28 research outputs found
Sociology, Sociality and Animals : Beyond the social/natural divide
This thesis constitutes an attempt to make the case for âanimalisingâ sociology, and to tackle ensuing theoretical and methodological challenges. It is suggested that impoverished understandings of the social â as divorced from the natural â are at the heart of various shortcomings in the discipline. Focussing on sociality, the aim is to develop a conceptualisation that does not reproduce âthe bifurcation of natureâ. While incorporating autoethnographic methods and drawing on my own experience with my adopted canine companion, Harald, this thesis is nonetheless to be seen as a theoretical piece of work.
The thesis argues for an enlarged version of sociality that transgresses species-bound factors, is not dependent on consciousness, and instead centres notions of experience and feeling. Drawing on Alfred North Whiteheadâs philosophy of organism, this thesis proposes an approach to sociality understood as âfeeling-forâ, to avoid privileging limited modes of human experience, and to build a more inclusive sociological vocabulary. The framework developed suggests the following elements of sociality: mutual possibilities, togetherness and betweenness, attentive resonance, affinity, enjoyment, and mutual recognition
Dual Users: Real Lessons from Reality Television
This study attempts to understand the differences in activity among an emergent television/Internet audience. The Internet has provided a new entertainment opportunity for producers of television programming. Those television viewers who have also reached out to their favorite television show websites have resulted in a new audience. Examining the programming genre of reality television, two constructs were developed and a written survey administered to a convenience sample of college freshmen. The construct dual users was created to examine the television audience that also visits television programming websites. Single users (those that only watch the television show) were compared to the self-reported levels of activity and involvement of dual users. Early findings suggest that the dual users are more involved during viewing of the television show and engaged in less secondary activity than the single users
(S)Partners for Heart Health: a school-based program for enhancing physical activity and nutrition to promote cardiovascular health in 5th grade students
BLOOM: A 176B-Parameter Open-Access Multilingual Language Model
Large language models (LLMs) have been shown to be able to perform new tasks
based on a few demonstrations or natural language instructions. While these
capabilities have led to widespread adoption, most LLMs are developed by
resource-rich organizations and are frequently kept from the public. As a step
towards democratizing this powerful technology, we present BLOOM, a
176B-parameter open-access language model designed and built thanks to a
collaboration of hundreds of researchers. BLOOM is a decoder-only Transformer
language model that was trained on the ROOTS corpus, a dataset comprising
hundreds of sources in 46 natural and 13 programming languages (59 in total).
We find that BLOOM achieves competitive performance on a wide variety of
benchmarks, with stronger results after undergoing multitask prompted
finetuning. To facilitate future research and applications using LLMs, we
publicly release our models and code under the Responsible AI License
Efficiency of digital signature in Database As A Service
The aim of the thesis is to implement the digital signature on Database As a Service to ensure efficient data security. The implementation and validation of digital signature raises several challenges such as the selection of suitable algorithm for signing, hashing and storing the digital signature key pair and key exchange mechanism. We generate a key pair for every individual user and store the pair in centralized repository.
We conduct a complete evaluation on efficiency of digital signature with respect to many aspects comparing with other encryption techniques. During the evaluation we propose a banking system as a case study for the empirical validation of our approach. The main challenging part of the thesis is maintaining data integrity, and confidentiality even though its a time consuming process. The interesting feature of digital signature application is, it doesnt allow cloud database administrator to view the sensitive field data of the database
CONTROL OF BREATHING ON AEROBIC AND MUSCULAR FITNESS: C-BAMF
BACKGROUND: Compared to the training of conventional forces, US Special Operations Forces (SOF) training often includes a higher volume of aquatic-based training. In this aquatic-based training, SOF members experience hypoxia during repeated breath-holding events. This type of breath hold training is called apnea training among US SOF. It has been shown that after repeated bouts of apnea training, participants can improve their breath-holding ability, surface swimming time, and the ability to do subsurface anaerobic work. These marked improvements in aerobic and anaerobic capacity have led some to believe that there is a performance gain crossover from apnea training to other unrelated, land-based sports and endurance activities. Our study aims to examine the effects of apnea training on land-based physical performance. METHODS: We plan to recruit 15 male and female participants between the ages of 18 and 35. The study will consist of a baseline laboratory visit, followed by randomization into one of three conditions: an apnea-only training group (AG), a running-only training group (RG), and an apnea + running training group (ARG). These groups will complete two more lab visits over the course of six weeks. The RG will be given a customized periodized running workout program designed using baseline measures, and the AG will be given a smartphone app that builds a custom apnea-training program based on individual breath-holding ability. The ARG will be given both training programs. Physical performance assessments will include: aerobic fitness assessed from a graded exercise test, anaerobic fitness assessed using a modified Sprint-Drag-Carry (SDC), muscular strength assessed using hand grip dynamometry, and muscular power assessed using vertical jump height. These assessments will be repeated at the three and six-week mark. Results will be analyzed using a repeated measure ANOVA to assess the group differences. Additionally, multiple linear regression will be used to examine the relationship between the performance measures. ANTICIPATED RESULTS: It is hypothesized that the following training programs will improve aerobic and anaerobic capacity from greatest to least in rank order: 1) Apnea and running training; 2) Apnea-only); 3. Running-only training
Lönsamhet av CRM hos företag : En fallstudie pÄ vilka mÄtt företag i Sverige anvÀnder för att berÀkna sin lönsamhet av CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) har beskrivits som en filosofi, en teknologi, en strategi, en process och ett IT-system. Det finns ingen allmĂ€ngiltig definition av CRM vilket har lett till svĂ„righeter att identifiera och definiera tillförlitliga mĂ„tt vid mĂ€tning av dess effektivitet. Detta har lett till att företag skĂ€mtsamt brukar benĂ€mna att CRM stĂ„r för âCanât Really Measureâ. Oavsett har flertalet modeller, mĂ„tt och system tagits fram för att kunna göra CRM-insatser mĂ€tbara. Ett sĂ€tt att mĂ€ta CRM som föresprĂ„kas Ă€r anvĂ€ndningen av en kombination av finansiella (försĂ€ljningstillvĂ€xt, ROI) respektive icke-finansiella (kundnöjdhet, kundlojalitet m.m.) mĂ„tt. Denna studie undersöker hur sju stora företag i Sverige inom varierande branscher mĂ€ter och definierar sina CRM-aktiviteter. Studien utforskar Ă€ven vilka mĂ„tt som företagen anser Ă€r mest relevanta och vad som Ă€r mĂ„let med deras CRM-program. Studien visar att företagen mĂ€ter sina CRM insatser pĂ„ olika sĂ€tt och med fokus pĂ„ olika mĂ„tt. 6 av de 7 studerade företagen fokuserar pĂ„ finansiella mĂ„tt och kundnöjdhet. 5 av 7 mĂ€ter inte kundlojalitet som företagen sjĂ€lva i sina definitioner av CRM anser Ă€r viktigt. Ingen av företagen prioriterar mĂ€tning av medarbetarnöjdhet, belöningsprogram eller företagskultur som Ă€r en del av den grundlĂ€ggande infrastrukturen bakom CRM vilket Ă€r nĂ„gra av de mĂ„tt som lĂ€gger grunden för att skapa förstĂ„else för CRM pĂ„ högre nivĂ„er inom företagen. Skillnaderna i definitionerna frĂ„n de studerade företagen stĂ€rker att det inte finns en allmĂ€ngiltig betydelse av CRM.Â
Lönsamhet av CRM hos företag : En fallstudie pÄ vilka mÄtt företag i Sverige anvÀnder för att berÀkna sin lönsamhet av CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) har beskrivits som en filosofi, en teknologi, en strategi, en process och ett IT-system. Det finns ingen allmĂ€ngiltig definition av CRM vilket har lett till svĂ„righeter att identifiera och definiera tillförlitliga mĂ„tt vid mĂ€tning av dess effektivitet. Detta har lett till att företag skĂ€mtsamt brukar benĂ€mna att CRM stĂ„r för âCanât Really Measureâ. Oavsett har flertalet modeller, mĂ„tt och system tagits fram för att kunna göra CRM-insatser mĂ€tbara. Ett sĂ€tt att mĂ€ta CRM som föresprĂ„kas Ă€r anvĂ€ndningen av en kombination av finansiella (försĂ€ljningstillvĂ€xt, ROI) respektive icke-finansiella (kundnöjdhet, kundlojalitet m.m.) mĂ„tt. Denna studie undersöker hur sju stora företag i Sverige inom varierande branscher mĂ€ter och definierar sina CRM-aktiviteter. Studien utforskar Ă€ven vilka mĂ„tt som företagen anser Ă€r mest relevanta och vad som Ă€r mĂ„let med deras CRM-program. Studien visar att företagen mĂ€ter sina CRM insatser pĂ„ olika sĂ€tt och med fokus pĂ„ olika mĂ„tt. 6 av de 7 studerade företagen fokuserar pĂ„ finansiella mĂ„tt och kundnöjdhet. 5 av 7 mĂ€ter inte kundlojalitet som företagen sjĂ€lva i sina definitioner av CRM anser Ă€r viktigt. Ingen av företagen prioriterar mĂ€tning av medarbetarnöjdhet, belöningsprogram eller företagskultur som Ă€r en del av den grundlĂ€ggande infrastrukturen bakom CRM vilket Ă€r nĂ„gra av de mĂ„tt som lĂ€gger grunden för att skapa förstĂ„else för CRM pĂ„ högre nivĂ„er inom företagen. Skillnaderna i definitionerna frĂ„n de studerade företagen stĂ€rker att det inte finns en allmĂ€ngiltig betydelse av CRM.Â