The business of technological expectations has yet to be explored thoroughly by scholars interested in the role of expectations and visions in the emergence of technological innovations. However, ...intermediaries specializing in the production, commodification and selling of future-oriented knowledge have emerged to exert new kinds of influence on the shaping of technology and innovation. We focus on the work of those specialist forms of consultants known as 'industry analysts' and consider them as promissory organizations to capture how they are successful in mobilizing and indeed increasingly organizing expectations within procurement and innovation markets. Our aim is to highlight the important role these actors play in shaping technologies and, in so doing, to show how they typically exhibit complex and highly uneven forms of influence. The paper is organized around a central question: Why are certain kinds of promissory behaviour more influential than others? To answer this, we draw from discussions of the 'constitutive' nature of promises in the literature on technology expectations, which provide a useful but arguably partial analytical approach for articulating the dynamics and differences surrounding product based expectations. We thus supplement our understanding with recent developments in Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Finance where an ambitious theoretical framework is unfolding in relation to the 'performativity of economic theory'. By contrasting different forms of promissory work conducted by industry analysts and varying forms of accountability to which this work is subject, we begin to map out a typology that characterises promissory behaviour according to differences in kind and effect.
Dantrolene—a nitrofurantoin derivative—was developed by Snyder et al. in 1967. After initial discovery of its muscle relaxation potential, investigations in a number of species demonstrated ...dose-dependent reductions in skeletal muscle tone that were long lasting, relatively nontoxic, and free of adverse effects such as respiratory impairment. Ellis et al. then published a number of papers investigating the means by which dantrolene produced these effects. Using a series of classic physiologic models, Ellis investigated potential sites of action for the new drug, eventually narrowing this down to the intracellular calcium-release mechanism. Ellis went on to play a pivotal role in the discovery of dantrolene’s effectiveness for the treatment of malignant hyperthermia, after reading a scientific bulletin about muscle rigidity in pigs affected by porcine stress syndrome, contacting Gaisford Harrison and sending dantrolene to him for trial.
Thinking Infrastructures Martin Kornberger, Geoffrey C. Bowker, Julia Elyachar, Andrea Mennicken, Peter Miller, Joanne Randa Nucho, Neil Pollock / Martin Kornberger, Geoffrey C. Bowker, Julia Elyachar, Andrea Mennicken, Peter Miller, Joanne Randa Nucho, Neil Pollock
Research in the sociology of organizations,
2019, 2019-08-08, Letnik:
62
eBook, Book
Odprti dostop
This volume introduces the notion of Thinking Infrastructures to explore a broad range of phenomena that structure attention, shape decision-making, and guide cognition: Thinking Infrastructures ...configure entities (via tracing, tagging), organise knowledge (via search engines), sort things out (via rankings and ratings), govern markets (via calculative practices, including algorithms), and configure preferences (via valuations such as recommender systems). Thus, Thinking Infrastructures, we collectively claim in this volume, inform and shape distributed and embodied cognition, including collective reasoning, structuring of attention and orchestration of decision- making.
•Addresses the fundamental question of how organizational routines are made the same.•Views similarity and singularity as emergent sociomaterial achievements which incorporate difference.•Draws on a ...three-year ethnography of technology transfer at a leading US high end electronics organization.•Fills a gap in our understanding of the deeper dynamics that underpin routines replication and dynamic capabilities.•Theorizes the practices that help coordinating difference and multiplicity while producing similarity and singularity.
Building on theoretical advances in Routine Dynamics, complemented by insights from Science and Technology Studies, we conduct an in-depth, longitudinal inquiry into how organizations are able to (re)create the ‘same’ routine not despite but within a pervasive background of difference and multiplicity. We draw on a three-year ethnographic study of the exact transfer of a high-end computer and production facility at a leading US technology organization to show how routines are enacted into being the same. In contrast with the literature, which sees replication as the one-directional implementation of an accessible and available origin template at destination, we theorize transfer as the simultaneous co-creation of routines across multiple sites. In so doing, we show how routines similarity and singularity are the (emergent, skilful, effortful and temporary) outcomes of repairing and distributing practices, and their sociomaterial assemblages, which coordinate multiple enactments of the routine within and across locations. These micro-level practices underpin routines emergence and persistence as well as acting as the basis for the emergence of dynamic capabilities.
The single site implementation study is an invaluable tool for studying the large-scale enterprise solution. Together with constructivist frameworks and ethnographic approaches it has allowed the ...development of rich local pictures of the immediate and adaptive response by user organizations to the take-up of what are, today, often generic packaged systems. However, to view the packaged enterprise solution principally at the place where the user encounters it also has limitations. It produces somewhat partial understandings of these complex artifacts. In particular, it downplays important influences from other sites and time frames. This paper argues that if we are to understand the full implications of enterprise solutions for organizations then we should study their "biography." This idea points to how the career of workplace technology is often played out over multiple time frames and settings. To understand its shaping therefore requires scholars to go beyond the study of technology at a single locale or moment and, rather, attempt to follow it through space and time. The paper develops two ideas to aid this kind of study. We discuss better spatial metaphors that might help us explore the hybrid and extended spaces in which packaged software systems develop and evolve. We also review improved temporal understandings that may capture the multiple contemporary and historical time frames at play. The paper concludes by discussing some possible research directions that a focus on the biography of a technology might allow. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a pharmacogenetic disorder of skeletal muscle that presents as a hypermetabolic response to potent volatile anesthetic gases such as halothane, sevoflurane, desflurane, ...isoflurane and the depolarizing muscle relaxant succinylcholine, and rarely, in humans, to stressors such as vigorous exercise and heat. The incidence of MH reactions ranges from 1:10,000 to 1: 250,000 anesthetics. However, the prevalence of the genetic abnormalities may be as great as one in 400 individuals. MH affects humans, certain pig breeds, dogs and horses. The classic signs of MH include hyperthermia, tachycardia, tachypnea, increased carbon dioxide production, increased oxygen consumption, acidosis, hyperkalaemia, muscle rigidity, and rhabdomyolysis, all related to a hypermetabolic response. The syndrome is likely to be fatal if untreated. An increase in end-tidal carbon dioxide despite increased minute ventilation provides an early diagnostic clue. In humans the syndrome is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, while in pigs it is autosomal recessive. Uncontrolled rise of myoplasmic calcium, which activates biochemical processes related to muscle activation leads to the pathophysiologic changes. In most cases, the syndrome is caused by a defect in the ryanodine receptor. Over 400 variants have been identified in the RYR1 gene located on chromosome 19q13.1, and at least 34 are causal for MH. Less than 1 % of variants have been found in CACNA1S but not all of these are causal. Diagnostic testing involves the in vitro contracture response of biopsied muscle to halothane, caffeine, and in some centres ryanodine and 4-chloro-m-cresol. Elucidation of the genetic changes has led to the introduction of DNA testing for susceptibility to MH. Dantrolene sodium is a specific antagonist and should be available wherever general anesthesia is administered. Increased understanding of the clinical manifestation and pathophysiology of the syndrome, has lead to the mortality decreasing from 80 % thirty years ago to <5 % in 2006.
Malignant hyperthermia is associated with mutations within the gene encoding the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor, the calcium channel that releases Ca from sarcoplasmic reticulum stores triggering ...muscle contraction, and other metabolic activities. More than 200 variants have been identified in the ryanodine receptor, but only some of these have been shown to functionally affect the calcium channel. To implement genetic testing for malignant hyperthermia, variants must be shown to alter the function of the channel. A number of different ex vivo methods can be used to demonstrate functionality, as long as cells from human patients can be obtained and cultured from at least two unrelated families. Because malignant hyperthermia is an uncommon disorder and many variants seem to be private, including the newly identified H4833Y mutation, these approaches are limited.
The authors cloned the human skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor complementary DNA and expressed both normal and mutated forms in HEK-293 cells and carried out functional analysis using ryanodine binding assays in the presence of a specific agonist, 4-chloro-m-cresol, and the antagonist Mg.
Transiently expressed human ryanodine receptor proteins colocalized with an endoplasmic reticulum marker in HEK-293 cells. Ryanodine binding assays confirmed that mutations causing malignant hyperthermia resulted in a hypersensitive channel, while those causing central core disease resulted in a hyposensitive channel.
The functional assays validate recombinant human skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor for analysis of variants and add an additional mutation (H4833Y) to the repertoire of mutations that can be used for the genetic diagnosis of malignant hyperthermia.
Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is an uncommon, autosomal dominant disorder of skeletal muscle, triggered by inhalational anaesthetics or depolarizing muscle relaxants. Masseter muscle rigidity (MMR) can ...be regarded as potentially a preceding sign for an MH reaction. Susceptibility to MH can be determined by the in vitro contracture test (IVCT) or DNA analysis where a familial variant is known. Our aims were to review patients with MMR, where IVCT and DNA analysis had been undertaken, to determine if DNA analysis could be used as an initial screening tool for MH susceptibility, and, by reviewing standard monitored variables (SMVs), to determine if any clinical characteristics could be used to differentiate between MMR patients who are MH susceptible (MHS) and those who are not. Patients with MMR were identified from the Palmerston North Hospital MH Reactions Database. IVCT and DNA analysis results were documented. DNA testing was performed retrospectively in the majority of patients as many patients had presented before DNA analysis was available. Forty-one patients were analysed. Fourteen were DNA positive/IVCT positive and six DNA positive only (48% in total), seven were IVCT positive/DNA negative and 14 were IVCT normal. Increased creatine kinase (>18,000 units/L) was consistent with MH susceptibility. Severity of MMR was not linked to MH susceptibility. This study confirmed that DNA analysis can be used as a first-line test for MH susceptibility in patients presenting with MMR (consistent with European MH Group recommendations). Creatine kinase was the only SMV that was significantly different between MHS and MH normal individuals.
The Business of Being a User Pollock, Neil; Hyysalo, Sampsa
MIS quarterly,
06/2014, Letnik:
38, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The paper extends the concept of “user” to account for a new, more formalized role that some client organizations play in the diffusion of packaged enterprise systems. Package vendors are attempting ...to draw parts of their user base into activities related to the promotion, selling, and commodification of systems. Users, in turn, appear willing to help construct these systems as objects of consumption for others. This can appear to be rather idiosyncratic behavior. Information Systems scholars have argued that relations between packaged enterprise system vendors and users are attenuated. Why might the user help the vendor market its systems in this way? What benefits accrue from it? And what role are users performing in carrying out this work? To show how this is becoming a general facet of the work of some packaged enterprise system users, we develop the notion of “reference actor,” which is an extension of the earlier Information Systems concept of “social actor.” In combining insights from the social shaping of technology and the biography of artifacts, and drawing on long-term qualitative fieldwork, we analyze this new actor role in relation to expectations and commitments coming from the wider packaged enterprise system community. In return for the help provided to prospective adopters, reference actors are also able to gather various kinds of benefits for themselves and others. In particular, they build closer relations with vendors such that they can influence product development strategies.
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