“Open-Minded Couple Seeking a Third”: Queer Women in the Digital Age

The decline of the lesbian bar and the dawn of the digital age, combined with the lack of a sufficient digital hook-up space for queer women, leaves a gaping hole in the potential for lesbian visibility and sociability. In conceptualizing lesbian public space, I identify social barriers that both drive this negative phenomenon of invisibility and prevent the development of a comfortable digital space for queer women.Liberal Art

Examining web-based materials. A snapshot of UK fablabs and hacker-spaces

Sabine Hielscher (SPRU) outlines initial impressions gained from an analysis of selected web-based materials on FabLabs and Hackerspaces in the UK to find out what type of information is being shared on these websites, in particular, in relation to the member’s activities, projects and aims

Maternal immune activation and strain specific interactions in the development of autism-like behaviors in mice.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the causes of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are due to both genetic and environmental factors. Animal studies provide important translational models for elucidating specific genetic or environmental factors that contribute to ASD-related behavioral deficits. For example, mouse research has demonstrated a link between maternal immune activation and the expression of ASD-like behaviors. Although these studies have provided insights into the potential causes of ASD, they are limited in their ability to model the important interactions between genetic variability and environmental insults. This is of particular concern given the broad spectrum of severity observed in the human population, suggesting that subpopulations may be more susceptible to the adverse effects of particular environmental insults. It is hypothesized that the severity of effects of maternal immune activation on ASD-like phenotypes is influenced by the genetic background in mice. To test this, pregnant dams of two inbred strains (that is, C57BL/6J and BTBR T(+)tf/J) were exposed to the viral mimic polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (polyI:C), and their offspring were tested for the presence and severity of ASD-like behaviors. To identify differences in immune system regulation, spleens were processed and measured for alterations in induced cytokine responses. Strain-treatment interactions were observed in social approach, ultrasonic vocalization, repetitive grooming and marble burying behaviors. Interestingly, persistent dysregulation of adaptive immune system function was only observed in BTBR mice. Data suggest that behavioral and immunological effects of maternal immune activation are strain-dependent in mice

Flickr: A case study of Web2.0

The “photosharing” site Flickr is one of the most commonly cited examples used to define Web2.0. This paper explores where Flickr’s real novelty lies, examining its functionality and its place in the world of amateur photography. The paper draws on a wide range of sources including published interviews with its developers, user opinions expressed in forums, telephone interviews and content analysis of user profiles and activity. Flickr’s development path passes from an innovative social game to a relatively familiar model of a website, itself developed through intense user participation but later stabilising with the reassertion of a commercial relationship to the membership. The broader context of the impact of Flickr is examined by looking at the institutions of amateur photography and particularly the code of pictorialism promoted by the clubs and industry during the C20th. The nature of Flickr as a benign space is premised on the way the democratic potential of photography is controlled by such institutions. Several optimistic views of the impact of Flickr such as its facilitation of citizen journalism, “vernacular creativity” and in learning as an “affinity space” are evaluated. The limits of these claims are identified in the way that the system is designed to satisfy commercial purposes, continuing digital divides in access and the low interactivity and criticality on Flickr. Flickr is an interesting source of change, but can only to be understood in the perspective of long term development of the hobby and wider social processes

Media Ecologies

In this chapter, we frame the media ecologies that contextualize the youth practices we describe in later chapters. By drawing from case studies that are delimited by locality, institutions, networked sites, and interest groups (see appendices), we have been able to map the contours of the varied social, technical, and cultural contexts that structure youth media engagement. This chapter introduces three genres of participation with new media that have emerged as overarching descriptive frameworks for understanding how youth new media practices are defi ned in relation and in opposition to one another. The genres of participation—hanging out, messing around, and geeking out—refl ect and are intertwined with young people’s practices, learning, and identity formation within these varied and dynamic media ecologies

Household wealth and adolescents' social-emotional functioning in schools.

This study attempts a two-part shift in educational research narrowly fixated on the socioeconomic determinants of student test-score performance. First, we focus on variations in how to measure wealth. Second, we move beyond achievement and focus on the wealth determinants of adolescents' social-emotional competencies. Using data from a nationally-representative sample of US eighth graders, we find that the correlation between wealth and social-emotional competencies varies according to how the partitions among the upper class, the middle and working classes, and the poor are defined. By emphasizing wealth in the production of classed social-emotional competencies not captured by test scores, our findings suggest that the growth of household wealth has a more salient effect for lower- and middle-class adolescents than the highest class which appears to have the least to gain, in terms of social-emotional competencies, from an increase in household wealth

The Ketogenic Diet: An Answer for Autism?

Lacking substantial evidence regarding its genetic identity, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a remarkably misunderstood condition with limited options for effective treatment. As the prevalence of patients with ASD increases, medical professionals continue to search for a solution. Could the ketogenic diet, a high fat, low carbohydrate nutrition plan, provide the relief that ASD patients are searching for