Sports in the 21st century have become popular across multiple industries, and a major boon to a television industry dealing with increasing audience fragmentation. So an understanding of fans' behavior is important to all parties. This study, an online survey consisting of 242 responses, examined fandom and its relationship with time spent using social networking sites and found no statistical correlation. Six uses and gratification factors obtained: human connection, network content, distraction/amusement, social integration, social surveillance, and active entertainment. The low comparative saliency of the social integration factor suggests that perhaps fandom is distinct from other ways of identifying with similarly-minded individuals (e.g. political and/or religious affiliation), or that perhaps fandom as a factor is less than sufficient to explain how/why sports fans use social networking sites.

This thesis is a methodological study of a technique of analysis known as simulation, with special reference to developing economic- cumhydrologic models of complex real world water resource systems. It is the eventual goal of this project to develop a complete economic and hydrologic computer model of Cache County, Utah, to further test the applicability of simulation to water resource problems. Although no modeling is carried out, Cache County is used as a foundation for judging the technique within this thesis. Of the several approaches to simulation which were reviewed, Forrester's (1961) methods, and the use of DYNAMO as a simulation compiler were selected as being the most applicable t o the Cache County project. Although simulation techniques and computer modeling are still in the developing s t age, they would seem to have considerable advantages, especially in tracing secondary benefits, over more conventional techniques of analysis. Certainly the potential advantages a r e great enough to make further development of this technique well justified.

In a new media landscape, social media have become a new way of interacting for internet users. It has also given birth to new professions and new empowerments. One of the new existing players in the modified field of media is influencers.  Influencers affect people in a variety of ways, for instance in commerce and opinions. They do this on different platforms and with different tools of persuasion. International researchers have been studying general media use on social media, influencing marketing and what motivates the choices of social media users. They have also investigated the motives when it comes to why users choose to follow influencers. The Swedish research field in this area isn’t as satisfying as the international research, though. Swedish researchers have been studying influencers from an influencer point of view. This study’s vision is, therefore, to broaden the influencer research, with a user perspective. The theoretical framework uses and gratifications is a common way to investigate users, and their motivations to make certain choices, using media. A survey was conducted and sent to grown up females. The survey focused on what motivated them to follow influencers on Instagram, and whether they had been influenced by the influencers in any way. The result of the study gave us different insights. A factor analysis showed that there were four different motivations for following influencers, and that the strongest motive was entertainment. The entertainment motive also contained the most highly valued item which was the motive to be amused. The factor analysis also found the motives; socialization, social status and new trends. The study also showed that there weren’t any strong correlations between the four motives and the users’ history in being affected by the influencer. However, there was a correlation between the affected-variable and the two items following new trends and to keep updated about new products.

This thesis examines the size and distribution of benefits from the use of transgenic tobacco as a production vehicle for pharmaceutical proteins. Ex-ante welfare benefits are estimated for the introduction of two biotech innovations. In both cases economic surplus model with imperfect competition is employed to assess the size and distribution of benefits from these alternative uses of tobacco. An introductory chapter presents an overview of the topic followed by chapters 2 and 3 which contain the two case studies. The first paper (chapter 2) examines the case of Human Serum Albumin production from transgenic tobacco. The second paper (chapter 3) examines the case of Glucocerebrosidase Enzyme from transgenic tobacco. Results demonstrate that new products from bio-pharming applications stand to generate significant social benefits. The introduction of Human Serum Albumin generates average annual gains of $46 million and the introduction of Glucocerebrosidase Enzyme generates average annual gains of $500 to $600 million. / Master of Science

Social media, example Facebook, has made it possible for people to easily be a part of news sharing and to produce news. As a result of this, there are opportunities for each and everyone to influence and to be more involved in news dissemination but at the same time there are risks involved. It has been shown to be common for misinformation to spread through social media where it rapidly reaches a large group of people, which can result in a false image of reality. In this study theories about Uses and Gratifications and source credibility have been brought together for an analysis. The purpose was to investigate what our respondents thought about the benefits of an active audience when it comes to sharing news, but also to investigate the negative sides of news sharing and the risks that follow. The study presents various needs that are satisfied with news sharing on Facebook. With a focus on Facebook the study also presents opinions, behaviors and attitudes about source credibility and news sharing amongst young adults. Young adults have shown to be very active on social media where they also consume a lot of their news intake – which is why we selected this group of people in our study. To find out what young adults think about our subject previously mentioned, we formed focus groups of participants in the ages of 18-29 where they discussed questions about the subject. This study’s most significant finding is that news sharing on Facebook is mostly about satisfying a need of attention – a need to show other people that one has knowledge about recent news and a need to be confirmed by others, in example via comments. Another discovery is that the participants in this study mean that the only way to value sources on social media is to compare different sources with one another. But it was shown that other factors are also important when they value sources on social media. / Sociala medier, exempelvis Facebook har gjort det möjligt för allmänheten att på ett enkelt sätt vara med och bidra till nyhetsskapandet och nyhetsspridning. I och med detta finns det möjligheter för alla att påverka och vara delaktiga i nyhetsspridningen, men samtidigt medföljer även risker. Det har visat sig vara vanligt att falsk information sprids via sociala medier där den snabbt når ut till många människor, vilket kan ge en missvisande bild av verkligheten. I denna studie förs teorier om Uses and Gratifications samman med området källkritik, för att dels undersöka hur våra respondenter resonerar kring fördelar med att alla aktivt kan vara delaktiga i nyhetsspridningen och dels undersöka hur de resonerar kring de negativa sidorna, vilket området källkritik tar upp genom olika risker. Studien redogör för olika behov som uppfylls vid nyhetsspridning på Facebook samt vilka åsikter, beteenden och attityder unga vuxna har kring källkritik och nyhetsspridning på sociala medier, med fokus på Facebook. Varför just unga vuxna undersökts är eftersom den gruppen generellt är mycket aktiva på sociala medier och att de till stor del får reda på nyheter via exempelvis Facebook. För att få reda på hur unga vuxna resonerar kring ovanstående genomfördes fokusgrupper där deltagare mellan 18-29 år fick möjlighet att diskutera frågor kring ämnet. Utmärkande av resultatet i studien är att nyhetsspridning på Facebook till stor del handlar om att uppfylla ett behov av uppmärksamhet. Behov av att andra ska se att man har koll och behov av att få bekräftelse genom exempelvis kommentarer. En annan upptäckt är att deltagarna i studien menar att sättet de värderar källor på sociala medier är att jämföra informationen från olika källor, men däremot spelar flera andra faktorer roll även om deltagarna är mindre medvetna om dessa faktorer då de värderar trovärdigheten.

The purpose of this essay is to understand and analyze why people read a local newspaper and which needs it can fulfill. The newspaper indistry is changing and so is the way we consume news. Today the readers are seen as an active group of people who choose the media, which fulfills their needs in the best possible way. This essay is based on a case study of the local newspaper Barometern. We used a qualitative research method and have done eight interviews. The people we interviewed where in the age of 30-40 and are subscribers or frequent readers of Barometern. The empirical material that where generated from the interviews made out the basis of our analysis. The conclusion of this case study is that people have six different needs of which they seek fulfilling. Of these six needs, Barometern satisfies five of them. For deeper analysis of how these needs are satisfied, continue reading chapter five. Since we worked with a qualitative method we don't intend to make any generalizations of our conclusions. The conclusions only apply to our study of Barometern.

It is inevitable that works on waqf written in English will employ terms from Anglo-American law to describe that institution. This study will endeavour to provide a proper understanding of these terms in order to clear up longstanding misconceptions of the nature of waqf. Through a detailed history of the Anglo-American law of endowments and its terminology, this study will create a framework through which it may be possible to obtain a clearer understanding of waqf. The study will also address two historical events in which the Islamic and Anglo-American legal conceptions of endowments have been at odds, as well as address the objections that have been raised to the continued existence of waqf , both from within Muslim society and from without. It is hoped that through this study a better appreciation of the utility of waqf for Muslim society will be achieved.

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:45:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:08:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 07497.pdf: 6544522 bytes, checksum: c842b4bc321ea78d39d2bd020d278c4f (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado Profissionalizante em Lasers em Odontologia) / IPEN/D-MPLO / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares, IPEN/CNEN-SP; Faculdade de Odontologia, Universidade de Sao Paulo

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