Working for Barrier Removal in the ICT Area: Creating a More Accessible and Inclusive Canada

This article describes the rights-based approach to access to information and communications technologies (ICT) used by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD). This approach challenges the thinking of policymakers, those in industry, and others who argue that access to ICT can be achieved through a variety of economic, business, or market-based perspectives. It argues that these approaches have failed to deliver accessible ICT to people with disabilities, and that improved legislation, regulation, policy, and programs are required to remove the barriers to ICT experienced by people with disabilities in Canada.     

A Three-Way Dance: The Global Public Good and Accessibility in Information Technologies

When we recognize the development and use of information technologies as an emerging global public good, we can move away from the stark dualisms of profit versus human rights, market share versus accessibility, and competition versus inclusion, to an understanding of how both public and private interests are at play in the development of this global public good. Governments, industry, and disability advocacy organizations are all involved in the construction of this public good in a complex three-way dance. We argue that in the context of this three-way dance it is possible to create a common ground between disability advocacy organizations and the IT industry by developing tools that address the tensions that arise from their differing motivating forces. Specifically, we argue that three sets of tools—regulation, developing ease of use products and standards, and using education to increase the market strength of people with disabilities as consumers—can change the relationships between these two communities of interest in ways that will benefit each.     

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Rural Business Clusters: The Relation Between ICT Adoption and Benefits Derived From Cluster Membership

This study examines the relationships between information and communication technologies (ICT) usage, the benefits a company derives from membership in a rural business cluster, and the success of rural companies. Analysis of 333 rural businesses located in northern lower Michigan showed a strong relationship between (a) ICT adoption and benefits derived from the membership in business clusters, (b) ICT adoption and self-reported business success, and (c) benefits derived from business clusters and business success. Although analysis indicates that these relationships may be industry specific, results suggest that ICT adoption by rural enterprises may have advantages for the region's social capital and business success and may help reduce the digital divide experienced in rural communities.     

Engaging the Business/Industrial Sector in Accessibility Research: Lessons in Bridge Building

This article examines challenges of engaging the business/industry sector in research on the use of information technology to enhance accessibility for people with disabilities in two areas of common interest—to employment and to public and retail services. The data presented arise from the joint effort of two research teams who independently encountered challenges in engaging private sector firms in their respective projects. Using a case study approach, the experiences of both groups were examined for themes representing factors that inhibited collaboration between research and business sectors, and those that enhanced collaboration. Trustworthiness of themes was established by submitting them for critique and feedback to key informants knowledgeable in both business and research. From a social systems theory perspective, findings suggest that the most important differences between research and business systems reside in the meaning of communication each uses, and differences in assumptions about and value placed on factors such as pursuit of new knowledge, the importance of marketability of findings, and so on. Additional complications arise in pursuit of research related to disability. Factors to build on when seeking research collaboration include an understanding of the language and culture of business systems, and the very real possibility of developing disability research into secondary goals that business systems typically pursue once the prime need for profitability has been at addressed (the notion of satisficing). Implications for communication between disability research and business systems are identified.     

Incorporating affordability,efficiency, and quality in the ICT development index: Implications for index building and ICT policymaking

Abstract

International Telecommunication Union’s ICT Development Index and related measures of a country’s ICT development maturity suffer from several limitations, including subjective estimation of the weights of individual indicators and sub-indices, use of inappropriate quantitative models, specification bias arising from the exclusion of potential predictors from the estimation models, and a failure to capture the disparities among different groups of countries. To overcome these problems and provide a more reliable measure of ICT development, this study develops the Modified ICT Maturity Level Index using the 2015 data of 166 countries. This index adds affordability, efficiency, and quality to the existing sub-indices of access, use, and skills. Sub-index and indicator weights are determined in an outcome-orientated way using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. We find that affordability, quality, and efficiency significantly explain the variation in the level of maturity of ICT development in addition to the previously used dimensions of International Telecommunication Union’s ICT Development Index and modified ICT Development Index (mIDI) developed by Gerpott and Ahmadi, and that their explanatory power differ by a country’s level of economic development. The new index produces significantly different country rankings. This has important implications for ICT policy priorities and provides a measure of ICT development maturity less prone to the innocent or intentional distortion of such policy priorities.     

IT Education and Workforce Participation: A New Era for Women in Kenya?

While Sub-Saharan African women have historically assumed the roles of both housewives and subsistence farmers, they have had few opportunities to participate in the modern economies of the region. However, this trend is changing with the exponential growth of information and communications technologies (ICT), giving many Sub-Sahara African women access to computers, the Internet, and other related technologies. Based on the work of a four-member research team from Kenya and the United States, this article examines the integration of female college students into the formal ICT work sector in Kenya. We do so by examining major bottlenecks and enablers to such integration from historical and contemporary perspectives. Using an interpretive approach, we conducted 32 interviews with women in an ICT program offered by a university in Kenya. Our findings indicate that women were highly optimistic, embracing ICT as a practical mechanism for achieving entry into the labor market. However, they perceived significant structural barriers, such as public policies that failed to facilitate the development of the ICT sector, gender discrimination by employers, and training that provided them with insufficient technical skills to enable them to effectively perform in the workplace. These findings largely confirm the gendered perspectives found in similar studies conducted in other countries. However, what appear as global perspectives are informed by the local causes.     

粤港澳大湾区文化科技融合发展动因与路径分析

深入推动文化与科技融合发展,是新时代推进粤港澳大湾区建设战略实施、高水平参与国际文化与科技合作的重要举措。建设国家级文化和科技融合示范基地正在成为粤港澳大湾区产业转型升级的强大引擎,也为文化科技融合发展营造了良好生态圈。粤港澳大湾区文化科技融合具有高起点、高技术、高效能等特征,其动能源自跨界融合发展、各级政府系统性政策支撑和快速增长的文化需求,其未来的发展方向是内容生产数字化、内容传播平台化、信誉保障去中心化。在将粤港澳大湾区打造成为"人文湾区"的进程中,可以选择科技金融、文化和科技融合示范基地、复合型人才培养三大路径提升文化科技融合水平,促进文化与科技互促互鉴,走出一条具有中国特色的文化科技融合之路。     

A Rethinking on the Benefits and Drawbacks of Common Antioxidants and a Proposal to Look for the Antioxidants in Allium Products as Ideal Agents: A Review

This review article on the beneficial uses of Allium antioxidants tries to give some answers to the recent doubts raised by Singh et al. (Ind J Clin Biochem 25(3):225–243, 2010) against the claim of some researchers that Antioxidants (AOs) are miraculous molecules. Many people still believe that vitamins like A, C and E are the only true AOs that play important role in the corrections of metabolic derangements in life style diseases and hence all their faults are attributed to the failures of AOs as a class. This is quite unfair as there are many other natural AOs that do equal or even better AO action than the vitamins. Such is the case with the Allium S-alkyl sulfoxide aminoacids and their breakdown products viz, the various poly sulfides and their oxides e.g. allicin and ajoene type compounds which trap electrons mainly. It is true that antioxidant vitamins and β-carotene a precursor of Vitamin A bring about problems as prooxidant or as agents that block some metabolic pathways and gene expression. Again the argument that AOs cannot improve the level of antioxidant enzymes like SOD, catalase and glutathione Px is also not universal. Actually allium AOs can even spare the use of antioxidant vitamins in the body and enhance the action of antioxidant enzymes and supply of ATP and other nutrients to the tissues as the former are good vasodialators and promoters of membrane permeability. The use of AOs should be selective and moderate. Allium AOs satisfy the role of ideal AOs based on many of their invivo and invitro actions reported by the author and others. Their metabolits can regenerate them and recycle them for a sufficient time in the body. They have non antioxidant effects also such as antiplatelet, fibrinolytic, antiinflammatory, immunomodulatory, antiageing actions etc. Plant derived AOs may be more beneficial and better tolerated in their partially purified forms rather than in their absolutely purified forms as the accompanying principles have some protective and regulatory effects in general. This and other aspects of allium AOs are discussed in the paper.     

Institutional practices and policies in acid-base testing: a self reported Croatian survey study on behalf of the Croatian society of medical biochemistry and laboratory medicine Working Group for acid-base balance

Introduction:

The aim of this survey study was to assess the current practices and policies in use related to the various steps in the blood gas testing process, across hospital laboratories in Croatia.

Materials and methods:

First questionnaire was sent by email to all medical biochemistry laboratories (N = 104) within general, specialized and clinical hospitals and university hospital centres to identify laboratories which perform blood gas analysis. Second questionnaire with detailed questions about sample collection, analysis and quality control procedures, was sent only to 47 laboratories identified by the first survey. Questionnaire was designed as combination of questions and statements with Likert scale. Third questionnaire was sent to all participating laboratories (N=47) for additional clarification for either indeterminate or unclear answers.

Results:

Blood gas analysis is performed in 47/104 hospital laboratories in Croatia. In 25/41 (0.61) of the laboratories capillary blood gas sampling is the preferred sample type for adult patient population, whereas arterial blood sample is preferentially used in only 5/44 laboratories (0.11). Blood sampling and sample processing for capillary samples is done almost always by laboratory technicians (36/41 and 37/44, respectively), whereas arterial blood sampling is almost always done by the physician (24/29) and only rarely by a nurse (5/28). Sample acceptance criteria and sample analysis are in accordance with international recommendations for majority of laboratories. 43/44 laboratories participate in the national EQA program. POCT analyzers are installed outside of the laboratory in 20/47 (0.43) institutions. Laboratory staff is responsible for education and training of ward personnel, quality control and instrument maintenance in only 12/22, 11/20 and 9/20 institutions, respectively.

Conclusions:

Practices related to collection and analysis for blood gases in Croatia are not standardised and vary substantially between laboratories. POCT analyzers are not under the direct supervision by laboratory personnel in a large proportion of surveyed institutions. Collective efforts should be made to harmonize and improve policies and procedures related to blood gas testing in Croatian laboratories.