Undesigning Culture. A brief reflection on design as ethical practice

This essay furthers the understanding of design as ethical practice.\ud Based on a perspective on the relationship between humans and technology as a\ud material-discursive practice, an argument is developed in which the meaning and\ud matter of a technology is not perceived as the effect of use only. Matter and\ud meaning emerge in each iteration in the design process of a technology. A design\ud strategy is presented in which ethics becomes an integral part of the design\ud process

In/Visible Bodies. On patients and privacy in a networked world

In the networked world, privacy and visibility become entangled in new and unexpected ways. This article uses the concept of networked visibility to explore the entanglement of technology and the visibility of patient bodies. Based\ud on semi-structured interviews with patients active in social media, this paper describes how multiple patient bodies are produced in the negotiations between the need for privacy and the need for social interaction. Information technology is actively involved in these negotiations: patients use technology to make their bodies both visible and invisible. At the same time technology collects data on these patients, which can be used for undesired commercial and surveillance\ud purposes. The notion of visibility by design may infuse design efforts that enable online privacy, supporting patients in the multiple ways they want to be visible and invisible online

Design for the contact zone. Knowledge management software and the structures of indigenous knowledges

This article examines the design of digital indigenous knowledge archives. In a discussion of the distinction between indigenous knowledge and western science, a decentred perspective is developed, in which the relationship between different local knowledges is explored. The particular characteristics of indigenous knowledges raise questions about if and how these knowledges can be managed. The role of technology in managing indigenous knowledges is explored with examples from fieldwork in India and Kenya and from web-based databases and digital archives. The concept of contact zone is introduced to explore the space in which different knowledges meet and are performed, such as indigenous knowledge and the technoscientific knowledge of the database. Design for the contact zone, this article proposes, is an intra-active and adaptive process for in creating databases that are meaningful for indigenous knowers. The meta-design approach is introduced as a methodology, which may provide indigenous knowers tools for self-representation and self-organisation through design

New cation-exchange membranes for hyperfiltration processes

A new route for the preparation of cation exchange membranes from polystyrene-polyisoprene-polystyrene (SIS) block copolymers has been studied, using N-chlorosulfonyl isocyanate. At temperatures of 0° to 20°C, N-chlorosulfonyl isocyanate reacts readily with the olefin group in polyisoprenes, resulting in a β-lactam-N-sulfonyl chloride group. Films of this product can be cast which are hydrolyzed afterwards with aqueous ammonia at room temperature to give a membrane with ionic sulfonate and neutral carbamoyl groups. Homogeneous membranes are prepared with an SIS block copolymer as starting material and with mole ratios of N-chlorosulfonyl isocyanate/isoprene between 15% and 45%. In hyperfiltration experiments at 40 atmospheres, both NaCl and Na2SO4 are rejected up to 82%, while fluxes of 0.25 to 0.30 cm3/cm2·hr are obtained. From permeation and hyperfiltration experiments, it is concluded that the weight fraction of membrane water has a large influence on the flux. The water content in the membrane during the hyperfiltration process is primarily determined by the applied pressure, the type of salt, and its concentration

Detecting response styles by using dual scaling of successive categories

A response style denotes a certain mapping of latent preferences toa rating scale that is common among a certain group of individuals.For example, individuals from the same country may assign highratings to the majority of objects regardless of the specificpreferences for the objects. The existence of response styles causesproblems in international and cross-cultural research as it makes ithard to compare findings. Moreover, even within homogeneous samples,response styles make it difficult to expose the underlyingpreference structure. Detecting the existence and influence of aresponse style is typically a difficult issue as the underlyingpreferences are not directly observable. Hence, we can never be sureif the observed ratings are the result of a response style or anadequate representation of the preferences. In this paper, weconsider the use of dual scaling as a tool to detect the existenceof a response style. By means of a simulation study, we assess theperformance of the proposed method.

Mobile phone-based healthcare delivery in a Sami area: Reflections on technology and culture\ud

This paper analyses the redesign of psychiatric services for children and\ud adolescents in a Sami area in the county of Finnmark in Norway. The project\ud included the introduction of a new technology in support of a decentralized model\ud for healthcare service delivery. We focus specifically on the role of culture in the\ud development and implementation of a mobile phone application during the pilot\ud phase of the project. In our analysis we draw on information infrastructure theory.\ud We are in particular interested in the concept of generativity and critically assess\ud its role of in the analysis of technology in a culturally diverse context

A survey of structure characterization methods for ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes

Asymmetric membranes consist of a thin skin, which is permselective to certain molecules in solution, and a porous support, serving as a mechanical support layer and also as a transport layer for the permeate. Both in ultrafiltration and in hyperfiltration (reverse osmosis) asymmetric membranes are in use. Two different types of methods can be distinguished for the characterization of porous properties of membranes, aiming resp. at morphological structure and permeability of membranes.\ud \ud The methods at hand to characterize the morphological structure of membranes are akin to those used for wet spun polymer fibers. Thus, scanning electron microscopy, thanks to its large depth of focus has given insight as to the type of pores existing in support layers (closed or open cells). It is much more difficult to get relevant information on morphological structures existing in the skin. Transmission electron microscopy, which is able to show domain structures (≈ 500 P.) in thin films of block-copolymers, should give some of the answers here.\ud \ud Further ways to characterize porous membrane structures are to be explored in mercury porosimetry (pressing mercury in dried and evacuated membrane materials) and through gas adsorption measurements (BET-method). In both cases membrane treatment must be such that the pores are kept in their original size and shape (liquid exchange to non-swelling liquids before drying).\ud \ud The second and more direct way in defining membrane performance concerns selective permeability and is characterized by the so-called cut-off of membranes. A basic assumption made very often here is that permeability decreases with molecular size, because of a given pore size distribution in the skin. It should be realized that except for the pore sizes in the membrane and the size of the permeating substance, also the chemical nature (charge, extent of hydration) of the substances to be separated and that of the membrane material are important. Some relevant criteria for the choice of testing compounds in cut-off studies will be given, and typical results for all the foregoing topics will be presented