Facebook Uses: How and Why? Uses and Gratifications Keeping Up With the Technology

With currently more than 200 million active users, Facebook represents the most popular social network site today. My thesis is a qualitative study examining how and why people use Facebook. Uses and gratifications perspective is used as the theoretical back bone as well as the way of researching. The thesis is testing the relevance of the uses and gratifications motives as defined by previous research studies and combining them with the ideas of persuasive technology. Several psychological aspects as the norm of reciprocity, need to belong and impression management are added to the discussion. By considering previous research, the influence of technology as well as psychological motives for social interaction, I present an overview of the relevant motives for Facebook use. This thesis contributes to raising the knowledge about how and why people use social network sites as well as updating uses and gratification theory in order for it to be applicable to the modern media.MEVI350MASV-MEV

Prothrombotic Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and Risk of Myocardial Infarction: A Narrative Review of the Literature

Background: Environmental risk factors for myocardial infarction (MI) have been extensively investigated. In addition, family history of MI is an important risk factor for the disease. Several prothrombotic genotypes are well-established risk factors for venous thrombosis. However, the role of prothrombotic genotypes as risk factors for arterial thrombosis is less emphasized. Aim: To create a general overview of the existing literature on the role of non-O/O blood type, Prothrombin G20210A and Factor V Leiden; the main genetic determinants of thrombophilia, as risk factors for incident MI. Methods: A narrative literature review of studies published after 2005 was performed. The biomedical databases Medline and Embase were used in a structured literature search regarding the association between non-O/O blood type, Prothrombin G20210A and Factor V Leiden as risk factors for MI. Relevant MeSH terms for exposure and outcome were combined in the Ovid search platform; a common search software for the two databases. Results: Several meta-analyses have been published during the recent years and report modest effects of non-O blood type (ORs ranging from 1.1 to 1.3), Prothrombin G20210A (ORs around 1.4) and Factor V Leiden (ORs ranging from 1.2 to 1.9) on the risk of MI. For Prothrombin G20210A, the adjusted OR for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) for carriers versus non-carriers of the risk allele was 2.2 (95% CI: 1.1-4.3) among subjects <35 years. Moreover, when compared to wild genotype carriers, Factor V Leiden heterozygous or homozygous mutant carriers were more likely associated with a trend towards more severe coronary artery disease (CAD) (OR 1.85; 95% CI 1.26-2.72 and OR 3.70; 95% CI 1.71-8.00). Conclusion: In conclusion, the existing literature supports an association between non-O blood type, Prothrombin G20210A and Factor V Leiden and risk of MI. The Prothrombin G20210A and Factor V Leiden variants seem to be associated with premature adverse events and more severe CAD

Latitudinal variability in the Quaternary development of the Eurasian ice sheets—Evidence from the marine domain

Here we present the first compilation of sediment volumes, sedimentation rates, and chronology of Quaternary sediment packages along the entire marine margin of the Eurasian ice sheets (EurIS; British–Irish, Kara–Barents Sea–Svalbard, and Fennoscandian). This compilation allows for a subdivision of the EurIS development into three phases (2.6–1.5 Ma, 1.5–0.78 Ma, and 0.78–0 Ma). At the start of the Quaternary, sedimentation rates increased, relative to pre-Quaternary rates, by an order of magnitude. This abruptness in rate change excludes tectonic raising of landmasses as the main factor, but more likely reflects climate change through increased glacial erosion. The sediment distribution data suggest that the Kara–Barents Sea–Svalbard Ice Sheet (KBSIS) already was quite large at the beginning of the Quaternary, and well before 1.5 Ma it extended to the shelf edge and coalesced with the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS), which prior to 1.5 Ma most likely was located near the coast. Large ice streams and intense glacial erosion characterized the KBSIS in the 1.5–0.78 Ma time period, whereas the FIS at that time extended farther out on the continental shelf. After 0.78 Ma, a north-south change in EurIS development occurred. In the FIS and the British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS), large ice streams developed and shelf-edge glaciations occurred nearly 1 m.y. later compared to the KBSIS. The FIS and BIIS also repetitively coalesced in the North Sea. A significant drop in sediment input along the KBSIS marine margin, to the lowest Quaternary level, suggests a less erosive KBSIS.publishedVersio

Pasts of the Present

In light of today’s global boom in landmark architecture, urban megaprojects and reconstructions of cultural heritage buildings, this paper analyses two large-scale reconstruction projects at iconic historical locations in Japan: the Heijō Palace in Nara and Dejima in Nagasaki. Since the 1990s, the two projects have recreated long-lost built environments, gradually transforming the sites, turning them into museums and exhibition spaces and giving rise to thorough reform of the surrounding urban fabric. In this paper I trace the involved agents’ motivations to engage in historical reconstruction from early-phase experimental efforts to legitimise the sites’ protected status to present-day politico-economic mobilisations of important historical locations to boost city attraction values. In this way, I link these two unfolding projects in Nara and Nagasaki to issues of urban boosterism, heritage production and the facilitation and commodification of tourist experiences of past realities. Approaching the reconstructions as contemporary heritage in traditional guise, the paper argues that both sites revolve materially, spatially and thematically around the master-metaphors of flow, growth and intercultural connectivity that characterise the present age. Elucidating processes of authentication and intersections of ideological and economic interests in and around the two sites, the paper asks in what ways Japanese cities exploit lost iconic localities and reconstructed heritage under post-industrial conditions marked by globalisation and intense cultural-economic competition

Late Plio-Pleistocene evolution of the Eurasian Ice Sheets inferred from sediment input along the northeastern Atlantic continental margin

High-latitude marine sediment archives may contain information about the configuration and dynamics of former ice sheets, paleoclimate and the intensity of glacial erosion and uplift in catchment areas. Compiling information on the Late Cenozoic sediment packages along the NE Atlantic continental margin shows that large sediment volumes (c. 982 × 103 km3) were deposited during the Northern Hemisphere Glaciations (NHG), and that significant spatial and temporal variations in sediment input occurred during three distinct NHG Phases. NHG Phase I (2.7–1.5 Ma) was characterized by high sediment input to the trough mouth fan systems offshore Svalbard, suggesting strong glacial erosion and the development of large ice sheets over Svalbard. Comparatively moderate sedimentation and erosion rates are observed along the SW Barents Sea and the Norwegian margins during NHG Phase I. This indicates more restricted ice sheets over Fennoscandia compared to Svalbard, although periods of shelf edge glaciation most likely occurred. The most prominent overall margin development occurred during NHG Phase II (1.5–0.8 Ma), when recurrent large-scale, continental shelf edge, glaciations are suggested for the entire Eurasian Ice Sheets (EurIS). Compared to NHG Phase I, average sedimentation rates are three (91 cm/kyr) and two times higher (20 cm/kyr), respectively, in the Kara-Barents Sea-Svalbard Ice Sheet (KBSIS) region and the Fennoscandian/British-Irish Ice Sheet (FIS/BIIS) region. During NHG Phase III (0.8–0 Ma), sediment input decreases considerably (73%) along the marine margin of the KBSIS, while increasing significantly (62%) from the FIS/BIIS, in comparison to NHG Phase II. These estimates mark a major transition in the evolution of the EurIS, where the submergence below sea level of the Barents Sea region and the initiation of the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream are suggested to be key factors in this change. Furthermore, the submergence of the Barents Sea region affected ocean-atmosphere coupling and circulation which may have had a potential impact on global long-term climate change.publishedVersio

Rapid ice sheet retreat triggered by ice stream debuttressing: Evidence from the North Sea

Using high-resolution bathymetric and shallow seismic data from the North Sea, we have mapped hitherto unknown glacial landforms that connect and resolve longstanding gaps in the Quaternary geological history of the basin. We use these data combined with published information and dates from sediment cores to reconstruct the extent of the Fennoscandian and British Ice Sheets (FIS and BIS) in the North Sea during the last phases of the last glacial stage. It is concluded that the BIS occupied a much larger part of the North Sea than previously suggested and that North Sea ice underwent a dramatic disintegration ~18,500 yr ago. This was triggered by grounding-line retreat of the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream, which debuttressed adjacent ice masses, and led to an unzipping of the BIS and FIS accompanied by drainage of a large ice-dammed lake. Our reconstruction of events provides an opportunity to improve understanding and modeling of the disintegration of marine-based ice sheets, and the complex interplay between ocean circulation and the cryosphere

Chronology of Early to Mid-Pleistocene sediments in the northern North Sea: New evidence from amino acid and strontium isotope analyses

Sediments deposited during glacial-interglacial cycles through the Early to Mid-Pleistocene in the North Sea are chronologically poorly constrained. To contribute to the chronology of these units, amino acid racemization (AAR) and strontium (Sr) isotope analyses have been performed on samples from four shallow borings and one oil well along a transect in the northern North Sea. D/L Asp (aspartic acid) values obtained through reverse-phase liquid chromatography in the benthic foraminiferal species Elphidium excavatum is focused on because of consistent results and a good stratigraphic distribution of this benthic species. For the Early Pleistocene, an age model for the well 16/1–8, from the central part of the northern North Sea based on Sr ages allows for dating of the prograding wedges filling the pre-Quaternary central basin. A regional calibration curve for the racemization of Asp in Elphidium excavatum is developed using published ages of radiocarbon-dated samples and samples associated with the previously identified Bruhnes/Matuyama (B/M) paleomagnetic boundary and a Sr age from this study. Based on all the available geochronological evidence, samples were assigned to marine oxygen isotope stages (MIS) with uncertainties on the order of 10–70 ka. Sr ages suggest a hiatus of <2 million years (Ma) possibly due to non-deposition or low sedimentation between the Utsira Formation (Pliocene) and the Early Pleistocene. An increase in sedimentation rates around 1.5 ± 0.07 Ma (∼MIS 51) may partly be due to sediment supply from rivers from the south-east and partly due to the extension of ice sheet around 1.36 ± 0.07 Ma from the Norwegian coast to the central North Sea. A possible basin-wide glaciation occurred around 1.1 Ma (∼ MIS 32) (upper regional unconformity/top of unit Q4 in this study), resulting in erosion and regional unconformity. Two interglacials in the Norwegian Channel have been dated: the Radøy Interglacial to 1.07 ± 0.01 Ma (possibly MIS 31, the ‘super interglacial’), and the Norwegian Trench Interglacial to 0.50 ± 0.02 Ma (possibly MIS 13). A massive till unit identified at the same stratigraphic level in all shallow borings may partly represent an extensive MIS 12 glaciation. This study shows that the combined use of amino acid racemization data and Sr isotope chronology can refine the chronological ambiguities of Quaternary North Sea sediments related partly to the impact of glacial processes.publishedVersio

The Quaternary geology of the North Sea basin

The North Sea is a shallow (∼50–400 m deep), ∼500-km-wide marine embayment that separates the UK from Scandinavia and northern Europe (Fig. 1). This epicontinental shelf area has had a long and complex geological history with its present-day structural configuration largely being the result of rifting during the Jurassic–Early Cretaceous, followed by thermal subsidence (Glennie and Underhill, 1998; Zanella and Coward, 2003). Since the middle Cenozoic, the Central Graben region of the North Sea basin has accumulated up to 3000 m of Oligocene to Holocene sediments, which locally includes more than 800 m of Quaternary sediments (Caston, 1977, 1979; Gatliff et al., 1994). Although a detailed understanding of the depositional history recorded by this sedimentary succession is yet to be fully established, these sediments preserve evidence for the advance and retreat of several ice sheets into the North Sea from the adjacent landmasses at different times during the Quaternary. These ice masses not only resulted in periodic erosion, but also made a significant depositional contribution to the infill of the basin

The role of ocean and atmospheric dynamics in the marine-based collapse of the last Eurasian Ice Sheet

Information from former ice sheets may provide important context for understanding the response of today’s ice sheets to forcing mechanisms. Here we present a reconstruction of the last deglaciation of marine sectors of the Eurasian Ice Sheet, emphasising how the retreat of the Norwegian Channel and the Barents Sea ice streams led to separation of the British-Irish and Fennoscandian ice sheets at c. 18.700 and of the Kara-Barents Sea-Svalbard and Fennoscandian ice sheets between 16.000 and 15.000 years ago. Combined with ice sheet modelling and palaeoceanographic data, our reconstruction shows that the deglaciation, from a peak volume of 20 m of sea-level rise equivalent, was mainly driven by temperature forced surface mass balance in the south, and by Nordic Seas oceanic conditions in the north. Our results highlight the nonlinearity in the response of an ice sheet to forcing and the significance of ocean-ice-atmosphere dynamics in assessing the fate of contemporary ice sheets