scholarly journals “We, three brothers have always known everything of each other”: A Cross-cultural Study of Sharing Digital Devices and Online Accounts

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (4) ◽  
pp. 203-224
Author(s):  
Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen ◽  
Huzeyfe Kocabas ◽  
Swapnil Nandy ◽  
Tanjina Tamanna

Abstract Although many technologies assume that a device or an account would be used by a single user, prior research has found that this assumption may not hold true in everyday life. Most studies conducted to date focused on sharing a device or account with the members in a household. However, there is a dearth in existing literature to understand the contexts of sharing devices and accounts, which may extend to a wide range of personal, social, and professional settings. Further, people’s sharing behavior could be impacted by their social background. To this end, our paper presents a qualitative study with 59 participants from three different countries: Bangladesh, Turkey, and USA, where we investigated the sharing of digital devices (e.g., computer, mobile phone) and online accounts, in particular, financial and identity accounts (e.g., email, social networking) in various contexts, and with different entities - not limited to the members in a household. Our study reveals users’ perceptions of risks while sharing a device or account, and their access control strategies to protect privacy and security. Based on our analysis, we shed light on the interplay between users’ sharing behavior and their demographics, social background, and cultural values. Taken together, our findings have broad implications that advance the PETS community’s situated understanding of sharing devices and accounts.

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3S) ◽  
pp. 631-637
Author(s):  
Katja Lund ◽  
Rodrigo Ordoñez ◽  
Jens Bo Nielsen ◽  
Dorte Hammershøi

Purpose The aim of this study was to develop a tool to gain insight into the daily experiences of new hearing aid users and to shed light on aspects of aided performance that may not be unveiled through standard questionnaires. Method The tool is developed based on clinical observations, patient experiences, expert involvement, and existing validated hearing rehabilitation questionnaires. Results An online tool for collecting data related to hearing aid use was developed. The tool is based on 453 prefabricated sentences representing experiences within 13 categories related to hearing aid use. Conclusions The tool has the potential to reflect a wide range of individual experiences with hearing aid use, including auditory and nonauditory aspects. These experiences may hold important knowledge for both the patient and the professional in the hearing rehabilitation process.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler Colasante ◽  
Lauren Lin ◽  
Kalee DeFrance ◽  
Tom Hollenstein

In the current digital age, emotional support is increasingly received through digital devices. However, virtually all studies assessing the benefits of emotional support have focused on in-person support. Using an experience sampling methodology, we assessed participants’ negative emotions, digital and in-person support for those emotions, and success in regulating them three times per day for 14 days, thus covering a wide range of digital support scenarios (N = 164 participants with 6,530 collective measurement occasions). We also considered whether participants were alone versus with others at the time of their negative emotion and higher versus lower in social avoidance as plausible moderators of when digital support was utilized and effective. We expected more pronounced use and efficacy of digital support when participants were alone and higher in trait social avoidance. However, digital support was used and perceived as effective for regulating negative emotions regardless of these factors and its beneficial effects were on par with those of traditional in-person support. The unique benefits of digital support may not be restricted to socially isolated or socially avoidant users. These findings are timely given the widespread anxiety and isolation under the current COVID-19 pandemic. If transcending time and space with digital emotional support is the new norm, the good news is that it seems to be working.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 369
Author(s):  
Pasqua Veronico ◽  
Maria Teresa Melillo

Plant parasitic nematodes are annually responsible for the loss of 10%–25% of worldwide crop production, most of which is attributable to root-knot nematodes (RKNs) that infest a wide range of agricultural crops throughout the world. Current nematode control tools are not enough to ensure the effective management of these parasites, mainly due to the severe restrictions imposed on the use of chemical pesticides. Therefore, it is important to discover new potential nematicidal sources that are suitable for the development of additional safe and effective control strategies. In the last few decades, there has been an explosion of information about the use of seaweeds as plant growth stimulants and potential nematicides. Novel bioactive compounds have been isolated from marine cyanobacteria and sponges in an effort to find their application outside marine ecosystems and in the discovery of new drugs. Their potential as antihelmintics could also be exploited to find applicability against plant parasitic nematodes. The present review focuses on the activity of marine organisms on RKNs and their potential application as safe nematicidal agents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranju Ravindran Santhakumari Manoj ◽  
Maria Stefania Latrofa ◽  
Sara Epis ◽  
Domenico Otranto

Abstract Background Wolbachia is an obligate intracellular maternally transmitted, gram-negative bacterium which forms a spectrum of endosymbiotic relationships from parasitism to obligatory mutualism in a wide range of arthropods and onchocercid nematodes, respectively. In arthropods Wolbachia produces reproductive manipulations such as male killing, feminization, parthenogenesis and cytoplasmic incompatibility for its propagation and provides an additional fitness benefit for the host to protect against pathogens, whilst in onchocercid nematodes, apart from the mutual metabolic dependence, this bacterium is involved in moulting, embryogenesis, growth and survival of the host. Methods This review details the molecular data of Wolbachia and its effect on host biology, immunity, ecology and evolution, reproduction, endosymbiont-based treatment and control strategies exploited for filariasis. Relevant peer-reviewed scientic papers available in various authenticated scientific data bases were considered while writing the review. Conclusions The information presented provides an overview on Wolbachia biology and its use in the control and/or treatment of vectors, onchocercid nematodes and viral diseases of medical and veterinary importance. This offers the development of new approaches for the control of a variety of vector-borne diseases. Graphic Abstract


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José-Vicente Tomás-Miquel ◽  
Jordi Capó-Vicedo

AbstractScholars have widely recognised the importance of academic relationships between students at the university. While much of the past research has focused on studying their influence on different aspects such as the students’ academic performance or their emotional stability, less is known about their dynamics and the factors that influence the formation and dissolution of linkages between university students in academic networks. In this paper, we try to shed light on this issue by exploring through stochastic actor-oriented models and student-level data the influence that a set of proximity factors may have on formation of these relationships over the entire period in which students are enrolled at the university. Our findings confirm that the establishment of academic relationships is derived, in part, from a wide range of proximity dimensions of a social, personal, geographical, cultural and academic nature. Furthermore, and unlike previous studies, this research also empirically confirms that the specific stage in which the student is at the university determines the influence of these proximity factors on the dynamics of academic relationships. In this regard, beyond cultural and geographic proximities that only influence the first years at the university, students shape their relationships as they progress in their studies from similarities in more strategic aspects such as academic and personal closeness. These results may have significant implications for both academic research and university policies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinne Lefèvre

Relying on the Majalis-i Jahangiri (1608–11) by ʿAbd al-Sattar b. Qasim Lahauri, this essay explores some of the discussions the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) conducted with a wide range of scholars, from Brahmans and ʿulama to Jesuit padres and Jewish savants. By far the most numerous, the debates bearing on Islam and involving Muslim intellectuals are especially significant on several accounts. First, because they illuminate how, following in the steps of his father Akbar (r. 1556–605), Jahangir was able to conciliate his messianic claims with a strong engagement with reason and to turn this combination into a formidable instrument for confession and state building. These conversations also provide promising avenues to think afresh the socio-intellectual history of the Mughal ʿulama inasmuch as they capture the challenges and adjustments attendant on imperial patronage, depict the jockeying for influence and positions among intellectuals (particularly between Indo-Muslim and Iranian lettrés), and shed light on relatively little known figures or on unexplored facets of more prominent individuals. In addition, the specific role played by scholars hailing from Iran—and, to a lesser extent, from Central Asia—in the juridical-religious disputes of the Indian court shows how crucial inter-Asian connections and networks were in the fashioning of Mughal ideology but also the ways in which the ongoing flow of émigré ʿulama was disciplined before being incorporated into the empire.


Author(s):  
Branislav Ftorek ◽  
Milan Saga ◽  
Pavol Orsansky ◽  
Jan Vittek ◽  
Peter Butko

Purpose The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the two energy saving position control strategies for AC drives valid for a wide range of boundary conditions including an analysis of their energy expenses. Design/methodology/approach For energy demands analysis, the optimal energy control based on mechanical and electrical losses minimization is compared with the near-optimal one based on symmetrical trapezoidal speed profile. Both control strategies respect prescribed maneuver time and define acceleration profile for preplanned rest-to-rest maneuver. Findings Presented simulations confirm lower total energy expenditures of energy optimal control if compared with near-optimal one, but the differences are only small due to the fact that two energy saving strategies are compared. Research limitations/implications Developed overall control system consisting of energy saving profile generator, pre-compensator and position control system respecting principles of field-oriented control is capable to track precomputed state variables precisely. Practical implications Energy demands of both control strategies are verified and compared to simulations and preliminary experiments. The possibilities of energy savings were confirmed for both control strategies. Originality/value Experimental verification of designed control structure is sufficiently promising and confirmed assumed energy savings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farzad Tarhani ◽  
Solmaz Janfadaei

Export deals with a wide range of environmental factors, customers and competitors that are different with the domestic market. That’s why market research and export promotion require management plans and appropriate procedures to their target markets and audiences. Exporter before entering a foreign market requires that by doing the necessary research on the marketrealizethe type of information required and how to collect it from a country other than their country and study about the cultural dimensions.In fact, differences in the environment, cultural, legal, political, economic, financial, geographic, multinational markets, free trade zones and economic agreements include the level of economic development and the risks and major exporter that they should do an investigation to consider the conditions of satisfaction and thus increase customer loyalty.This applied research was done aims to determine the effect of culture on customer loyalty at target markets for successful export using a descriptive method by a questionnaire that its validity and reliability was calculated. To analyze the issue of structural equations and correlation test was used. Based on the results, this study found a relationship between the cultural dimension, cultural beliefs and cultural values and traditions with customer loyalty at target market.


Weed Science ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Zhao ◽  
Qi Li ◽  
Wenlei Guo ◽  
Lele Zhang ◽  
Lu’an Ge ◽  
...  

Shortawn foxtail is an invasive grass weed infesting winter wheat and canola production in China. A better understanding of the germination ecology of shortawn foxtail would help to develop better control strategies for this weed. Experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions to evaluate the effects of various abiotic factors, including temperature, light, pH, osmotic stress, salt concentration, and planting depth, on seed germination and seedling emergence of shortawn foxtail. The results showed that the seed germination rate was greater than 90% over a wide range of constant (5 to 25C) and alternating (15/5 to 35/25C) temperatures. Maximum germination occurred at 20C or 25/15C, and no germination occurred at 35C. Light did not appear to have any effect on seed germination. Shortawn foxtail germination was 27% to 99% over a pH range of 4 to 10, and higher germination was obtained at alkaline pH values ranging from 7 to 10. Seed germination was sensitive to osmotic potential and completely inhibited at an osmotic potential of −0.6 MPa, but it was tolerant to salinity: germination even occurred at 200 mM NaCl (5%). Seedling emergence was highest (98%) when seeds were placed on the soil surface but declined with the increasing burial depth. No seedlings emerged when seeds were buried 6-cm deep. Deep tillage could be an effective measure to limit seed germination from increased burial depth. The results of this study will lead to a better understanding of the requirements for shortawn foxtail germination and emergence and will provide information that could contribute to its control.


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