bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Vasovagal Response After Pain Procedures
Authors: Helander Erik , Phan Ethan , Homra Ben , Kaye Alan D.
Published: January 2021

Vasovagal syncope (VVS) is a specific type of syncope associated with hypotension, bradycardia, and peripheral vasodilation usually lasting 20 seconds and rarely longer than several minutes. It is caused by emotional stress, fear, pain, instrumentation, blood phobia, heat, and orthostatic stress. When a triggering event is present, VVS is usually preceded by autonomic symptoms of pallor, sweating, nausea, and abdominal discomfort. It is a frequently cited immediate adverse event during pain procedures, with rates ranging between 0 and 8.7%. The use of moderate sedation has been shown to reduce the risk of first-time and repeat episodes of vasovagal reactions. However, early detection, simple conservative management, and a willingness to terminate the procedure have resulted in no serious adverse outcomes.
Quality of Care: Performance Measurement and Quality Improvement in Clinical Practice
Authors: Desai Sonali P. , Kachalia Allen
Published: January 2021

Attention to the quality of care within the United States health care system has grown tremendously over the past decade. We have witnessed a significant change in how quality improvement and clinical performance measurement are approached. The current focus on quality and safety stems in part from the increasingly clear realization that more services and technological advancement are not automatically equivalent to high-quality care. Much of the discussion about cost and quality in health care is shifting towards the concept of value. Value is defined as health outcomes achieved per dollar spent (in other words, an assessment of the quality of care per cost). This chapter reviews the current state of quality improvement in health care and, because improvement cannot be determined without measurement, reviews several aspects of effective clinical performance measurement. Since many measures are already in place, the chapter describes some of the organizations involved in quality measurement and improvement, as well the approaches they utilize. It looks at the multiple strategies in place to improve quality, from process management to collaboration, from financial incentives to transparency, and reviews newer models of care delivery that may materialize in the near future. Tables list types of quality measures, characteristics to consider when developing a quality measure, and organizations involved in quality improvement and performance measurement. A figure shows strategies used by the federal government to spur performance measurement and quality improvement.

This review contains 1 figure, 3 tables, and 56 references
Keywords: Quality of care, performance measure, quality improvement, clinical practice, sigma six, transparency
Alcohol and Drug Withdrawal Syndromes and Their Clinical Management
Authors: Thompson Alexander , Weber Andrea
Published: January 2021

Withdrawal syndromes are clusters of signs and symptoms that occur with cessation or decrease in use of a substance. All substance withdrawal syndromes are classified and diagnosed based on criteria published in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). All withdrawal syndromes range in their ability to cause significant medical and/or psychiatric consequences. Alcohol withdrawal remains a medically serious syndrome that can occur within hours to days of decreased use and result in hallucinations, delirium, seizures, and death. Despite increasing research into the type, frequency, dose, and route of administration, benzodiazepines remain the first-line treatment in preventing alcohol withdrawal complications. Although typically not medically severe, opioid withdrawal is often associated with relapse even after successful detoxification. Opioid-agonist therapy, including methadone and buprenorphine, remains the treatment of choice for both opioid withdrawal and relapse prevention. Stimulant withdrawal from cocaine or amphetamines can cause significant psychiatric symptoms within minutes to hours of cessation and may require psychiatric hospitalization for suicidal ideation or attempts. There are no current medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of stimulant withdrawal. Cannabis withdrawal, although not medically dangerous, has recently been adopted as a discrete syndrome in the DSM-5. Its severity correlates significantly with the amount of cannabis used, functional impairment, and ability to achieve sustained remission. There are no current medications approved by the FDA for treatment of cannabis withdrawal.
This review contains 6 figures, 13 tables, and 101 references.
Key words: alcohol, amphetamine, benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, cannabis, clonidine, cocaine, dexmedetomidine, methadone, opioid, phenobarbital, stimulant, withdrawal
Subjective Cognitive Impairment and Mild Cognitive Impairment (Predementias)
Authors: Beesam Shashank , Grossberg George , Marin Eric
Published: January 2021

Alzheimer disease is thought to have an insidious progression, with asymptomatic brain changes occurring decades prior to formal diagnosis. In recent years, efforts have been made to identify and characterize these changes into a spectrum beginning with subjective cognitive decline through the development of major neurocognitive disorder. Through this process, progress has been made into the predictive factors, prevention, and treatment modalities for the various stages of cognitive decline. In addition to pharmacologic therapies, studies have shown the value in physical, mental, social, and spiritual activity combined with support from physicians, family, and caregivers. Furthermore, individualized care, open and honest physician-patient dialogue, and emphasis on lifestyle modifications have been shown to achieve optimal quality of life and may also decrease the rate of cognitive decline.
This review contains 5 figures, 13 tables, and 39 references
Keywords: age-related cognitive decline, Alzheimer disease, major neurocognitive disorder, mild cognitive impairment, mild neurocognitive disorder, senior moment, subjective cognitive impairment
Mood Stabilizers: Implementing Combined Treatment Regimens in Bipolar Disorder
Authors: Bowden Charles , Martinez Melissa
Published: January 2021

Patients with bipolar disorders spend a greater proportion of their illness in a depressed or mixed state rather than experiencing either mania or hypomania. Over the past 20 years, most major pharmaceutical companies have either reduced or abandoned the research and development of novel psychiatric drugs, exiting the development of new, safe, efficacious, and tolerable treatment regimens for bipolar disorder. Therefore, optimizing the current treatments available is critical. We review studies of the last 15 years that provide guidance relevant to managing the maintenance phase of bipolar disorders. Based on these data, we provide recommendations for effective treatment planning and implementation, principally for the maintenance phase care of persons with bipolar disorder. We also discuss strategies for implementing medication regimens, differentiating strategies for maintenance phase treatment from those of acute phase treatment. Assessing key symptoms that are sensitive to change is critical for longitudinal assessments and treatment planning for patients with bipolar disorders. In most studies, only a subset of rating scale items differentiate patients with good responses from those without. Identified symptoms include racing thoughts, less need for sleep, hyperactivity, increased activity, and increased energy. We developed a procedure for using Multistate Outcome Analysis of Treatment (MOAT) in bipolar disorders. MOAT integrates efficacy and tolerability data during studies to provide information about the quantity and quality of time spent in distinct mood states. The protocol developed will be useful for assessing treatment strategies in bipolar disorder.

This review contains 4 figures, 7 tables and 32 references
Key words: bipolar, depression, lithium, mania, mixed, mood stabilizer, survival analysis, symptom domains, valproate
Part 1: Borderline Personality Disorder and Its Clinical Features
Authors: Biskin Robert , Paris Joel
Published: January 2021

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is routinely encountered in all clinical settings and has been stigmatized and perceived as a difficult disorder to manage. Over the past 25 years, significant gains in our understanding of the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of the disorder have helped improve the lives of these patients. BPD is now understood to begin in adolescence and early adulthood, with a generally positive course and reductions in symptoms of self-harm and suicidality within several years of diagnosis. BPD is best understood as developing through an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. No clear biological features have been consistently identified yet, and similarly, no clear psychosocial factor, including childhood adversity or sexual abuse, is causative for BPD. Clearly separating BPD from other disorders, particularly bipolar disorder, is an important consideration and required to ensure proper care. Comorbid disorders, including other personality disorder, are frequent problems that partially reflect a challenge with the current diagnostic system that has not yet been resolved. Although the symptomatic outcome of patients with BPD is very good, functional outcomes, such as holding work and relationships, is more challenging for many patients, and suicide remains a risk in patients with this disorder.
This review contains 2 figures, 4 tables, and 102 references.
Key words: borderline personality disorder, outcome, personality disorder, self-harm, suicide
Epidemiology and Economics of Nephrolithiasis
Authors: Ziemba Justin B. , Matlaga Brian R.
Published: January 2021

Nephrolithiasis is a disease that is common in both the Western and the non-Western world. Several population-based studies have demonstrated a rising incidence and prevalence of symptomatic and asymptomatic disease over the last several decades. The disease recurs frequently after an initial stone event. The environment appears to play a role in stone formation, particularly in those living in the southeastern United States. The influence of diet on the risk of nephrolithiasis is important, particularly dietary calcium and fluid intake. An increased intake of dietary calcium and fluid is consistently associated with a reduced risk of incident nephrolithiasis in both men and women. Increasing evidence suggests that nephrolithiasis is associated with systemic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Nephrolithiasis places a significant burden on the health care system, which is likely to increase with time.

This review contains 4 tables and 22 references

Key Words: diet, epidemiology, kidney calculi, nephrolithiasis
Carotid Dissection
Authors: Avgerinos Efthymios D. , Schneider Peter , Chaer Rabih A.
Published: January 2021

Carotid artery dissection refers to an intimal tear and eventually hematoma of the carotid artery wall. Although medical therapy is the mainstay of treatment, surgical or endovascular procedures may be indicated to address fluctuating neurologic deficit or expanding pseudoaneurysm. This review surveys the pathophysiology and natural history of carotid dissection and summarizes the results of recent trials and evolving therapeutic options. A table highlights factors predisposing to or potentially associated with carotid dissection. Figures include an illustration of the pathophysiology of internal carotid artery dissection (ICAD); angiograms revealing right internal carotid artery tapering stenosis to occlusion, right internal carotid artery carotid dissection, and distal left ICAD; ultrasound findings of ICAD; and an algorithm for the diagnosis and management of carotid dissection.
This review contains 6 figures, 1 table, and 83 references.
Great Vessel Disease
Authors: Bower Thomas C. , Jr Kenneth J. Cherry
Published: January 2021

The great vessels or supra-aortic trunks (SATs) are most often affected by occlusive disease. Aneurysms of the SATs are much rarer compared with other vascular territories and may be associated with aneurysms or dissections of the ascending aorta and arch or aneurysms in other locations. Treatment of SAT aneurysms has evolved from ligation or exclusion to aneurysm resection with autogenous or prosthetic interposition grafts. There is now a growing body of literature describing the use of endovascular techniques to treat occlusive disease or SAT aneurysms. Hybrid techniques, which combine SAT revascularization by direct or cervical routes with aortic stenting, have also grown in popularity. This review covers anatomy, etiology and aortic arch pathology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, indications for treatment, open reconstruction for occlusive lesions, extrathoracic arterial reconstruction, aortic arch repair, endovascular treatment, and prosthetic SAT graft infection or involvement by tumor. Tables outline distribution of atherosclerotic lesions and extended carotid artery aneurysm studies from 2005 to 2012. Figures show a small subclavian artery aneurysm, thromboembolic occlusion of the brachial and forearm arteries, and digital infarcts; sternal exposure; multivessel supra-aortic trunk reconstruction; a subclavian to carotid artery transposition; three-dimensional relationships of a retropharyngeal and an anteriorly tunneled carotid-carotid bypass; an ascending aortic and total arch repair using an elephant trunk; distal arch and descending thoracic aortic aneurysms with chronic dissection treated with a hybrid technique; complex redo aortic coarctation and SAT reconstruction; hybrid repair of a developmental aortic arch abnormality, a large aberrant right subclavian aneurysm, and Kommerell diverticulum; infection of an ascending aortobilateral distal carotid prosthetic bypass graft originally placed for Takayasu arteritis; and an angiosarcoma involving the innominate, right subclavian, and cervical common carotid arteries and the internal jugular vein.
This review contains 11 figures, 2 tables, and 81 references.
Management of Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms
Authors: Aarabi Shahram , Starnes Benjamin Ware
Published: January 2021

Once seen as an unsolvable riddle, the treatment of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) has undergone a revolution over the past 20 years, with 30-day operative mortality dropping by nearly half and continuing to improve. Modern resuscitation and anesthetic techniques, endovascular surgery, improved imaging techniques, and regionalization of care have all contributed to this progress. Still, managing rAAA is a daunting task that requires a systematic approach at multiple levels of care, and management of this disease continues to evolve. This review covers the history of the management of rAAA followed by the current state of the art in prehospital care, operative intervention, and postoperative management. Although there are different algorithms to approach this disease and a multitude of technical options, this review focuses on an approach that has reduced by half the 30-day mortality of rAAA patients at Harborview Medical Center to 35.3%. Other excellent algorithms for managing rAAA exist around the country and the world; these all share a set of common principles that are highlighted. The review concludes by giving an overview of future directions for research and progress in the field. A table compares the major prognostic scoring systems for rAAA. Algorithms for managing and following up after rAAA are provided. Other figures show a hybrid operating suite, arterial access and placement of an aortic occlusion balloon, open aortic exposure and proximal vascular control, the steps of open and endovascular rAAA repair, and endoleaks after endovascular rAAA repair.
This review contains 8 figures, 1 table, and 63 references.
Classification Systems for Lower Extremity Occlusive Disease
Authors: Cull David L.
Published: January 2021

The management of lower extremity occlusive disease involves some of the most complex decision making in the field of vascular surgery. Patients with lower extremity occlusive disease often present with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations ranging from mild intermittent claudication to severe ischemia with gangrene. Moreover, the prognosis and clinical management are dependent on the location and extent of the atherosclerotic disease burden, the presence of comorbid conditions that affect life expectancy and procedural patency, the revascularization options available, and the functional status of the patient. In an effort to bring order to this challenging disease, a number of lower extremity classification systems have been developed. This review discusses challenges of establishing a classification system, anatomic classification systems, classification systems based on presenting symptoms/clinical presentation, morbidity/mortality risk stratification systems, and disability classification systems. Tables outline the Society for Vascular Surgery runoff score, clinical categories of acute limb ischemia, Rutherford clinical categories of chronic limb ischemia, Fontaine clinical stages of chronic limb ischemia, LEGS (Lower Extremity Grading System) score used to recommend invasive treatment for patients with chronic lower extremity ischemia, WIfI (Wound Ischemia foot Infection) classification system grades, consensus estimate of 1 year amputation risk and likelihood of benefit of/requirement for revascularization based on WIfI spectrum score, predicted and observed 1-year outcomes (limb amputation, wound nonhealing) based on WIfI clinical stage classification, morbidity and mortality risk stratification methods, US social security administration disability criteria for patients with lower extremity occlusive disease and amputation, and criteria for rating impairment due to lower extremity peripheral vascular disease. Figures illustrate the TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus classification of aortoiliac and femoropopliteal lesions and Graziani System classes of progressive vascular disease severity and distribution in patients with diabetes mellitus presenting with foot wounds.
This review contains 3 figures, 11 tables, and 35 references.
Medical Management of Lower Extremity Manifestations of Peripheral Artery Disease
Authors: McDermott Mary M.
Published: January 2021

Lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects eight million people in the United States and over 200 million men and women worldwide. Furthermore, recent evidence from the Global Disease Burden suggests that the prevalence of PAD increased worldwide by 20% between 2000 and 2010. Patients with PAD are at increased risk for cardiovascular events, functional impairment, and mobility loss. With advancements in medical science and improved treatments for cardiovascular disease, rates of cardiovascular events have declined in the United States and in other high socioeconomic countries. Consequently, people are living longer with chronic debilitating diseases, such as PAD. Optimal medical management of patients with PAD is essential to help these patients survive longer with optimal quality of life and without disability. This review covers medical therapies to improve lower extremity functioning in people with PAD, additional medications to improve walking performance in PAD, and both walking and nonwalking exercise interventions for lower extremity PAD,  Tables outline outcome measures typically used to assess improvement in response to medical therapies for PAD; FDA-approved medications and medications that may be beneficial but are not FDA-approved for intermittent claudication symptoms; exercise therapies that benefit patients with PAD; and additional considerations regarding exercise therapy in PAD. Graphs showcase ramipril versus placebo and changes in walking time according to home-based versus supervised walking exercise.
This review contains 2 figures, 5 tables, and 68 references.
Current Modalities for Imaging the Vascular System
Authors: Keeling Aoife N. , Naughton Peter A.
Published: January 2021

This review focuses on the noninvasive imaging modalities currently used in the investigation and diagnosis of both arterial and venous disorders, covering both technical factors and clinical applications with a number of case-based examples. Over the last two decades, the most frequent noninvasive imaging techniques used to diagnose and treat vascular pathologies have been duplex ultrasonography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance angiography. Multidetector computed tomograpic angiography is also described. More than three dozen pictures depict various imaging techniques of patients. This review contains 70 references.
Evaluation of adolescent and adult patients treated with the Carriere Motion Class III appliance followed by fixed appliances
Authors: McNamara James A. , Franchi Lorenzo , McClatchey Laurie McNamara , Kowalski Sarah E. , Cheeseman Camaron C.
Published: January 2021

Objectives

To determine dentoalveolar and skeletal effects produced in mature patients by the Carriere Motion Class III (CM3) appliance followed by fixed appliances.

Materials and Methods

This retrospective study evaluated 32 patients at three time points: T1 (initial), T2 (removal of CM3), and T3 (posttreatment). Serial cephalograms were traced and digitized, and best-fit regional superimpositions were constructed. Eleven linear and 7 angular variables were measured. The starting forms of the CM3 patients were compared with a sample of untreated subjects with normal occlusions and well-balanced faces.

Results

The CM3 phase lasted 6.3 months, followed by a phase of fixed appliances lasting 12.9 months; the total duration of treatment was 19.2 months. Minimal skeletal changes were measured sagittally, with only a slight increase in lower anterior facial height observed during treatment. Most treatment changes were dentoalveolar in nature. Wits appraisal increased 4.0 mm during treatment. The molar relationship improved by 6.0 mm during phase I, a value that rebounded slightly during phase II, resulting in an improvement toward Class I of 4.8 mm. Best-fit regional superimpositions revealed anterior movement of upper molars relative to the maxilla and posterior movement of lower molars relative to the mandible.

Conclusions

The Carriere Motion Class III appliance is an effective and efficient method of resolving occlusal problems in minimally growing Class III patients. Primary treatment effects are dentoalveolar in nature with minimal skeletal alterations.
Väitöskirja viron kielen partitiivin ja illatiivin variaatiosta
Authors: Laalo Klaus
Published: January 2021

Arvioitu teos:

Ann Siiman: Vormikasutuse varieerumine ning selle põhjused osastava ja sisseütleva käände näitel. Dissertationes Philologiae Estonicae Universitatis Tartuensis 45. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus 2019. isbn 978-9949-03-124-5. Saatavilla verkossa osoitteessa http://hdl.handle.net/10062/64787.
On the Transatlantic Migration of Knowledge
Authors: Eyerman Ron , Jamison Andrew
Published: January 2021

No abstract
The Role of Science & Technology in the Transition from a Centrally-Planned Economy to a Market Economy in the Czech Republic
Authors: Tegart Greg
Published: January 2021

No abstract
Matching Community Needs with University R&D
Authors: Farkas Nicole
Published: January 2021

No abstract
The Weakening Connection Between Education and Research
Authors: Snell Karoliina
Published: January 2021

The focus of this article is on the relationship between research and education. The argument is that recent policy developments and the increasing emphasis on commercialisation and profitability of university activities weakens the connection of education and research. In this article, general characteristics of development of universities and university policy in Finland are summarised. Main subjects of the analysis are three university departments that are situated in three different Finnish universities. The concept of connection between research and education is explored and tested in these three cases. The relationship between research and education and its erosion is analysed with the help of four definitions of education’s research connection. The article shows that regardless of the definition, the connection between research and education is becoming fragile as a result of practical, instrumental and commercial aspirations of university activities.
Women and Scientific Employment
Authors: Glower Judith
Published: January 2021

In the first section of this paper I present a brief picture, using available data, of the current situation of UK women in scientific education and employment. I then discuss the need for new data and describe some of the initiatives which have been taking place, primarily at the European level, to redress this issue. In the third section, having listed the various arguments which can be found in the literature about why the ‘women and science’ issue matters, I focus particularly on a new development in European Commission thinking: the link with the ‘science and society’ perspective. Finally, I offer some thoughts about the limitations of gathering quantitative data only, arguing that qualitative research into the institutions of science is also required if we are to understand more about the cultural aspects of science that appear to be persistently alienating for girls and women.
Latour - Semiotics and Science Studies
Authors: Høstaker Roar
Published: January 2021

The aim of this article is to study the relationship between Bruno Latour’s theories and semiotics. In particular the article compares Latour’s concepts to those of the linguist A.J. Greimas. From Latour’s earliest texts in science studies onwards, semiotics has been a basic theoretical tool. As the article will show, Latour privileges the autonomy of language in order to avoid the ascription of substance to human and non-human actors. It is within this autonomous field that his general associology based on trials of strength can come into play. Furthermore, the article analyses Latour’s theories concerning the gradual emergence of actors, circulation of references and technical mediation. Finally, the article tries to show how Latour’s approach reaches a limit when it comes to the study of the settings of social action. A way out of this problem is sketched while at the same time remaining within a semiotic universe. *Key words*: Bruno Latour, science studies, semiotics
Working Models and the Synthetic Method
Authors: Asaro Peter
Published: January 2021

This article examines the construction of electronic brain models in the 1940s as an instance of “working models” in science. It argues that the best way to understand the scientific role of these synthetic brains is through combining aspects of the “models as mediators” approach (Morgan and Morrison, 1999) and the “synthetic method” (Cordeschi, 2002). Taken together these approaches allow a fuller understanding of how working models functioned within the brain sciences of the time. This combined approach to understanding models is applied to an investigation of two electronic brains built in the late 1940s, the Homeostat of W. Ross Ashby, and the Tortoise of W. Grey Walter. It also examines the writings of Ashby, a psychiatrist and leading proponent of the synthetic brain models, and Walter, a brain electro-physiologist, and their ideas on the pragmatic values of such models. I conclude that rather than mere toys or publicity stunts, these electronic brains are best understood by considering the roles they played as mediators between disparate theories of brain function and animal behavior, and their combined metaphorical and material power.
Managing Creativity in Academic Research
Authors: Hemlin Sven
Published: January 2021

This  article  discusses  how  management  could  be  used  in  promoting  creativity  in academic research. First, research management is introduced with the observation that  management  often  creates  tension  in  academic  research.  Second,  a  comprehensive research management model is presented as a tool for analysis. Third, studies of creative and innovative working groups are applied to academic research management. Finally, a conclusion is drawn with six implications for the improvement of creativity supported by research management.
Retiring the Network Spokesman
Authors: Chan Anita Say
Published: January 2021

National legislation to mandate the use or consideration of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) in government institutions is increasingly emerging as a strategy for FLOSS advocates in Latin America and the broader developing world. Such movements for the political use and regulation of FLOSS mark a distinct turn in the objectives and work of FLOSS advocates, whose activities largely focused on the dissemination of FLOSS as a technological artifact. This paper investigates the network of diverse actors involved in promoting FLOSS legislation in Peru, one of the first nations where a movement for FLOSS legislation emerged. It emphasizes that crucial to the work of FLOSS’ network actors is not their merely technological productivity, but their cultural and political productivity – that is, their ability to produce diverse body of meaning made both evident and mobile in narratives of FLOSS use and adoption.
Disentangling Transdisciplinarity
Authors: Zierhofer Wolgang , Burger Paul
Published: January 2021

Within the discourse promoting transdisciplinary research (TDR), also referred to as Mode 2 science, it is often claimed that scientifically coping with urgent life-world problems calls for interdisciplinary participatory research (or TDR), and that this represents a new mode of knowledge production. Although we look upon TDR as a fertile innovation, we have epistemological and methodological concerns in treating TDR as a (singular) new mode of knowledge production. Hence, our paper attempts to contribute to clarifying the meaning of TDR from an epistemological and methodological perspective. We develop a conceptual scheme for the analysis of knowledge production in problem-oriented research, which is subsequently applied to an empirical analysis of 16 transdisciplinary research projects. In our analysis, we focus upon forms of knowledge integration and participation. The results indicate that, from an epistemological point of view, TDR does not represent a specific mode of knowledge production, but a rather heterogeneous conglomeration of different research activities. In order to evaluate the epistemic potential of TDR, we conclude that it would be wise to disentangle it methodologically into various types of research objectives and related research instruments.
A Practice-Based Model of Access for Science
Authors: Ratto Matt
Published: January 2021

In this paper I argue that analyses of access to the contexts and work of ‘e-science’ and scientific ‘cyberinfrastructures’ are hindered by models that assume fixed roles for contributors and users and undervalue the joint ‘reworking’ of scientific data that is one of the central strengths of such approaches. Using a community of Free/Libre Open Source software (FLOSS) developers as a complementary case, I develop an alternative practice-based model of access that focuses on the particular sets of social and technical knowledges that allow individuals to work together to develop and maintain shared resources. Importantly, this model of access puts the practices of ‘reworking’ as central rather than peripheral to human activity. Access within this framework is characterized as the ability to shift between individual and joint, mediated work, and to understand and manipulate the multiple representations of shared objects such shifts require.
Evolving Collaborations
Authors: Morris Norma , Hebden Jeremy C.
Published: January 2021

In this paper we aim to study the workings of a cross-disciplinary project in practice, and to relate our approach to other ways of achieving similar goals. By reference to our experience of a project to involve volunteer research subjects more actively in research on developing a new health technology, we explore the dynamics and evolution of the collaborative relationship between the medical physicists and social scientists as the project matured over a number of years. We discuss the tensions within the relationship and the capacity of a collaborative mode of working to sustain or constrain agendas relevant to science and society issues. We conclude by suggesting that we may be evolving towards a new mode of collaboration, similar to that starting to be institutionalised in some other natural science fields (nanotechnology, for example) and stimulated by shared aspirations towards embedding societal concerns in science.
Making a diffuse group consistent and substantial
Authors: Tournay Virginie , Tupasela Aaro
Published: January 2021

No abstract
Cultural work place patterns in Academia
Authors: Hasse Cathrine , Trentemøller Stine
Published: January 2021

In Science and Technology Studies (STS) the emergence of scientific knowledge has been studied from a wealth of creative angles. One aspect which has been left relatively unexplored is how universities as work places in- and exclude their members, and how these processes are related to culture. In this article we shall discuss how a focus on cultural clusters of meaning-making practices in scientific work places at universities in different European countries open up for understanding cultural differences in what male and female scientists are interested in and how they wish their knowledge to be acquired and acknowledged. We argue that different work place cultures in- and exclude members in accordance with their different acknowledgements of creative acts, risk-taking, ‘useful science’ and competition. Moreover, these patterns seem to be connected with a gendered quest for knowledge.
Gender in Academia in Finland
Authors: Rolin Kristina , Vainio Jenny
Published: January 2021

This article contributes to the growing literature on gender and physics by employing the concept of gendering processes to the study of physics departments in Finland. We show that gendering processes can have paradoxical and ambiguous outcomes for women. In order to understand gendering processes, we analysed two kinds of data: gender equality policies in academic organizations and interview data with 36 physicists, both male and female. On the basis of the interview data we argue that physics departments are gendered in the dimensions of symbols and images, interaction, and mental constructs. We also argue that there are tensions between policies and gendering processes in physics departments because policies do not fully succeed in identifying the processes that maintain inequalities between female and male physicists. The tensions explain why gendering processes have paradoxical and ambiguous outcomes.
Making Masculinity in Plasma Physics
Authors: Pettersson Helena
Published: January 2021

The aim of this article is to analyse masculinity and experimental practices among plasma physicists. The study is based on ethnographic field work with observations and interviews among experimental plasma physicists in a laboratory in the United States. Through daily practices and hands-on situations, the experimental plasma physicists defined their experimental work as strongly associated with masculinity. Both practices and discourses about working with the experiments were fringed with connotations of a craft, of strength and physical efforts. Together, the practices and discourses were used as marks of identity for the laboratory and for the group of physicists within.
Intervention by Invitation: New Concerns and New Versions of the User in STS
Authors: Jensen Torben Elgaard
Published: January 2021

Over the past three decades, STS has increasingly moved from a position of often ‘studying up’ to a position of often ‘being invited’ into scientifi c, technological and political projects. As a consequence, more and more STS researchers now find themselves having access not only to the sites, but also at times to the discussions and the decisions. With these new points of entry, the key question about intervention may no longer be if STS will be heard, but rather how the contributions from STS will combine with those of other participants in joint projects. The article investigates how Danish STS researchers were invited to intervene under the auspices of a national programme to promote user-driven innovation, and how they gradually developed new versions of the well-established conceptions of the users known from the STS literature. The new versions of the user raised higher hopes about the innovative potential of users, and evoked deeper fears about elusive publics and disloyal customers. Finally, the article considers the peculiar ‘middle management’ position that STS researchers may hold as mediators between users and projects, and it proposes the term ‘intervention-as-composition’ to designate the type of intervention that may result from mediating between previously unconnected actors.
Innovating Relations – or Why Smart Grid is not too Complex for the Public
Authors: Schick Lea , Winthereik Brit Ross
Published: January 2021

Revamping the electricity infrastructure to allow for an increased usage of renewable energy sources is a matter of concern in many parts of the world. In Europe, a major policy question is how to move energy demand to periods with surplus of renewable energy in the grid. In this paper we follow prominent Danish and German delegates working towards realizing the intelligent electricity infrastructure commonly known as ‘smart grid’ envisioned to be a significant actor in the management of renewable energy. Starting out with a view on smart grid that recognizes it as a partially existing object, we attend to its gradual emergence by focusing on two models and a metaphor evoked to represent smart grid development. As we contrast and compare these representational objects, smart grid emerges as a potential ‘thing’. Following Latour a ‘thing’ is a gathering of many actors agreeing and disagreeing about what the thing ‘is’ (its ontological status). In the paper we show how smart grid innovation both emerges – and fails to emerge – as an object of relevance to a broader public. Even though users play an important role in the imagination of experts, a gap remains between the experts and those who smart electricity infrastructures will come to affect. Concerned with this gap we argue that Science and Technology Studies must pay attention to how smart grid development gets constructed as a public problem in specific imaginative spaces of opportunity and closure.
Cyborg Heart
Authors: Bjørn Pernille , Markussen Randi
Published: January 2021

We argue that a cyborg approach both emphasizes the complexity in treating patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) attached to home monitoring devices, and makes it possible to decipher modern perspectives in the notion of ‘Patient 2.0’ and other representations of patients. We attempt to open up the notion of Patient 2.0 exemplified by ICD patients by drawing on the cyborg idea as developed by Donna Haraway as well as her understanding of science and the body as an apparatus of bodily production. We include the feminists Rosi Braidotti, Anne Balsamo, Geoff Bowker, and Leigh Star in discussing the cyborg, its infrastructures and affective potentials. We analyse modern imaginaries of remote monitoring as they are portrayed on the websites of the two largest manufacturers of ICD technologies, and based on an analysis of the apparatus of bodily production involved when patients visit a hospital to have their illness monitored we propose the analytical device cyborg heart to capture an affective apparatus of bodily production in the clinic and the idea of an enlarged sense of community as opposed to modern imaginaries of patient empowerment. Finally we discuss how the device cyborg heart differs from the notion logic of care.
Adjudicating Deep Time
Authors: Ialenti Vincent F
Published: January 2021

This paper draws upon perspectives on legal personhood, expert knowledge practices, and social relations influential in STS and anthropology to revisit the legal procedural framing of the United States’ now-defunct high-level nuclear waste repository project at Yucca Mountain. Specifically, it examines how this project reinvented both (a) conventional figures of legal personhood as what is called a ‘reasonably maximally exposed individual’ and (b) legal adjudication’s familiar ‘rule-facts-judge’ template as a frame for establishing the repository licensing regime’s delegation of roles, responsibilities, and duties in response to its unique regulatory horizons that extended millennia into the future. Unpacking the implications of these familiar legal figures being brought to bear on historically unprecedented ‘deep’ timescales, this paper concludes by offering alternative lines of inquiry for interdisciplinary analysis of nuclear energy and its associated waste products.
Constructing Expectations for Solar Technology over Multiple Field-Configuring Events
Authors: Nissilä Heli , Lempiälä Tea , Lovio Raimo
Published: January 2021

The existence of positive expectations is of particular importance for emerging clean energy technologies that are not yet competitive on the market in terms of cost or performance. The sociology of expectations literature studies how expectations can further technological fields. We contribute to this literature by studying expectations work through multiple “field-configuring events” in an effort to map out field development over time. Our analysis demonstrates six narrative themes and the evolvement of expectations work to further solar technology. We suggest that event-based expectations work is fruitful for exploring complementary visions and expectations for a new technology. Rather than explicitly aligning expectations, events can lead to an initially narrow storyline gradually spreading into multiple narratives upon which to build a field’s future and, thereby, guide and strengthen the advocacy. This form of guidance is especially important in early phases of field formation.
Self-Building Courses of Solar Heat Collectors as Sources of Consumer Empowerment and Local Embedding of Sustainable Energy Technology
Authors: Jalas Mikko , Kuusi Helka , Heiskanen Eva
Published: January 2021

Self-building courses have been identified as a stimulus for user innovations, local embedding and diffusion of renewable energy technology. In this paper we explore the Finnish solar heat collector self-building courses. Our empirical material consists of field observations, interviews with teachers and a survey of participants since the early activities in late 1990s. Our findings show that course participants have started to follow energy discussions, collect information and actively advise others. Participants view themselves as increasing capable actors in renewable energy. They have also begun to engage in energy saving and renewable energy at home on a wide front. The fact that only 41% have installed their collector points to the importance of timing but also to the way in which self-building courses serve as a first step into renewable energy. Overall our results indicate that self-building courses offer possibilities for material engagement that has outcomes beyond the immediate objectives of the course.
Greener Aviation Take-off (Delayed)
Authors: Spinardi Graham , Slayton Rebecca
Published: January 2021

In the past fifty years, long-range commercial airliners have changed only incrementally from the paradigmatic design – a tube fuselage with swept wings and mostly-aluminium construction. Reducing the environmental impact of airliners may require radical innovations and a new paradigm, but the transition to a new paradigm is fraught with risks. This paper analyses how key risks have shaped and limited efforts to transition toward three types of radical innovations that would signifi cantly improve airliner fuel effi ciency. We use these three cases to reassess the dominant framework for analysing sociotechnical transitions – the multi-level perspective (MLP) – in light of methods and theoretical perspectives drawn from Science and Technology Studies (STS). We argue that if the MLP is to provide a robust framework for analysing sociotechnical transitions, it must be refi ned in three ways. First, it must ‘open the black box’ to account for the ways that technologically-specific risks shape the transition process. Second, rather than predefi ning particular innovations as radical or conservative, ‘mature’ or ‘immature,’ it should attend to how actors conceive of such terms; an innovation which appears ‘mature’ to one group may appear ‘immature’ to another. Third, the MLP would be strengthened by additional case studies such as ours, which examine incomplete or failed transitions.
Making Knowledge in Boundary Infrastructures: Inside and Beyond a Database for Rare Diseases
Authors: Dagiral Éric , Peerbaye Ashveen
Published: January 2021

This paper provides an ethnographical study of the ways in which infrastructure matters in the production of knowledge in the social worlds of rare diseases. We analyse the role played by a relational database in this respect, which exists at the crossroads of a large and complex network of individuals, institutions, and practices. This database forms part of a “boundary infrastructure”, in which knowledge production constitutes one output of infrastructural work, that needs to be articulated with other kinds of activities and matters of concern. We analyse how members of the network negotiate the place and forms of knowledge production in relation to these other purposes, and highlight the political nature of the distinction between knowledge and information, which frames collective action. We also show how infrastructural inversion serves to articulate knowledge production with other forms of mobilisation, thereby shaping and reconfiguring the boundary infrastructure as a whole.Keywords: knowledge infrastructures, boundary infrastructures, relational databases, rare diseases
Promises that Matter: Reconfiguring Ecology in the Ecotrons
Authors: Granjou Céline , Walker Jeremy
Published: January 2021

Ecotrons are large instruments designed to produce experimentally valid knowledge through the controlled manipulation of enclosed, simplifed ecosystems. Situating the ecotrons within a select genealogy of artificial biospheres, and drawing on interviews with key researchers engaged in the conception and recent construction of two ecotrons in France, we propose to think through ecotrons as promissory and anticipatory infrastructures that materialize a profound reconfiguration of ecologists’ roles within wider civilizational narratives. Ecotrons encapsulate ecologists’ ambitions to practice a ‘hard’ science, recognized by international environmental and science policy forums: they were integral to rise of the sub-discipline of functional ecology which underpins the policy discourse of ‘ecosystem services’. Combining patterns of controlled experimentation with live simulations of future environmental conditions anticipated in climate change scenarios, and thus materialise a reorientation of the vocation of ecology: to secure the resilience of those ‘ecosystem services’ deemed critical to social life. Originally tasked with assessing the effects of biodiversity loss on to the productivity and stability of ecosystems, ecotron research is increasingly focused on microbial ecosystems, and takes place within a terminology resolutely optimistic about the possibilities of ecological engineering, to the exclusion of earlier concerns with mass extinction. Keywords: ecotrons, functional ecology, infrastructure, biodiversity, anticipation, global warming