Visual Propaganda in the Age of Social Media: An Empirical Analysis of Twitter Images During the 2012 Israeli–Hamas Conflict

This study analyzed images posted to Twitter by the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas' Alqassam Brigades during the November 2012 Gaza conflict to understand aspects of visual propaganda in the age of social media and online social networking. Content analysis was conducted to identify themes and frames prominently appearing in a total of 243 Twitter images posted by the two sides during a two-month period. Resistance and unity were the most prominent themes in the images posted by Israel and causalities of civilians and resistance were most prominent in Hamas-posted images. The majority of the Israeli images featured the analytical propaganda frame whereas the emotional propaganda frame was dominant in Hamas images.     

The Effects of Goal Origin and Implementation Intentions on Goal Commitment,Effort, and Performance

Self-set goals, selected by students for themselves, have known motivational benefits leading to increased autonomy and intrinsic motivation. In spite of the motivational benefits, students often fail to accomplish self-set goals because they lack the social motivator ascribed to assigned goals. The purpose of this research was to investigate methods of increasing students' commitments to self-set goals using implementation intentions: plans for when, where, and how to work toward a goal. The results of two studies revealed that implementation intentions increased students' performance on self-set goals relative to assigned goals through enhanced goal commitment and effort. Our findings suggest that the positive effects of self-set goals are greater when they are coupled with implementation intentions.     

Multi-optimisation of the screw kick in rugby by using a genetic algorithm

This paper describes the use of Pareto-optimal solutions for the screw kick in rugby. We attempted to optimise the initial conditions for a screw kick. The optimisation was carried out using an elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. Distance achieved in flight is considered as an objective function, as well as the lateral deviation between the ball and the touchline, or the flight time. Six initial conditions were defined as control parameters: the magnitude of the velocity vector, the flight path angle, the azimuth angle, the spin rate, the pitch angle and the yaw angle. The results are summarised as follows: it is impossible for both objective functions to be satisfied simultaneously, although the greatest distance achieved in flight and the smallest value of the lateral deviation between the ball and the touchline, or the least flight time, is the ideal situation. This kind of conflicting solution is called a ‘Pareto-optimal solution’. The optimal kick in Pareto-optimal solutions made by the leg nearest the touchline produces a greater flight distance than the optimal kick in Pareto-optimal solutions made using the leg furthest from the touchline. The initial pitch angle, which is the angle between the longitudinal axis of the ball and the horizontal plane, should be comparable to or slightly greater than the initial flight path angle in order to satisfy the Pareto-optimal solutions.