Assessing Anonymous Communication on the Internet: Policy Deliberations

Anonymous communication on the Internet offers new opportunities but has ill-understood risks. This article helps to ground the policy debates by examining some fundamental aspects of anonymous social behavior and current controversies over anonymous communications. It is a companion to the article in this issue, "Anonymous Communication Policies for the Internet: Results and Recommendations of the AAAS Conference." It examines the social character of anonymous communication and the ways that anonymous communication has played important roles for professionals such as journalists and the police. It also explains some of the new technological supports for anonymous communication on the Internet. The openness, decentralization, and transnational character of the Internet challenge the efficacy of traditional control mechanisms and have raised issues related to accountability, law enforcement, security and privacy, governmental empowerment, and e-commerce. Yet, to ban or restrict all anonymous communication online because of the harms it could bring would deny its benefits to those people who may legitimately gain from it. This article helps to understand how to balance these positions.     

Vocational Expectations and Self‐Stigmatizing Views Among Collegiate Recovery Students: An Exploratory Investigation

Collegiate recovery programs (CRPs) provide support for students in recovery from substance use disorders. Little research exists examining factors relevant to this population, making it challenging to prioritize recovery and educational goals. This study used a national sample (N = 80) of students involved in CRPs to investigate the relationships among self‐stigma, quality of life, psychological health, and vocational expectations. A regression model revealed these factors to explain 34% of self‐stigmatizing views in this sample.     

The influence of temperature and humidity on swelling and surfactant migration in acrylic emulsion paint films

It has often been observed anecdotally and implied through experimentation that acrylic emulsion paintings accumulate and entrain soils over time due to the inherent mechanical softness in artist's acrylic paint films, through the presence of hydrophilic film components, and by virtue of the ubiquitous presence of surfactant moieties on these film surfaces once they dry. In the present study, it has been this last effect that we have sought to describe more fully in terms of surfactant responsiveness to both temperature and relative humidity (RH). Surfactant hydration and dehydration under varying temperature and RH conditions affects the ultimate partitioning of the surfactant at the paint–air interface, as well as the inherent size, aggregation tendencies, and solubility of surfactant in the bulk paint materials which contain components that are highly responsive to changes in temperature and RH (e.g. polyacrylic or polymaleic anhydride-type dispersal materials). In this work, analytical techniques including three-dimensional microscopy and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation were used to add to and reinforce current understanding of the physical and mechanical changes to acrylic paint films with temperature and RH. The migration of surfactant at the film surface was studied using desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared microscopy.     

Postracial fantasies,blackness, and zombies

The essay mainly performs a structural and formal analysis of the logics and affective economies of postracial fantasies so as to eventually offer the Zombie trope as a mode of analysis figuring alternative ways of thinking race relations. The essay contends that the Zombie, when articulated with discourses and feelings of the postracial, signifies the unleashing of black bio-threat bodies upon a population; and that enjoyment of the postracial and the Zombie Apocalyptic genre obscures and resuscitates this signification. As a brief case study, the essay discusses the display, materiality, and “bloody” enjoyment of the “Zombie Obama” target mannequin by gun enthusiasts and preppers.     

New directions for lifelong learning using network technologies

The requirements placed on learning technologies to support lifelong learning differ considerably from those placed on technologies to support particular fragments of a learning lifetime. The time scales involved in lifelong learning, together with its multi‐institutional and episodic nature are not reflected in today’s mainstream learning technologies and their associated architectures. The article presents an integrated model and architecture to serve as the basis for the realisation of networked learning technologies serving the specific needs and characteristics of lifelong learners. The integrative model is called a ‘Learning Network’ (LN) and its requirements and architecture are explored, together with the ways in which its application can help in reducing barriers to lifelong learning.     

What can Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) offer academic development?

Abstract

Academic development is often seen as a compliance activity, divorced from the teaching context and what teachers are trying to achieve in their classroom. In this case study, we researched Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) as a reflective, non-judgmental approach to help tutors identify coherence between their teaching intentions and practice. Our results provided evidence that IPR helped tutors reflect on ways to improve their teaching. It also led to unexpected ‘discoveries’ not typically afforded by conventional academic development. We conclude that IPR offers a formative, teacher-focussed and contextual approach that has not been clearly defined in the literature. We offer the IPR model followed in this study for academic developers and researchers alike.