The good people at GOOD have had some great design contests.  They really believe in the efficacy of design for responses to difficult problems.  I love how they run ‘em too; they’re straightforward and they get the creative juices flowing.

The GOOD Vaccine Challenge aims to raise awareness about vaccines and the vital role they play in the fight for global health. And they’re offering $5000 to projects (er, publicly voted on) that can be done in 3 months.

Sign for Immunization Centers to Advertise the Availability of Vaccines

Vaccine delivery is severely limited by bias, cultural beliefs, and communication among health service providers and vaccine recipients. One action to be taken is to create durable signs as messages to help reinforce demand for vaccination services.

An analysis of refusal data shows that resistance to vaccine is highest in underserved (largely Muslim) communities and that social influencers are critical to acceptance. The name Taveez describes an amulet or talisman worn around the neck to ward off evil. It is a prevalent practice among Mulsim groups, and it influences beliefs about health and protection among some of the most polio-vulnerable populations.

CKS and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created this Vaccine Delivery Report (pdf 5mb) to highlight some of those challenges. Using a service design approach, researchers identified a range of patterns and barriers to delivery. They identified some possible solutions that can serve as technological options that would fit in the socially-contested landscape that affects people’s understanding and acceptance of health interventions.

One of the “low-hanging fruits” is the simple and direct need to communicate the presence of vaccination service points. It is often assumed that people will know where and when some vaccination event is happening, but this may not be the case. It is also critical that vaccination services create expectations of trust that comes from durability and continuous presence (and accountability) in the community.

The proposal is a simple mock-up for a sign that would be placed at vaccination locations or elsewhere with location information. The goal is to help raise awareness among mothers in regions (particularly the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh) where polio still impacts the livelihoods of children and families. It draws on the need for a non-verbal approach that clearly indicates the risk, the solution, and the recipient population. According to the WHO, only four countries remain endemic: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. This proposal would be implemented in India.

While this seems a simple distribution task, it is complicated by complicated institutional infrastructures. Decisions typically go through the Indian Government (which tends to treat public health as a function of medical treatments and not in terms of broad population education). Other providers include Rotary International and UNICEF, which have their own processes and policies regarding health communications. These can be difficult organizational structures to promote change in (especially if you aren’t in a leadership position).

I asked a colleague with firsthand knowledge of how service design may get integrated into the system:

The diffusion is the biggest challenge here. First of all, the government health mission will not entertain individual designs for mass roll out. These posters are generally put up by funded health agencies and only when it is a part of a larger program in which they have a hand. For this also I think many such organizations like UNICEF already have their own internal graphics team.

Design can provide significant added value with a relatively low cost of implementation. Push strategies such as incentives are unlikely to be successful unless they consist of other health services of value. Thus, a demand-based approach may be more appropriate in getting recipients to pull for vaccinations themselves, but they must see the value demonstrated conclusively. The use of celebrities as influencers has been successful in the past. It’s a one approach among more general tactics that use social proof to reinforce demand and acquisition of the vaccinations by vulnerable individuals.

In discussing the plan with a colleague, she sees private players like mobile operators and fertilizer companies as partners in the process. India Post is anther possibility and especially extensive given their broad network. The project would then be to work with them to get graphics endorsed and uniformly rolled them out along with their own communications and throughout the landscape as a gesture of support. She went on, “This has a mutual benefit of building up their brand equity as well as drawing people’s attention using a product (telecom) which more Indians have access to than anything else.”

Using Social Proof to Build Credibility and Demand for Vaccination Services

scanner ants

While this may have been felt by some as an attack on our morals of human-hood and right-living (ants and scanners shouldn’t mix, right…er…right?), to me this was much more the most delicate and profound expression not of nature but of the social world in which we live. The most amazing thing to me is that a colony of ants could have arrived and decided that a scanner would make a good home. Perhaps there were some legacy muffins adding allure to the crystal glass and step-motor, but maybe the ants were looking for something held up in the ambient waves of electrical heat left over from un-nourished scans of students’ faces, buttocks, book chapters, and collages.

No..I think this is exactly where we want to be…where mixes and happenstances converge out of nothing more than the desire to find place, continence in the “other”, and the cheap thrill of being where you aren’t supposed to.

On checking up on their status, they are gone from the scanner…pupae and all. I’m not sure if they left on their own accord or if they were kicked out. Where did they go? The water cooler perhaps? As for next time, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that discovery doesn’t correlate with disentanglement. I’d like to keep my scanner ants…who knows…they may have figured out something that we haven’t.

HealthMap

A project called HealthMap (http://www.healthmap.org) makes epidemiological information available to all corners of the world via the web. As reported in the July issue of PLoS Medicine, it extracts, categorizes, filters and integrates a variety of Web-based data sources, even analyzing blogs, listservs, chatrooms, and online news reports as sources for monitoring global health.

The idea is that people’s discussion can serve as signals of disease outbreaks which can then be scraped and fed to a map…

Brownstein JS, Freifeld CC, Reis BY, Mandl KD (2008) Surveillance Sans Frontières: Internet-Based Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence and the HealthMap Project. PLoS Med 5(7): e151 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050151

I was up this morning thinking about the kinds of spaces, communities and interactions I would like to see.  Somewhere between physical computing, synthetic biology, evolutionary ecology, and design is a space where species can speak and be recognized by each other, where urban infrastructure becomes adaptive in the space of days and not decades, where the threshold of difference is lowered to such a degree that new networks between otherwise unrelated groups and individuals can find common ground.

Perhaps for the first time, I am beginning to see how things can be connected for the purpose of builing empathy.  Whereas previously, I think the difficult work of etting to know a species was largely out of many peoples’ desires and time banks, perhaps there are now ways of making the opportunities both immediate and resource-efficient.

Rather than always seeking to decouple tightly-linked host-parasite relationships, can we find ways to make new ones…perhaps ones that can grow into mutualisms and symbioses?  Is hardwiring a step in the process?  What are the costs, benefits, sources and sinks?  Can we create or link networks of co-dependence?  What models of covariation should we adopt: linear, dominance, epistatic, topological?

This is actually a really old post from when I was doing my master’s work in host-parasite biology. Nonetheless, it turns out that I’m revisiting it in preparation for an upcoming project.

Behavioral differences between the sexes may explain sexually dimorphic patterns of infection. The risk of infection may be one such factor that an analysis of movement paths can predict. For example, if males spent more time than females foraging for food and, as a result, passively ingest more parasites while doing so, then their risk for infection would generally be greater than females. The tortuosity (or crookedness) of movement paths between the sexes were compared to see if any differences in movement (e.g. foraging) could suggest an explanation for male-biased infection. These differences may suggest that males and females experience their environment at different scales.

Image Analysis

The first thing that needs to be done is to plot the movement of the snails. This can be done by hand, but time-lapse digital photography can help to automate the process. The easiest way to do this was to set up a tripod with the camera pointed down. A white container was used to hold the snails and create the highest contrast background for the photography. Pay attention to the reflection of your light source on the surface between the subject and camera (in this case, water and plastic container). A picture was taken approximately every minute, and to make things simple for the analysis program, I used only two snails per trial- one female and one male. Once I had a stack of pictures (over the course of an hour or two), I loaded them into the image analysis program.

ImageJ is the java implementation of an image analysis program developed by the National Institutes of Health. ImageJ allows you to track the movements of individuals on the screen and outputs a list of XY coordinates for each subject. The first thing that had to be done though was to import the images as a greyscale stack. Once that was done, I cropped out the uninteresting parts of the frame to show only the subject of interest. Further processing was needed to create a binary (black/white) image source for the analysis. Using Process>Subtract Background, I created more contrast with the subject and background. Finally, using the Process>Binary>Threshold, I was able to make the stack be completely composed of black and white images with no greytones inbetween. This is crucial if the analysis algorithm is going to separate the subject from the background. Some parameters may need adjusting for optimal results, but it usually works without too much toying. The final step in ImageJ is to apply the Plugin “Tracker”. This plugin tracks the subject(s) on the screen and outputs a datafile with the coordinates of the movement path. These can then be saved into a text file for later use. I used only two individuals per trial because Tracker is limited to only two subjects. A plugin called MultiTracker is available, but I found it difficult to keep it focused on both individuals. When individuals overlap in space MultiTracker assigns both sets of coordinates to a single individual.

Movie 1. Male and female movement played back after image processing and before tracking analysis.

Measuring the Fractal Dimension of the Paths

I found a great program for measuring the fractal dimension (D) of the snail movement paths. This measurement is thought to measure the scale at which an organism percieves its landscape. Differences in D for different populations would suggest that the populations utilize their landscape differently- perhaps as a result of their perception. The program for measuring D is called Fractal (Nams 2003), and it allows you to import the XY coordinates (after you pare them down to the basic data in excel or something like it). It also allows you to do this as a batch process, making large datasets more manageable. Fractal will give you D for your sample along with confidence intervals. I used a paired-sample t-test in my final analysis. It turned out to be important that I paired similar individuals in the trials; the results did indicate a positive relationship between D and body length. Luckily, I put males and females of the same size in each trial. You’ll have to look into the guidelines for using Fractal yourself if you are going to take a stab at it, but the descriptions are pretty easy to follow. With a bit of doing, it shouldn’t pose a problem to measure these types of behaviors yourself.

A comparison of movement paths for a male and female in maps generated by Fractal.

Selected Bibliography

Bascompte, J., C. Vila. 1997. Fractals and search paths in mammals. Landscape Ecology 12:213-221.

Dicke, M., P. A. Burrough. 1988. Using fractal dimensions for characterizing tortuosity of animal trails. Physiological Entomology 13:393-398.

Escos, J. M., C. L. Alados, J. M. Emlen. 1995. Fractal structures and fractal functions as disease indicators. Oikos 74:310-314.

Nams, V. O. 1996. The VFractal: a new estimator for fractal dimension of animal movement paths. Landscape Ecology 11:289-297.

Nams, V. O. 2001. Using animal movement paths to measure response to spatial scale. submitted.

Turchin, P. 1996. Fractal analyses of animal movement: A critique. Ecology 77:2086-2090.

With, K. A. 1994. Using fractal analysis to assess how species percieve landscape structure. Landscape Ecology 9:25-36.

One of the questions that’s been nagging at me is if the CEMA lab that we’ve been building is an applied testing ground for Science, Technology and Society (STS) Theory and Practice. Wikipedia describes Science and technology studies (STS) as:

the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these in turn affect society, politics, and culture.

My interpretation is surely unidimensional, and I’m sure there are many examples of experimental media arts and technology spaces where critical questions are being addressed. Are there programs that take a specifically empirical approach to the propositions that come from STS and its metaview of science as it is practiced? Many of CEMA’s projects look at how technology and scientific enterprise are embedded in society and politics. Because we specifically implement creative art & design practices in the process, we seek to generate multidimensional perspectives that can further stimulate the ways in which artifacts are designed, situated, and discussed in culture and society. One of these outcomes may be so-called innovation. My curiosity leads me to wonder if the structures that STS identifies can be tested.

A recent article in Design Issues looked at how products and practices are linked under actor-network theory. The authors, Jack Ingram, Elizabeth Shove, and Matthew Watson, suggest that their concepts have the potential to bridge design and social theory. Studying processes of acquisition, specialization, scripting, appropriation, assembly, normalization and practice can lead one to recognize how artifacts, processes, and principles are tightly linked. These linkages may or may not lead to what Malcolm McCullough calls ‘deskilling’ – where individuals and their environment become increasingly estranged as infrastructural bias accumulates.

I suppose this is why I am excited about one of our students’ projects. Prayas Abhinav has created Not Alone, which is more or less the Indian implementation of TXTmob. TXTmob was successfully used during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions for protesters to actively coordinate their movements and demonstrations. One of the interesting questions to come out of this is how the implementation of this very socio-political technology will fare in India. What concerns and questions need to be addressed? I think Prayas is taking an interesting tactic by formulating the distribution of Not Alone as a form of social intervention designed to aid those in need.

What’s interesting to me is how technologies and scientific structures can be compared across landscapes to reveal how large-scale ecosociopolitical trends shape the differences in how technology and science are practiced and interpreted. Shelia Jasanoff took this approach in her book, Design on Nature, when she compared different conceptions for when life “begins” in the US, UK and Germany. By showing how the differing legal and political approaches led to the formation of different definitions of life, she showed how abortion issues reproductive rights are scripted and normalized (my interpretation).

So I’m thinking about all of this because I have long been interested in male-biased infection patterns which are especially prevalent in affluent countries. I started thinking about these patterns and how they might relate to Malcolm’s description of ‘deskilling.’ Are biological relationships like those between host and parasite affected and influenced by infrastructure and artifacts degrading or biasing over time? Is this a ratcheting effect and, if so, is it at all similar to the ratchet effect experienced by asexual populations as they diminish genotypic variation each generation through selection? Do landscape effects like the differences in infrastructure in the U.S. versus India contribute to this? hmmm…

The exhibition of Sui generis continues this week in the Windows Room (3rd floor) at Palmer Commons (hours: 7:30 am-11pm Mon-Sat). The exhibition is open to the public now through April 13th, 2007.

A reception will be held on Friday, March 30th from 5-6:30 p.m. at the above location. Gabriel Harp will be on hand to discuss the work.

A presentation entitled, “Network Entrepreneurship in Biology, Art, & Design” will take place on April 2nd, 2007 from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Art & Architecture Auditorium.

About the work:
Sui generis is a large-scale tectonic, systems-based installation designed to take into account related conceptual attributes of a chapel, scientific laboratory, carnival, and children’s nursery. Sui generis offers a cognitive retreat, a place for reflection, and a chance to come into close physical proximity with other organisms and ourselves. A rules-based activity based on the concept of asexual reproduction continues through the duration of the exhibition. A selection from Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking Glass often used to explain and ideate contemporary theories about the evolution of sex and recombination accompanies the artwork.

In order to experience the installation, visitors will be invited to raise their heads through one of the two holes in the floor underneath. When inhabiting the interior, the two viewers will be confronted not only with the shadowscape, but also with each other. As the architecture is elusive in its source, it invites diverse interpretations–a carnival sideshow, a Zen garden, a Victorian greenhouse, a virus, or perhaps even a flower awaiting pollination.

The title Sui generis indicates an idea, an entity or a reality that cannot be included in a wider concept. In intellectual property law, exclusive rights are granted for the creation and development of plant breeds, databases and traditional knowledge (among others) to reflect that the subject matter is a product of the intellect.

For more background, explore a database of terms and concepts associated with the design of Sui generis as well as documentation of the construction process.

About the Artist:
In his work, Gabriel Harp recombines visual art and life science (epistemology) through the processes of critical design and network entrepreneurship. Often working at the interfaces of evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, education, and visual culture, his work investigates the roles of metaphors in education, science and policy and the primacy of visual signals in the discourse surrounding genomics and biotechnology. Collaborating with Zack Denfeld and others, Gabriel is currently developing a visual map of patent claims on the human genome.

I just found this again…after losing it..a way to hide email addresses from spambots

http://www.mways.co.uk/prog/hidemail.php

linked at artexetra.com/

A visual key to larval trematoda compiled with Britt Koskella.

Pictured is a comparison of an infected (top) and uninfected (bottom) freshwater snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum. The parasite is called Microphallus, and can colonize the snail hen the snail passively ingests Microphallus eggs while feeding. The snail serves as an intermediate host for the parasite–meaning that the parasite needs the snail’s resources to develop and reach its next host. Often these final hosts are waterfowl, though in the lab mice are used for experimental purposes.

This images was made in the lab of Curt Lively at the Department of Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Digital Print
1′x1′
2003