Making Ritual Machines

Viewing the mobile telephone as a networked material, we demonstrate the ways in which we have used it to make Research Products for the "Family Rituals 2.0" inquiry of families separated by work. Drawing from a diversity of sources we survey and deconstruct the phone as a material that can be worked to a vast range of technical effects, extended by hardware and configured by software. We demonstrate the transformations of hacking and prototyping practices necessary to construct complex Research Products through the case study of our machines. We offer the Interaction Design community seven specific and actionable techniques for using mobile telephones in Research Products. Finally, we open up a broader discussion for researchers and practitioners using mobile phones as a design material in their work

Early postnatal dexamethasone treatment and increased incidence of cerebral palsy

OBJECTIVE—To study the long term neurodevelopmental outcome of children who participated in a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled study of early postnatal dexamethasone treatment for prevention of chronic lung disease.
METHODS—The original study compared a three day course of dexamethasone (n = 132) with a saline placebo (n = 116) administered from before 12 hours of age in preterm infants, who were ventilated for respiratory distress syndrome and had received surfactant treatment. Dexamethasone treatment was associated with an increased incidence of hypertension, hyperglycaemia, and gastrointestinal haemorrhage and no reduction in either the incidence or severity of chronic lung disease or mortality. A total of 195 infants survived to discharge and five died later. Follow up data were obtained on 159 of 190 survivors at a mean (SD) age of 53 (18) months.
RESULTS—No differences were found between the groups in terms of perinatal or neonatal course, antenatal steroid administration, severity of initial disease, or major neonatal morbidity. Dexamethasone treated children had a significantly higher incidence of cerebral palsy than those receiving placebo (39/80 (49%) v 12/79 (15%) respectively; odds ratio (OR) 4.62, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 2.38 to 8.98). The most common form of cerebral palsy was spastic diplegia (incidence 22/80 (28%) v 5/79 (6%) in dexamethasone and placebo treated infants respectively; OR 4.45, 95% CI 1.95to 10.15). Developmental delay was significantly more common in the dexamethasone treated group (44/80 (55%)) than in the placebo treated group (23/79 (29%); OR 2.87, 95% CI 1.53 to 5.38). Dexamethasone treated infants had more periventricular leucomalacia and less intraventricular haemorrhage in the neonatal period than those in the placebo group, although these differences were not statistically significant. Eleven children with cerebral palsy had normal ultrasound scans in the neonatal period; all 11 had received dexamethasone. Logistic regression analysis showed both periventricular leucomalacia and drug assignment to dexamethasone to be highly significant predictors of abnormal neurological outcome.
CONCLUSIONS—A three day course of dexamethasone administered shortly after birth in preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome is associated with a significantly increased incidence of cerebral palsy and developmental delay.