Vortex of the Web. Potentials of the online environment

This volume compiles international contributions that explore the potential risks and chances coming along with the wide-scale migration of society into digital space. Suggesting a shift of paradigm from Spiral of Silence to Nexus of Noise, the opening chapter provides an overview on systematic approaches and mechanisms of manipulation – ranging from populist political players to Cambridge Analytica. After a discussion of the the juxtaposition effects of social media use on social environments, the efficient instrumentalization of Twitter by Turkish politicans in the course of the US-decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is being analyzed. Following a case study of Instagram, Black Lives Matter and racism is a research about the impact of online pornography on the academic performance of university students. Another chapter is pointing out the potential of online tools for the successful relaunch of shadow brands. The closing section of the book deals with the role of social media on the opinion formation about the Euromaidan movement during the Ukrainian revolution and offers a comparative study touching on Russian and Western depictions of political documentaries in the 2000s

Roots Reloaded. Culture, Identity and Social Development in the Digital Age

This edited volume is designed to explore different perspectives of culture, identity and social development using the impact of the digital age as a common thread, aiming at interdisciplinary audiences. Cases of communities and individuals using new technology as a tool to preserve and explore their cultural heritage alongside new media as a source for social orientation ranging from language acquisition to health-related issues will be covered. Therefore, aspects such as Art and Cultural Studies, Media and Communication, Behavioral Science, Psychology, Philosophy and innovative approaches used by creative individuals are included. From the Aboriginal tribes of Australia, to the Maoris of New Zealand, to the mystical teachings of Sufi brotherhoods, the significance of the oral and written traditions and their current relation to online activities shall be discussed in the opening article. The book continues with a closer look at obesity awareness support groups and their impact on social media, Facebook usage in language learning context, smartphone addiction and internet dependency, as well as online media reporting of controversial ethical issues. The Digital progress has already left its dominating mark as the world entered the 21st century. Without a doubt, as technology continues its ascent, society will be faced with new and altering values in an effort to catch-up with this extraordinary Digitization, adapt satisfactorily in order to utilize these strong developments in everyday life

clicktatorship and democrazy: Social media and political campaigning

This chapter aims to direct attention to the political dimension of the social media age. Although current events like the Cambridge Analytica data breach managed to raise awareness for the issue, the systematically organized and orchestrated mechanisms at play still remain oblivious to most. Next to dangerous monopoly-tendencies among the powerful players on the market, reliance on automated algorithms in dealing with content seems to enable large-scale manipulation that is applied for economical and political purposes alike. The successful replacement of traditional parties by movements based on personality cults around marketable young faces like Emmanuel Macron or Austria’s Sebastian Kurz is strongly linked to products and services offered by an industry that simply provides likes and followers for cash. Inspired by Trump’s monopolization of the Twitter-channel, these new political acteurs use the potential of social media for effective message control, allowing them to avoid confrontations with professional journalists. In addition, an extremely active minority of organized agitators relies on the viral potential of the web to strongly influence and dictate public discourse – suggesting a shift from the Spiral of Silence to the dangerous illusion of a Nexus of Noise

Implementation of the block-Krylov boundary flexibility method of component synthesis

A method of dynamic substructuring is presented which utilizes a set of static Ritz vectors as a replacement for normal eigenvectors in component mode synthesis. This set of Ritz vectors is generated in a recurrence relationship, which has the form of a block-Krylov subspace. The initial seed to the recurrence algorithm is based on the boundary flexibility vectors of the component. This algorithm is not load-dependent, is applicable to both fixed and free-interface boundary components, and results in a general component model appropriate for any type of dynamic analysis. This methodology was implemented in the MSC/NASTRAN normal modes solution sequence using DMAP. The accuracy is found to be comparable to that of component synthesis based upon normal modes. The block-Krylov recurrence algorithm is a series of static solutions and so requires significantly less computation than solving the normal eigenspace problem

Arab Americans’ Perceptions of Police Post 9/11 in Metropolitan Milwaukee

Arab Americans as individuals tend to avoid any contact with the police because many Arabs shun from contacting police that may lead to community marginalization and alienation. The current literature fails to examine in-depth Arab Americans’ perceptions towards police. The literature typically reflects how police officers view Arab Americans but it is silent regarding how Arab Americans view American police

Construction of barley consensus map showing chromosomal regions associated with economically important traits

In the past, it has been difficult to accurately determine the location of many types of barley molecular markers due to the lack of commonality between international barley linkage maps. In this study, a consensus map of barley was constructed from five different maps (OWB, VxHs, KxM, barley consensus 2 and barley consensus 2003) to produce the consensus AD-2005 map with 1536 markers. The QTL that have been identified in previous barley studies were then incorporated into the integrated consensus map to provide a quick method of aligning and comparing barley linkage maps and to identify markers closely linked to barley traits. The markers placed on this map are consistent with respect to order on the chromosomes with the individual maps and other barley maps with a few minor differences. The consensus AD-2005 was compared with rice Cornell RFLP map to examine the reliability of the constructed map in comparative genomic studies. Unlike previous consensus maps, the purpose of this consensus map (containing QTL) is to provide a tool for scientists to accurately locate molecular markers to chromosome regions responsible for economically important traits. It is estimated that markers placed on the consensus map are located very close to their true positions as determined by the five maps used in this study. It is envisaged that the consensus map will benefit small-grain researchers by providing an efficient means of choosing markers of interest and identifying QTL regions for future genetic or plant breeding studies on a worldwide basis.Keywords: Barley, QTL, genetic linkage mapping, consensus map, comparative genome mappin