End-user Practices Research Articles

End-user practices in equine movement analysis: The potential of objective analysis tools to meet their needs

The use of objective gait analysis tools is becoming increasingly popular in equine research. The advancement of these technologies seeks to promote objective, mobile solutions which can be applied in equine training, monitoring or clinical contexts. This has led to the introduction of various tools in the commercial sphere. However, there has been slow adoption of objective technologies in the applied field. The purpose of this study was to understand existing equine movement analysis processes. We undertook qualitative interviews with industry stakeholders in the elite field to understand what key information they gather through their own, subjective analysis of the horse. We then mapped this information onto the capabilities of existing technologies to see what opportunities exist for user-driven technology solutions in this area. Our study highlights the need for knowledge exchange in the development and deployment of technologies within the equine industry. Commonalities in the important movement features identified by the stakeholders are presented that could be usefully considered and interpreted by future technology developers and researchers with respect to the underpinning biomechanical parameters. Objective technologies designed to capture and integrate these user-based parameters could be developed to augment the current subjective practices in equine analysis and monitoring.

Aqueous Zinc Compounds as Residual Antimicrobial Agents for Textiles.

Textiles, especially those worn by patients and medical professionals, serve as vectors for proliferating pathogens. Upstream manufacturing techniques and end-user practices, such as transition-metal embedment in textile fibers or alcohol-based disinfectants, can mitigate pathogen growth, but both techniques have their shortcomings. Fiber embedment requires complete replacement of all fabrics in a facility, and the effects of embedded nanoparticles on human health remain unknown. Alcohol-based, end-user disinfectants are short-lived because they quickly volatilize. In this work, common zinc salts are explored as an end-user residual antimicrobial agent. Zinc salts show cost-effective and long-lasting antimicrobial efficacy when solution-deposited on common textiles, such as nylon, polyester, and cotton. Unlike common alcohol-based disinfectants, these zinc salt-treated textiles mitigate microbial growth for more than 30 days and withstand commercial drying. Polyester fabrics treated with ZnO and ZnCl2 were further explored because of their commercial ubiquity and likelihood for rapid commercialization. ZnCl2-treated textiles were found to retain their antimicrobial coating through abrasive testing, whereas ZnO-treated textiles did not. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry analyses suggest that ZnCl2 likely hydrolyzes and reacts with portions of the polyester fiber, chemically attaching to the fiber, whereas colloidal ZnO simply sediments and binds with weaker physical interactions.

Benchmarks for Evaluating the Progress of Open Data Adoption

Public organizations release their data for use by the public to open the government. Various benchmarks for evaluating the progress of open data adoption have emerged recently. In order to help bring about a better understanding of the common and differentiating elements in open data benchmarks and to identify the methodologies and metrics affecting their variation, this article compares open data benchmarks and describes lessons learned from their analysis. An interpretive meta-analysis approach was used and five benchmarks were compared with regard to metadata (key concepts, themes, and metaphors), meta-methods (methodologies underlying the benchmarks) and metatheories (theoretical assumptions at the foundation of the benchmarks). It was found that each benchmark has its strengths and weaknesses and is applicable in specific situations. Since the open data benchmarks have a different scope and focus and use different methodologies, they produce different results in terms of country ranks. There is an obvious gap in both the literature and benchmarks regarding the evolution of end-user practices and individual adoption of open data. Furthermore, lessons are drawn for the development of more comprehensive open data benchmarks and open government evaluation in general.

Diarrhoeal Health Risks Attributable to Water-Borne-Pathogens in Arsenic-Mitigated Drinking Water in West Bengal are Largely Independent of the Microbiological Quality of the Supplied Water

There is a growing discussion about the possibility of arsenic mitigation measures in Bengal and similar areas leading to undesirable substitution of water-borne-pathogen attributable risks pathogens for risks attributable to arsenic, in part because of uncertainties in relative pathogen concentrations in supplied and end-use water. We try to resolve this discussion, by assessing the relative contributions of water supply and end-user practices to water-borne-pathogen-attributable risks for arsenic mitigation options in a groundwater arsenic impacted area of West Bengal. Paired supplied arsenic-mitigated water and end-use drinking water samples from 102 households were collected and analyzed for arsenic and thermally tolerant coliforms [TTC], used as a proxy for microbiological water quality, We then estimated the DALYs related to key sequelae, diarrheal diseases and cancers, arising from water-borne pathogens and arsenic respectively. We found [TTC] in end-use drinking water to depend only weakly on [TTC] in source-water. End-user practices far outweighed the microbiological quality of supplied water in determining diarrheal disease burden. [TTC] in source water was calculated to contribute <1% of total diarrheal disease burden. No substantial demonstrable pathogen-for-arsenic risk substitution attributable to specific arsenic mitigation of supplied waters was observed, illustrating the benefits of arsenic mitigation measures in the area studied.

Collection of Gender Identity Data Using Electronic Medical Records: Survey of Current End-user Practices

Collection of Gender Identity Data Using Electronic Medical Records: Survey of Current End-user Practices

Exploring Qualitative Sharing Practices of Social Metadata: Expanding the Attention Economy

Social metadata are receiving interest from many domains, mainly as a way to aggregate various patterns in social networks. Few scholars have, however, taken the perspective of end users and examined how they utilize social metadata to enrich interpersonal communication. The results of a study of end-user practices of social metadata usage are presented in this article. Data were gathered from a variety of online forums by collecting and analyzing user discussions relating to social metadata supporting features in Facebook. Three hundred and fifteen relevant comments on social metadata usage were extracted. The analysis revealed the use of experimental profiles, clashes between work-and non-work-related social metadata usage and differences in users' social investment, causing social dilemmas. The study also resulted in developments of theory relating to social metadata and relationship maintenance. In conclusion, social metadata expand a pure “attention economy,” conveying a much wider qualitative range of social information.