequelae