Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

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VIT University

This study explored how menstrual-tracker mobile apps have characteristics that reflect menstruation as a taboo in the U.S. culture. Objectification theory and gender schema theory provided a conceptual and overarching framework to explore how the U.S. sociocultural context may play a role in the development of norms and assumptions surrounding menstruation, and in turn, menstrual-tracker mobile apps reflecting society’s norms and assumptions about menstruation as a taboo. A dearth of literature exists about menstrual-tracker mobile apps as cultural products, and an online survey was conducted among a convenience sample of female undergraduate students (n = 258) to investigate if a correlation exists between their attitudes toward menstruation as a taboo and menstrual-tracker mobile apps’ concealment features, self-control features, and sharing features. The analysis of the data revealed that female undergraduate students’ attitudes toward menstruation as a taboo in this study correlated to their attitudes toward concealment features and sharing features but not self-control features on menstrual-tracker mobile apps. © 2020 Asian Institute of Technology.

World University root node

School of Electronics Engineering

Chennai Campus

Gender, Technology and Development

Leaking the secret: women’s attitudes toward menstruation and menstrual-tracker mobile apps

Scholars of digital democracy share enthusiasm about the potential the Internet provides for democratic communication among citizens. Many applaud the prospect of an expanded, digital, public sphere; others are more cautious about whether the Internet may foster deliberative democracy. We attempt to provide a third alternative view by (1) focusing on everyday political talk in nonpolitical online forums and (2) expanding research beyond a singular deliberative model to attend to multiple frameworks for democratic discussion online. In this paper, we examine online political discussion of six globally prominent political issues in two transnational cricket forums. Our findings suggest that deliberative discussion coexists with liberal individualist and communitarian forms of communication in online sports forums. We discuss the implications of our findings for the future of mediated political discussion research. © 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Information Communication and Society

It’s not cricket: examining political discussion in nonpolitical online space

How do patients respond when advice on health websites differs from advice given by a doctor? To test effects of advice concordance, 418 participants 25–80 years old were randomly assigned to read real websites that varied in quality of information about diabetes: high (medically accurate and complete), medium (accurate but incomplete), and low (inaccurate). The control group read travel sites. Participants then watched a video of a physician making treatment recommendations for a diabetic patient, and indicated how they would respond if they were the patient. There was no direct effect of condition on ratings of doctor credibility or intentions to adhere to the treatment plan, but there was an indirect effect: Those who read high-quality websites gave higher ratings of doctor–website concordance, which predicted greater confidence in the doctor’s recommendations, which in turn predicted greater intention to comply. © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Health Communication

The Doctor Versus the Internet: Effects of Low-, Medium-, and High-Quality Websites on Intentions to Follow the Doctor’s Advice

There are numerous media offerings targeted to young audiences that claim to have educational benefits. It is hard to overemphasize the need for evidence about which of these offerings are effective, for which populations, and for which outcomes. The current article begins by discussing the value and limitations of meta-analysis (as opposed to narrative literature reviews) as a tool for marshaling such evidence. We illustrate these points with a recent meta-analysis of the educational impact of Sesame Street international coproductions. We then present two further studies that emerged from one aspect of the findings, examining effects of educational TV narratives on children’s racial/ethnic attitudes. © 2015, © 2015 SAGE Publications.

American Behavioral Scientist

From Meta to Micro: Examining the Effectiveness of Educational TV

Educational television for young children often combines factual content with fantasy. In 2 experiments, we examined 3-to 5-year-olds' reality judgments and the implications for their learning. In the 1st study, 145 children watched 3 clips featuring (respectively) a Hispanic, a Chinese American, and an Anglo character. Responses indicated age differences in character-reality judgments (e.g., "X can hear me"), acceptance of fantasy (e.g., talking backpacks), rejection of factual content (i.e., Spanish and Chinese words are "just pretend") but not perceived learning. Perceived reality of Chinese and Spanish words used by the characters partially mediated age differences in word comprehension, controlling for viewer ethnicity. In the 2nd study, 114 children were randomly assigned to see clips featuring either Hispanic or Chinese traditions and words. Age differences in reality judgments were replicated and were partially mediated by children's use of evidence or arguments to justify reality judgments and (to a lesser extent) by their cognitive flexibility. Further, children's reality judgments partially mediated age differences in learning of the educational content. Results suggest that reality distinctions improve with age, contributing to children's learning. © 2014 American Psychological Association.

Developmental Psychology

"Vámonos means go, but that's made up for the show": Reality confusions and learning from educational TV

This pilot study explored the feasibility of mobile media players as a resource to help veterans in recovery for alcohol abuse and dependence disorders. Twenty veterans, enrolled in intensive outpatient treatment at a Veterans Hospital, participated in this study. Participants were provided an iPod loaded with recovery-related audio podcasts, and surveys were conducted before and after the intervention. Participants generally indicated they used the device regularly, thought it was useful and wished they had access to this type of support earlier in their recovery process. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Journal of Technology in Human Services

Testing the Feasibility of Mobile Audio-Based Recovery Material as an Adjunct to Intensive Outpatient Treatment for Veterans with Substance Abuse Disorders