“The internet is not pleased”: twitter and the 2017 Equifax data breach

ABSTRACT

The 2017 Equifax data breach left 144.5 million users digitally vulnerable to identity theft and future hacks. The organization’s failure to provide ongoing communication and information regarding the attack, motivated users to form crisis communities within the Twitter platform. This study examines the discourses present within the platform as users discussed the data breach. Digital crisis communities provide researchers opportunities to study how public users respond and react to a digital threat, particularly one that impacts online security and privacy. Through a qualitative analysis of tweets from the 3 weeks after the breach was announced, three discourses emerged that represented user frustrations and reactions to the security violation. These include breaking news, anger and outrage, and blame attribution. The findings of this study are relevant for those studying crisis communication, the Twitter platform, and online communities.     

Advances in the application of information technology to sport performance

This paper overviews the diverse information technologies that are used to provide athletes with relevant feedback. Examples taken from various sports are used to illustrate selected applications of technology-based feedback. Several feedback systems are discussed, including vision, audition and proprioception. Each technology described here is based on the assumption that feedback would eventually enhance skill acquisition and sport performance and, as such, its usefulness to athletes and coaches in training is critically evaluated.     

Using growth models to monitor school performance: comparing the effect of the metric and the assessment

This paper investigates whether inferences about school performance based on longitudinal models are consistent when different assessments and metrics are used as the basis for analysis. Using norm-referenced (NRT) and standards-based (SBT) assessment results from panel data of a large heterogeneous school district, we examine inferences based on vertically equated scale scores, normal curve equivalents (NCEs), and nonvertically equated scale scores. The results indicate that the effect of the metric depends upon the evaluation objective. NCEs significantly underestimate absolute individual growth, but NCEs and scale scores yield highly correlated (r >.90) school-level results based on mean initial status and growth estimates. SBT and NRT results are highly correlated for status but only moderately correlated for growth. We also find that as few as 30 students per school provide consistent results and that mobility tends to affect inferences based on status but not growth – irrespective of the assessment or metric used.     

Juridification of educational spheres: The case of Sweden

This article takes the interlinkages between law and politics as its starting point. It analyzes recent changes in the legislative style of education governance in Sweden as not only a species of crisis management, but also a long-term response to a series of tensions arising out of the push toward what has been identified as ‘juridification’ in many Western nations—the reliance on law and judicial means for addressing core moral predicaments, public policy questions, and political controversies. The article outlines the notion of juridification at a theoretical level and highlights juridification processes and their possible ramifications on education. It argues that recent changes in the legislative style of education governance in Sweden not only reveal much about the commitments and implicit assumptions of modern regulatory and evaluative regimes, but also reflect the general impact of the rationalization of social and political life on the organization of government. The article provides a case with which to examine some of the theoretical underpinnings and implicit conceptual assumptions of modern regulatory and evaluative regimes as well as educational institutions’ relationships with the State. It shows that regulatory frameworks define the conceptualizations of what educational institutions do and thus of what actually gets done.     

Information Technologies as Health Management Tools: Urban Elders' Interest and Ability in Using' the Internet

Older adults represent an increasing percentage of both the whole U.S. population and persons living with one or more chronic health conditions. However, extant research has largely overlooked older adults when examining current Internet users and the potential for the Internet as a health management resource. In this study, the researchers conducted focus groups with urban elders in Detroit to elicit, in their own words, their collective perceptions about their interest, current uses, and desired uses for health management via the Internet in tandem with their current abilities and needs for technological training and support. The findings reveal that many urban elders access the Internet, or would like to, and they clearly articulate many ways that management tools on the Internet do/could empower and assist them in actively engaging in their health management and knowledgably interacting with their health care providers. The findings also support the premise that survey measurement instruments need to be developed in collaboration with those who will directly benefit from research findings and the practice applications.     

Nanoparticle image velocimetry at topologically structured surfaces

Nanoparticle image velocimetry (nano-PIV), based on total internal reflection fluorescent microscopy, is very useful to investigate fluid flows within ∼100 nm from a surface; but so far it has only been applied to flow over smooth surfaces. Here we show that it can also be applied to flow over a topologically structured surface, provided that the surface structures can be carefully configured not to disrupt the evanescent-wave illumination. We apply nano-PIV to quantify the flow velocity distribution over a polydimethylsiloxane surface, with a periodic gratinglike structure (with 215 nm height and 2 μm period) fabricated using our customized multilevel lithography method. The measured tracer displacement data are in good agreement with the computed theoretical values. These results demonstrate new possibilities to study the interactions between fluid flow and topologically structured surfaces.     

The Relationship Between Attitudes Toward Diversity and Overall Satisfaction of University Students by Race

First- and 3rd-year university students were surveyed regarding cultural attitudes and climate. Comfort in cross-cultural situations and respect for other cultures correlated with overall satisfaction for all students. However, the more Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Whites were aware of diversity and changing their behavior accordingly, the less satisfied they were. Awareness of diversity was not related to overall satisfaction for African Americans.     

The anti-Lagrangian equations: A missing network description

The explicit topological formulation of dynamic equations in terms of scalar functions for RM (M-memristor) networks, called the anti-Lagrangian equations, is introduced. In general, two scalar functions are needed to set the anti-Lagrangian equations. The differential operators acting on these functions bear a certain anti-symmetry relationship with respect to the operators occuring in the standard Lagrangian equations for LC networks. The well-known stationary principles for pure R networks, as well as new quasi-stationary principles for pure M networks are shown to emerge naturally from anti-Lagrangian equations. The form of transformation of variables leaving the form of equations invariant is also studied.