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Drawing on a case study involving mediated vitriol targeting cheerleaders, this article identifies two potentially problematic aspects of the media studies concept of antifandom. First, it critiques the classification of vitriolic texts produced by antifans as belonging primarily to the field of audiences and reception. It argues that this move risks sidelining the fact that antifan discourse also constitutes a set of influential texts authored by a group of powerful textual producers. Second, it questions the designation of the human targets of antifandom as texts. This risks underplaying the ethical dimensions of the en masse articulation of vitriol towards human targets.
Functional connectivity density (FCD) is a newly developed data-driven method to measure the number of functional connections of each voxel, possibly providing new insight into the neural correlates of fluid reasoning. Here, we recruited 211 healthy young adults (91 men and 120 women) to investigate associations between the global FCD and fluid reasoning capacity as measured by the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices. Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores were correlated negatively with the global FCD in multiple brain regions of the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal cortices in male participants. No significant correlation was found in female participants. Our findings confirmed the association between fluid reasoning and functional connectivity of multiple cognitive-related brain regions. The positive correlation with the functional connectivity strength and the negative correlation between fluid reasoning and FCD suggest that individuals with superior fluid reasoning capacity may possess a small number of strong functional connections. The sex dichotomy of this association indicates that the fluid reasoning capacity of men and women may have different neural substrates.
It has become something of a truism in media studies that fans are now free of the old stereotypes to which they were formerly subject and have been mainstreamed as a model for the new ideal active media consumer. However, when speaking to some of these fans, it is evident that they do not feel particularly mainstream. Through interviews with Xena: Warrior Princess fans, I demonstrate that longstanding conceptions of fans as losers who behave badly influence the ways fans understand fandom. However, though they accepted negative portrayals of fans as valid, my interviewees refused to take on that meaning for themselves, instead bracketing themselves out of it and shifting it off onto others. This simultaneous acceptance and refusal of stereotypes suggests that being a fan is a subject position fraught with baggage from historical and contemporary media representations, which troubles triumphalist renderings of a new media order centered on the fan.
Development of agent systems is without question a complex task when autonomous, reactive and proactive characteristics of agents are considered. Furthermore, internal agent behavior model and interaction within the agent organizations become even more complex and hard to implement when new requirements and interactions for new agent environments such as the Semantic Web are taken into account. We believe that the use of both domain specific modeling and a Domain-specific Modeling Language (DSML) may provide the required abstraction and support a more fruitful methodology for the development of Multi-agent Systems (MASs) especially when they are working on the Semantic Web environment. Although syntax definition based on a metamodel is an essential part of a modeling language, an additional and required part would be the determination and implementation of DSML constraints that constitute the (formal) semantics which cannot be defined solely with a metamodel. Hence, in this paper, formal semantics of a MAS DSML called Semantic Web enabled Multi-agent Systems (SEA_ML) is introduced. SEA_ML is a modeling language for agent systems that specifically takes into account the interactions of semantic web agents with semantic web services. What is more, SEA_ML also supports the modeling of semantic agents from their internals to MAS perspective. Based on the defined abstract and concrete syntax definitions, we first give the formal representation of SEA_ML’s semantics and then discuss its use on MAS validation. In order to define and implement semantics of SEA_ML, we employ Alloy language which is declarative and has a strong description capability originating from both relational and first-order logic in order to easily define complex structures and behaviors of these systems. Differentiating from similar contributions of other researchers on formal semantics definition for MAS development languages, SEA_ML’s semantics, presented in this paper, defines both static and dynamic aspects of the interaction between software agents and semantic web services, in addition to the definition of the semantics already required for agent internals and MAS communication. Implementation with Alloy makes definition of SEA_ML’s semantics to include relations and sets with a simple notation for MAS model definitions. We discuss how the automatic analysis and hence checking of SEA_ML models can be realized with the defined semantics. Design of an agent-based electronic barter system is exemplified in order to give some flavor of the use of SEA_ML's formal semantics. Lessons learned during the development of such a MAS DSML semantics are also reported in this paper.
This study draws on the concept of network gatekeeping to examine the ways in which organizations have adapted the processes of gatekeeping to respond to the collaborative, communicative power of users upon which they are exer- cising their gatekeeping authority. Through a case study of the unprecedented ‘‘Social Suite’’ provided for social media-using fans of Major League Base- ball’s Cleveland Indians, this article explores the methods the gatekeeper has used to both subvert and reinforce its traditional role. Gatekeepers are found to extend their authority into networked realms by allowing for greater access, freedom, and relationship while applying more subtle gatekeeping filters, and the Social Suite’s users play a role as active, though gated, participants in the gatekeeping process. The findings of this article expand on current gatekeeping research to address the fluid, emerging roles of gatekeepers and gated communities within networked environments.
NAND flash memory-based Solid State Drives (SSD) have many merits, in comparison to the traditional hard disk drives (HDD). However, random write within SSD is still far slower than sequential read/write and random read. There are two independent approaches for resolving this problem as follows: 1) using overprovisioning so that reserved portion of the physical memory space can be used as, for example, log blocks, for performance enhancement, and 2) using internal write buffer (DRAM or Non-Volatile RAM) within SSD. While log blocks are managed by the Flash Translation Layer (FTL), write buffer management has been treated separately from the FTL. Write buffer management schemes did not use the exact status of log blocks, and log block management schemes in FTL did not consider the behavior of the write buffer management scheme. This paper first demonstrates that log blocks and write buffers maintain a tight relationship, which necessitates integrated management to both of them. Since log blocks can also be viewed as another type of write buffer, we can manage both of them as an integrated write buffer. Then we propose an Integrated Write buffer Management scheme (IWM), which collectively manages both the write buffer and log blocks. The proposed scheme greatly outperforms previous schemes in terms of write amplification, block erase count, and execution time.
The study of Multiagent Systems (MASs) focuses on those systems in which many intelligent agents interact with each other. The agents are considered to be autonomous entities which contain intelligence that serves for solving their selfish or common problems, and to achieve certain goals. However, the autonomous, responsive, and proactive natures of agents make the development of agent-based software systems more complex than other software systems. Furthermore, the design and implementation of a MAS may become even more complex and difficult to implement when considering new requirements and interactions for new agent environments like the Semantic Web. We believe that both domain-specific modeling and the use of a domain-specific modeling language (DSML) may provide the required abstraction, and hence support a more fruitful methodology for the development of MASs. In this paper, we first introduce a DSML for MASs called SEA_ML with both its syntax and semantics definitions and then show how the language and its graphical tools can be used during model-driven development of real MASs. In addition to the classical viewpoints of a MAS, the proposed DSML includes new viewpoints which specifically support the development of software agents working within the Semantic Web environment. The methodology proposed for the MAS development based on SEA_ML is also discussed including its example application on the development of an agent-based stock exchange system.
In a clear analogy with spherical geometry. Lambert states that in an "imaginary sphere" the sum of the angles of a triangle would be less than pi. In this paper we analyze the role played by this imaginary sphere in the development of non-Euclidean geometry, and how it served Gauss as a guide. More precisely, we analyze Gauss's reading of Bolyai's Appendix in 1832, five years after the publication of Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas, on the assumption that his investigations into the foundations of geometry were aimed at finding, among the surfaces in space, Lambert's hypothetical imaginary sphere. We also wish to show that the close relation between differential geometry and non-Euclidean geometry is already present in Janos Bolyai's Appendix, that is, well before its appearance in Beltrami's Saggio. From this point of view, one is able to answer certain natural questions about the history of non-Euclidean geometry; for instance, why Gauss decided not to write further on the subject after reading the Appendix.
The key of 3D measurement technology based on coded structured light for high-accuracy reconstruction of porcelain exhibited on Web, is to ensure measurement accuracy and anti-interference capability on high reflectance surface. So an edge Gray code method for structured light system and related technologies are proposed under interference by high reflectance ratio and color of measured surface. Firstly, encoding and decoding principles by Gray code stripe edge reduce theoretical quantization error and decoding error against traditional Gray code, so measurement accuracy is improved. Secondly, stripe edge sub-pixel location method based on grey curve intersecting points is designed to reduce edge location error caused by diffusion from white stripe to black stripe. Measurement system was established according to mathematic model. Experimental results show that error of measured high reflectance unicolor standard plane is 0.6 similar to 0.8mm, and reconstructed porcelain shape has same visual effect as the real one. Finally, based on Java 3D, interactively exhibiting on Web was explored.
In 1999, Alan Bryman coined the term Disneyisation to make the case that more and more sectors of social and cultural life are coming to take on the manifestations of a commercial-style theme park. Using the principle theoretical components outlined by Bryman (theming; hybrid consumption; emotional performative labour; merchandising) and taking into consideration the views of 56 English football fans, this article considers how those Disneyised processes are received, interpreted, integrated and endured in practice. Combining theory with rigorous empiricism, implications for theorists and leisure providers are discussed.
The proopiomelanocortin (POMC) system is an evolutionary conserved regulatory module representing one of the best characterized neuropeptide networks which can be considered as an equivalent of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. POMC contains within its structure the amino acid sequences of several hormonal products (ACTH, alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (αMSH), βMSH, and γMSH, the endogenous opioids α-, β- and γ-endorphin). While originally identified as regulators of pigmentation, the POMC system is responsible for the balance of several physiologic processes. One of the most important players of the melanocortin (MC) system is αMSH, a neuro immunomodulatory peptide. In addition to its pigmentary capabilities, αMSH has been addressed as potent anti-inflammatory protein downregulating proinflammatory cytokines. αMSH can be detected in: melanocytes, monocytes, B cells, natural killers, a subset of cytotoxic T cells, epithelial cells and in keratinocytes. The MCs mediate their biological effects by binding to five different MC receptors (MC-Rs) belonging to the superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors. Distibution of each MC-Rs varies among the different tissues, cell type and during cell differentiation. The hair follicle is a typical stress-responding mini organ with a peculiar immune system in which the human follicle bulge meets all key criteria of an immunoprivileged tissue site. This immune privilege is characterized primarily by a low expression of major histocompatibility (MHC) class I antigens. Moreover, the anagen hair bulb lacks a lymphatic system and almost devoid of intraepithelial T cells. Indeed, anagen hair bulbs locally generate potent immunosuppressants. Thereafter immune privilege collapse may favor autoimmune disease development like alopecia areata. Due to its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity and to its highly favorable safety profile, αMSH has already been exploited as a promising candidate for immune privilege restoration in several immune diseases. In addition to αMSH, follicular cells produce other POMC-derived peptides such as ACTH and β-endorphin; those molecules, as well as αMSH and its related peptides, k(D)PT and KPV, may assist in the maintenance or restoration of the unique immune system of the hair follicle and could be eventually considered as potential therapeutic agents for immune hair disorders.
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