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Experimental Document Analysis—an analytical framework for document design
Get PDFIn this paper I will present an analytical framework for future documents, an experimental document analysis providing support for document design. The American economist, Herbert A. Simon outlined how to design an artificial object in his work The Sciences of the Artificial (1969, 1996) and described how this can be done in a systematic way, by a science of design. Simon describes the design process as a matter of finding possible alternatives among the potential optimal alternatives and finding a satisficing solution, by which he means a solution in-between satisfactory solutions and optimal solutions which can work in real life, expressing a rationality bounded by the conditions given by the environment. I will illustrate the experimental document analysis by an historical example of a pasticcio opera in the 18th century, Dido Abbandonata by P. Metastastio and multiple composers. I will discuss how this kind of document analysis may open for a comparative approach in documentation research in general
Making-to-be: Documents, Facta, and Material-Discursive Agency
Get PDFThis paper presents the performative analysis of agency within and surrounding documents as a path towards uniting the otherwise incompatible insights of both meaningcentric and materialcentric approaches. I contrast the terms agentical, providing agency, and agentic, possessing agency, to help clarify the apparent incompatibilities of prior approaches. I argue that a relational conception of agency, wherein the agentical/agentic distinction is blurred, preserves important virtues of both meaning and materialcentric approaches to documents. This paves the way for a unified materialdiscursive account of documents and a cure for document studies’ inherited duality malady. Extending prior work on capta (Drucker, 2011) and the agency of truthmaking, I propose the more general concept of facta, the madetobe. I briefly outline the research program this term suggests: investigating this agency of documental making, its agentical and agentic dynamics, and progressing towards a unitary understanding of documents’ meaning and materiality. In short, I outline a novel approach to a central question in document studies: how do documents come to matter
What Is a Lesbian Document? Platforming Archival Description, Documents, and History in Sweden
Get PDFAs Joanna Drucker (2014) convincingly argues, “Most information visualizations are acts of interpretation masquerading as presentation (p. 10). This article investigates the visuality and built-in argumentations of the Alvin interface for digitized Swedish cultural heritage, focusing on how the platform defines a document and the effects this definition has on the accessibility and interconnectedness of documents related to lesbian and feminist histories. This paper addresses how (failed) systematization and an emphasis on large quantities of documents and metadata breathes new life into outdated historiographies and renders documents and information related to feminist and lesbian histories and connections between these histories invisible. In doing so, platforms reinstitute divisions and stereotypes about feminist and lesbian history criticized by Adrienne Rich in her seminal essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Platform designers must begin to take seriously queer and feminist researchers\u27 emphasis on context and the need to build flexibility, interconnectivity across private/public boundaries, fuzziness, and incompleteness into cultural heritage platforms from the outset
Empirically Assessing 510(k) Device Safety
Get PDFInnovations in medical device technology hold the potential to improve health outcomes across the populace. Nearly half of all medical devices that enter the U.S. market each year are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the 510(k) pathway. If FDA regulation of 510(k) devices stifles innovation, health outcomes will suffer over time because beneficial devices would not reach patients; on the other hand, if regulation facilitates innovation, health outcomes could improve. Most discussions of innovation under the 510(k) pathway have been either excessively reductionist (such as claims that the pathway stifles innovation) or wholly pessimistic (notably, the Institute of Medicine’s conclusion that empirical study of the pathway would not be worth the time, effort, and money involved). Unfortunately, we lack an empirically grounded understanding of how innovation occurs in devices regulated by FDA under the 510(k) pathway, and how FDA regulation worsens or improves health outcomes through its effects on innovation. This Article applies the “regulatory ancestry” methodology to study innovation in one 510(k) technology space: devices that are used to remove blood clots from the arteries of patients experiencing acute strokes. The study demonstrates that innovation in 510(k) devices occurs in more complex, nuanced ways than existing criticisms have captured. On the surface, competition between device manufacturers appears to be robust, but on closer inspection that competition may be far more limited. Incremental innovation, in which existing devices are modified in relatively limited ways, occurs frequently, but much of this activity involves the combination of existing technologies, as opposed to the incorporation of new technologies. And FDA may be able to strongly channel the direction of innovation through routine administrative decisions, without the need for rulemaking or other formal procedures. These and other useful insights and testable hypotheses concerning the effect of FDA regulation on 510(k) device innovation can be gained by using the methodologies adopted in the pilot study presented here. Considering the profound potential for device regulation under the 510(k) pathway to stifle or facilitate innovation, and thus to impact health outcomes, this Article offers a roadmap for a much-need large scale study that would help to develop a robust, empirically grounded understanding of innovation under 510(k) regulation
Artificial Intelligence and Ethical Considerations for the New Legal Learner: An Annotated Bibliography
Get PDFThis annotated bibliography focuses on providing relevant and helpful resources to those who may be new to using artificial intelligence and want to understand the legal and ethical implications. For attorneys to adhere to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and ethically practice law in conjunction with artificial intelligence, it is vital to learn as much as possible. The articles, cases, advisory opinions, and court rules within this annotated bibliography provide insight into the current state of practicing law with AI
Flattening Breast Cancer by Removing the Breasts: Protecting a Woman\u27s Right to Choose Reconstruction of an Aesthetic Flat Chest after a Mastectomy
Get PDFBreast cancer takes away women’s choices. Many women decide to regain control of their bodies and prevent future cancer or follow-up surgeries by having a double mastectomy without any reconstruction, leaving a fat chest. When their doctors refuse to perform this surgery or their insurers refuse to cover this form of chest reconstruction, women are traumatized by their loss of choice in a system that clings to the outdated idea that women cannot be feminine without breasts. The Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998 was intended to protect women facing cancer from the second trauma of being unable to afford their breast reconstruction. New York has passed legislation making it explicit that fat chest reconstruction is breast reconstruction and must be covered. Other states should follow suit, especially in the face of the surge in anti-trans legislation banning gender-affrming surgeries for trans men, which could further limit women’s options by banning the surgical creation of fat chests for cancer patients. In the absence of such state legislative action, insurers and courts should read the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act to include reconstruction of both protruding breasts and fat chests in order to make women whole again after cance
Simply Butter (one pat at a time)
Get PDFSimply Butter (one pat at a time) is an investigation of food and intimacy through sculpture, installation, performance, printmaking, and recordkeeping. In this series of Happenings, I explore themes of love, loss, and empathy while dealing with emotions related to grief and mental health issues. I look to cultural phenomena and art history figures who are concerned with similar sentiments to make conceptual connections and inform my choices when creating this project. Drawn to silliness and the absurd, I use the rudimentary yet familiar form of a stick of butter to act as a monolithic stand-in for the emotionally, mentally, and spiritually difficult and indescribable. Over a seven-day period, I changed the elements of the space, object, and prompt to examine how participants functioned and interacted in different controlled contexts. By changing position, sensation, sound, and exchange, the project focused on the body and its ability to blur boundaries between physical and emotional interaction. The presence of or reference to a body, real or imagined, is significant to the audience’s ability to connect to self and others in an intimate way and to ultimately develop a deeper sense of empathy
Faculty Senate Chronicle February 1, 2024
Get PDFMinutes for the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on February 1, 202
Cap-and-Trade and Air Quality: Which Communities Benefit the Most?
Get PDFAir Quality significantly impacts public health, particularly for individuals with respiratory issues. Cap-and-trade (CAT) programs aim to mitigate emissions, focusing on greenhouse gases to improve air quality. This paper evaluated the long-run effectiveness of CAT programs, comparing multi-sector and single-sector initiatives, and their impact on air quality across counties with varying economic statuses. Using a difference-in-difference approach, comprehensive data spanning recent years up to 2023 is analyzed. The dataset includes air quality measures, population, personal income, average temperature, precipitation, and vehicle registrations enabling a thorough examination of the programs’ effects. Results reveal a complex relationship. Both programs’ initiatives create a decrease in good air quality days for poor counties. The multi-sector programs demonstrate a more significant reduction in negative air quality days, such as moderate and very unhealthy, particularly benefiting poor counties. Conversely, poor counties with single-sector programs experience an increase in negative air quality. The results from this work conclude that multi-sector programs are more beneficial for poor counties, yet all program types need to make changes for maximum impact