The gendered symbolism of office computers across three generations

The computer has changed in form and function over the last 50 years. Once a sprawling mainframe, revered and fed data encoded in punched cards, it is now a multi function hand-held device used to share personal information with an anonymous audience. It is omnipresent in UK workplaces, fundamental to the majority of businesses and critical to administrative processes. But the computer is just a machine - or is it? This is a qualitative research study within a symbolic interactionist phenomenology using narrative to explore the meaning of the computer held by participants from three generational cohorts. The research concludes that the computer is more than just the sum of its component parts. The computer is a symbol of community, providing access to online social groups, enhancing female solidarity and supporting the development of international alliances. It means freedom and independence, is a lever for professional development and key to a fathomless vat of knowledge. It is also a symbol of oppression, a stifling force, invading private space, encroaching on the sanctity of the family home and seeping into leisure time. It represents the fragmentation of social groups and isolation of individuals as it disrupts social bonds and usurps physical connection. There are whiffs of male symbolism and, being a technological artefact, the computer parades as a thing that men do. However, the study finds technology is what happens behind the scenes, and it is the application of the computer that is engendered. Symbolic interactionism theorises that we act and react with things according to the meaning we attach to them, and that meaning comes from how we see other people act/react. Thus it would follow that how we relate to the computer as a symbol is impacting on how we relate to each other

Community Domain Name Policy Development

In August 2006, auDA launched a new domain name space designed specifically for community groups to develop community websites for the benefit of the local community. This paper presents an overview of the scheme, and identifies the changes made to the governing policies since they were initially proposed. A comparison of the proposed and implemented policies is presented, and the potential effects of these changes on a ‘world first’ community website scheme are considered. The changes made by the administrators to the scheme were in the following areas: local focus; sale of geographic .com.au and .net.au domains; management and licensing; website management groups; marketing and publicity; state and national portals; fourth level domains; and licensing costs. Test case communities’ responses to the issues are also considered

Community Websites and what makes them Sustainable: Evidence from Australia

Australia is leading the way in promoting the use of the Internet as a means of strengthening local communities. The Australian Domain Name Authority (auDA) has announced the release of Community Geographic Domain Names (CGDN), to be solely used by not-for-profit, self-funded local community groups. As Australian communities attempt to establish a management group and develop a website under this concept, they are faced with a range of issues. Longitudinal case study research has been conducted on three communities involved in a trial of the CGDN model, in the first research of this type. Based on data collected from the case studies and the CGDN model, a mapping of sustainability issues and a model of community website sustainability will be presented. There is limited published research into sustainability issues for community websites, with no models of community website sustainability currently available

Reinforcement Learning Control for Vapor Compression Refrigeration Cycle

Vapor compression refrigeration cycles (VCRC) control optimization is an effective method to increase its\u27 reliability and energy efficiency. In modern VCRC systems, the introduction of inverter compressors, electronic expansion valves, fan speed, and pump speed control has significantly increased their controllability. These improvements led to the development of many multivariable and predictive control strategies that improved the system\u27s temperature tracking performance and increased the coefficient of performance (COP) by up to 30% compared to conventional on/off and PID controls. However, a VCRC also has high nonlinearities and parameter couplings, making it difficult to apply these modern control laws. This problem incentivizes the application of reinforcement learning (RL) to optimize VCRC control as RL demonstrated an unprecedented ability to optimize complex control problems. This study explores this idea by using RL to train a direct optimal controller for a VCRC. To test the concept, a VCRC simulation model was developed in the MATLAB Simulink environment to train an RL VCRC controller using the MATLAB reinforcement learning toolbox. The controller\u27s goal is to track the desired internal air temperature and a 10˚C superheat setting. The controller used 17 observations containing the VCRC states, tracking errors, operating conditions, and previous actions to determine the optimal compressor speed and expansion valve opening percentage. The VCRC operating conditions were limited to ambient and internal air temperature ranges of 28-32˚C and 16-20˚C, respectively. This study used the twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3) RL algorithm to train the controller. The TD3 training hyperparameters such as the noise model and deep neural network parameters were tuned to balance the exploration and exploitation of the solution space. The training converged to a suboptimal solution after completing 6500 episodes in 5 days using an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU 3.2GHz with 32 GB RAM. The developed RL controller was tested using custom ambient and internal air temperature profiles. The controller tracked both the internal air and superheat temperature settings well with low error and fast response time. However, when the ambient temperature fell below 29˚C, the actuators began to fluctuate, indicating that it did not learn a good policy for this region. This study showed that RL could optimize VCRC control, but more research is necessary to improve it

Trajectories to Abortion and Abortion-related Care: a Conceptual Framework

This paper presents a conceptual framework which captures the macro-environmental and micro-level contexts and processes of a woman's pathway to terminating her pregnancy or seeking abortion-related care. The framework has global applicability, across legal contexts and safety spectra. It can be applied at all points in the reproductive lifespan and all marital statuses. The purpose of this framework is to identify and specify the most salient aspects of abortion decision-making across populations. Social scientists as well as policy and programme planners can use the framework to highlight aspects of the macro/micro environment that facilitate or hinder women's abilities to terminate unwanted pregnancies safely and in a timely manner

State Abortion Policy and Moral Distress Among Clinicians Providing Abortion After the <i>Dobbs</i> Decision

Importance: Moral distress occurs when individuals feel powerless to do what they think is right, including when clinicians are prevented from providing health care they deem necessary. The loss of federal protections for abortion following the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision may place clinicians providing abortion at risk of experiencing moral distress, as many could face new legal and civil penalties for providing care in line with professional standards and that they perceive as necessary. Objective: To assess self-reported moral distress scores among abortion-providing clinicians following the Dobbs decision overall and by state-level abortion policy. Design, Setting, and Participants: This survey study, conducted from May to December 2023, included US abortion-providing clinicians (physicians, advanced practice clinicians, and nurses). A purposive electronic survey was disseminated nationally through professional listservs and snowball sampling. Exposure: Abortion policy in each respondent’s state of practice (restrictive vs protective using classifications from the Guttmacher Institute). Main Outcomes and Measures: Using descriptive statistics and unadjusted and adjusted negative binomial regression models, the association between self-reported moral distress on the Moral Distress Thermometer (MDT), a validated psychometric tool that scores moral distress from 0 (none) to 10 (worst possible), and state abortion policy was examined. Results: Overall, 310 clinicians (271 [87.7%] women; mean [SD] age, 41.4 [9.7] years) completed 352 MDTs, with 206 responses (58.5%) from protective states and 146 (41.5%) from restrictive states. Reported moral distress scores ranged from 0 to 10 (median, 5) and were more than double for clinicians in restrictive compared with protective states (median, 8 [IQR, 6-9] vs 3 [IQR, 1-6]; P  Conclusions and Relevance: In this purposive national survey study of clinicians providing abortion, moral distress was elevated among all clinicians and more than twice as high among those practicing in states that restrict abortion compared with those in states that protect abortion. The findings suggest that structural changes addressing bans on necessary health care, such as federal protections for abortion, are needed at institutional, state, and federal policy levels to combat widespread moral distress.</p