Imaging, Keyboarding, and Posting Identities: Young People and New Media Technologies

Part of the Volume on Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Clicking, posting, and text messaging their way through a shifting digital landscape, young people are bending and blending genres, incorporating old ideas, activities, and images into new bricolages, changing the face, if not the substance, of social interaction and altering how they see themselves and each other. From data collected in Britain, Canada, and South Africa, we have selected cases that involve a range of technologies and contexts, from adult-mediated activities in schools and community centers to spontaneous media production done in private at home. Whether it be postings on websites, improvisations in video production, or the incorporation of objects in a multi-media presentation, these cases illustrate that, like digital cultural production, identity processes are multifaceted and in flux, constructed and deconstructed through a process of bricolage that we label as "identities-in-action." Analysis of the cases reveals certain shared features of digital production that contribute to identities-in-action: the "constructedness" of production, the collective and social aspects of individual productions, the neglected but crucial element of embodiment, the reflexivity and negotiation involved in producing and consuming one's own images, the creativity in media convergence, and the value of constructivist models of learning

What Do We Know About Women’s Experiences of Living With Hepatitis C? An Analysis of Canadian Women's Journey with Hepatitis C Care

Background: The Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a blood-borne infection affecting an estimated 170 million people worldwide including approximately 250,000 Canadians. Untreated HCV can contribute to significant morbidity and mortality. Despite the benefits of HCV care, there continues to be significant gaps in the uptake of services. Purpose: This thesis explored Canadian women’s experiences of the journey with HCV care from the perspective of the women, in order to promote care engagement, improve patient-provider relationships and deliver services that meet women’s needs. Methods: This study, inspired by grounded theory techniques, explored women’s experience of living with HCV and factors influencing their journey with care. Purposive and theoretical sampling across three Canadian provinces generated interviews with 25 women. Results: Three concepts were central to understanding women’s journey with HCV care: 1) The point of diagnosis shaped women’s journey with care through a) their preparedness for a positive diagnosis, and b) the information/health education they received; 2) Women faced complex barriers to care - (a) information provision, b) family and caregiver responsibilities, c) relationship with healthcare provider, d) active substance use and e) stigma and discrimination - but often showed inventiveness and determination to overcome them; 3) Women saw their decision to attend for HCV care as prompted by a) immediate crisis, b) gradual sequence of awareness, or c) medical intervention. Conclusion: The development of effective interventions and integrated models of care requires an understanding of the complex factors that shape women’s journey with HCV care. Improving women’s journey with HCV care will enhance their access to the new treatment regimes. Recommendations: A National HCV Strategy and comprehensive guidelines for care, treatment and prevention; HCV education throughout the healthcare system; and equitable and accessible healthcare for all women living with HCV

Session 2: Female Orgasms and Evolutionary Theory

Proceedings of the Pittsburgh Workshop in History and Philosophy of Biology, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, March 23-24 2001 Session 2: Female Orgasms and Evolutionary Theor

Instrumental Perspectivism: Is AI Machine Learning Technology like NMR Spectroscopy?

The question, “Will science remain human?” expresses a worry that deep learning algorithms will replace scientists in making crucial judgments of classification and inference and that something crucial will be lost if that happens.  Ever since the introduction of telescopes and microscopes humans have relied on technologies to “extend” beyond human sensory perception in acquiring scientific knowledge.  In this paper I explore whether the ways in which new learning technologies “extend” beyond human cognitive aspects of science can be treated instrumentally. I will consider the norms for determining the reliability of a detection instrument, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in predicting models of protein atomic structure. Do the same norms that apply in that case be used to judge the reliability of Artificial Intelligence deep learning algorithms

“I’ve Never Told Anyone”: A Qualitative Analysis of Interviews With College Women Who Experienced Sexual Assault and Remained Silent

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the decision made by some college women who are raped to tell no one. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 college women between the ages of 19-24 who had never shared their sexual assault with anyone prior to speaking to the researchers. This study provides a systematic investigation of the factors underlying women’s decisions to remain silent. The knowledge and understanding gained from these in-depth interviews offer insight for individuals and institutions to support these students and for the development of future efforts encouraging women survivors to tell someone

Acceptability – a neglected dimension of access to health care : findings from a study on childhood convulsions in rural Tanzania

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Acceptability is a poorly conceptualized dimension of access to health care. Using a study on childhood convulsion in rural Tanzania, we examined social acceptability from a user perspective. The study design is based on the premise that a match between health providers' and clients' understanding of disease is an important dimension of social acceptability, especially in trans-cultural communication, for example if childhood convulsions are not linked with malaria and local treatment practices are mostly preferred. The study was linked to health interventions with the objective of bridging the gap between local and biomedical understanding of convulsions. METHODS: The study combined classical ethnography with the cultural epidemiology approach using EMIC (Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue) tool. EMIC interviews were conducted in a 2007/08 convulsion study (n = 88) and results were compared with those of an earlier 2004/06 convulsion study (n = 135). Earlier studies on convulsion in the area were also examined to explore longer-term changes in treatment practices. RESULTS: The match between local and biomedical understanding of convulsions was already high in the 2004/06 study. Specific improvements were noted in form of (1) 46% point increase among those who reported use of mosquito nets to prevent convulsion (2) 13% point decrease among caregivers who associated convulsion with 'evil eye and sorcery', 3) 14% point increase in prompt use of health facility and 4)16% point decrease among those who did not use health facility at all. Such changes can be partly attributed to interventions which explicitly aimed at increasing the match between local and biomedical understanding of malaria. Caregivers, mostly mothers, did not seek advice on where to take an ill child. This indicates that treatment at health facility has become socially acceptable for severe febrile with convulsion. CONCLUSION: As an important dimension of access to health care 'social acceptability' seems relevant in studying illnesses that are perceived not to belong to the biomedical field, specifically in trans-cultural societies. Understanding the match between local and biomedical understanding of disease is fundamental to ensure acceptability of health care services, successful control and management of health problems. Our study noted some positive changes in community knowledge and management of convulsion episodes, changes which might be accredited to extensive health education campaigns in the study area. On the other hand it is difficult to make inference out of the findings as a result of small sample size involved. In return, it is clear that well ingrained traditional beliefs can be modified with communication campaigns, provided that this change resonates with the beneficiaries

Non-verbal components of assertive behavior used by school administrators

Assertive communication is the total message that is being sent or received between two or more people (Cooper, 1979). That total message consists of the spoken word and the non-spoken form of communication. Assertive nonverbal communicati_on, often referred to as NVC, has a source and a receiver and like the word communication; NVC has a wide range of definitions. One definition that seems to summarize many authors\u27. views is Those attributes or actions of humans, other than the use of words themselves, which socially share meaning and are intentionally sent or interpreted as intentional as consciously ,sent or consciously received, and have the potential for feedback from the receiver (Burgoon & Saine, 1978, p. 6). Other definitions include actions without words , communication without words , message without words , and all the cues that are not words . Edward Sapor says it is an elaborate code that is written nowhere, known to none, and understood by all (p. 6)