Going Viral: Unmasking the Spread of New Voices Through Analyzing COVID-19 Memes

Internet memes are becoming a progressively more popular method of quick and easy communication. In this MRP project I will examine memes as a distinct method of digital communication. More specifically, my research paper will analyze the use of memes during the COVID-19 crisis of 2020, and whether memes can provide a comforting and relatable medium for dealing with public anxieties and for communicating complicated issues to large audiences. An analysis of which voices are amplified using the meme medium will also be crucial in understanding its communicative capability. I will also be analyzing which audiences most resonate with this new form of communication and how data on the popularity of memes can provide us with a better understanding of their limits and potential. Further research within this field of study is extremely relevant, and can aid in analyzing and evolving communicative practices in the foreseeable future

Going Viral: Unmasking the Spread of New Voices Through Analyzing COVID-19 Memes

Internet memes are becoming a progressively more popular method of quick and easy communication. In this MRP project I will examine memes as a distinct method of digital communication. More specifically, my research paper will analyze the use of memes during the COVID-19 crisis of 2020, and whether memes can provide a comforting and relatable medium for dealing with public anxieties and for communicating complicated issues to large audiences. An analysis of which voices are amplified using the meme medium will also be crucial in understanding its communicative capability. I will also be analyzing which audiences most resonate with this new form of communication and how data on the popularity of memes can provide us with a better understanding of their limits and potential. Further research within this field of study is extremely relevant, and can aid in analyzing and evolving communicative practices in the foreseeable future

Merleau-Ponty

A methodology is a theory of method. In asking for a methodology, one wants to know which method(s) we should use for investigating some topic, and why. Merleau-Ponty is a phenomenologist who is famous for his analyses of perception. Phenomenology is not a unified movement—it’s more like a tradition, where figures are linked by historical lineages: the inheritance and taking up of particular themes and ideas. Whilst it explicitly bills itself as having a distinct method, different phenomenologists interpret it in various ways. This chapter explains how Merleau-Ponty understands the phenomenological method, and how he applies it in his study of perception.

Comparison of two smartphone based atrial fibrillation screening application in Indonesian population

Background: Due to its adverse outcomes and thromboembolic complications, early detection of atrial fibrillation (AF) is advisable in the general population. This study aims to compare the diagnostic ability of two distinct method in smartphone application format, namely : AliveCor KardiaMobile and FibriCheck. Methods: This study was conducted in Mohammad Hospital General Hospital Palembang with convenience sampling of 170 participants aged 18 years or older. The subjects underwent Fibricheck and KardiaMobile recordings followed by 12 lead electrocardiogram read by board-certified cardiologist as the diagnostic standard. Results: After the exclusion of previous pacemaker implantation (n=7), 163 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 51±15 years with gender distribution of 74.8% men and 25.2% women. Most of the subjects were asymptomatic (87.1%) with mean blood pressure of 130/80 mmHg. The Fibricheck readings showed sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 93%, meanwhile Kardiamobile was able to detect AF with sensitivity of 77% and specificity of 98%. Conclusion: In our study, KardiaMobile demonstrated overall greater sensitivity and specificity when compared to FibriCheck. However, KardiaMobile requires an external metal sensor that must be puchased separately. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to directly compare both methods in the Indonesian population.

Thematic Analysis

This chapter evaluates thematic analysis (TA), which is one of the oldest and most widely used qualitative analytic method across the social sciences. TA is a flexible method for identifying and analysing patterns of meaning — ‘themes’ — in qualitative data, with wide-ranging applications. The method has a long, if indeterminate, history in the social sciences, but seems likely to have evolved from early forms of (qualitative) content analysis. TA is now more likely to be demarcated and acknowledged as a distinct method; however, confusion remains about what TA is. The popularity of TA as a distinct method received a considerable boost from the publication of Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology by social psychologists Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke in 2006, which has become one of the most cited academic papers of recent decades.

Block copolymer micelles enable facile synthesis of organic–inorganic perovskite nanostructures with tailored architecture

We report a distinct method for the production of organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite (OIHP) nanostructures using block copolymer micelles as scaffolds.

Writing as Witnessing, Poetry as Agency of Aid: The Five Poems from Typhoon Yolanda Relief Anthologies

The strong typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), which buffeted the central Philippine region on November 2013 spurred the publication of several relief anthologies, so-called because they were primarily intended to raise funds for the disaster victims. This paper argues that as a distinct method of volunteerism, the poems that comprise the Yolanda relief anthologies are ecopoems which not only bear intrinsic ecological themes that confront an environment in crisis but also embody what Filipino poet Luisa A. Igloria describes as a "work of witness and deep engagement" in a time of climate and humanitarian crisis. In analyzing the five poems from two Yolanda relief anthologies, namely, Agam: Filipino Narratives on Uncertainty and Climate Change and Verses Typhoon Yolanda: A Storm of Filipino Poets, this paper utilizes the theories developed by the Filipino poets who are themselves contributors to these relief anthologies, specifically on how poetry is an act of witnessing and functions as an agency of symbolic aid. The findings contribute to the discourse on ethical literature and thus suggest that the existing brand of Philippine ecopoetry allows for poems that articulate empathic and hopeful agency towards climate-related disaster survivors.