Siren songs or path to salvation? Interpreting the visions of web technology at a UK regional newspaper in crisis, 2006-11

A 5-year case study of an established regional newspaper in Britain investigates journalists about their perceptions of convergence in digital technologies. This research is the first ethnographic longitudinal case study of a UK regional newspaper. Although conforming to some trends observed in the wider field of scholarship, the analysis adds to skepticism about any linear or directional views of innovation and adoption: the Northern Echo newspaper journalists were observed to have revised their opinions of optimum Web practices, and sometimes radically reversed policies. Technology is seen in the period as a fluid, amorphous entity. Central corporate authority appeared to diminish in the period as part of a wider reduction in formalism. Questioning functionalist notions of the market, the study suggests cause and effect models of change are often subverted by contradictory perceptions of particular actions. Meanwhile, during technological evolution, the ‘professional imagination’ can be understood as strongly reflecting the parent print culture and its routines, despite pioneering a new convergence partnership with an independent television company

'Modern' Madrasa: Deoband and Colonial Secularity

This article situates the emergence of the Deoband movement, an Islamic revivalist movement based at India’s Dar al-‘Ulum Deoband madrasa (seminary), within concepts of colonial secularity in British India. It shows how the decline of first Mughal and then British patronage for Islamic learning, as well as the post-1857 British policy of non-interference in ‘religious’ matters, opened up a space for Deobandi scholars to re-conceive the madrasa as a ‘religious’ institution rather than one engaged in the production of civil servants, to reimagine the ‘ulama’ as stewards of public morality rather than professionals in the service of the state, and to reframe the knowledge they purveyed as ‘religious’ knowledge distinct from the ‘useful’ secular knowledge promoted by the British. The article treats this production of ‘religious’ knowledge and space as discourse of distinction similar to those explored elsewhere in this HSR Special Issue

Blood profile of grizzly bears in central and northern Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1983Blood from 151 grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) captured between 1973 and 1982 in the Brooks Range, Alaska, and the Alaska Range was examined for 7 hanatological, 24 serum chemistry, and 6 protein electrophoretic determinations. Differences in these characteristics between samples collected one hour apart indicate a response to stress during capture. Location differences in leukocyte count, erythrocyte count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and cortisol suggest that Alaska Range bears were more stressed by capturing than Brooks Range bears. Sodium, creatinine, and urea nitrogen were negatively correlated with capture date, suggesting varied diet reinstatement and regained renal function as time from den emergence increased. Calcium, phosphorous, and alkaline phosphatase were negatively correlated with age, reflecting increased osteoblast activity and bone formation in young bears. Males had higher values than females for erythrocyte count, hematocrit, glucose, creatinine, calcium, phosphorous, and alkaline phosphatase, while glutamic-oxalacetic and glutamic-pyruvic transaminases were higher in females

Causal Comparative Study: The Effect of School Scheduling and Academic Outcomes of Economically Disadvantaged Students

This study was designed to investigate if a statistical variance exists between traditional and A/B block school scheduling, and the effect on economically disadvantaged student achievement on the English I and Algebra I End-of-Course STAAR state-mandated exam, from 2015-2018. In response to studies illuminating the achievement gap, educational leaders in Texas implemented block scheduling in order to improve student outcomes among high school students. However, to date, published research studies yield mixed results of the effectiveness block scheduling has made on student achievement. The findings are expected to help to fill the gap in published literature, which focuses on the effect of block scheduling on the academic outcomes of high school students in the state of Texas. The results of this study suggested that there is a statistical significance in the performance of economically disadvantaged students on traditional and A/B block school schedules

Groundwater: A Community’s Management of the Invaluable Resource Beneath its Feet

Understanding the impact of human decisions on vital resources is a core task of environmental sociology, which studies the interaction between human society and the environment. The overarching theme of this research is the economicenvironmental relationship in U.S. public policy, using a case study of a specific environmental resource problem in a specific region. It fuses basic assumptions of two economic growth models (treadmill of production and the urban growth machine) to examine the extent to which these assumptions permeate the worldviews of policymakers and those who advise them. When the growth imperative is a priority in their worldviews, then the paradigm shapes policy decisions favorable to growth. When the growth imperative paradigm dominates the decision-making structure, then policy decisions favor economic growth over concerns for and at the expense of environmental resources. This is the case because economic growth requires unlimited commoditization and exploitation of finite resources. The results are impairment of both the quantity and quality of natural resources on which communities depend for growth and their existence. This research examines the economic-environmental relationship in a case study of the Memphis, Tennessee area to ascertain how policy decisions that promote growth affect groundwater and may have sparked an inter-state water conflict. The State of Mississippi filed a federal lawsuit against Memphis and its utility Memphis Light, Gas and Water over rights to groundwater, the sole source of drinking water. The study ascertains that the predominance of the growth paradigm is linked to policymakers’ perspectives and reflected in their decisions that impair the quantity and quality of vital environmental resources. The case demonstrates how the growth imperative contributes to resource depletion, which can lead to conflict among users of a common resource

Translation, Adaptation and Validation of the Coronary Revascularization Outcome Questionnaire (CROQ) into Greek

Date of Acceptance: 31/05/2015Evaluating the impact of coronary revascularization on patients’ health related quality of life with a patient-based and disease-specific tool is important for drawing conclusions about treatment and outcomes. This study reports on the translation, adaptation and psychometric evaluation of a Greek version of the Coronary Revascularization Outcome Questionnaire (CROQ-Gr)Peer reviewe

Do monkeys think in metaphors? Representations of space and time in monkeys and humans

Research on the relationship between the representation of space and time has produced two contrasting proposals. ATOM posits that space and time are represented via a common magnitude system, suggesting a symmetrical relationship between space and time. According to metaphor theory, however, representations of time depend on representations of space asymmetrically. Previous findings in humans have supported metaphor theory. Here, we investigate the relationship between time and space in a nonverbal species, by testing whether non-human primates show space–time interactions consistent with metaphor theory or with ATOM. We tested two rhesus monkeys and 16 adult humans in a nonverbal task that assessed the influence of an irrelevant dimension (time or space) on a relevant dimension (space or time). In humans, spatial extent had a large effect on time judgments whereas time had a small effect on spatial judgments. In monkeys, both spatial and temporal manipulations showed large bi-directional effects on judgments. In contrast to humans, spatial manipulations in monkeys did not produce a larger effect on temporal judgments than the reverse. Thus, consistent with previous findings, human adults showed asymmetrical space–time interactions that were predicted by metaphor theory. In contrast, monkeys showed patterns that were more consistent with ATOM