4,737 research outputs found
SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE INTERNET
The Internet is a critically important research site for sociologists testing theories of technology diffusion and media effects, particularly because it is a medium uniquely capable of integrating modes of communication and forms of content. Current research tends to focus on the Internetâs implications in five domains: 1) inequality (the âdigital divideâ); 2) community and social capital; 3) political participation; 4) organizations and other economic institutions; and 5) cultural participation and cultural diversity. A recurrent theme across domains is that the Internet tends to complement rather than displace existing media and patterns of behavior. Thus in each domain, utopian claims and dystopic warnings based on extrapolations from technical possibilities have given way to more nuanced and circumscribed understandings of how Internet use adapts to existing patterns, permits certain innovations, and reinforces particular kinds of change. Moreover, in each domain the ultimate social implications of this new technology depend on economic, legal, and policy decisions that are shaping the Internet as it becomes institutionalized. Sociologists need to study the Internet more actively and, particularly, to synthesize research findings on individual user behavior with macroscopic analyses of institutional and political-economic factors that constrain that behavior.World Wide Web, communications, media, technology
Religious pro-sociality? Experimental evidence from a sample of 766 Spaniards
This study explores the relationship between several personal religion-related variables and social behaviour, using three paradigmatic economic games: the dictator (DG), ultimatum (UG), and trust (TG) games. A large carefully designed sample of the urban adult population in Granada (Spain) is employed (N = 766). From participants' decisions in these games we obtain measures of altruism, bargaining behaviour and sense of fairness/equality, trust, and positive reciprocity. Three dimensions of religiosity are examined: (i) religious denomination; (ii) intensity of religiosity, measured by active participation at church services; and (iii) conversion out into a different denomination than the one raised in. The major results are: (i) individuals with âno religionâ made decisions closer to rational selfish behaviour in the DG and the UG compared to those who affiliate with a âstandardâ religious denomination; (ii) among Catholics, intensity of religiosity is the key variable that affects social behaviour insofar as religiously-active individuals are generally more pro-social than non-active ones; and (iii) the religion raised in seems to have no effect on pro-sociality, beyond the effect of the current measures of religiosity. Importantly, behaviour in the TG is not predicted by any of the religion-related variables we analyse. While the results partially support the notion of religious pro-sociality, on the other hand, they also highlight the importance of closely examining the multidimensional nature of both religiosity and pro-social behaviour
El problema inverso de la hidrologĂa subterrĂĄnea: estado del arte y mĂ©todo de soluciĂłn
El problema inverso de la hidrologĂa subterrĂĄnea, que consiste en la obtenciĂłn de los parĂĄmetros hidraĂșlicos de un acuĂfero a partir de datos de niveles piezomĂ©tricos, ha sido objeto de un intenso proceso de investigaciĂłn en los Ășltimos años. En la primera parte de este artĂculo, se pasa revista a los trabajos mĂĄs relevantes de dicho proceso. Ello da pie, en la segunda parte, a proponer un mĂ©todo, basado en la teorĂa mĂĄxima verosimilitud, que permite obtener transmisividades, coeficientes de almacenamiento y goteo en recarga y caudales y niveles en los contornos, con datos en rĂ©gimen transitorio y/o estacionario en dominios bi- o cuasitri-dimensionales. El metodo se basa en la teorĂa del estado adjunto, lo cual se traduce en un ahorro considerable de memoria y tiempo de ordenador. La eficacia del algoritmo se muestra con un ejemplo.Peer Reviewe
Determinants of disaffiliation: an international study
Using a dataset of 15,000 subjects from 32 Western countries, the current study examines individuals who were raised in a certain religion and, at some stage of their lives, left it. Currently, they define their religious affiliation as âno religionâ. A battery of explanatory variables (country-specific, personal attributes and marriage variables) was employed to test for determinants of this decision. It was found that the tendency of individuals to leave their religionâthe most extreme symptom of secularizationâis strongly correlated with their liberal beliefs and with parental and spousal religious characteristics. Moreover, country characteristics, as well as personal socio-demographic features seem to be much less relevant, except for the religious diversity of the country that has a positive effect on disaffiliation
Intergenerational transmission of âreligious capitalâ. Evidence from Spain
This paper examines intergenerational transmission of âreligious capitalâ from parents to their offspring within an economic framework. The analytical tool is a âproduction function of religiosityâ where parental religious inputs serve as factors of production. The database used is based on a large-scale survey that was conducted in 1998 in Spain. In addition to information on the religious affiliation of the respondent and his parents, it has detailed data on two dimensions of the individualâs religious performance: church attendance and prayer. It also includes information on the motherâs and fatherâs church attendance when the respondent was a child,
as well as the respondentâs participation in mass services at the age of 12. Socio-economic background data are also available. The core findings are: (i) parental religious inputs significantly affect individualsâ religiosity; (ii) interestingly, the route of intergenerational transmission is from mother to daughter and from father to son; and (iii) current mass participation of respondents is more affected by parental- than by own childhood mass attendance
On the identification of Dragon Kings among extreme-valued outliers
Abstract. Extreme values of earth, environmental, ecological, physical, biological, financial and other variables often form outliers to heavy tails of empirical frequency distributions. Quite commonly such tails are approximated by stretched exponential, log-normal or power functions. Recently there has been an interest in distinguishing between extreme-valued outliers that belong to the parent population of most data in a sample and those that do not. The first type, called Gray Swans by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (often confused in the literature with Taleb's totally unknowable Black Swans), is drawn from a known distribution of the tails which can thus be extrapolated beyond the range of sampled values. However, the magnitudes and/or spaceâtime locations of unsampled Gray Swans cannot be foretold. The second type of extreme-valued outliers, termed Dragon Kings by Didier Sornette, may in his view be sometimes predicted based on how other data in the sample behave. This intriguing prospect has recently motivated some authors to propose statistical tests capable of identifying Dragon Kings in a given random sample. Here we apply three such tests to log air permeability data measured on the faces of a Berea sandstone block and to synthetic data generated in a manner statistically consistent with these measurements. We interpret the measurements to be, and generate synthetic data that are, samples from α-stable sub-Gaussian random fields subordinated to truncated fractional Gaussian noise (tfGn). All these data have frequency distributions characterized by power-law tails with extreme-valued outliers about the tail edges
Extended power-law scaling of heavy-tailed random air-permeability fields in fractured and sedimentary rocks
Abstract. We analyze the scaling behaviors of two field-scale log permeability data sets showing heavy-tailed frequency distributions in three and two spatial dimensions, respectively. One set consists of 1-m scale pneumatic packer test data from six vertical and inclined boreholes spanning a decameters scale block of unsaturated fractured tuffs near Superior, Arizona, the other of pneumatic minipermeameter data measured at a spacing of 15 cm along three horizontal transects on a 21 m long and 6 m high outcrop of the Upper Cretaceous Straight Cliffs Formation, including lower-shoreface bioturbated and cross-bedded sandstone near Escalante, Utah. Order q sample structure functions of each data set scale as a power Ο(q) of separation scale or lag, s, over limited ranges of s. A procedure known as extended self-similarity (ESS) extends this range to all lags and yields a nonlinear (concave) functional relationship between Ο(q) and q. Whereas the literature tends to associate extended and nonlinear power-law scaling with multifractals or fractional Laplace motions, we have shown elsewhere that (a) ESS of data having a normal frequency distribution is theoretically consistent with (Gaussian) truncated (additive, self-affine, monofractal) fractional Brownian motion (tfBm), the latter being unique in predicting a breakdown in power-law scaling at small and large lags, and (b) nonlinear power-law scaling of data having either normal or heavy-tailed frequency distributions is consistent with samples from sub-Gaussian random fields or processes subordinated to tfBm or truncated fractional Gaussian noise (tfGn), stemming from lack of ergodicity which causes sample moments to scale differently than do their ensemble counterparts. Here we (i) demonstrate that the above two data sets are consistent with sub-Gaussian random fields subordinated to tfBm or tfGn and (ii) provide maximum likelihood estimates of parameters characterizing the corresponding LĂ©vy stable subordinators and tfBm or tfGn functions
Massively parallel single-molecule manipulation using centrifugal force
Precise manipulation of single molecules has already led to remarkable
insights in physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. However, widespread
adoption of single-molecule techniques has been impeded by equipment cost and
the laborious nature of making measurements one molecule at a time. We have
solved these issues with a new approach: massively parallel single-molecule
force measurements using centrifugal force. This approach is realized in a
novel instrument that we call the Centrifuge Force Microscope (CFM), in which
objects in an orbiting sample are subjected to a calibration-free,
macroscopically uniform force-field while their micro-to-nanoscopic motions are
observed. We demonstrate high-throughput single-molecule force spectroscopy
with this technique by performing thousands of rupture experiments in parallel,
characterizing force-dependent unbinding kinetics of an antibody-antigen pair
in minutes rather than days. Additionally, we verify the force accuracy of the
instrument by measuring the well-established DNA overstretching transition at
66 3 pN. With significant benefits in efficiency, cost, simplicity, and
versatility, "single-molecule centrifugation" has the potential to
revolutionize single-molecule experimentation, and open access to a wider range
of researchers and experimental systems.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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