Encoding Of Data Research Articles

Treatment outcomes of drug susceptible Tuberculosis in private health facilities in Lagos, South-West Nigeria.

BackgroundThe Lagos State Tuberculosis, Buruli Ulcer, and Leprosy Control Program (LSTBLCP) started engaging private hospitals under the Public-Private Mix (PPM) Program in 2008. The study aimed to evaluate the trend and predictors of successful Tuberculosis (TB) treatment outcomes of patients managed across these private health facilities between 2010–2016 in Lagos, Nigeria.MethodsRetrospective review of TB treatment register and treatment cards of patients commenced on TB treatment between January 2010 and December 2016 in 36 private health facilities engaged by the LSTBLCP. Between December 2016 and February 2017, data were collected and entered into Microsoft Excel by trained data entry clerks. The analysis was done using SPSS software. Independent predictors of successful treatment outcomes were determined using multivariate analysis at the statistical significance of p<0.05 and 95% confidence interval.ResultsA total of 1660 records of TB patients were reviewed. 1535 (92.47%) commenced treatment, while 1337 (87.10%) of all records had documented treatment outcomes. Of the 1337 patients with outcomes, 1044 (78.09%) had a successful treatment outcome, and 293 (21.91%) had an unsuccessful outcome. Majority were male, 980 (59.04%), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) negative status, 1295 (80.24%), diagnosed with smear, 1141 (73.14%), treated in private not-for-profit (PNFP) hospital, 1097 (66.08%), treated for TB between 2014–2016 (18.96%-19.52%). In multivariate analysis, age>20years (aOR = 0.26, p = 0.001), receiving TB treatment in 2013 (aOR = 0.39, p = 0.001), having genexpert for TB diagnosis (aOR = 0.26, p = 0.031) and being HIV positive (aOR = 0.37, p = 0.001) significantly reduced likelihood of successful treatment outcome. The site of TB, being on ART or CPT, were confounding determinants of successful treatment outcomes as they became non-significant at the multivariate analysis level.ConclusionTreatment outcome among Lagos private hospitals was low compared with NTBLCP and World Health Organization (WHO) target. We urge the government and TB stakeholders to strengthen the PPM interventions to improve adherence, particularly among People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and older TB patients. Hence, promotion of early care-seeking, improving diagnostic and case holding efficiencies of health facilities, and TB/HIV collaborative interventions can reduce the risk of an unsuccessful outcome.

Identifying functional and non-functional specifications of a telehealth software application for diabetes mellitus

The study aims to identify and present the functional and non-functional technical and medical specifications of the software application that supports the clinical care of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients and maintain clinical information for monitoring, evaluation, and administration purposes in a research project titled cometech. The proposed software application belongs to the Electronic Health Management Information Systems (eHMIS) category that is designed to fulfill the need for an automated national health information management system. It is used for public health-related decision-making. Its main users are public policymakers, health officers, researchers, planning departments of health offices, eHMIS focal persons, data entry clerks, and many others ranging from health facility to federal management levels. The identification and analysis of the functional and non-functional requirements will help researchers to design and develop similar software applications that aim to introduce telehealth tools and services to achieve continuity of health care and to provide consultation and patient education (society awareness).

The Design of University Physical Education Management Framework Based on Edge Computing and Data Analysis

Educational informatization has become the only way for mankind to enter the information age, and the application of educational resource library is a key issue in the integration of information technology disciplines. Aiming at the shortcomings of existing college physical education management technology, this article is dedicated to developing a new online management platform for physical education. Firstly, the introduction of edge computing technology in the architecture design of college physical education system can fully improve the efficiency of the management system. Secondly, based on data cleaning, the BP neural network algorithm modified by particle swarm is used to conduct in‐depth analysis of the data of the university sports teaching management system and obtain corresponding optimization measures. Finally, it is verified in actual tests that the system can quickly perform data search, entry, modification, deletion, and other operations, which can ensure the realization of the school sports department’s networked, scientific, standardized, and digitalized management of physical education resources.

An in-depth report of quality control on Kato-Katz and data entry in four clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of albendazole against soil-transmitted helminth infections.

BackgroundEfforts to control soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections have intensified over the past decade. Field-survey data on STH prevalence, infection intensity and drug efficacy is necessary to guide the implementation of control programs and should be of the best possible quality.MethodologyDuring four clinical trials designed to evaluate the efficacy of albendazole against STHs in Brazil, Ethiopia, Lao PDR and Tanzania, quality control (QC) was performed on the duplicate Kato-Katz thick smears and the data entry. We analyzed datasets following QC on both fecal egg counts (FECs) and data entry, and compared the prevalence of any STH infection and moderate-to-heavy intensity (MHI) infections and the drug efficacy against STH infections.ResultsAcross the four study sites, a total of 450 out of 4,830 (9.3%) Kato-Katz thick smears were re-examined. Discrepancies in FECs varied from ~3% (hookworms) to ~6.5% (Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura). The difference in STH prevalence and prevalence of MHI infections using the datasets with and without QC of the FECs did not exceed 0.3%, except for hookworm infections in Tanzania, where we noted a 2.2 percentage point increase in MHI infections (pre-QC: 1.6% vs. post-QC: 3.8%). There was a 100% agreement in the classification of drug efficacy of albendazole against STH between the two datasets.In total, 201 of the 28,980 (0.65%) data entries that were made to digitize the FECs were different between both data-entry clerks. Nevertheless, the overall prevalence of STH, the prevalence of MHI infections and the classification of drug efficacy remained largely unaffected.Conclusion/significanceIn these trials, where staff was informed that QC would take place, minimal changes in study outcomes were reported following QC on FECs or data entry. Nevertheless, imposing QC did reduce the number of errors. Therefore, application of QC together with proper training of the personnel and the availability of clear standard operating procedures is expected to support higher data quality.

TB Infection Control in TB/HIV Settings in Cross River State, Nigeria: Policy Vs Practice

TB and HIV remain a dangerous duo of significant public health concern across the globe. Both diseases require significant community and health system activities to be successfully managed. TB infection control is an important disease prevention strategy among the general population and among people living with HIV, in cost and management. We undertook to assess the situation of TB infection control at three levels of health care in Cross River State of Nigeria. A qualitative method was used to assess TB infection control (TBIC) knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the health care workers at each of the purposefully selected facilities using a semi-structured questionnaire - University of Calabar Teaching hospital, Calabar; Infectious disease Hospital, Calabar and primary Health Centre, Calabar Municipal, between 15th to 31st November, 2019 in the first phase, and an extension to February, 2020 due to delayed ethical clearance from the University of Calabar Teaching hospital. Data was collected and entered on an excel template and cleaned by trained data entry clerks. Charts and color diagrams were developed to compare specific descriptive data. There is wide variation between the written policies of TB infection control and the practices among health workers. Even though there are strong administrative protocols to support TB infection control in the higher levels of care, it is better practiced in the lower level PHC where the protocols were not spelt out.

Pelatihan Peningkatan Produktivitas Pelaku Industri Rumahan melalui Teknologi Informasi dan Komunikasi di Kota Balikpapan

TRAINING IN INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY OF HOME INDUSTRY BUSINESS OWNERS THROUGH INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE CITY OF BALIKPAPAN. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) could be effective tools for females to scale their small and medium enterprises. However, their role in ICT development is considerably minor. Men are still holding important role in ICT. On the other hand, women are dominated minor parts, such as administration, data entry, and komputer operation. In another word, ICT is measurably far out for women. Therefore, in order to scale home industries which are run by females, skill enhancements are needed in operating ICT for improving economist productivity. Indonesian Association of Higher Education in Informatics and Computing (APTIKOM) and Ministry of Female Empowerment and Child Protection (KPPPA) collaborate to organize ICT training for home industries by trained APTIKOM members. Kalimantan Institute of Technology (ITK) has chosen to prosvide training at Komputer Laboratory, ITK Campus. This program was held in order to give insight and knowledge on managing home industry with optimum effort by utilizing ICT.

A Web-based Support System to Measure Fielding Performance in Cricket

This article looks at the implementation of a web-based support system for measuring the fielding performance in cricket using open source technologies. Front-end has been developed using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The back-end uses MySQL as the database for storing fielding related data. PHP is used to interact with the MySQL database. The web-based support system which is named Field-o-meter can be used to record fielding data, display fielding data, compute fielding performance measure and generate reports. The system has facilities for different categories of users, viz., administrators, data entry operators and viewers. Users need to login to access the system. Data can be added, deleted, displayed and also edited with certain restrictions. Analysis reports may be viewed online. Fielding data can be downloaded in xls (MS Excel) format. Being an online system hosted on a web server, it can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection. The web-based support system is easy to use with a simply designed interface. The system’s interface gets adjusted to mobile devices and as such can be used with a mobile browser. The system has been tested successfully for all the leading web browsers—Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera and Safari.

Evaluation of National Injury Surveillance Centre, India, 2015-16

Background: Globally, injuries accounts for 9% of all deaths, but India account for 11%. Due to limited data on injury characteristics, National Injury Surveillance Centre (NISC) was established in 2014 in New Delhi. Aim &amp; Objectives: To evaluate attributes of NISC and make evidence-based recommendations. Methods and Material: We conducted cross-sectional study and used US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to assess simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, stability, timeliness, representativeness, usefulness, and data quality. We reviewed 2015 records and interviewed 20 key-informants. We used Epi-Info7 for analysis. Results: NISC captured 4043 injuries in 2015 from one hospital. Among five data entry operators, four reported lengthy format, but all reported it easy. Among ten relevant key-informants, all reported data-management software easy. System demonstrated flexibility in three variables. All 20 staff reported willingness to participate, and 90% felt quarterly reporting acceptable. Regarding stability, data was collected for 361/365 days. Quarterly reports were available but only submitted annually. Regarding usefulness, all WHO-recommended variables included. Regarding data quality, 17% data-fields were missing. Conclusion: NISC is simple, flexible, stable, acceptable and potentially useful based on data captured. Timeliness based on annual reporting is high, can be improved to quarterly. We recommend training to improve data quality and integration of additional hospitals to improve representativeness.

Pregnancy in women diagnosed with HIV on antiretroviral therapy in Ethiopia: a retrospective cohort study.

Introductiondue to increasing coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ART), more women living with HIV have improved health condition which also increases their chances of getting pregnant. However, the knowledge about pregnancy among women receiving ART in resource-constrained settings, like Ethiopia, is limited. The aim was to assess factors associated with pregnancy among women living with HIV in Ethiopia.Methodsa retrospective cohort study from 2005 through 2013 including a total of 809 women aged 15-49 years on ART was used. The study was conducted in eight hospitals and health centers in two regions of Ethiopia. The data was collected between March and June of 2014 from patients´ pre-ART and ART registers by trained nurses, assisted by data entry clerks and supervised by senior physicians. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were used to examine the probability of becoming pregnant. Factors associated with pregnancy were presented with hazard ratios with 95% Confidence Interval (CI).Resultsa total of 809 women were included in this analysis, their median age was 27 years, 90% were urban residents and 40.6% were married. Four hundred eighty three (60.6%) were in WHO stage III at initiation of ART. The median CD4 count was 162.5 cell/μl at initiation of ART. Eighty-one women became pregnant during 3069 person-years of observation. The overall incidence of pregnancy was 26.4 pregnancies per 1000 person-years of observation. Women under the age of 24, those in less advanced disease stage, women with no education and those with college education had higher rates of pregnancy.Conclusionthe results highlight that younger women, those in less advanced disease stage, either uneducated or highly educated ones have higher probability of becoming pregnant during HIV treatment. This suggests the need for integrating reproductive health services into HIV care services to meet the needs of women on ART.

Sağlık Çalışanlarının Engelli Bireylere Yönelik Tutumu

Objective: The aim is to investigate the attitudes of healthcare professionals in Istanbul towards people with disabilities within the scope of the "Be Happy in Life" project, which is conducted under the coordination of Istanbul Provincial Health Directorate with the aim of increasing the well-being of the disabled and their families and professionals. Method: This study is a descriptive study on healthcare professionals working in health institutions in Istanbul affiliated with the Ministry of Health. The questionnaire developed according to the literature, included questions to determine socio-demographic variables and the "Attitude Toward Disabled Persons" (ATDP) scale. This online survey was conducted with 704 healthcare professionals working in health institutions in Istanbul, participating voluntarily. Results: Healthcare professionals participating in the study are 77.1% women; 61.8% married; the average age is 35.97 ± 8.76 (median 35) years; 77.6% of them have an education level of undergraduate and above; 48.6% are nurses / midwives / health officers; average working time in the profession is 12.93 ± 9.19 (median 11) years. ATDP scale scores are higher in females than males (p = 0.036); higher in singles than in married (p = 0.033). ATDP scale scores were significantly different according to the income level of the participants (p = 0.003); and according to professional groups (p &lt;0.001). The highest average score was for the "social worker / psychologist / physiotherapist" group, while the lowest scale score was for the “Data Entry Operator / Data Preparation and Control Operator” group. In correlation analysis, no significant relationship was found between the age of healthcare workers or the duration of their employment in the profession and ATDP scale scores (r = -0.014; p = 0.703 and r = -0.038; p = 0.319). Conclusion: In the education curriculum of health professionals at all levels, courses that increase attitudes and awareness towards disabled people should be included. The perception of disability as "disorder" or "abnormality" as "impaired" should be supported by organizing in-service training programs for the disabled at regular intervals in health institutions.

Evaluation of the Zimbabwe HIV case surveillance pilot project, 2019.

Zimbabwe has a high burden of HIV (i.e., estimated 1.3 million HIV-infected and 13.8% HIV incidence in 2017). In 2017, the country developed and implemented a pilot of HIV case surveillance (CS) based on the 2017 World Health Organisation (WHO) person-centred HIV patient monitoring (PM) and case surveillance guidelines. At the end of the pilot phase an evaluation was conducted to inform further steps. The pilot was conducted in two districts (i.e., Umzingwane in Matabeleland South Province and Mutare in Manicaland Province) from August 2017 to December 2018. A mixed-methods cross-sectional study of stakeholders and health facility staff was used to assess the design and operations, performance, usefulness, sustainability, and scalability of the CS system. A total of 13 stakeholders responded to an online questionnaire, while 33 health facility respondents were interviewed in 11 health facilities in the two districts. The HIV CS system was adequately designed for Zimbabwe’s context, integrated within existing health information systems at the facility level. However, the training was minimal, and an opportunity to train the data entry clerks in data analysis was missed. The system performed well in terms of surveillance and informatics attributes. However, viral load test results return was a significant problem. The HIV CS system was found useful at the health facility level and should be rolled out in a phased manner, beginning in Manicaland and Matabeleland South provinces. An electronic link needs to be made between the health facilities and the laboratory to reduce viral load test results delays.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN ONLINE INTEGRATED STUDENT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM: CASE STUDY “UNIVERSITY OF GITWE

Most of higher learning institutions currently adopt manual systems to manage their students’ records. This results in putting pressure on people to be correct in all details of their work at all times, which sometimes is not possible. With manual student management systems, the service level is always dependent on individuals and this puts a requirement on management to run training continuously for staff to keep them motivated and ensure they are following the correct procedures. It can be very easy to accidentally end up with inconsistency in student data entry operations and even in hand-written student recording registers; this degrades the quality of services provided to the students. To provide a permanent solution to those problems, we designed a student information management system that provides a simple and effective way of managing student information. The main objective of UGSMIS (University of Gitwe Student Management Information System) is to allow registrar retrieve the details of students, course details, curriculum,instructor, student grades to track student information and manage student-related data. Users (registrar/assistant and administrator) can generate semester grade reports and student transcript at the end of graduation, batch details, placement details, and other resource-related details too. With GSMIS, students can register themselves, edit their personal data, receive details about their academic progress, and retrieve reports, any other assignment details, and final exam results. GSMIS is a secure, beautiful online interface embedded in the University of Gitwe’s website. It provides faculty details, batch execution details, students’ details in all aspects,the various academic notifications to the staff and students updated by the university administration. It also facilitates usexplore all the activities happening in the university,different reports and queries can be generated based on vast options related to students, batch, course, faculty, exams, semesters, certification. The system was developed using technologies such as PHP, HTML, Jquery, JavaScript, CSS and MySQL.

Factors Affecting Work Life Balance of Women Employees in Sri Lanka; With Special Reference to Data Entry Operators in Selected IT Companies

Work life balance is a worldwide phenomenon for each and every individual in the field of Human Resources Management. It has become a top priority for workers in everywhere. This study aims to analyze the organizational level factors that affecting on work life balance of women data entry employees in selected IT (Information Technology) companies. There are main three objectives of this study; to find out the relationship of each organizational level factor and the work life balance of women employees, to understand the reasons behind inadequate work life balance of women data entry employees and to understand about the initiatives taken by organizations for the effective work life balance. Using simple random sampling technique, 150 employees were chosen from 300 women data entry employees in selected IT companies. Model of the study is strongly fit and the strength is strong. The conclusion drawn from the research accepting a significant positive relationship of work environment, leadership style and employee benefits with the work life balance of women data entry employees in IT companies in Sri Lanka.

FIELD TESTING OF A SIMPLE ODK APPLICATION FOR DOUBLE DATA ENTRY FOR COMMUNITY-BASED HEALTHCARE RESEARCH AND DISEASE SURVEILLANCE

Data quality plays a vital role in the reliability of data for planning and decision making. The methods used for data collection and entry further heightens the concern for data quality. This paper addresses the techniques of double data entry as an efficient and simplified approach designed to improve the quality of paper-based records. Data from implementation of the operations research component of a larger health intervention project in Abia State, South-east, Nigeria, was used for the implementation. Paper-based data were entered independently by two data entry clerks with unique identifiers (IDs) using ODK application. The data was then exported in .csv format into Microsoft Excel application and compared for discordant entries. The algorithm auto-compared all records by the data entry clerks and returned zero and non-zero values for all concordant and discordant entries respectively. This allowed for easy spot checks on the questionnaires and subsequent correction of the erroneous entries. Double data entry is efficient, cost effective and robust in achieving high data quality with paper-based records.

Preconceptional factors associated with haemoglobin concentration in early pregnancy: a community-based cohort study in rural northeastern Tanzania.

Maternal anaemia in early pregnancy is associated with poor pregnancy outcomes. Furthermore, preconceptional health can influence the health during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to investigate which preconceptional factors were associated with haemoglobin (Hb) concentration in early pregnancy. In Tanzania, 226 women were followed at preconception and during early pregnancy. Red blood cell (RBC) morphology, serum micronutrient concentration, demographic characteristics and health status were assessed in preconception and in early pregnancy. The association between preconceptional factors and Hb concentration in early pregnancy was investigated using simple and multiple linear regression analyses stratified by preconceptional anaemia status. Mean Hb was 123 and 119g/l before conception and during early pregnancy (median gestational age 53days) respectively. Preconceptional mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) (adjusted coefficient (AC) 0.35 95% CI 0.9-0.61) and preconceptional Hb concentration (AC 0.45 95% CI 0.36-0.54) were positively associated with early pregnancy Hb concentration, whereas preconceptional microcytic hypochromic RBC morphology (AC -6.00 95% CI -9.56 to -2.44) was negatively associated with early pregnancy Hb concentration. In addition, treatment of preconceptional malaria was positively associated with early pregnancy Hb concentration (AC 6.45 95% CI 0.74-12.2) among women with preconceptional anaemia. In contrast, among preconceptional non-anaemic women, only preconceptional Hb concentration and medium socio-economic status was positively associated with early pregnancy Hb concentration. Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) and Hb measurements in preconception can help to detect women at increased risk of low Hb concentration in early pregnancy.

Public health information systems for primary health care in India: A situational analysis study.

Introduction:Information communication technology (ICT) based health information systems (HISs) are expected to transform health system functionality. The present study was aimed to evaluate HISs in India with a focus on primary health care (PHC).Methodology:The study used a qualitative method to evaluate and understand various ICT-based HIS implemented at the state/union territory (UT) level in India. After initial scoping research on HIS through literature search and observation, in-depth interviews of key informants at various levels (programme managers, analysts, co-ordinators, data entry operator and health care providers) was carried out to have an insight on the user experience of these systems. An inductive applied thematic coding of qualitative data was done for analysing the data.Results:Multiple applications have been developed under national health programmes to meet the health information needs, but at present, there is a limited role of these HISs in enhancing the effectiveness of comprehensive PHC. Many of these systems are proprietary-based, and the long-term sustainability and integration of these systems remain a challenge.Conclusion:A change is required in the approach to design a HIS that will cater to the needs of PHC. Moreover, HIS should be people-centred rather than technology-centric with focus on integration and sustainability.

PPM: Privacy Protection Method for Outsourcing Data Entry

In China, manual approaches are still widely used in outsourcing data entry because of the poor recognition of OCR for Chinese. However, manual entries from images may cause leakage of users’ privacy. In this paper, we propose a privacy protection method to reduce privacy disclosure. First, we use the EAST algorithm to segment whole images into sub-images. Second, we propose a privacy association separation algorithm to protect users’ complete information which could be derived from privacy associations between attributes. Finally, we propose a sub-image allocation algorithm that varies for different relations between attributes, sub-sets, and data-entry clerks. We use AHP to model and optimize sub-contractor selection as well. The experimental results on OutsourcingData and U.S. Census Adult dataset show the advantages of our proposed method in terms of both the attribute privacy protection rate and the member privacy protection rate.

Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum

Reviewed by: Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum Grant Wythoff KEYWORDS Book History, Media Archaeology, Media Theory, Science Fiction, Popular Fiction, Computation, History of Technology, Media Studies, Digital Humanities, Textual Scholarship matthew g. kirschenbaum. Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing. Harvard UP, 2016, 369 pp. Imagine a written language consisting entirely of graphical inscriptions, or semagrams, with no spoken counterpart. Imagine that “sentences” can be composed by joining semagrams together in intricate, mandala-like configurations, and that the process of conveying a complex thought in this writing system involves drawing individual lines that participate in multiple clauses of a sentence at once. So, for instance, if I wanted to tell you that my home planet has two moons, one larger than the other, that its atmosphere consists of nitrogen, argon, and oxygen, and that almost half of its surface is covered by liquid water, [End Page 104] I would draw a single stroke that began with the semagram for oxygen, then “slid down to become the morpheme of comparison in the description of the two moons’ sizes; and lastly . . . flared out as the arched backbone of the semagram for ocean” (123).1 To do so in a single, continuous line, I’d have to know in advance what I was going to say and precisely how I was going to say it. The moment I put pen to paper, I would have to hold the entire thought in mind, in all of its branching complexity. As the protagonist of Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” learns to write in this extraterrestrial, semagraphic language, she finds that the very structure of her thinking begins to reflect its new means of expression: my thoughts were becoming graphically coded. There were trance-like moments during the day when my thoughts weren’t expressed with my internal voice; instead, I saw semagrams with my mind’s eye, sprouting like frost on a windowpane. As I grew more fluent, semagraphic designs would appear fully-formed, articulating even complex ideas all at once. (127) Some of the most striking moments in Matthew Kirschenbaum’s Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing (and there are many) emerge around similar feelings of estrangement between writers and their means of expression as they leave pens and typewriters behind for the strange new world of word processing: what a writer must hold in mind while firing lines of phosphorescent prose across a glass screen, what new patterns emerge from texts that now can be saved, printed, and revised at will. The operator of an IBM MT/ST data entry machine learns “to navigate the [magnetic] tape not only by sight and by touch, but also by sound, using aural cues to know . . . when a reference code had been set successfully” (177). A poet laments the speed of word processing software, which “doesn’t take as much time as actually forming the letters with your hand at the end of your arm which is attached to your body” (160). A novelist imagines himself to be “in exactly the same position as an Egyptian scribe who had spent his life carving inscriptions on granite—and suddenly discovered ink and papyrus” (67). But for all that is alien about word processors, they became familiar, even mundane, rather quickly. This is true not only historically—Kirschenbaum writes that “[i]n 1978 or 1979, writers using a word processor or a personal computer were part of the vanguard. By 1983 or 1984 they were merely part of the zeitgeist” (xv)—but on the level of a writer’s individual habits as well. Kirschenbaum’s subjects, who include best-selling juggernauts and celebrated literary titans as well as data entry clerks and the deep cuts of 1970s genre fiction, find themselves adapting almost overnight to the new forms of composition at their disposal. Isaac Asimov recalls, “A night had passed—an ordinary night—but during it something in my brain must finally have rearranged itself. Now, there I was, running the machine like an old hand” (57). The vast majority of writing, Kirschenbaum reminds us, is mundane: a cluster of habits, routines, and tacit [End Page...

Displacement as Regulation: New Regulatory Technologies and Front-Line Decision-Making in Ontario Works

AbstractThis paper explores how new regulatory technologies and front-line decision-makers reshape one another. Drawing on a recent qualitative study of caseworker decision-making in the Ontario Works program, it demonstrates the dialectical relationship between new case management software and caseworkers. While new technologies may attempt to deskill and decentre front-line decision-makers, transforming them into data entry clerks, caseworkers learn how to expertly translate and input client data to produce decisions that more closely match their interpretation of clients’ needs and welfare laws. The ways in which workers “manipulate the system” to produce a particular decision, though common knowledge among their colleagues, are black boxed to program managers, auditors, and benefits recipients.

Need for Customized Soundex based Algorithm on Indian Names for Phonetic Matching

In any digitization program, the reproduction of the handwritten demographic data is a challenging job particularly for the records of previous decades. Nowadays, the requirement of the digitization of the individual’s past records becomes very much essential. In the areas like financial inclusion, border security, driving license, passport issuance, weapon license, banking sectors, health care and social welfare benefits, the individual’s earlier case history is a mandatory part of the decision making process. Documents are scanned and stored in a systematic method; each and every scanned document is tagged with a proper key. Documents are retrieved with the help of assigned key, for the purpose of data entry through the software program/ package. Here comes the difficulty that the data, particularly the critical personal data like name and father name etc., may not be legible for the reading purpose and the data entry operators type the characters as per their understanding. The chances of error is of high order in name variations in terms of duplicate characters, abbreviations, omissions, ignoring space between names and wrong spelling. Now the challenge is that, result of data retrieval over these key fields may not be proper because of the wrong data entry. We need to explore the opportunities and challenges for defining the effective strategies to execute this job without compromising the quality and quantity of the matches. In this scenario, we need to have an appropriate string matching algorithm with the phonetic matching. The algorithm is to be defined according to the nature, type and region of the data domain so that the search shall be phonetic based rather than simple string comparison. In this paper, I have tried to explain the need for customized soundex based algorithm on phonetic matching over the misspelt, incomplete, repetitive and partial prevalent data.