Co-creating conditions for social justice in digital societies: modes of resistance in HCI collaborative endeavors and evolving socio-technical landscapes

In this paper, we report on a three-year endeavour that fostered 18 collaborations between academic and non-academic organizations to co-create responses to social (in)justice issues in digital societies. The projects and range of individuals and organisations connected to this programme offer a snapshot of the state of social justice thinking within the UK digital economy research sector. Our analysis shows how the programme’s constellations of actions enacted different modes of resistance attempting to reshape people’s relationship to power dynamics, addressing institutions and exposing systems, and developing and restoring values for social justice. We explore how these efforts invite nuanced understanding of what constitutes resistance in knowledge co-production endeavours and how they helped surface tensions at the intersection of agencies and the distribution of responsibilities. Drawing from our insights and experience, we discuss implications for HCI concerned with the creation of the conditions for social justice in our digital societies

Surfacing Small Worlds through Data-In-Place

We present findings from a five-week deployment of voting technologies in a city neighbourhood. Drawing on Marres’ (2012) work on material participation and Massey’s (2005) conceptualisation of space as dynamic, we designed the deployment such that the technologies (which were situated in residents’ homes, on the street, and available online) would work in concert, cutting across the neighbourhood to make visible, juxtapose and draw together the different ‘small worlds’ within it. We demonstrate how the material infrastructure of the voting devices set in motion particular processes and interpretations of participation, putting data in place in a way that had ramifications for the recognition of heterogeneity. We conclude that redistributing participation means not only opening up access, so that everyone can participate, or even providing a multitude of voting channels, so that people can participate in different ways. Rather, it means making visible multiplicity, challenging notions of similarity, and showing how difference may be productive

BCR-ABL Promotes PTEN Downregulation in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized by the t(9;22) translocation coding for the chimeric protein p210 BCR-ABL. The tumor suppressor PTEN plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of CML chronic phase, through non genomic loss of function mechanisms, such as protein down-regulation and impaired nuclear/cytoplasmic shuttling. Here we demonstrate that BCR-ABL promotes PTEN downregulation through a MEK dependent pathway. Furthermore, we describe a novel not recurrent N212D-PTEN point mutation found in the EM2 blast crisis cell line

Use of complementary medicine among patients with allergic rhinitis: an Italian nationwide survey.

Background: A growing use of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) has been found in Europe as well in Italy for chronic diseases, including the allergic rhinitis. The study aims at investigating the prevalence and the pattern of use of CAM amongst patient with allergic rhinitis. Methods: A 12-item questionnaire was developed by a panel of experts and administered to patients with moderate/severe allergic rhinitis consecutively referring during the study time-frame to seven allergy clinics placed all around Italy. The items covered several topics including reason for choosing CAM, its clinical efficacy, schedule of treatment, costs, type of therapy. Results: Overall 359 questionnaires were analysed. 20% of patients declared CAM use. A significant correlation between the use of CAM and female sex (p\u2009<\u20090.01) and with a higher level of education (p\u2009<\u20090.01) was observed. CAM users were adults (36% in the range between 20 and 40 years and 32% between 41 and 60 years). Youngsters (<\u200920 years) (7%) and elderly (>\u200960) (25%) less frequently used CAM.The most used type of CAM was homoeopathy (77% of patients). 60% of users would recommend CAM despite a poor clinical efficacy according to 67% of them. Conclusions: Although no evidence supports CAM efficacy and safety, the number of patients who relies on it is not negligible. As allergic rhinitis is not a trivial disease, the use of CAM as the only treatment for it should be discouraged at any level, but by general practitioner and specialist in particular

TryFilm : Situated Support for Interactive Media Productions

The emergence of participatory, on-demand and interactive media is changing the media production landscape. Producing interactive media is often more complex than creating traditional linear films, resulting in increased pressure for production teams. In this paper we explore what implications this has for cast and crew who participate in the production of such new media. We explore how collaborative technologies can support creative practitioners, within these challenging settings. We present TryFilm, a collaborative editing system, designed by the authors and deployed during an interactive film shoot by a small film company featuring a cast of early career actors

Detecting Genetic Isolation in Human Populations: A Study of European Language Minorities

The identification of isolation signatures is fundamental to better understand the genetic structure of human populations and to test the relations between cultural factors and genetic variation. However, with current approaches, it is not possible to distinguish between the consequences of long-term isolation and the effects of reduced sample size, selection and differential gene flow. To overcome these limitations, we have integrated the analysis of classical genetic diversity measures with a Bayesian method to estimate gene flow and have carried out simulations based on the coalescent. Combining these approaches, we first tested whether the relatively short history of cultural and geographical isolation of four "linguistic islands" of the Eastern Alps (Lessinia, Sauris, Sappada and Timau) had left detectable signatures in their genetic structure. We then compared our findings to previous studies of European population isolates. Finally, we explored the importance of demographic and cultural factors in shaping genetic diversity among the groups under study. A combination of small initial effective size and continued genetic isolation from surrounding populations seems to provide a coherent explanation for the diversity observed among Sauris, Sappada and Timau, which was found to be substantially greater than in other groups of European isolated populations. Simulations of micro-evolutionary scenarios indicate that ethnicity might have been important in increasing genetic diversity among these culturally related and spatially close populations. © 2013 Capocasa et al