An Algorithm to Assess the Accuracy of NSCAT Ambiguity Removal

A wind field model can be used to evaluate the accuracy of pointwise ambiguity removal for NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) data. Errors in pointwise ambiguity removal result in large model-fit errors when the pointwise wind estimates are assimilated into the model. By thresholding the error, regions containing ambiguity removal error can be identified. For these regions, the ambiguity selection can be improved using the model-fit field. I have developed a new automated algorithm for evaluating the quality of the pointwise ambiguity selection and for correcting the ambiguity selection. This paper presents this correction algorithm, which is generally applicable to other scatterometers, and the results for NSCAT data

Non-Standard Typography Use Over Time: Signs of a Lack of Literacy or Symbolic Capital?

New technologies have provoked a debate regarding the role of non-standard typography (e.g. !!!, :-*). Some contend that new technologies undermine literacy while others state that new technologies provide new spaces for expressive writing and signal a form of symbolic capital. While previous research has primarily focused on age and gender to account for non-standard typography, we analyze socio-economic variables – education and income level and the use of NST over time. This study entertains these two competing hypotheses by analyzing non-standard typography in text message exchanges over three and a half months in an underprivileged population: people living in an urban public housing. Data reveal that, within this sample, use of NST increased over time and participants with higher education levels were more likely to use non-standard typography than less educated counterparts. Experience with texting was found to mediate this effect. Findings support a symbolic capital hypothesis of non-standard typography use, suggesting NST is not associated with stigmatizing lack of knowledge or literacy, but rather may signal the knowledge of discourse norms ascribed to texting in a community

How Mental Healthcare Professionals Navigate Telehealth: Extensions of Communication Privacy Management and Electronic Propinquity Theories

Remote mental healthcare has become a new normal, yet there is limited research on how mental healthcare professionals create safe, secure virtual environments for patients while in separate physical locations. Computer-mediated communication theories are well-suited for exploring, and even improving, this critical endeavor. We do this by elaborating communication privacy management (CPM) theory to recognize the boundary coordination involved in contemporary videoconferencing, as exemplified in telehealth interactions. Furthermore, we expand the theory of electronic propinquity (TEP) to appreciate the role of medium-related digital skills in shaping online propinquity. Interviews with 20 mental healthcare professionals reveal that boundary coordination in telemental healthcare takes place in both the shared virtual space and separate physical spaces. Moreover, boundaries are more fluid, or elastic, than CPM allows. We also find that participants generally felt very close to their clients over telehealth, although the digital skills of clients sometimes disrupted care. In addition to these theoretical findings, this research yields practical insights into privacy boundary coordination strategies for telehealth for mental healthcare providers

How Mental Healthcare Professionals Navigate Telehealth: Extensions of Communication Privacy Management and Electronic Propinquity Theories

Remote mental healthcare has become a new normal, yet there is limited research on how mental healthcare professionals create safe, secure virtual environments for patients while in separate physical locations. Computer-mediated communication theories are well-suited for exploring, and even improving, this critical endeavor. We do this by elaborating communication privacy management (CPM) theory to recognize the boundary coordination involved in contemporary videoconferencing, as exemplified in telehealth interactions. Furthermore, we expand the theory of electronic propinquity (TEP) to appreciate the role of medium-related digital skills in shaping online propinquity. Interviews with 20 mental healthcare professionals reveal that boundary coordination in telemental healthcare takes place in both the shared virtual space and separate physical spaces. Moreover, boundaries are more fluid, or elastic, than CPM allows. We also find that participants generally felt very close to their clients over telehealth, although the digital skills of clients sometimes disrupted care. In addition to these theoretical findings, this research yields practical insights into privacy boundary coordination strategies for telehealth for mental healthcare providers

No Right at All: Putting Consular Notification in Its Rightful Place after Medellin

This Article covers the history of consular notification and presentation in the U.S. federal and state courts and in the International Court of Justice. Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations provides that nation-states should notify detained foreign nationals of their right to contact their consulate about their detention. This Article argues that the U.S. Supreme Court, as matters of institutional responsibility and judicial economy, should have concluded that the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations does not contain an enforceable individual right. Moreover, no analog for this right has been found in American jurisprudence

You got a hole in your belly and a phone in your hand: How US government phone subsidies shape the search for employment

Many of the tasks involved in looking for a job these days involve sharing and storing digital data. Digital technology is now required for job seekers to research employers, store resumes, complete applications, and schedule interviews. What is the employment process for people who are living on the poverty line, without reliable access to the Internet or mobile phones? We focus on technology maintenance, the continuous work required to stay digitally connected, to understand how low-income job seekers in northern California manage the circulation and storage of information. We incorporate the concept of delegation from Latour to explore how people consciously consider who or what entities are responsible for technology maintenance, as this varies by government policies related to digital subsidies. This article draws novel connections between the influence of government policy on technology maintenance and how both the policies and digital inequalities shape impoverished job seekers’ choices around sharing and storage practice

What is Community?: Informing the Design of a Community Building Platform for Low-Income Black and Latino Residents

Online communities can offer under-resourced populations an avenue for upward social mobility by capitalizing on community connections and the pooling of resources. UpTogether, a non-profit organization, attempted to access this potential by providing its members with a novel social media platform to interact with like-minded others. Yet, despite members\u27 interest in building greater connections within the community, few people utilized the platform to engage with their groups. By examining 25 participant interviews, we explore participants’ conceptualizations of community and their experience on the platform. With this, we identify their expectations of community and pose recommendations for future initiatives aimed at building community–online and offline

Current insights on the use of insulin and the potential use of insulin mimetics in targeting insulin signalling in Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are chronic diseases that share several pathological mechanisms, including insulin resistance and impaired insulin signalling. Their shared features have prompted the evaluation of the drugs used to manage diabetes for the treatment of AD. Insulin delivery itself has been utilized, with promising effects, in improving cognition and reducing AD related neuropathology. The most recent clinical trial involving intranasal insulin reported no slowing of cognitive decline; however, several factors may have impacted the trial outcomes. Long-acting and rapid-acting insulin analogues have also been evaluated within the context of AD with a lack of consistent outcomes. This narrative review provided insight into how targeting insulin signalling in the brain has potential as a therapeutic target for AD and provided a detailed update on the efficacy of insulin, its analogues and the outcomes of human clinical trials. We also discussed the current evidence that warrants the further investigation of the use of the mimetics of insulin for AD. These small molecules may provide a modifiable alternative to insulin, aiding in developing drugs that selectively target insulin signalling in the brain with the aim to attenuate cognitive dysfunction and AD pathologies