The Two Media Literacies: A Cultural Studies Perspective

This analysis identifies the problem of the media saturation of people’s lives as a reason for developing programs teaching media literacy. It argues that the basic or foundational disciplines found in cultural studies, such as applied semiotics, psychoanalytic theory, sociological theory, and Marxist analysis, are the proper way to teach media criticism and media literacy (See Berger, A.A., Media Analysis Techniques, 6th edition, 2019). The methods by themselves are not adequate, which means that teaching media literacy also involves providing exercises and learning games that show students how to apply the theories they learn to their analyses of media texts (See Berger, A.A., Games and Activities for Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies Students,2004). Finally, it is suggested that media literacy should be taught at all educational levels

Reliability-Based Design of Reinforced Concrete Raft Footings Using Finite Element Method

In this study, a FORTRAN-based reliability-based design program was developed for the design of raft footings based on the ultimate and serviceability design requirements of BS8110 (1997). The well-known analysis of plate on elastic foundation using displacement method of analysis was used in conjunction with the design point method. The design point method was adopted for designing to a pre-determined safety level, T. Example of the design of a raft footing is included to demonstrate the simplicity of the procedure. It was found among other findings that there is a saving of about 64% of longitudinal reinforcement applied at the column face using the proposed method as compared with the BS8110 design method. Also, the depth of footing required using the proposed procedure was found to be 47% lower than in the deterministic method using BS8110. Also, considering a target safety index of 3.0 was found to be cheaper than considering a target safety index of 4.0 for the same loading, material and geometrical properties of the footing. It is therefore concluded that the proposed procedure is quite suitable for application

Durability Analysis of Concrete Bridge Deck Exposed to the Chloride Ions Using Direct Optimized Probabilistic Calculation

Durability of reinforced concrete structures is a deeply discussed problem recently. Concrete structures in the external environment are very often affected by chloride ions from de-icing salt or sea water. Chloride ions penetrate through the concrete cover layer of the reinforcement and can cause eventually the corrosion of the steel. However, when estimating the durability of the structure, it is not sometimes possible to express the parameters by constant values; therefore, the probabilistic methods come in handy. Then, the variability of inputs and outputs can be expressed by histograms. Two probabilistic approaches were applied in this task – Monte Carlo simulation with Simulation-Based Reliability Assessment method, which is widely used for such type of problems, and the Direct Optimized Probabilistic Calculation, which is still relatively new type of approach. The result is a comparison of mentioned methods in terms of accuracy on the model of one-dimensional chloride penetration with time independent diffusion coefficient by using the Fick’s Second Law of Diffusion

Iranian Celebrities on the Internet

Celebrities have gained considerable influence in the last one hundred years or so, but the advent of so-called Web 2.0 technologies has given celebrity culture a new momentum. We are living in a world in which celebrities are striving to curve their place in every niche and hence we have to become more media literate in order to avoid being exploited by celebrity media and culture. We have to be aware that celebrities promote commodities that they will never use, that they are carefully working on their image to become pleasant to us, and that if they do humanitarian work, they are mainly doing it for their reputation, and not for a real and authentic cause

On the Complexity of Bounded Context Switching

Bounded context switching (BCS) is an under-approximate method for finding violations to safety properties in shared-memory concurrent programs. Technically, BCS is a reachability problem that is known to be NP-complete. Our contribution is a parameterized analysis of BCS. The first result is an algorithm that solves BCS when parameterized by the number of context switches (cs) and the size of the memory (m) in O*(m^(cs)2^(cs)). This is achieved by creating instances of the easier problem Shuff which we solve via fast subset convolution. We also present a lower bound for BCS of the form m^o(cs / log(cs)), based on the exponential time hypothesis. Interestingly, the gap is closely related to a conjecture that has been open since FOCS\u2707. Further, we prove that BCS admits no polynomial kernel. Next, we introduce a measure, called scheduling dimension, that captures the complexity of schedules. We study BCS parameterized by the scheduling dimension (sdim) and show that it can be solved in O*((2m)^(4sdim)4^t), where t is the number of threads. We consider variants of the problem for which we obtain (matching) upper and lower bounds

Exploring Problematic Mobile Phone Attachment and Associations to Anxiety and Inhibitory Control After a Short-Term Smartphone Separation

This study investigates problematic smartphone attachment under conditions of short-term smartphone separation. Two experimental studies with randomized group allocation were designed to investigate effects of smartphone separation on anxiety and inhibitory control. Problematic smartphone use pathways were explored using a self-report measure. In the first experiment (N= 85) smartphone addicted participants showed an increase in state anxiety after 20 min of separation from their smartphones compared to a control group of non-addicted participants. There was no evidence for impaired inhibitory control based on a period of smartphone separation. In the second experiment the methodology was slightly varied, and the participants (N= 95) were provided with a task during a smartphone separation of 15 min. This led to a reduction of state anxiety for problematic attached participants but did not result in a change for unproblematic attached participants. Problematic attached participants showed a larger disturbance in inhibitory control undergoing a separation period than unproblematic attached participants. Moreover, the results provide supplementary evidence for the existence of specific problematic smartphone attachment pathways and further variables

Gender Differences in Motivations and Gratifications to Play Video Games: The Study of the Sims Players' Experiences

This research explores gender differences in motivations and gratifications related to playing video games such as The Sims. We analyzed both men' and women' differences in game related motivations and gratifications to identify which factors make a game more gratifying for a specific gender of players. We conducted in-depth interviews with 18 male players and 20 female players of The Sims. We also analyzed online forums of The Sims. We found that main gratifying factors related to game-playing experience include appearance, character, storyline, control and complexity, fantasy and social interaction. The findings propose that game researchers with the uses and gratifications theoretical framework should consider the importance of including game features as gratifying factors in their questionnaires. Finally, we have provided implications for future research about gender differences in motivations and gratifications based on uses and gratifications theory

How about another joke from the Covid-19 Pandemic in Iran

The outbreak of Coronavirus disease, 2019 (COVID-19), started in late 2019 and developed into a pandemic by March 2020 and has become a global problem. Following the global outbreak and coronavirus spreading around the world, the WHO reported a statement on January 11, 2020, announcing the new Coronavirus outbreak as the sixth significant public health emergency in the world. In the stressful situation caused by the coronavirus epidemic, many jokes and Humor about this disease were distributed on social networks. In these circumstances, the question arises: Why do some people continue to make jokes about it, despite the mass perception of the coronavirus epidemic? The present research method was qualitative and Strauss and Corbin's version of the grounded theory was used. Participants were included the Telegram Social Network Comic Channel "https://t.me/s/jokcom" Members, which had more than 2879 members and those on Instagram and Twitter members who liked the corona content to the jokes about the covid-19 pandemic inside Iran. Based on the result, we found the effects and consequences of corona jokes. There was several factors involved in shaping the phenomenon of covids jokes. Joke and Humor are like a double-edged sword; in some situation, can be both harmful and helpful