Internet Information and Communication Behavior during a Political Moment: The Iraq War, March 2003

This article explores the Internet as a resource for political information and communication in March 2003, when American troops were first sent to Iraq, offering us a unique setting of political context, information use, and technology. Employing a national survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life project. We examine the political information behavior of the Internet respondents through an exploratory factor analysis; analyze the effects of personal demographic attributes and political attitudes, traditional and new media use, and technology on online behavior through multiple regression analysis; and assess the online political information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War. The factor analysis suggests four factors: activism, support, information seeking, and communication. The regression analysis indicates that gender, political attitudes and beliefs, motivation, traditional media consumption, perceptions of bias in the media, and computer experience and use predict online political information behavior, although the effects of these variables differ for the four factors. The information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War differed significantly. We conclude with a brief discussion of the value of "interdisciplinary poaching" for advancing the study of Internet information practices

Incidental effects of automated retweeting: an exploratory network perspective on bot activity during Sri Lanka’s presidential election in 2015

The role of automated or semiautomated social media accounts, commonly known as “bots,” in social and political processes has gained significant scholarly attention. The current body of research discusses how bots can be designed to achieve specific purposes as well as instances of unexpected negative outcomes of such use. We suggest that the interplay between social media affordances and user practices can result in incidental effects from automated agents. We examined a Twitter network data set with 1,782 nodes and 5,640 edges to demonstrate the engagement and outreach of a retweeting bot called Siripalabot that was popular among Sri Lankan Twitter users. The bot served the simple function of retweeting tweets with hashtags #SriLanka and #lk to its follower network. However, the co-use of #Sri Lanka and/or #lk with #PresPollSL, a hashtag used to discuss politics related to Sri Lanka’s presidential election in 2015, resulted in the bot incidentally amplifying the political voice of less engaged actors. The analysis demonstrated that the bot dominated the network in terms of engagement (out-degree) and the ability to connect distant clusters of actors (betweenness centrality) while more traditional actors, such as the main election candidates and news accounts, indicated more prestige (in-degree) and power (eigenvector centrality). We suggest that the study of automated agents should include designer intentions, the design and behavior of automated agents, user expectations, as well as unintended and incidental effects of interaction

#weAreMaunaKea: celebrity involvement in a protest movement

This study examines the involvement of celebrities in Twitter hashtag networks formed in relation to the protest of the construction of a thirty-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, a volcanic mountaintop that is considered as the most sacred of all peaks in the Hawai'ian islands. A network of 4151 Twitter users who used the hashtag #WeAreMaunaKea is used to examine celebrity involvement. Three network metrics (eigenvector centrality, betweenness centrality, and PageRank) were used to examine the prominence of actors in the network. The results show that three celebrities (Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Slater, and Keahu Kahuanui) have considerable centrality in the network. The results also indicate a positive correlation between in-degree (prestige), out-degree (engagement), and the three metrics. However, the number of followers did not correlate with the centrality of actors. Nicole Scherzinger, who had higher in-degree and out-degree than the others dominated the network in terms of all three metrics. In general, the results indicated that both prestige and engagement matter in celebrity influence

Electrical cable design and applications

The materials available for constructing various electrical cables are discussed, along with remarks/ pertaining to the attributes and limitations of each. The installation and maintenance considerations are discussed in detail. Electrical considerations involved with designing a cable system are outlined with references to their specific application. Special cable constructions, their applications, and their typical modes of installation are reviewed. The conclusion explains an overall cable system design approach along with miscellaneous information --Abstract, page ii

Internet Information and Communication Behavior during a Political Moment: The Iraq War, March 2003

This article explores the Internet as a resource for political information and communication in March 2003, when American troops were first sent to Iraq, offering us a unique setting of political context, information use, and technology. Employing a national survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life project. We examine the political information behavior of the Internet respondents through an exploratory factor analysis; analyze the effects of personal demographic attributes and political attitudes, traditional and new media use, and technology on online behavior through multiple regression analysis; and assess the online political information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War. The factor analysis suggests four factors: activism, support, information seeking, and communication. The regression analysis indicates that gender, political attitudes and beliefs, motivation, traditional media consumption, perceptions of bias in the media, and computer experience and use predict online political information behavior, although the effects of these variables differ for the four factors. The information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War differed significantly. We conclude with a brief discussion of the value of "interdisciplinary poaching" for advancing the study of Internet information practices

Dental Workforce Report of Indiana University School of Dentistry Graduates and Other Practicing Dentists in Indiana

All dentists who renewed their Indiana licenses on - line in 2010 or 2012 were asked to complete a voluntary survey instrument that ha d a 95.4% response rate 1 in 2010 and 80.7% response rate 2 in 2012. The purpose of this study was to describe the dental workforce in Indiana with a focus on comparing graduates from the Indiana University School of Dentistry (IUSD) to all other practicing ( n on - IUSD ) dentists in Indiana. Of primary interest is how well the graduates of IUSD are meeting the oral health needs of the population of the state, particularly in the rural and underserved areas. Using data from the Office of Alumni Relations at IUPUI, license numbers of IUSD alumni were matched to the license numbers of individuals in the 2010 or 2012 Indiana Dentist Licensure Survey datasets. Individuals whose license numbers matched with the alumni list were identified as “IUSD” graduates and those that did not match were identified as “non - IUSD” graduates. This report compares responses between 2,203 IUSD and 835 n on - IUSD graduates who renewed their licenses and completed the Indiana Dentist Licensure Surveys in 2010 or 2012, respectively. Lastly, most of the differences between groups were found to be statistically significant due to the large sample size of IUSD graduates compared to non - IUSD graduates. Thus, for the purposes of this report if the differences between groups were noted to be at least 10 percent they were considered remarkable and reported as such

Fostering Awareness of the Community by Engaging Students (FACES)

poster abstractFostering Awareness of the Community by Engaging Students (FACES) is a program created by students and faculty of the IU School of Medicine and Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI to provide medical and public health students structured volunteer opportunities to engage with adults experiencing homelessness, allowing for an increased understanding of vulnerable populations and community exposure. Despite poor health outcomes and a need for primary healthcare services, adults experiencing homelessness often do not seek or receive the medical care they need1, 2. In response to this issue, FACES seeks to provide safe group settings (art, educational, and focus groups), in which students can discuss barriers to quality healthcare and public health services with a small group of homeless individuals and better recognize methods to improve service delivery. Through the support of the IUPUI solution center, data has been collected to inform the development of FACES and to promote program sustainability. An evaluation of the student volunteer training module was performed to assess the quality of information provided within the training. Two in-person pilot training sessions were conducted for this evaluation, using a mixed methods approach. Each pilot session consisted of a pre- and post-assessment of self-perceived knowledge to obtain quantitative data regarding the impact of the training on knowledge levels, as well as an information recall test to provide quantitative data on the ability of the participants to become engaged in the training. Qualitative data for the evaluation was collected through focus groups conducted at the completion of both training sessions. To further advise program development, FACES’s developers conducted focus groups with small groups of homeless individuals to collect input from the participating community and obtain qualitative data concerning the details of program organization, future topics of discussion, and willingness to participate

#BlackLivesMatter and #AliveWhileBlack : A study of topical orientation of hashtags and message content

This study examines content differences between Twitter hashtags that indicate different topical orientations related to issues of racial discrimination, police violence, and structural inequalities. Two datasets representing #BlackLivesMatter and #AliveWhileBlack were examined to explore how message content varies based on topical orientation. A random sample of 600 tweets from each hashtag were classified based on content categories identified in previous scholarly work on collective coping and social movements. Two topic models were developed to further examine content differences between the two hashtags in a larger corpus of tweets. Results show that differences in hashtags can indicate significant differences in the nature of messages embedded in tweets. A χ2 test revealed that distribution of tweets was differed between the two hashtags in six out of eight categories. Topic model analysis indicated that topics in the hashtag with activist/social movement orientation mainly related to issues/incidents that gained significant media attention

2014 Indiana Family Medicine Residencies Exit Survey Report

In order to plan effective healthcare workforce development initiatives, it is important to understand the reasons why Indiana family medicine residents choose to practice in specific locations. Thus, having a better understanding of the factors that influence how residents choose a practice location will help improve efforts to recruit and retain family medicine physicians in areas of need within the state. The 2014 Indiana Family Medicine Residencies Exit Survey© determines what these physicians plan to do after graduation; and, for those planning to primarily provide clinical care, to determine where they plan to practice. In addition, the survey also obtained overall feedback on the residents’ training and their program’s curricula, as well as ideas and suggestions for improvement.Indiana Medical Education Boar