Taking Parties Seriously: Gendered Sexuality and Hook Up Culture at Greek Social Events

This thesis is a qualitative sociological analysis of gender and sexuality at Greek parties and in the broader Greek system in order to better understand hooking up and rape culture. While past work on rape culture has tended to look at fraternities as isolated organizations (Boswell and Spade 1996, Sanday 1990), this research takes into consideration that sororities and fraternities are constantly interacting within the Greek system and therefore must be analyzed together. I intervie14 sorority and fraternity members in order to uncover how Greek members interpret the behaviors, norms, and interactions at organized parties and in the broader Greek system. The sorority and fraternity members made distinctions between the types of parties that Greek organizations host. Most notably, there was a difference in how members talked about the date-centered parties versus the non-date parties. This research highlights the importance of understanding the party environment in which both hooking up and rape can occur. Sociological discussions that make generalized claims about collegiate parties overlook the significance of how different parties may create different experiences for those who attend them

Thermal analysis of a fireplace using ANSYS

The Finite Element analysis of a fireplace using ANSYS is presented in this document, along with the steps which have led up to its final design. The intention of this analysis is to determine the feasibility of moving from an experimentation oriented design process, where different prototypes in a fireplace\u27s design stage are built, operated, and analyzed over the course of many months to determine an optimum design for the fireplace, to an analytical design process, where the majority of the design work is done using computer software. By making this move from experimental methods to analytical methods, a manufacturer can expect to save both time and money. First, a brief introduction to the basics of heat transfer and fluid flow are presented to introduce the reader to some of the terminology that will be used in this document, along with some general information about the fireplace model being presented. The analysis and results are then presented starting from initial testing to determine the effects of varying thickness on a materials thermal response, continuing to initial simplified designs of the fireplace and determining boundary conditions, and ending with the full 2-dimensional transient analysis and solution of the fireplace with comparisons made to experimental data provided for this particular fireplace

Analytical model for macromolecular partitioning during yeast cell division

Background: Asymmetric cell division, whereby a parent cell generates two sibling cells with unequal content and thereby distinct fates, is central to cell differentiation, organism development and ageing. Unequal partitioning of the macromolecular content of the parent cell — which includes proteins, DNA, RNA, large proteinaceous assemblies and organelles — can be achieved by both passive (e.g. diffusion, localized retention sites) and active (e.g. motor-driven transport) processes operating in the presence of external polarity cues, internal asymmetries, spontaneous symmetry breaking, or stochastic effects. However, the quantitative contribution of different processes to the partitioning of macromolecular content is difficult to evaluate. Results: Here we developed an analytical model that allows rapid quantitative assessment of partitioning as a function of various parameters in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This model exposes quantitative degeneracies among the physical parameters that govern macromolecular partitioning, and reveals regions of the solution space where diffusion is sufficient to drive asymmetric partitioning and regions where asymmetric partitioning can only be achieved through additional processes such as motor-driven transport. Application of the model to different macromolecular assemblies suggests that partitioning of protein aggregates and episomes, but not prions, is diffusion-limited in yeast, consistent with previous reports. Conclusions: In contrast to computationally intensive stochastic simulations of particular scenarios, our analytical model provides an efficient and comprehensive overview of partitioning as a function of global and macromolecule-specific parameters. Identification of quantitative degeneracies among these parameters highlights the importance of their careful measurement for a given macromolecular species in order to understand the dominant processes responsible for its observed partitioning

How Do Medical Professionals Perceive Artificial Intelligence: An Analysis of Reddit Data

With the advent of big data and the ever-increasing computing power, technologies that use artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming continuously widespread. In several applications, AI has already reached or surpassed human-like capabilities, paving its way in many fields, including medicine. However, when AI takes over tasks from medical professionals (MPs) in making high-stake health-determining decisions, skepticism seems to prevail on the one hand and overconfidence in AI on the other. This research-in-progress aims to investigate these mechanisms to contribute designing a successful human-AI collaboration. To do so, we will examine what MPs understand by the broad concept of AI, how opinions about AI arose, and what MPs’ emotions are. Therefore, we will analyze AI-related data of medical subreddits using natural language processing (NLP) techniques and qualitative analysis

SHEDDING LIGHT ON RESILIENCE IN NURSING: THE INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY USE IN CLINICAL CARE ON NURSES’ SENSE OF COHERENCE

The nursing discipline is increasingly confronted with far-reaching challenges that are a prominent subject in public discourse. Factors such as growing numbers of chronically ill patients and an ongoing decrease in medical personnel impose unprecedented strain on clinical care providers and nurses, which requires high levels of resilience on an individual and organizational level. The introduction of digital information and communication technology (ICT) in the workplace is intended to counteract these challenges and foster resilient everyday care. However, studies that investigate the interplay of digitalization and individual resilience are scarce. Hence, we propose a mixed-method approach to explore how ICT use in a clinical work setting influences nurses’ sense of coherence. This construct has been used as a theoretical foundation to investigate resilience in nursing. Further, the exploration of individual coping strategies in the light of ICT-related disturbances in the workplace and associated job-related outcomes complement the research agenda

Theoretical Studies on Small Ring Heteropropellanes. Oxapropellanes

Oxa(l.1.l)propellane (2), dioxa(l.1.l)propellane (3), and trio-· xa(l.l.l)propellane (4) have been studied by means of ab initio SCF MO technique at 6-31G* level. The geometry optimization is carried out for these molecules and the parent hydrocarbon (1.1.l)propellane. The bond between the two bridgehead carbon atoms is predicted to be in (2) : 1.503 A, (3) : 1.474 A, and (4) : 1.456 A. These are shorter than the calculated central bond (1.543 A) in (1.1.l)propellane

Efficient protein depletion by genetically controlled deprotection of a dormant N-degron

Methods that allow for the manipulation of genes or their products have been highly fruitful for biomedical research. Here, we describe a method that allows the control of protein abundance by a genetically encoded regulatory system. We developed a dormant N-degron that can be attached to the N-terminus of a protein of interest. Upon expression of a site-specific protease, the dormant N-degron becomes deprotected. The N-degron then targets itself and the attached protein for rapid proteasomal degradation through the N-end rule pathway. We use an optimized tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease variant combined with selective target binding to achieve complete and rapid deprotection of the N-degron-tagged proteins. This method, termed TEV protease induced protein inactivation (TIPI) of TIPI-degron (TDeg) modified target proteins is fast, reversible, and applicable to a broad range of proteins. TIPI of yeast proteins essential for vegetative growth causes phenotypes that are close to deletion mutants. The features of the TIPI system make it a versatile tool to study protein function in eukaryotes and to create new modules for synthetic or systems biology

Agency and Body Ownership in Immersive Virtual Reality Environments: A Laboratory Study

Virtual reality (VR) technologies such as head-mounted displays are gaining increasing attention since the Oculus Rift development kit entered the market in 2016. VR is assumed to offer great potential for different purposes such as entertainment, gaming, education, or healthcare. Briefly summarized, VR provides an enclosed virtual environment in which users can become immersed, can move and look freely at 360-degree in any direction, and they can interact, manipulate, or create virtual objects with their entire body. With regard to these properties and the characteristic of immersion (a user’s state of deep involvement with an IT) we examine how immersion can be enhanced by the theoretical constructs of agency and body ownership in a VR space. Therefore, we conduct a laboratory study to enhance the perception of being in voluntary control of actions (agency) and the sense of the virtual body as one’s own one (body ownership) with 69 participants

Perceived Limitations of Telemedicine from a Phenomenological Perspective

In the course of healthcare digitization, the roles of therapists and patients are likely to change. To shape a theoretical based process of technological transformation, a phenomenological perspective on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is introduced. Therefore, this paper illustrates the benefit of a holistic view on patients and therapists to describe and explain phenomena concerning Human Technology Interaction (HTI). The differentiation between a measurable objective body and a habitual subjective body helps to evaluate and anticipate constituting factors of accepting telemedicine systems. Taking into account findings from a secondary analysis of semi-structured interviews we conducted with primary care physicians, we develop a phenomenological framework for HTI in healthcare. Our aim is to structure future research concerning design implications for ICT and the implementation of telemedicine systems in clinical and primary care

Building Digital Bridges: Exploring the Digitized Collaboration of General Practitioners and Mobile Care in Rural Areas

In the process of digitalization of healthcare, professionals, such as mobile care nurses or general practitioners, are facing both new challenges and opportunities. Digital technologies thereby promise to affect the cooperation of healthcare professionals on various levels, e.g., increasing quality of care, improving interprofessional communication, or optimizing economic aspects of care. Our study examines current issues of healthcare professionals concerning a digital change of care. We conducted qualitative interviews with primary care practitioners and providers of mobile care (nurses and care managers) to understand perceived obstacles in the process of digitalization and to formulate possible implications to encounter those obstacles. Our results suggest that insufficient communication and a lack of mutual trust have to be considered relevant issues. We therefore propose to focus future research on the interchangeability of different communication and documentation systems