The K-Net Story: Community ICT Development Work

An introduction to a web streamed video clip highlighting the work and the philosophy behind the construction and operation of the Kuhkenah Network (K-Net)

Drawing Crowds to Citizen Science Data Collection and Analysis as Everyday Gaming

In this Gaming Research Colloquium talk, Beaton (Assistant Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh) discusses what citizen science initiative can learn from the history of public participation in non-profit gambling enterprises such as bingo

Can Gaming Be Used in the Nonprofit Sector for More than Fundraising?

This paper explores new, game-based volunteering platforms in the sciences and discusses their viability for nonprofit organizations, which have long used gaming for fundraising but not typically in other aspects of their operations. The paper unfolds in two parts. Examples of game-based volunteering platforms in the sciences are examined in Part 1, and their broader significance discussed in regard to the history of science and the history of gaming. The games in question enable volunteers to work remotely with scientific research data and assist with data processing and information management. In Part 2, the paper outlines information management challenges in the nonprofit domain and articulates possible design modifications to the gamebased platforms being developed in the sciences that would make them potentially workable for nonprofits. The modifications proposed, informed by the idea of “context-rich” design, draw inspiration from research into player habits and preferences within existing nonprofit gaming culture, with a focus on bingo, a highly popular form of NPO gaming that normally involves the analysis of individual and clustered number tables

How Do You Turn a Mobile Device into a Political Tool?

This paper reports on findings from an ongoing study of recent software applications that attempt to turn mobile ICT’s into political tools. The software in question endeavors to make new types of political behavior expressible for ICT users. Two troubling trends were found. The first involves incommensurability between backend databases and the data traces generated by users. The second involves the production of data and metadata vulnerabilities. As part of discussing these trends, the authors introduce the idea of “minor apps” and argue for their importance within discussions of sociotechnical aspects of digital infrastructure

Crafting a Work Persona in 1970s Petroleum Geology

Taking inspiration from a 1972 study by Allan Sekula that concerned everyday shifts in subjectivity among a set of industrial and technical workers, this paper looks at work persona production in petroleum geology, a profession at the centre of the global oil industries and oil capitalism. Persona production is part of how petroleum geologists explain themselves and their controversial work to one another, and how they manage individual celebrity within their expert community. Taking as its data source obituaries and death notices that circulated inside the profession over the course of the 1970s, the paper concentrates on a specific persona created by petroleum geologists as part of their ritualized mourning practices. Findings presented within the paper show that obituaries and death notices were used to collaboratively craft a work persona that is thoroughly disconnected from energy politics and controversy: the imagined figure of the petroleum geologist that emerges is someone who is rugged, righteous, loving, fraternal, and deeply connected to nature. The stakes of this research concern not only work personas and their histories, but also the material underpinnings of contemporary cultural production and ongoing debates over energy forms and futures

Greased Lightning (GL-10) Flight Testing Campaign

Greased Lightning (GL-10) is an aircraft configuration that combines the characteristics of a cruise efficient airplane with the ability to perform vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). This aircraft has been designed, fabricated and flight tested at the small unmanned aerial system (UAS) scale. This technical memorandum will document the procedures and findings of the flight test experiments. The GL-10 design utilized two key technologies to enable this unique aircraft design; namely, distributed electric propulsion (DEP) and inexpensive closed loop controllers. These technologies enabled the flight of this inherently unstable aircraft. Overall it has been determined thru flight test that a design that leverages these new technologies can yield a useful VTOL cruise efficient aircraft

Diagnostic yield from symptomatic gastroscopy in the UK: British Society of Gastroenterology analysis using data from the National Endoscopy Database

Objective: This national analysis aimed to calculate the diagnostic yield from gastroscopy for common symptoms, guiding improved resource utilisation. Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted of diagnostic gastroscopies between 1 March 2019 and 29 February 2020 using the UK National Endoscopy Database. Mixed-effect logistic regression models were used, incorporating random (endoscopist) and fixed (symptoms, age and sex) effects on two dependent variables (endoscopic cancer; Barrett’s oesophagus (BO) diagnosis). Adjusted positive predictive values (aPPVs) were calculated. Results: 382 370 diagnostic gastroscopies were analysed; 30.4% were performed in patients aged <50 and 57.7% on female patients. The overall unadjusted PPV for cancer was 1.0% (males 1.7%; females 0.6%, p<0.01). Other major pathology was found in 9.1% of procedures, whereas 89.9% reported only normal findings or minor pathology (92.5% in females; 94.6% in patients <50). Highest cancer aPPVs were reached in the over 50s (1.3%), in those with dysphagia (3.0%) or weight loss plus another symptom (1.4%). Cancer aPPVs for all other symptoms were below 1%, and for those under 50, remained below 1% regardless of symptom. Overall, 73.7% of gastroscopies were carried out in patient groups where aPPV cancer was <1%. The overall unadjusted PPV for BO was 4.1% (males 6.1%; females 2.7%, p<0.01). The aPPV for BO for reflux was 5.8% and ranged from 3.2% to 4.0% for other symptoms. Conclusions: Cancer yield was highest in elderly male patients, and those over 50 with dysphagia. Three-quarters of all gastroscopies were performed on patients whose cancer risk was <1%, suggesting inefficient resource utilisation