Arab Women, Social Media, and the Arab Spring: Applying the framework of digital reflexivity to analyze gender and online activism

This essay analyzes the engagement of Arab feminist activisms online, most notably during the citizen revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, and, specifically, women’s use of online social networking to aid social change. Building on research examining how Arab activists and activist organizations, including feminist organizations, mobilize, produce knowledge, and develop and share resources online and, in particular, drawing from research on Arab activisms and social media this study aims to understand how online activist discourses function, both locally and globally. To do so, we utilize a schema of information production and consumption devised to analyze activist engagement and citizen journalism, particularly the negotiation of communication messages by various agents through multiple stages of transmission and dissemination (Newsom, Lengel, & Cassara, C, 2011). We look at the ideal of local knowledge as it is transformed into global knowledge, and how the messages are open to manipulation and bias through the various stages of mediation and gatekeeping cited in the framework. Through the application of this framework, we can see how gendered messages are constructed, essentialized, reconstructed, and made invisible by the consumer media system

An integrative pharmacological approach to radio telemetry and blood sampling in pharmaceutical drug discovery and safety assessment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A successful integration of the automated blood sampling (ABS) and telemetry (ABST) system is described. The new ABST system facilitates concomitant collection of physiological variables with blood and urine samples for determination of drug concentrations and other biochemical measures in the same rat without handling artifact.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Integration was achieved by designing a 13 inch circular receiving antenna that operates as a plug-in replacement for the existing pair of DSI's orthogonal antennas which is compatible with the rotating cage and open floor design of the BASi Culex^®ABS system. The circular receiving antenna's electrical configuration consists of a pair of electrically orthogonal half-toroids that reinforce reception of a dipole transmitter operating within the coil's interior while reducing both external noise pickup and interference from other adjacent dipole transmitters.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For validation, measured baclofen concentration (ABST vs. satellite (μM): 69.6 ± 23.8 vs. 76.6 ± 19.5, p = NS) and mean arterial pressure (ABST vs. traditional DSI telemetry (mm Hg): 150 ± 5 vs.147 ± 4, p = NS) variables were quantitatively and qualitatively similar between rats housed in the ABST system and traditional home cage approaches.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The ABST system offers unique advantages over traditional between-group study paradigms that include improved data quality and significantly reduced animal use. The superior within-group model facilitates assessment of multiple physiological and biochemical responses to test compounds in the same animal. The ABST also provides opportunities to evaluate temporal relations between parameters and to investigate anomalous outlier events because drug concentrations, physiological and biochemical measures for each animal are available for comparisons.</p

The integrated academic information system support for education 3.0 in higher education institution: lecturer perspective

Education 3.0 has been implemented in many higher education institutions (HEIs). Education 3.0 has been directed the institution toward better educational experience. But on the other hands, the implementation of Education 3.0 also caused some problems. Previous research has found administrative problem experienced by the lecturer. This research explores deeper from the lecturer and suggested the solution from lecturer perspective, combined with information technology capabilities owned by the HEIs. The research used a case study as the method and conducted a qualitative research with a semi-structured interview. The interview analysis has found that the increase of the administrative processes is caused by online and offline administrative activities. The online activities are from e-learning and the offline activities are from traditional learning (face-to-face). The administrative processes also involved the academic information system (AIS). Simplified all of the administrative processes are more preferred. To overcome the problems, integrating the AIS and e-learning become necessary. This research suggests transforming the existing AIS into an integrated AIS and hopes the solution can simplify the administration process

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy at low temperatures of the (110) surface of Te doped GaAs single crystals

We have performed voltage dependent imaging and spatially resolved spectroscopy on the (110) surface of Te doped GaAs single crystals with a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM). A large fraction of the observed defects are identified as Te dopant atoms which can be observed down to the fifth subsurface layer. For negative sample voltages, the dopant atoms are surrounded by Friedel charge density oscillations. Spatially resolved spectroscopy above the dopant atoms and above defect free areas of the GaAs (110) surface reveals the presence of conductance peaks inside the semiconductor band gap. The appearance of the peaks can be linked to charges residing on states which are localized within the tunnel junction area. We show that these localized states can be present on the doped GaAs surface as well as at the STM tip apex.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PR

Electronic and structural properties of vacancies on and below the GaP(110) surface

We have performed total-energy density-functional calculations using first-principles pseudopotentials to determine the atomic and electronic structure of neutral surface and subsurface vacancies at the GaP(110) surface. The cation as well as the anion surface vacancy show a pronounced inward relaxation of the three nearest neighbor atoms towards the vacancy while the surface point-group symmetry is maintained. For both types of vacancies we find a singly occupied level at mid gap. Subsurface vacancies below the second layer display essentially the same properties as bulk defects. Our results for vacancies in the second layer show features not observed for either surface or bulk vacancies: Large relaxations occur and both defects are unstable against the formation of antisite vacancy complexes. Simulating scanning tunneling microscope pictures of the different vacancies we find excellent agreement with experimental data for the surface vacancies and predict the signatures of subsurface vacancies.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. B, Other related publications can be found at http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

Analysing the correlation between social network analysis measures and performance of students in social network-based engineering education

Social network-based engineering education (SNEE) is designed and implemented as a model of Education 3.0 paradigm. SNEE represents a new learning methodology, which is based on the concept of social networks and represents an extended model of project-led education. The concept of social networks was applied in the real-life experiment, considering two different dimensions: (1) to organize the education process as a social network-based process; and (2) to analyze the students' interactions in the context of evaluation of the students learning performance. The objective of this paper is to present a new model for students evaluation based on their behavior during the course and its validation in comparison with the traditional model of students' evaluation. The validation of the new evaluation model is made through an analysis of the correlation between social network analysis measures (degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and average tie strength) and the grades obtained by students (grades for quality of work, grades for volume of work, grades for diversity of work, and final grades) in a social network-based engineering education. The main finding is that the obtained correlation results can be used to make the process of the students' performance evaluation based on students interactions (behavior) analysis, to make the evaluation partially automatic, increasing the objectivity and productivity of teachers and allowing a more scalable process of evaluation. The results also contribute to the behavioural theory of learning performance evaluation. More specific findings related to the correlation analysis are: (1) the more different interactions a student had (degree centrality) and the more frequently the student was between the interaction paths of other students (betweenness centrality), the better was the quality of the work; (2) all five social network measures had a positive and strong correlation with the grade for volume of work and with the final graThe authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through the Grants "Projeto Estrategico-UI 252-2011-2012'' reference PEst-OE/EME/UI0252/2011, "Ph.D. Scholarship Grant'' reference SFRH/BD/85672/2012, and the support of Parallel Planes Lda.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Future of Business Discourse Teaching

This chapter will:; ; ; Explore ways in which new media and digital technologies are shaping business communication and highlight the importance of digital communicative competence for learners and teachers;; ; ; Discuss ways in which the digital workplace can be brought into the business discourse classroom;; ; ; Discuss the role of Business English and other business languages in international business and what this means for business discourse teaching;; ; ; Consider how the multicultural workplace can inform business discourse teaching;; ; ; Provide a case study that illustrates some of the above developments, together with a set of tasks appropriate for the business discourse classroom, and a set of further readings

Group mindfulness based cognitive therapy vs group support for self-injury among young people: Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a transdiagnostic behaviour that can be difficult to treat; to date no evidence based treatment for NSSI exists. Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) specifically targets the mechanisms thought to initiate and maintain NSSI, and thus appears a viable treatment option. The aims of the current study are to test the ability of MBCT to reduce the frequency and medical severity of NSSI, and explore the mechanisms by which MBCT exerts its effect. Methods/Design: We will conduct a parallel group randomised controlled trial of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) versus Supportive Therapy (ST) in young people aged 18-25 years. Computerised block randomisation will be used to allocate participants to groups. All participants will meet the proposed DSM-5 criteria for NSSI (i.e. five episodes in the last twelve months). Participants will be excluded if they: 1) are currently receiving psychological treatment, 2) have attempted suicide in the previous 12 months, 3) exhibit acute psychosis, 4) have a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, or 5) have prior experience of MBCT. Our primary outcome is the frequency and medical severity of NSSI. As secondary outcomes we will assess changes in rumination, mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, stress, and attentional bias, and test these as mechanisms of change. Discussion: This is the first randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of MBCT in reducing NSSI. Evidence of the efficacy of MBCT for self-injury will allow provision of a brief intervention for self-injury that can be implemented as a stand-alone treatment or integrated with existing treatments for psychiatric disorders