145,059 research outputs found

    Exploring Identities in Online Music Fandoms: How identities Formed in Online Fan Communities Affect Real Life Identities

    Get PDF
    This thesis set out to explore the identities formed by members of online fandom communities, and to determine the ways in which those identities affect their real life, offline identities. This qualitative study encountered elements related to stereo types of young women who are fans of mainstream pop music, and provided insight on their experiences through interviews with five long time boy band online fandom members. This study asked if fans prefer to keep their fandom identities internal or let them reflect outward, how one\u27s online identity affects or translates to their real life identity, and what experiences in the online fandom were the most impactful to the individual\u27s real life identity or led to new knowledge. It was revealed that online community platform is the place where fans gather to enjoy a similar passion, but it is the relationships and discussions held on the site between fans that truly affect an individual and their identity, rather than the more superficial elements of being in a fandom. Through fandom discourse, members found social support and solidarity with one another

    Dynamical Friction of a Circular-Orbit Perturber in a Gaseous Medium

    Full text link
    We investigate the gravitational wake due to, and dynamical friction on, a perturber moving on a circular orbit in a uniform gaseous medium using a semi-analytic method. This work is a straightforward extension of Ostriker (1999) who studied the case of a straight-line trajectory. The circular orbit causes the bending of the wake in the background medium along the orbit, forming a long trailing tail. The wake distribution is thus asymmetric, giving rise to the drag forces in both opposite (azimuthal) and lateral (radial) directions to the motion of the perturber, although the latter does not contribute to orbital decay much. For subsonic motion, the density wake with a weak tail is simply a curved version of that in Ostriker and does not exhibit the front-back symmetry. The resulting drag force in the opposite direction is remarkably similar to the finite-time, linear-trajectory counterpart. On the other hand, a supersonic perturber is able to overtake its own wake, possibly multiple times, and develops a very pronounced tail. The supersonic tail surrounds the perturber in a trailing spiral fashion, enhancing the perturbed density at the back as well as far front of the perturber. We provide the fitting formulae for the drag forces as functions of the Mach number, whose azimuthal part is surprisingly in good agreement with the Ostriker's formula, provided Vp t=2 Rp, where Vp and Rp are the velocity and orbital radius of the perturber, respectively.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

    Data Brushes: Interactive Style Transfer for Data Art

    Get PDF

    Editorial Comment on the Special Issue of "Information in Dynamical Systems and Complex Systems"

    Full text link
    This special issue collects contributions from the participants of the "Information in Dynamical Systems and Complex Systems" workshop, which cover a wide range of important problems and new approaches that lie in the intersection of information theory and dynamical systems. The contributions include theoretical characterization and understanding of the different types of information flow and causality in general stochastic processes, inference and identification of coupling structure and parameters of system dynamics, rigorous coarse-grain modeling of network dynamical systems, and exact statistical testing of fundamental information-theoretic quantities such as the mutual information. The collective efforts reported herein reflect a modern perspective of the intimate connection between dynamical systems and information flow, leading to the promise of better understanding and modeling of natural complex systems and better/optimal design of engineering systems

    The Hardcore Scorecard: Defining, Quantifying and Understanding “Hardcore” Video Game Culture

    Get PDF
    ABSTRACT The goal of the current study is to further conceptualize and define the term “hardcore” as it relates to video game culture. Past research indicates that members of cultural subdivisions favor their own group versus others due to perceived commonalities (Durkheim, 1915; Tajfel, 1970). In gaming culture, the subdivisions of “hardcore” and “casual” games/gamers have become especially salient in recent years. However, the definition of what constitutes “hardcore” and “casual” is inconsistent (Adams, 2000; Alexandre, 2012; Jacobs & Ip, 2003; Juul, 2010; Kim, 2001; Kuittinen, Kultima, Niemelä & Paavilainen, 2007; Wallace & Robbins, 2006). Therefore, it is beneficial to better understand these terms considering the implications: less audience infighting, more accurately tailored game design/marketing, and less ambiguous/sensationalist gaming journalism/media. A sample of 109 undergraduate students from a large university (19,000 undergraduates) in an upstate New York city (metropolitan population of 1.1 million) completed an online survey, reporting their perceptions of hardcore gaming. Values were then attributed to certain video game criteria based on the survey results and applied to popular games. The sum of these values produced a hardcore index for the “scorecard.” To assess the scorecard’s validity, correlations were run between our final values and an independently collected hardcore percentage publicly available on the Wii’s Nintendo Channel (327,818.45 average respondents per game). Results suggest hardcore gaming is perceived as a harsh subculture consisting of long play times, challenging play, anti-social behavior, and content not suitable for children. The index produced by the resulting “hardcore scorecard” was significantly correlated (r = .765, p \u3c .01) with the independently collected data on the Nintendo Channel. Thus, the current research provides tools the gaming industry (users, developers, journalists) can use to their advantage by better understanding and defining the term “hardcore,” as well as a valuable blueprint for future research to continue refining and improving

    Assentication: User Deauthentication and Lunchtime Attack Mitigation with Seated Posture Biometric

    Full text link
    Biometric techniques are often used as an extra security factor in authenticating human users. Numerous biometrics have been proposed and evaluated, each with its own set of benefits and pitfalls. Static biometrics (such as fingerprints) are geared for discrete operation, to identify users, which typically involves some user burden. Meanwhile, behavioral biometrics (such as keystroke dynamics) are well suited for continuous, and sometimes more unobtrusive, operation. One important application domain for biometrics is deauthentication, a means of quickly detecting absence of a previously authenticated user and immediately terminating that user's active secure sessions. Deauthentication is crucial for mitigating so called Lunchtime Attacks, whereby an insider adversary takes over (before any inactivity timeout kicks in) authenticated state of a careless user who walks away from her computer. Motivated primarily by the need for an unobtrusive and continuous biometric to support effective deauthentication, we introduce PoPa, a new hybrid biometric based on a human user's seated posture pattern. PoPa captures a unique combination of physiological and behavioral traits. We describe a low cost fully functioning prototype that involves an office chair instrumented with 16 tiny pressure sensors. We also explore (via user experiments) how PoPa can be used in a typical workplace to provide continuous authentication (and deauthentication) of users. We experimentally assess viability of PoPa in terms of uniqueness by collecting and evaluating posture patterns of a cohort of users. Results show that PoPa exhibits very low false positive, and even lower false negative, rates. In particular, users can be identified with, on average, 91.0% accuracy. Finally, we compare pros and cons of PoPa with those of several prominent biometric based deauthentication techniques

    An evaluation tool for design quality: PFI sheltered housing

    Get PDF
    The complex procurement process entailed by the private finance initiative (PFI) means that clients need new capacities to manage their relationships with bidders and to assess project proposals if the desired level of design quality is to be achieved. To assist local authorities in their client role, a new Architectural Design Quality Evaluation Tool was developed. The aim was to improve the quality of design in residential sheltered housing, procured through the PFI. The tool was developed for and applied to a programme that will see the replacement of a local authority's entire sheltered housing stock. The tool has two functions: (1) to inform the client's assessment process and assist with the selection of the preferred bidding consortium through a series of stages in the PFI process; and (2) to improve the quality of all the submitted designs through an iterative process. Although several existing mechanisms are available for evaluating the performance attributes of buildings, few also tackle the less tangible amenity attributes, which are vital to the feeling of home. The new tool emphasizes the amenity attributes without neglecting performance
    corecore