From the beginning of internet, new ways of communicating with people around the world has developed in an expanding pace. Social media has taken over everyday life of regular citizens in Sweden, making us more accessible to each other than ever before. Bitmoji is a recently introduced add-on to the social media app Snapchat. A good example of the continuous development of mediated communication, since the name still rings unknown in science. This study aims investigate the basics of Bitmoji as a communicative phenomenon, using qualitative methods, and answer what functions it holds for its young users in Snapchat. The gathering of data is done through interviews with a target group of Swedish 12-15-year-old. Using previous research of similar communicative phenomenons and theories of mediated verbal and non-verbal interactions, the data is analyzed. This study comes to the conclusion that Bitmoji is a communication tool for young people to convey comical, as well as happy or neutral messages.

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Title: ”Dating Online. Self-Marketing Through Sweden's Biggest Dating Site – Match.com”</p><p>Number of pages: 34</p><p>Author: Joanna Stokowska</p><p>Tutor: Amelie Hössjer</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>Period: Autumn term 2005</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication Studies, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University</p><p>Purpose/aim: The aim of this paper is to study the online dating phenomenon. The questions to be answered are: how do people form their personal profiles? Does the method of how one markets him/herself, within an online dating service, vary among different age groups?</p><p>Material/method: 100 personal profiles have been downloaded and analysed from Sweden's largest dating website, Match.com. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used when analysing the data.</p><p>Main results: Match.com gives clear instructions on how to form a profile. The company makes sure that the content of all the personal sites fulfils the company’s policy. The differences in how people in different age groups and of different gender advertise themselves, through profiles, are relatively small. Most of individuals tend to focus on descriptions of their personality, favourite activities and body. Interaction through the profiles (seen as channels) tends to have an intimate form.</p><p>Keywords: Dating online, personal profiles, mediated intimacy, mediated interaction.</p>

ABSTRACT Title: ”Dating Online. Self-Marketing Through Sweden's Biggest Dating Site – Match.com” Number of pages: 34 Author: Joanna Stokowska Tutor: Amelie Hössjer Course: Media and Communication Studies C Period: Autumn term 2005 University: Division of Media and Communication Studies, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/aim: The aim of this paper is to study the online dating phenomenon. The questions to be answered are: how do people form their personal profiles? Does the method of how one markets him/herself, within an online dating service, vary among different age groups? Material/method: 100 personal profiles have been downloaded and analysed from Sweden's largest dating website, Match.com. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used when analysing the data. Main results: Match.com gives clear instructions on how to form a profile. The company makes sure that the content of all the personal sites fulfils the company’s policy. The differences in how people in different age groups and of different gender advertise themselves, through profiles, are relatively small. Most of individuals tend to focus on descriptions of their personality, favourite activities and body. Interaction through the profiles (seen as channels) tends to have an intimate form. Keywords: Dating online, personal profiles, mediated intimacy, mediated interaction.

This dissertation explores the impact of technology on social life. Focusing on webcam-mediated audio-visual conversations between Japanese families in the United States and their extended family members in Japan, I examine how technology participates in creating an interactional space for the families to manage intra- and intergenerational relationships. Combining ethnography with turn-by-turn analyses of naturally occurring webcam interactions, I specifically investigate how cultural, discursive, and family practices are transformed in innovative ways and how families adapt to the emerging mediated space. Looking at how interactional activities are coordinated across spaces, I show that webcam interactions constitute a new type of shared living space in which multigenerational family relationships are created and managed. I call this emerging space the virtual ie (‘house’ and ‘stem-family system’). In this virtually conjoined space, children, parents, and grandparents are visually familiarized with each other’s households and socialized to each other’s virtual presence. Even though the ie is no longer a juridical unit of co-residence, my goal is to discuss the significance of the ie in understanding how transnational Japanese families can dwell in a shared living space created by webcam interactions. My analyses demonstrate how webcam encounters create a stage for participants to perform various identities in interactions. Learning to talk and participate in such webcam interactions, children are socialized to their ie belongings and identities. Additionally, even though far-flung children do not provide physical and daily care for their parents in Japan, they actively take care of elder parents’ media environments. I demonstrate that what I call media care practices add another context for adult children living abroad to carry out their filial responsibilities. I also show that the management of webcam visual fields creates a type of social field that reflects local understandings of social positioning in ie structures. How participants decide to display themselves to others by manipulating the webcam’s visual fields provides a new way to demonstrate various social relationships and responsibilities over long distances. From this perspective, a virtual ie is not merely a reflection of an ideological understanding of Japanese families, but an interactional achievement facilitated by webcams. / text

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第22630号 / 理博第4619号 / 新制||理||1664(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)教授 中野 伸一, 教授 酒井 章子, 教授 曽田 貞滋 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Virtual reality (VR) is being used in a large variety of areas nowadays. To take advantage of VR systems and use them as the substitutions of the physical world in social research, it is necessary to verify that results from experiments in virtual environments are coherent with those expected in the real world. In this study, proxemics was selected to establish consistency between virtual environments (VE) and real environments (RE). Proxemics is a branch of study about personal space and its effects on human behavior. This study mainly focused on the following aspects in proxemics: personal space theory, gender effect on interpersonal distance perception, equilibrium theory, and conversation status effect on mutual gaze. 34 participants (19M:15F) were recruited for the experiment. During the experiment, participants were asked to play the Twenty Questions game in groups of two in both VE and RE. Meanwhile, eye gaze data and interpersonal distance perception ratings were collected. The results were as followed. 1) As in personal space theory, participants associated the same interpersonal relationships with specific interpersonal distances, 2) gender did not have significant effect on personal space, 3) as in equilibrium theory, distance had significant effect on mutual gaze duration, but only when comparing mutual gaze duration under the intimate distance and other distances, 4) and there were more mutual gaze occurring when the dyad was in conversation as concluded from other studies. Causes and limitations in this study were discussed later to address the inconsistency between this study and the corresponding theories. / Virtual reality (VR) används på många olika områden. För att utnyttja VR-system och använda dem som fysiska världen i social forskning är det nödvändigt att verifiera att resultaten från experiment i virtuella miljöer är sammanhängande med de i den riktiga världen. I denna studie valdes proxemics för att skapa konsekvens mellan virtuella miljöer (VE) och riktiga miljöer (RE). Proxemics är en gren av studier om personligt utrymme och dess effekter på mänskligt beteende. Denna studie fokuserade på följande aspekter i proxemics: personlig rymdteori, könseffekt på interpersonell avståndsuppfattning, jämviktsteori och konversationsstatuseffekt på ömsesidig blick. 34 deltagare (19M: 15F) rekryterades för experimentet. Under experimentet spelade deltagarna Twenty Questions-spelet i grupper om två i både VE och RE. Samtidigt samlades ögonblåsningsdata och interpersonella distansuppfattningsvärden. Resultaten var som följer. 1) Liksom i den personlig rymdteori hade deltagarna samma interpersonella relationer med specifika interpersonella avstånd, 2) kön hade ingen signifikant effekt på personligt utrymme, 3) liksom i jämviktsteori hade avstånd signifikant effekt på ömsesidig blicklängd men endast när jämföra ömsesidig blicklängd under det intima avståndet och andra avstånd, 4) och det fanns mer ömsesidig blick när dyaden var i konversation som slutsats från andra studier. Orsaker och begränsningar i denna studie diskuterades senare för att förklara inkonsekvensen mellan denna studie och motsvarande teorier.

Att “sexta” innebär att med textbaserade digitala medier kommunicera med sexuella partners, vilket är en praktik som kan upplevas väldigt intim trots mediets begränsningar av de karaktäristiska dragen av en fysisk interaktion. Denna studie har som syfte att ge en övergripande bild över hur denna typ av interaktion konstrueras och tar sig uttryck, vilket görs i en tredelad undersökning som fokuserar på kommunikationsmönsterna och hur dessa reflekteras över. Det empiriska materialet utgörs av 18 bidrag insamlade via en nätbaserad deltagande observation, 2 kvalitativa intervjuer och 56 svarande på en nätbaserad enkät. Genom ett självselektivt urval avgränsades den studerade gruppen till i huvudsak informanter med en medianålder på 27 år med erfarenheter av heterosexuella relationer. Det studien visar är att den distansering och begränsning denna kommunikation innebär oftast möjliggör förmågan hos informanterna att uttrycka sig friare än i en interaktion ansikte mot ansikte. Samtidigt värderas ändå den fysiska interaktionen högre då denna är mer “på riktigt”. Med begreppet digital sexuell kommunikation (DSK) har vi också ämnat klargöra och definiera det forskningsområde som denna studie genomförts inom, vilket kombinerar medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap med det sexualpsykologiska fältet. / “Sexting” is the communication between sexual partners through textbased digital media, which is a practice that can be experienced as very intimate despite the mediums limitations of the characteristics of a physical interaction. The purpose of this study is to offer a comprehensive overview of how this type of interaction is constructed and expressed, which has been conducted through a three-parted examination of the specifics of these communication patterns and how they are reflected upon. The empirical data consists of 18 contributions collected through a netbased participatory observation, 2 qualitative interviews and 56 respondents of a netbased survey. Through a method of selfselection the informant group was generated and constricted to mainly informants of an average age of 27 with experiences of heterosexual relations. What the study concludes is that the distance and limitation of this type of communication often contributes to a sense of a more liberated way of expression than what is possible in a face-to-face interaction. Yet the informants value the physical type of interaction higher as this is seen as more “real”. With the term digital sexual communication (DSC) we also aim to clarify and define the research area in which we conduct this study, which combines the science of media & communication with the field of sexual psychology.

In general, this dissertation is concerned with modeling of mechanical behavior of protein molecules. In particular, we focus on coarse-grained models, which bridge the gap in time and length scale between the atomistic simulation and biological processes. The dissertation presents three independent studies involving such models. The first study is concerned with a rigorous coarse-graining method for dynamics of linear systems. In this method, as usual, the conformational space of the original atomistic system is divided into master and slave degrees of freedom. Under the assumption that the characteristic timescales of the masters are slower than those of the slaves, the method results in Langevin-type equations of motion governed by an effective potential of mean force. In addition, coarse-graining introduces hydrodynamic-like coupling among the masters as well as non-trivial inertial effects. Application of our method to the long-timescale part of the relaxation spectra of proteins shows that such dynamic coupling is essential for reproducing their relaxation rates and modes. The second study is concerned with calibration of elastic network models based on the so-called B-factors, obtained from x-ray crystallographic measurements. We show that a proper calibration procedure must account for rigid-body motion and constraints imposed by the crystalline environment on the protein. These fundamental aspects of protein dynamics in crystals are often ignored in currently used elastic network models, leading to potentially erroneous network parameters. We develop an elastic network model that properly takes rigid-body motion and crystalline constraints into account. This model reveals that B-factors are dominated by rigid-body motion rather than deformation, and therefore B-factors are poorly suited for identifying elastic properties of protein molecules. Furthermore, it turns out that B-factors for a benchmark set of three hundred and thirty protein molecules can be well approximated by assuming that the protein molecules are rigid. The third study is concerned with the polymer mediated interaction between two planar surfaces. In particular, we consider the case where a thin polymer layer bridges two parallel plates. We consider two models of monodisperse and polydisperse for the polymer layer and obtain an analytical expression for the force-distance relationship of the two plates. / text

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-06-25T14:24:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz Augusto Ramos Pedro_.pdf: 866624 bytes, checksum: 769f533122ca8f35c01b3ae69d86a69c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-25T14:24:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz Augusto Ramos Pedro_.pdf: 866624 bytes, checksum: 769f533122ca8f35c01b3ae69d86a69c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-28 / Nenhuma / As interações sociais, no contexto atual, podem ser realizadas presencial ou mediadas por dispositivos de tecnologia da informação e comunicação. Considerando o contexto acadêmico, sobretudo na educação, pressupõe-se que as interações dos estudantes são influenciadas pelas novas tecnologias, principalmente, quando o enfoque está nos cursos da área tecnológica. A Internet assume, portanto, papel de destaque neste contexto. Por outro lado, as interações presencial são substanciadas pelas relações e estruturas sociais. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi observar como se dá a interação presencial e a interação mediada por computador, em um ambiente educacional, considerando um grupo formado por acadêmicos de cursos superiores da área de tecnologia de uma instituição de educação superior privada do Distrito Federal. Para tanto, optou-se por uma abordagem metodológica qualitativa, com mediação de grupo focal e aplicação da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Revelou-se que, para o grupo estudado, mesmo com forte aderência às novas tecnologias da informação e comunicação, há preferência pela interação presencial quando se trata de interações sociais mais aprofundadas. / Social interactions, in the current context, can be carried out face-to-face or mediated by information and communication technology devices. Considering the academic context, especially in education, it is assumed that the interactions of students are influenced by new technologies, especially when the focus is on technology courses. The Internet therefore plays a prominent role in this context. On the other hand, face-to-face interactions are substantiated by relationships and social structures. Thus, the objective of this study was to observe how face-to-face and computer-mediated interaction occurs in an educational environment, considering a group formed by academics of higher education in the technology area of a private higher education institution of the Federal District . For that, a qualitative methodological approach was chosen, with focal group mediation and application of the content analysis technique. It was revealed that, for the group studied, even with strong adherence to the new information and communication technologies, there is a preference for face-to-face interaction when it comes to deeper social interactions.

Nesta dissertação observo a experiência conversacional dos interagentes nos comentários dos blogs Melhores do Mundo, Interney e Pensar Enlouquece. A organização da conversa nos três ambientes foi feita e representada graficamente para auxílio na observação de como os interagentes conversam nos blogs. Entrevistas com os autores dos blogs e a Análise da Conversação nos comentários de suas postagens serviram de instrumento de análise. A interação mediada por computador foi contrastada com a face a face para se tomar conhecimento das transformações no virtual em relação ao presencial. Os resultados apontam que as práticas dos blogueiros ao lidarem com os comentários interferem na forma como se dá a conversação online nesse ambiente. O controle dos comentários ou a falta dele por parte do blogueiro ora orienta à interação um-um, ora orienta à interação todos-todos. O resultado mostra práticas de como são as conversas nos espaços de comentários desses blogs e oferece indícios para o estudo da conversação online. / On this essay I observe the conversational experience of the interacting on the comments of blogs Melhores do Mundo, Interney and Pensar Enlouquece. The arrangement of the conversation in all three environments was done and represented graphically to help the observation of how he interacting talk on the blogs. Interviews with the blogs' writers and the Conversation Analysis on the comments to their postings served as instruments of analysis. The computer-mediated interaction was contrasted with the face-to-face interaction, in order to acknowledge the transformations in the virtual, in relation to presential. The results point that the practice of the bloggers while dealing with comments interferes on the way the conversation is held in given environment. The control over the comments, or the lack of it by the blogger, sometimes orients to one-to-one interaction, while other times orients to all-to-all interaction. The result shows practices of how the conversations on these blogs' comment areas are, and offers indication to the studies of online conversation.