The 'like' generation: an exploration of social networking's influence on adolescents' productions of gender, identity, (virtual) capital and technological practices

This thesis explores how social networking platforms influence the production of identity, status and capital amongst adolescents. This includes an exploration of how some digital communication platforms have negatively impacted on the social experiences of some teenagers and resulted in these users adapting their digital communicative practices to overcome communicative challenges. The study draws upon data collected via 9 semi-structured interviews, 9 focus groups and 84 surveys with boys and girls aged 11-16 from three schools in England. It explores specific social norms which relate to gender, and how they are negotiated within both masculine and feminine interactions through the respective practices of banter and gossip or stalking. These interactional processes are used as a means of negotiating status and of in-group inclusion and out-group rejection (Goffman, 1963). Furthermore they are important elements in the formation of relationships, identity and social capital. For Bourdieu social capital is the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition (1980, 2). The production of social capital is linked to an individual s capacity to manage group norms and approved values. This study demonstrates that online displays of gender are part of adolescents attempts to generate social capital through gaining positive public affirmations (for example in the form of likes). This has led to a new form of capital which has been titled virtual capital , and which is revealed to be a crucial element in adolescents self-worth and status. Although social networking sites can facilitate the creation of these capitals, they can also simultaneously hinder their creation. Facebook s system of widespread automatic information sharing, alongside a lack user of control in managing the flow of data which is received and shared, has led to many teens experiencing challenges in how they produce identity and gain popularity. This has led to negative social experiences, a growing disillusionment with Facebook, and increased use of more contemporary platforms such as Snap Chat which offer a solution to these problems. Therefore this thesis presents findings on how adolescents use social networking to negotiate gender and identity, produce social status and how these attempts can be confounded by the very technology that facilitates their production

The state of practice in model-driven engineering

Despite lively debate over the last decade on the benefits or drawbacks of model-driven engineering (MDE), there have been very few industry-wide studies of MDE in practice. We present a new study, covering a broad range of experiences and ways of applying MDE: we surveyed 450 MDE practitioners and carried out in-depth interviews with 22 more. Findings suggest that MDE may be more widespread than commonly believed, but developers rarely use it to generate whole systems; rather, they apply it to develop key parts of a system often using domain-specific modeling languages developed specifically for the purpose. Our findings also suggest reasons why some efforts to adopt MDE fail and some succeed. As is usually the case in software engineering, adoption largely depends on social and organizational factors, some of which we describe in this paper

Racial variations in processes of care for patients with community-acquired pneumonia

BACKGROUND: Patients hospitalized with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) have a substantial risk of death, but there is evidence that adherence to certain processes of care, including antibiotic administration within 8 hours, can decrease this risk. Although national mortality data shows blacks have a substantially increased odds of death due to pneumonia as compared to whites previous studies of short-term mortality have found decreased mortality for blacks. Therefore we examined pneumonia-related processes of care and short-term mortality in a population of patients hospitalized with CAP. METHODS: We reviewed the records of all identified Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for pneumonia between 10/1/1998 and 9/30/1999 at one of 101 Pennsylvania hospitals, and randomly selected 60 patients at each hospital for inclusion. We reviewed the medical records to gather process measures of quality, pneumonia severity and demographics. We used Medicare administrative data to identify 30-day mortality. Because only a small proportion of the study population was black, we included all 240 black patients and randomly selected 720 white patients matched on age and gender. We performed a resampling of the white patients 10 times. RESULTS: Males were 43% of the cohort, and the median age was 76 years. After controlling for potential confounders, blacks were less likely to receive antibiotics within 8 hours (odds ratio with 95% confidence interval 0.6, 0.4–0.97), but were as likely as whites to have blood cultures obtained prior to receiving antibiotics (0.7, 0.3–1.5), to have oxygenation assessed within 24 hours of presentation (1.6, 0.9–3.0), and to receive guideline concordant antibiotics (OR 0.9, 0.6–1.7). Black patients had a trend towards decreased 30-day mortality (0.4, 0.2 to 1.0). CONCLUSION: Although blacks were less likely to receive optimal care, our findings are consistent with other studies that suggest better risk-adjusted survival among blacks than among whites. Further study is needed to determine why this is the case

Numerical evaluation of the modal characteristics of a bridge abutment

The seismic analysis of bridges needs to account for the effects of soil-structure interaction with methods that strike a reasonable balance between completeness and reliability of the numerical soil-structure interaction models. In view of this, focusing on the marked influence that the behaviour of the abutments can have on the seismic performance of the whole bridge, this study presents an identification procedure of the dynamic response bridge abutments. Based on the results of dynamic simulations on a reference local model of a bridge abutment carried out in the analysis framework OpenSees, the modal characteristics of the soil-abutment system are computed and are used to evidence the role played by the soil interacting with the abutment in controlling the overall dynamic response of the system. This role is quantified through the definition of the mass participation factors for different directions of motion

Compression and Creep of Venice Lagoon Sands

A laboratory test program was conducted to evaluate the one-dimensional (1D) compression and creep properties of intact sand (and silty-sand) samples from a deep borehole at the Malamocco Inlet to the Venice Lagoon. The tests were performed with a constant rate of strain consolidometer and included special procedures for trimming the frozen samples and measuring strains during thawing and backpressure saturation. The specimens had variable fine fractions ranging from 6 to 21% and mica contents ranging from 1 to 10%. The results confirmed that there is a strong correlation between the creep rate coefficient and the compressibility index and between the swelling index and mica content. The compression behavior in all tests is well described by a nonlinear compression model with a unique limiting compression curve and a variable transition parameter that reflects the fines and mica content. Creep tests performed at different confining pressures are also well represented by a simple two-parameter model

Economic and social analysis of projects : a case study of the Yalavou Project in Fiji

This study explores the relative merits of incorporating equity (income distributional) considerations into the appraisal of projects within a specific project-country context. The Squire and van der Tak method of social cost benefit analysis is applied to the Yalavou Project (an integrated rural development project) in Fiji to ascertain whether or not project selection and design based on economic analysis would be significantly affected by social analysis. The usefulness and limitations of integrating into the appraisal the distributional impact of projects and the practical relevance of such methods to Fiji are discussed. Developments in project appraisal methodologies designed specifically for developing countries are reviewed and a detailed outline of the Squire and van der Tak approach is presented. The major features of the macro-economic environment of the Fijian economy are identified and provide the background to the estimation of the national economic and social parameters. These national parameters are estimated in accordance with the general approach of the Squire and van der Tak methodology and studies by the World Bank. An outline of the project is presented and the project specific parameters estimated. The results of this study showed that the Yalavou Project was an economically inefficient use of resources but was acceptable on social grounds. Allowance for a greater redistribution of income to poorer families increased the social rate of return. The study concludes that social analysis is useful in terms of: allowing for the incorporation of and tradeoff between various government objectives in project analysis; and the selection and design of projects, particularly those oriented towards the poorer income groups. Moreover, the proper specification of the distributional impact of a project can be vital to its acceptability and design. The correct specification is relatively more important with projects where a large proportion of benefits go to the private sector and when the project is on the borderline of the accept/reject decision. The study further concludes that the Squire and van der Tak method is practically relevant to countries: where the government has not only adopted income distribution as a national objective but has made deliberate efforts to implement projects contributing to this objective; where the government has a controlling rather than a supporting role in the process of capital accumulation and growth; where the government's investment programme is project oriented rather than programme oriented; and which have open economies. In most developing countries the administrative capacity of the government may place severe limitations on the practical relevance of the methodology in terms of the availability and reliability of data and the availability of time and manpower resources

Measuring Morality: Moral Frameworks in Videogames

The video game is, as we know, one of the most popular and quickly growing mediums in the United States and the world in whole. Because of its success, the video game industry has been able to use their resources to advance technology of many kinds. Two very important technologies which have been advanced by the game industry are artificial intelligence and graphic design. With advances in the videogame industry constantly increasing the realism of gaming, those who game are finding themselves rapidly transported into new worlds. The Combination of the elements of narrative transportation, character identification, a videogames ability to enable mediated experience create a situation in which players may be able to rapidly learn very complex concepts. This project begins with a classification of videogame moral systems, both on a theoretical and logistic level. Given this understanding of how videogames themselves define moral involvement, the project then seeks to answer how the players understand their own moral involvement in the game by directly involving player/participants in the conversation. The data produced strongly suggests that videogames have great potential to teach even the most complex concepts of right and wrong to players

A taxonomy of tool-related issues affecting the adoption of model-driven engineering

Although poor tool support is often blamed for the low uptake of model-driven engineering (MDE), recent studies have shown that adoption problems are as likely to be down to social and organizational factors as with tooling issues. This article discusses the impact of tools on MDE adoption and practice and does so while placing tooling within a broader organizational context. The article revisits previous data on MDE use in industry (19 in-depth interviews with MDE practitioners) and reanalyzes that data through the specific lens of MDE tools in an attempt to identify and categorize the issues that users had with the tools they adopted. In addition, the article presents new data: 20 new interviews in two specific companies—and analyzes it through the same lens. A key contribution of the paper is a loose taxonomy of tool-related considerations, based on empirical industry data, which can be used to reflect on the tooling landscape as well as inform future research on MDE tools

UA66/8/2 The Climate of Bowling Green & Warren County

Climate analysis of Bowling Green and Warren County, Kentucky from 1958 to 1987