scholarly journals Using ANT to Uncover the Full Potential of an Intelligent Operational Planning and Support Tool (IOPST) for Acute Healthcare Contexts

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imran Muhammad ◽  
Fatemeh Hoda Moghimi ◽  
Nyree J. Taylor ◽  
Bernice Redley ◽  
Lemai Nguyen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Operational Planning ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
The Many ◽  
Acute Healthcare ◽  
Large Scale Clinical Trial

Based on initial pre-clinical data and results from focus group studies, proof of concept for an intelligent operational planning and support tool (IOPST) for nursing in acute healthcare contexts has been demonstrated. However, moving from a simulated context to a large scale clinical trial brings potential challenges associated with the many complexities and multiple people-technology interactions. To enable an in depth and rich analysis of such a context, it is the contention of this paper that incorporating an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) lens to facilitate analysis will be a prudent option as discussed below.

Nonhuman Actors, Hybrid Networks, and Conflicts Over Municipal Waste Incinerators

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Magnani
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Municipal Waste ◽  
Waste To Energy ◽  
Natural Material ◽  
Environmental Conflicts ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Waste Incinerators

This article seeks to make an original contribution to the study of environmental conflicts on waste management infrastructures by applying concepts derived from actor-network theory in an empirical case study. The article is organized into three main parts. The first highlights how the bulk of the literature on the subject has systematically ignored the role of natural/material factors. The second part analyzes the theoretical and methodological contribution of actor-network theory to the analysis of environmental conflicts. Finally, the third part focuses on a case study from northern Italy concerning a conflict over a project for a large-scale municipal waste-to-energy incinerator. The author shows how the outcome of the conflict, namely the failure of the project notwithstanding a convergence of powerful interests, can only be fully understood by adopting a relational definition of agency that sees it as the effect of the process of building associations between humans and nonhumans.

Achieving E-Health Success

2017 ◽  
pp. 541-552
Author(s):  
Nilmini Wickramasinghe ◽  
Arthur Tatnall
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
Stark Contrast

Healthcare delivery continues to be challenged in all OECD countries. To address these challenges, most are turning their attention to e-health as the panacea. Indeed, it is true that in today's global and networked world, e-health should be the answer for ensuring pertinent information, relevant data, and germane knowledge anywhere anytime so that clinicians can deliver superior healthcare. Sadly, healthcare has yet to realize the full potential of e-health, which is in stark contrast to other e-business initiatives such as e-government and e-education, e-finance, or e-commerce. This chapter asserts that it is only by embracing a rich theoretical lens of analysis that the full potential of e-health can be harnessed, and thus, it proffers Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as such a lens.

scholarly journals On the clinical acceptance of black-box systems for EEG seizure prediction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Pinto ◽  
Adriana Leal ◽  
Fábio Lopes ◽  
José Pais ◽  
António Dourado ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Seizure Prediction ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
New Methodologies ◽  
Interpretable Models ◽  
Robust Prediction

Abstract Despite 46 years of seizure prediction research, few devices/systems underwent clinical trials and/or are commercialised, where the most recent state-of-the-art approaches are not used to their full potential. This demonstrates the existence of social barriers to new methodologies. Based on the literature, we performed a qualitative study to analyse the seizure prediction ecosystem to find these barriers. With Grounded Theory and Actor-Network Theory, we draw hypothesis from data and considered that technology shapes social configurations and interests. For seizure prediction, as long as an algorithm proves to be useful to the patient, we conclude that we may only need to explain the model’s decisions, and not to necessarily obtain intrinsically interpretable models. Accordingly, we argue that it is possible to develop robust prediction models, including black-box systems to some extent, while avoiding data bias, ensuring patient safety, and still complying with legislation, as long as they can deliver human-comprehensible explanations.

A Manifesto for E-Health Success

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilmini Wickramasinghe ◽  
Rajeev K. Bali ◽  
Arthur Tatnall
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Health It ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Quality Healthcare ◽  
Stark Contrast

Healthcare is the biggest service industry on the globe. Sadly, it has yet to realize the full potential of e-health, which is in stark contrast to other e-business initiatives such as e-government and e-education, e-finance, or e-commerce. However, as all OECD countries grapple with key challenges which are impacting the delivery of cost effective quality healthcare, all are agreed that e-health may hold the key. This makes it more important than ever for successful adoption of e-health. It is the contention of this paper that to be e-health prepared is necessary but not sufficient for successful e-health solutions to be realized. The paper asserts that it is only by embracing a rich theoretical lens of analysis that the full potential of e-health can be harnessed and thus it proffers ANT (Actor-network Theory) as such a lens.

Mapping Messiness: The Informational Film Archive and Actor-Network Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Claire Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
The Many ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Archival Practices

This chapter offers Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a toolkit for analysing the often messy and complex networks and relationships involved in the production and distribution of useful cinema. Stressing that ANT is employed in the book as a way of thinking rather than as an explicit framework, the chapter briefly outlines the key principles of ANT and relates them to documentary and informational filmmaking. In particular, the chapter discusses the potential of ANT for rendering visible or audible the many non-human actors in any instance of filmmaking, and for revealing how facts are constructed in documentary and related genres. The institutions, individuals, networks, technologies and other actors involved in mid-twentieth-century Danish informational filmmaking are then mapped. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of the archive and the researcher in the network of any given film, explaining how contemporary archival practices, especially digital technologies, are creating new dispositifs for historical informational film.

scholarly journals Looking for the Cosmopolitical Fish: Monitoring Marine Pollution with Anglers and Congers in the Gulf of Fos, Southern France

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 814-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christelle Gramaglia ◽  
François Mélard
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Industrial Area ◽  
Scientific Organization ◽  
Sentinel Species ◽  
Waste Incinerator ◽  
Cumulative Impact ◽  
The Many ◽  
Elected Representatives

Following a controversy over the construction of a waste incinerator in the Fos-sur-Mer industrial area (France), residents pointed to the lack of knowledge of the industry’s cumulative impact on their health and environment. Under pressure, some of their elected representatives supported the creation of an independent scientific organization, the Ecocitizen Institute for Pollution Awareness ( Institut écocitoyen pour la connaissance des pollutions [IECP]). Its objective was to conduct localized scientific research on the effects of pollution and to lobby the administration to change its regulatory practices. This paper examines the efforts made to ensure that the “undone science” gets done, by focusing on the specificities of this industrialized site. We look at a participatory biomonitoring experiment that aimed to document pollution in the Gulf of Fos where scientists working for the IECP accepted anglers’ requests and switched from an acknowledged sentinel species to another species. We tell the many stories that were shared with us about how conger qualified as a more suitable “cosmopolitical fish” in the study of pollution. Elaborating on actor–network theory and multispecies ethnographies, we discuss the appropriateness of congers as the newly appointed sentinel species. We argue that this demonstrates the importance of the “ecology of relations” in maintaining the livability of the area.

Using Actor-Network Theory to Facilitate a Superior Understanding of Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Transfer

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilmini Wickramasinghe ◽  
Arthur Tatnall ◽  
Rajeev K. Bali
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Intellectual Assets ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making

Given today’s dynamic business environment it becomes essential for organisations to maximise their intellectual assets in order to ensure that they are able to support flexible operations and sustain their competitive advantage. Central to this is the ability to extract germane knowledge to enable rapid and effective decision making. At present, knowledge creation techniques tend to focus on either human or technology aspects of organisational development and less often on process-centric aspects of knowledge generation. However, to truly understand knowledge creation and transfer, thereby enabling an organisation to be better positioned to leverage the full potential of its intellectual capital, it is important to view knowledge creation and all socio-technical organisational operations that result in knowledge generation through a richer lens. Actor-network Theory is proffered in this article as such a lens.

Consciousness and Amnesia

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Martek ◽  
Mirjana Lozanovska
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Project Duration ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Participants

After the decimation of the urban fabric resulting from the 1963 earthquake, Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, became a center of town planning and architectural activity. The aftermath response was unprecedented, with eighty-five countries offering aid and thirty-five nations raising Skopje to a priority status within the United Nations (UN). The acclaimed Japanese architect, Kenzo Tange, was awarded first prize in the subsequent UN competition for the reconstruction master plan and was asked to work with the second prize winners, Zagreb firm Miscevic and Wenzler. The design and rebuilding produced one of the greatest collaborative and visionary realizations of a complete city concept undertaken in history. Yet, the significance of Skopje’s reconstruction has slipped from architectural consciousness. “Actor network theory” (ANT) offers insights into the social dynamics of large-scale projects and provides a lens by which to investigate five features of the reconstruction of Skopje: (1) the social process, including problematization, interessement, enrollment, and mobilization; (2) the key participants; (3) the project scale; (4) artifacts; and (5) project duration. ANT proves to be a useful tool for understanding both the heroic achievement and the subsequent neglect of Skopje reconstructed.

Web Portals Research

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Arthur Tatnall
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Web Portals ◽  
Innovation Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Human Aspects ◽  
The Many ◽  
Narrow Area

The topic of Web Portals, despite appearing to cover quite a narrow area, is an extremely diverse one. Amongst other things, it covers the technology of portals, how portal software is implemented and the many and varied applications and business uses to which portals can be put. This chapter investigates various approaches to portals research, concentrating on research related to the human aspects of portals and portal applications. It also introduces the idea that as a portal must be adopted before it can be used a worthwhile approach is to consider the portal as an innovation. The chapter then distinguishes between inventions and innovations and argues that there is nothing automatic about adoption of an innovation, and that this adoption can best be investigated through the lens of innovation theory. In particular, the chapter looks at how innovation translation, from actor-network theory, can be used in this regard and offers examples of how this can be done.

scholarly journals Autonomous Environment Generator for UAV-Based Simulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2185
Author(s):  
Justin Nakama ◽  
Ricky Parada ◽  
João P. Matos-Carvalho ◽  
Fábio Azevedo ◽  
Dário Pedro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
3D Models ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Operational Planning ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Simulated Environments ◽  
Site Evaluation ◽  
Testing Environments

The increased demand for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) has also led to higher demand for realistic and efficient UAV testing environments. The current use of simulated environments has been shown to be a relatively inexpensive, safe, and repeatable way to evaluate UAVs before real-world use. However, the use of generic environments and manually-created custom scenarios leaves more to be desired. In this paper, we propose a new testbed that utilizes machine learning algorithms to procedurally generate, scale, and place 3D models to create a realistic environment. These environments are additionally based on satellite images, thus providing users with a more robust example of real-world UAV deployment. Although certain graphical improvements could be made, this paper serves as a proof of concept for an novel autonomous and relatively-large scale environment generator. Such a testbed could allow for preliminary operational planning and testing worldwide, without the need for on-site evaluation or data collection in the future.

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