Technological Imaginaries, Feasibilities, Syndromes, and Catastrophes

Dark Skies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 104-142
Author(s):  
Daniel Deudney
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Scale Space ◽  
Technology Governance ◽  
Existential Risk ◽  
Space Colonization ◽  
Space Activities

Space expansionism, science fiction, and space developments are intimately linked. SF from Verne, Wells, and others inspires space expansionists, and SF is shaped by space discoveries. SF makes space expansionism seem plausible but is often unbound by scientific possibility. An assessment of building block, life-engineering, and transformative technologies reveals that large-scale space activities are becoming more feasible, but creating enclosed ecologies, geo-engineering and terraforming remain doubtful. Anticipating the consequences of new technologies (technology assessment) remains difficult. Technology governance is plagued by recalcitrant syndromes. Theorists of catastrophic and existential risk view space colonization as necessary to escape a long list of possible major calamities (including hostile artificial superintelligence and misused genetic engineering for improved humans, called transhumanism). Human survival increasingly depends on competent futurism and social capacities to steer technology with reversals, regulations, and relinquishments, but these are difficult to establish and maintain. Can vital arrangements of restraint survive large-scale space expansion?

PP136 How To Apply Health Technology Assessment To Large Scale e-Health Processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (S1) ◽  
pp. 63-64
Author(s):  
Gro-Hilde Severinsen ◽  
Line Silsand ◽  
Anne Ekeland
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Clinical Data ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Health Region ◽  
Wide Range

IntroductionThere are enormous expectations for e-health solutions to support high quality healthcare services, with accessibility, and effectiveness as key goals. E-health encompasses a wide range of information and communication technologies applied to health care, and focuses on combining clinical activity, technical development, and political requirements. Hence, e-health solutions must be evaluated in relation to the desired goals, to justify the high costs of such solutions.MethodsHealth technology assessment (HTA) aims to produce rational decisions for purchasing new technologies and evaluating healthcare investments, like drugs and medical equipment, by measuring added value in relation to clinical effectiveness, safety, and cost effectiveness. It is desired to also apply HTA assessment on large scale e-health solutions, but traditional quantitative HTA methodology may not be applicable to complex e-health systems developed and implemented as ongoing processes over years. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of these processes risk being outdated when published, therefore action research designed to work with complex, large scale programs may be a more suitable approach.ResultsIn the project, we followed the development of a new process-oriented electronic patient record system (EPR) in northern Norway. Part of the process was structuring clinical data to be used in electronic forms within the system. This was the first time a health region structured the clinical data and designed the forms; receiving feedback alongside the process was very important. The goal was to use structured forms as a basis for reusing EPR data within and between systems, and to enable clinical decision support.DiscussionAfter designing a prototype of a structured form, we wrote an assessment report focusing on designing a methodology for such development, which stakeholders to include, and how to divide the work between the health region and the system vendor. The answers to such questions will have both practical and economic consequences for designing the next phase of the process.

Frustration

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Caps
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Space ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
John Williams ◽  
Time Basis ◽  
Film Composers ◽  
Genre Films

This chapter focuses on Mancini's work on the large-scale space alien film Lifeforce (1985). Mancini's handwritten sketches for his score to the film reveals how important the job was to him, coming at this stage of his career. At last someone was offering him the kind of blockbuster science fiction epic that John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and even the young guys like James Horner (Brainstorm [1984]) and Alan Silvestri (The Abyss [1989]) were getting. With Lifeforce he might join the new ruling class of film composers on its own terms. However, the film was being supervised by Cannon Pictures, part of the infamous movie brokerage firm the Cannon Group. They had made their money by funding quick and cheap genre films on a one-time basis, turning a profit by almost immediately handing them over to their video-release branch. It was decided that Lifeforce would be chopped down to a more manageable length and into a form where most of the long reflective or descriptive visual sequences would be truncated. Along with them, their music had to go.

Financial and Economic Support of Innovation Processes in the Russian Fuel and Energy Complex

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
L. D. Kapranova ◽  
T. V. Pogodina
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Innovative Development ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Energy Complex ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Substantial Investment ◽  
The Government

The subject of the research is the current state of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) that ensures generation of a significant part of the budget and the innovative development of the economy.The purpose of the research was to establish priority directions for the development of the FEC sectors based on a comprehensive analysis of their innovative and investment activities. The dynamics of investment in the fuel and energy sector are considered. It is noted that large-scale modernization of the fuel and energy complex requires substantial investment and support from the government. The results of the government programs of corporate innovative development are analyzed. The results of the research identified innovative development priorities in the power, oil, gas and coal sectors of the fuel and energy complex. The most promising areas of innovative development in the oil and gas sector are the technologies of enhanced oil recovery; the development of hard-to-recover oil reserves; the production of liquefied natural gas and its transportation. In the power sector, the prospective areas are activities aimed at improving the performance reliability of the national energy systems and the introduction of digital technologies. Based on the research findings, it is concluded that the innovation activities in the fuel and energy complex primarily include the development of new technologies, modernization of the FEC technical base; adoption of state-of-the-art methods of coal mining and oil recovery; creating favorable economic conditions for industrial extraction of hard-to-recover reserves; transition to carbon-free fuel sources and energy carriers that can reduce energy consumption and cost as well as reducing the negative FEC impact on the environment.

The sugar and alcohol industry in the biofuels and cogeneration era: a paradigm change (part II)

2014 ◽  
pp. 97-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Electo Eduardo Silv Lora ◽  
Mateus Henrique Rocha ◽  
José Carlos Escobar Palacio ◽  
Osvaldo José Venturini ◽  
Maria Luiza Grillo Renó ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Process Integration ◽  
Animal Feed ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Alcohol Industry ◽  
Feed Production ◽  
Steam Parameters

The aim of this paper is to discuss the major technological changes related to the implementation of large-scale cogeneration and biofuel production in the sugar and alcohol industry. The reduction of the process steam consumption, implementation of new alternatives in driving mills, the widespread practice of high steam parameters use in cogeneration facilities, the insertion of new technologies for biofuels production (hydrolysis and gasification), the energy conversion of sugarcane trash and vinasse, animal feed production, process integration and implementation of the biorefinery concept are considered. Another new paradigm consists in the wide spreading of sustainability studies of products and processes using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the implementation of sustainability indexes. Every approach to this issue has as an objective to increase the economic efficiency and the possibilities of the sugarcane as a main source of two basic raw materials: fibres and sugar. The paper briefly presents the concepts, indicators, state-of-the-art and perspectives of each of the referred issues.

Capture Strategy Based on a Distributed Control System for a Large-scale Space End-Effector

ROBOT ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dangyang JIE ◽  
Fenglei NI ◽  
Yisong TAN ◽  
Hong LIU ◽  
Hegao CAI
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Distributed Control ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Space ◽  
Distributed Control System ◽  
End Effector

scholarly journals mRNA-Based Vaccines

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 390
Author(s):  
Frank Kowalzik ◽  
Daniel Schreiner ◽  
Christian Jensen ◽  
Daniel Teschner ◽  
Stephan Gehring ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Clinical Applications ◽  
Cell Mediated Immunity ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Emerging Pathogens ◽  
Cell Genome

Increases in the world’s population and population density promote the spread of emerging pathogens. Vaccines are the most cost-effective means of preventing this spread. Traditional methods used to identify and produce new vaccines are not adequate, in most instances, to ensure global protection. New technologies are urgently needed to expedite large scale vaccine development. mRNA-based vaccines promise to meet this need. mRNA-based vaccines exhibit a number of potential advantages relative to conventional vaccines, namely they (1) involve neither infectious elements nor a risk of stable integration into the host cell genome; (2) generate humoral and cell-mediated immunity; (3) are well-tolerated by healthy individuals; and (4) are less expensive and produced more rapidly by processes that are readily standardized and scaled-up, improving responsiveness to large emerging outbreaks. Multiple mRNA vaccine platforms have demonstrated efficacy in preventing infectious diseases and treating several types of cancers in humans as well as animal models. This review describes the factors that contribute to maximizing the production of effective mRNA vaccine transcripts and delivery systems, and the clinical applications are discussed in detail.

Progressive Large Scale-Invariant Image Matching in Scale Space

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Zhou ◽  
Siyu Zhu ◽  
Tianwei Shen ◽  
Jinglu Wang ◽  
Tian Fang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Image Matching ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Space ◽  
Scale Invariant
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