abstract: This dissertation explores the intersection of two major developments in global environmental governance: the vision for a Green Economy and the growing influence of non-state actors. The work draws on multi-sited thick description to analyze how relationships between the state, market, and civil society are being reoriented towards global problems. Its focus is a non-binding agreement between California and Chiapas to create a market in carbon offsets credits for Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). The study draws on three bodies of scholarship. From the institutionalist study of global environmental politics, it uses the ideas of orchestration, civil regulation, and private entrepreneurial authority to identity emerging alignments of state and non-state actors, premised on an exchange of public authority and private expertise. From concepts borrowed from science and technology studies, it inquires into the production, certification, and contestation of knowledge. From a constitutionalist perspective, it analyzes how new forms of public law and private expertise are reshaping foundational categories such as territory, authority, and rights. The analysis begins with general research questions applied to California and Chiapas, and the international space where groups influential in these sites are also active: 1) Where are new political and legal institutions emerging, and how are they structured? 2) What role does scientific, legal, and administrative expertise play in shaping these institutions, and vice versa? And 3) How are constitutional elements of the political order being reoriented towards these new spaces and away from the exclusive domain of the nation-state? The dissertation offers a number of propositions for combining institutionalist and constructivist approaches for the study of complex global governing arrangements. It argues that this can help identify constitutional reconfigurations that are not readily apparent using either approach alone. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Science and Technology Policy 2015

abstract: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common abnormal heart rhythm, affecting nearly 2% of the world’s population at a cost of $26 Billion in the United States annually, and incalculable costs worldwide. AF causes no symptoms for some people. However, others with AF experience uncomfortable symptoms including palpitations, breathlessness, dizziness, and fatigue. AF can severely diminish quality of life for both AF sufferers and their loved ones. Beyond uncomfortable symptoms, AF is also linked to congestive heart failure and stroke, both of which can cause premature death. Medications often fail to control AF, leading patients and healthcare providers to seek other cures, including catheter ablation. To date, catheter ablation has yielded uneven results, but garners much attention in research and innovation in pursuit of a cure for AF. This dissertation examines the historical development and contemporary practices of AF ablation to identify opportunities to improve the innovation system for the disease. First, I trace the history of AF and AF ablation knowledge from the 2nd century B.C.E. through the present. This historical look identifies patterns of knowledge co-development between science, technology, and technique, as well as publication patterns impacting knowledge dissemination. Second, I examine the current practices of AF ablation knowledge translation from the perspective of clinical practitioners to characterize the demand-side of knowledge translation in real-world practice. Demand-side knowledge translation occurs in nested patterns, and requires data, experience, and trust in order to incorporate knowledge into a practice paradigm. Third, I use social network mapping and analysis to represent the full AF ablation knowledge-practice system and identify opportunities to modify research and innovation practice in AF ablation based on i measures of centrality and power. Finally, I outline six linked recommendations using raw data capture during ablation procedures and open big data analytics, coupled with multi-stakeholder social networking approaches, to maximize innovation potential in AF ablation research and practice. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology 2016

Esta tese analisa noções construídas sobre o ser humano que são apropriadas com fins tecnológicos, em sistemas computacionais produzidos por praticantes da Inteligência Artificial. Foi desenvolvido com base em um trabalho de campo de observação participante junto a grupos de pesquisa acadêmico na área de Inteligência Artificial, um brasileiro e outro europeu (português). O trabalho articula-se com as demandas da Informática na Educação ao focar, de maneira não estrita, projetos com caráter pedagógico. O presente estudo, através dos significados e as práticas observadas a partir de dentro dos grupos, procurou compreender o conhecimento do participante enquanto pertencente a uma cultura própria e peculiar, e a lógica interna desta cultura. Foram interrogados com especial atenção os artefatos produzidos: sistemas computacionais, investidos das características funcionais desejadas pelos participantes, e materializando suas práticas e premissas. Observou-se como emoção, conhecimento, cultura, e agência, entre outros, são conceituados, estabelecidos e colocados em práticas como categorias do humano, não apenas como definições expressas em texto, mas como materializadas em artefatos e em expectativas sobre o encontro entre estes artefatos e seus usuários. Foi consistentemente trabalhado o “colocar em perspectiva” das práticas e noções próprias do campo estudado, a partir de ferramentas teóricas propostas pelos Estudos de Ciência e Tecnologia, em especial por B. Latour, L. Suchman e D. Forsythe. As práticas e noções, no campo abordado, são conhecimento científico e tecnológico, com estatuto próprio e estabelecido como válido e legítimo; em relação a isto, foi sistematicamente buscada a colocação desta validade e desta legitimidade em perspectiva, mostrando como esta validade relaciona-se com a forma de produção e legitimação, e como esta produção e legitimação podem ser vistas de outras formas. Espera-se, com estes resultados, contribuir para um diálogo mais sofisticado dentro da Informática na Educação entre as práticas tecnológicas, a Ciência da Computação e Inteligência Artificial, e a aplicação social e pedagógica destas práticas. / This thesis addresses notions of human that are present in computer-based systems built by researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence. Participant observation was performed in fieldwork within two academic research groups in Artificial Intelligence; one of such groups is Brazilian, while the other is Portuguese. The focus is on research projects displaying a pedagogical orientation. This thesis aims at understanding meanings and practices current in the groups, understood as local cultural settings, and the logics that underpin such meanings and practices. The technological artifacts that comprises their work, computer systems invested of certain functional characteristics, were interrogated. Categories such as emotion, knowledge, culture, and agency were followed as they are conceptualized and deployed as human traits, not only as textual definitions, but also as artefactual materializations and expectations about how users should encounter these artifacts. As a methodological analytics, these practices and notions were systematically compared with alternative perspectives, drawn from the theoretical references of the Science and Technological Studies (with special mention to B. Latour, L. Suchman and D. Forsythe). The validity and legitimacy of the positions of the group were not denied or devalued in this analytical process, but instead subjected to inquiry from different perspectives. The aims are making visible the relation of this validity and legitimacy with specific, situated processes of production and legitimation, and proposing that these processes could be considered in other, different ways.

Esta tese analisa noções construídas sobre o ser humano que são apropriadas com fins tecnológicos, em sistemas computacionais produzidos por praticantes da Inteligência Artificial. Foi desenvolvido com base em um trabalho de campo de observação participante junto a grupos de pesquisa acadêmico na área de Inteligência Artificial, um brasileiro e outro europeu (português). O trabalho articula-se com as demandas da Informática na Educação ao focar, de maneira não estrita, projetos com caráter pedagógico. O presente estudo, através dos significados e as práticas observadas a partir de dentro dos grupos, procurou compreender o conhecimento do participante enquanto pertencente a uma cultura própria e peculiar, e a lógica interna desta cultura. Foram interrogados com especial atenção os artefatos produzidos: sistemas computacionais, investidos das características funcionais desejadas pelos participantes, e materializando suas práticas e premissas. Observou-se como emoção, conhecimento, cultura, e agência, entre outros, são conceituados, estabelecidos e colocados em práticas como categorias do humano, não apenas como definições expressas em texto, mas como materializadas em artefatos e em expectativas sobre o encontro entre estes artefatos e seus usuários. Foi consistentemente trabalhado o “colocar em perspectiva” das práticas e noções próprias do campo estudado, a partir de ferramentas teóricas propostas pelos Estudos de Ciência e Tecnologia, em especial por B. Latour, L. Suchman e D. Forsythe. As práticas e noções, no campo abordado, são conhecimento científico e tecnológico, com estatuto próprio e estabelecido como válido e legítimo; em relação a isto, foi sistematicamente buscada a colocação desta validade e desta legitimidade em perspectiva, mostrando como esta validade relaciona-se com a forma de produção e legitimação, e como esta produção e legitimação podem ser vistas de outras formas. Espera-se, com estes resultados, contribuir para um diálogo mais sofisticado dentro da Informática na Educação entre as práticas tecnológicas, a Ciência da Computação e Inteligência Artificial, e a aplicação social e pedagógica destas práticas. / This thesis addresses notions of human that are present in computer-based systems built by researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence. Participant observation was performed in fieldwork within two academic research groups in Artificial Intelligence; one of such groups is Brazilian, while the other is Portuguese. The focus is on research projects displaying a pedagogical orientation. This thesis aims at understanding meanings and practices current in the groups, understood as local cultural settings, and the logics that underpin such meanings and practices. The technological artifacts that comprises their work, computer systems invested of certain functional characteristics, were interrogated. Categories such as emotion, knowledge, culture, and agency were followed as they are conceptualized and deployed as human traits, not only as textual definitions, but also as artefactual materializations and expectations about how users should encounter these artifacts. As a methodological analytics, these practices and notions were systematically compared with alternative perspectives, drawn from the theoretical references of the Science and Technological Studies (with special mention to B. Latour, L. Suchman and D. Forsythe). The validity and legitimacy of the positions of the group were not denied or devalued in this analytical process, but instead subjected to inquiry from different perspectives. The aims are making visible the relation of this validity and legitimacy with specific, situated processes of production and legitimation, and proposing that these processes could be considered in other, different ways.

This information studies dissertation deals with the problem that results from research outside academia risk to receive little or no attention if communicated through reports, instead of in mainstream academic genres like research journal articles. The case in focus is Swedish development-led (DL) archaeology, i.e. state regulated archaeology preceding land development. Swedish DL archaeology is organized as a semi-regulated market. The organizations competing on the market are professional service organizations selling research services to land developers. Regional government departments, county administrative boards, function as intermediaries setting up procurement-like processes. In previous research on archaeological documentation, the problem with non-use of reports has been described as depending on cultural issues of access, possible to solve if individuals make efforts to communicate and use extra-academic results. This dissertation offers an alternative definition of the problem, highlighting a different set of solutions. The aim is to further the understanding of how the distribution of research duties to professional service organizations affects the scholarly documentation in Swedish archaeology. The aim is met through identification, operationalization and analysis of resources available to report writing DL archaeology practitioners, and an analysis of how practitioners draw on these resources. The results further the understanding of how reports are shaped within the DL archaeology institution. In view of these results, efforts to solve issues of access should target the organization of research in the archaeology discipline, and specifically how scholarly documentation is governed on the archaeology market. The dissertation draws on science and technology studies, practice theory, and document theory for the design of the study of documentation resources and contexts in extra-academic research. A mixed methods approach is applied to capture regulative, institutional, and infrastructural resources, and practitioners’ use thereof. Dissertation papers I-III contain analyses of concrete instantiations of the resources: information policy, documentation ideals, and information source use. The fourth paper presents an analysis of how practitioners draw on these resources in their everyday report writing. The dissertation concerns archaeology specifically, but serves as grounds to inquire into the premises for scholarly documentation in other areas of extra-academic research and knowledge-making as well. / Archaeological Information in the Digital Society (ARKDIS)

With the advent of the internet age, the way in which global society interacts with technology has changed dramatically. The instantaneous availability of information and connectivity, signal the rise of a knowledge economy. This is a system in which the most valuable resource, to nations and private enterprise, is knowledge. This thesis argues that value is created through knowledge flows, which result in innovation and technological advancement. This technological advancement is the primary determinant of a nation’s global competitive advantage in a globalized knowledge economy. This thesis then posits that these innovations are fostered by institutional, social, cultural, economic, and governmental factors within a nation. These factors make up a nations’ National Innovation System (NIS). Using case studies of the US, China, India, and the EU, this paper then attempts to deconstruct, compare, and contrast the innovation strategies of each country and what implications they might have for the future. Lastly, an analysis of potential trends attempts to forecast the global innovative landscape in the near future.

abstract: Over the last half century, global healthcare practices have increasingly relied on technological interventions for the detection, prevention, and treatment of disability and disease. As these technologies become routinized and normalized into medicine, the social and political dimensions require substantial consideration. Such consideration is particularly critical in the context of ableism, in which bodily and cognitive differences such as disabilities are perceived as deviance and demand intervention. Further, neoliberalism, with its overwhelming tendency to privatize and individualize, creates conditions under which social systems abdicate responsibility for social issues such as ableism, shifting accountability onto individuals to prevent or mitigate difference through individualized means. It is in this context that this dissertation, informed by critical disability studies and feminist science and technology studies, examines the understanding and enactment of disability and responsibility in relation to biomedical technologies. I draw from qualitative empirical data from three distinct case studies, each focused on a different biomedical technology: prenatal genetic screening and diagnosis, deep brain stimulation, and do-it-yourself artificial pancreas systems. Analyzing semi-structured interviews and primary documents through an inductive framework that takes up elements of Grounded Theory and hermeneutic phenomenology, this research demonstrates a series of tensions. As disability becomes increasingly associated with discrete biological characteristics and medical professionals claim a growing authority over disabled bodyminds, users of these technologies are caught in a double bind of personal responsibility and epistemic invalidation. Technologies, however, do not occupy either exclusively oppressive or liberatory roles. Rather, they are used with full acknowledgement of their role in perpetuating medical authority and neoliberal paradigms as well as their individual benefit. Experiential and embodied knowledge, particular when in tension with clinical knowledge, is invalidated as a transgression of expert authority. To reject these invalidations, communities cohering around subaltern knowledges emerge in resistance to the mismatched priorities and expectations of medical authority, creating space for alternative disabled imaginaries. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology 2020

Video games are an almost universal adolescent leisure activity. Though some in the scholarly field are concerned about the effects of violent video game content on adolescent social outcomes, others believe that the benefits of video game play have been overlooked. A literature review was conducted to examine the evidence for positive and negative outcomes of video game play on adolescents. There were 14 articles identified and subsequently reviewed. Findings demonstrated a unique link between video game play and antisocial (e.g., aggression), prosocial (e.g., generosity), and pragmatic (e.g., problem-solving skills) outcomes. However, the results also suggest that much of this research is atheoretical and does adequately consider the roles of relational context. Discussion of the potential roles of relationships, theoretical applications, strengths and limitations of the research, and future directions are provided.

This research attempts to create a novel process, Social Engineering Vulnerability Evaluation, SiEVE, to use open source data and open source intelligence (OSINT) to perform efficient and effectiveness spear phishing attacks. It is designed for use by "œred teams" and students learning to conduct a penetration test of an organization, using the vector of their workforce. The SiEVE process includes the stages of identifying targets, profiling the targets, and creating spear phishing attacks for the targets. The contributions of this research include the following: (1) The SiEVE process itself was developed using an iterative process to identify and fix initial shortcomings; (2) Each stage of the final version of the SiEVE process was evaluated in an experiment that compared performance of students using SiEVE against performance of those not using SiEVE in order to test effectiveness of the SiEVE process in a learning environment; Specifically, the study showed that those using the SiEVE process (a) did not identify more targets, (b) did identify more information about targets, and (c) did lead to more effective spear phishing attacks. The findings, limitations, and future work are discussed in order to provide next steps in developing formalized processes for red teams and students learning penetration testing.

Automatic exposure control (AEC) is effective at reducing potentially harmful radiation doses without sacrificing image quality for many types of computed tomography (CT) scans. However, there is a need for more information regarding the use of AEC for CT head scans. This study was conducted at Johnson County Community Hospital in Mountain City, TN. Preexisting adult CT head scans (n)60 were randomly selected to form 2 stratified samples, (n)30 each. One sample used a standard protocol, and the other used a protocol with a mA-modulated AEC system, Siemens CARE Dose 4D. Causal-comparative analyses were conducted, and it was determined that AEC was effective at maintaining subjective image quality while reducing radiation doses an average of 38% for adult CT head scans. It was concluded that using AEC was an effective tool to optimize radiation doses for adult CT head scans in one particular setting, but more research on this topic is needed.