The Life and Miracles of Fisher Alumna Katie Kreutter, 2009

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. I still find it difficult to believe that I am writing this submission for Verbum as a Fisher alumnus, and that soon a full semester will have passed since I was enrolled as a full-time student. Looking back on my time at Fisher, I fondly recall courses and professors that positively impacted the quality of my educational experience, as well as clubs and students that similarly supported my social experience. While I do not consider myself to have any sage advice to offer current students, I will say that in my opinion it is beneficial to become involved on campus and truly enjoy being a student because, as in any other area of life, this time is fleeting and tends to pass by much more quickly than anticipated. While regrets are fairly inevitable, they can be prevented to some extent with a conscious effort. For those who may be approaching graduation and concerned about the current job market, I will also say that, based on personal experience, there may be more opportunities available than one might think

Living with difference in hyper-diverse areas: how important are encounters in semi-public spaces?

Urban populations increasingly diversify in their socio-economic, cultural, religious and linguistic profiles as well as in their lifestyles, attitudes and activity patterns. This hyper-diversification can complicate feelings of belonging and community. Since diversity is negotiated at the neighbourhood level, micro spaces are central in building communities. Micro spaces tend to be semi-public and stimulate diverse groups to intermingle, which results in on–off as well as repetitive and structural interactions. Understanding the creation and impact of encounters is central to capturing contemporary notions of belonging and living with difference. This paper compares encounters experienced in two semi-public spaces in the hyper-diverse neighbourhood of Feyenoord in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Although encounters at the library were lighter and shorter than at the community-centre, all positively impact collective life in the neighbourhood. At the community-centre, encounters result in light as well as deeper relationships, making visitors feel more at ‘home’ because they recognize others elsewhere in the neighbourhood. At the library, encounters are lighter but visitors become familiar with diversity, making them feel more at ‘home’ and safe in their neighbourhood as well. The study suggests that fleeting encounters require more serious attention within the context of negotiating diversity

Māori and the [potential] demographic dividend

This paper outlines a recently articulated concept in the demographic literature known as the ‘demographic dividend’, and connects it with key features of Māori and non- Māori demography. The dividend arises – or has the potential to arise - as each population passes through a particular point in its demographic transition. During these years, the maximum proportion of the population moves into the key working and income-earning age groups, and the minimum (comprised of youth and the elderly) is notionally dependent. With proactive and timely investment in the youthful base of the population, there is potential to convert the demographic dividend into two economic windfalls, the first arising as fertility decline causes youthful dependency to fall and the last large waves of young adults flood into the working age population, the second as the latter age and move on into the higher income earning age groups. However the window of opportunity to invest in the first dividend is fleeting, while failure to invest in that stage seriously compromises the second. This paper shows that for the Māori population, despite its relative youth, the first opportunity is already coming to an end and with it the potential gains of the second. But it also argues that there is a third window of opportunity which holds particular promise for Māori. This period will also be fleeting, but is arising in both absolute and relative terms as the relatively youthful Māori population co-exists alongside its structurally older counterpart, and together (with other New Zealanders) comprise an ‘economic dividend system’ that produces the potential for a ‘collateral dividend’

The man who wasn't there:Subliminal social comparison standards influence self-evaluation

Life provides an endless stream of social comparison information. Because opportunities to compare with others are so abundant, social comparison theory traditionally assumes that people are selective in their comparison activities and primarily compare with deliberately selected standards. Recent research, however, demonstrates that social comparisons often occur spontaneously, even if no standard is explicitly provided or deliberately selected. We examined whether comparisons are so spontaneous that they are even engaged if people are fleetingly exposed to a potential standard-so fleetingly that they remain unaware of the standard. In three studies, participants were subliminally primed with moderate versus extreme, high versus low standards during self-evaluation. Results demonstrate that self-evaluations are influenced by subliminally presented standards. Specifically, self-evaluations are assimilated towards moderate standards and contrasted away from extreme standards. These self-evaluative consequences of subliminal standards, however, were only obtained if participants engaged in self-reflection during standard exposure. These findings emphasize that social comparisons are truly ubiquitous processes that are engaged even for fleeting exposure to standard information. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.</p

Price Discovery and the Accuracy of Consolidated Data Feeds in the U.S. Equity Markets

Both the scientific community and the popular press have paid much attention to the speed of the Securities Information Processor, the data feed consolidating all trades and quotes across the US stock market. Rather than the speed of the Securities Information Processor, or SIP, we focus here on its accuracy. Relying on Trade and Quote data, we provide various measures of SIP latency relative to high-speed data feeds between exchanges, known as direct feeds. We use first differences to highlight not only the divergence between the direct feeds and the SIP, but also the fundamental inaccuracy of the SIP. We find that as many as 60 percent or more of trades are reported out of sequence for stocks with high trade volume, therefore skewing simple measures such as returns. While not yet definitive, this analysis supports our preliminary conclusion that the underlying infrastructure of the SIP is currently unable to keep pace with the trading activity in today's stock market.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figures, 2 table

Training Needs Assessment for John S. and James L. Knight Community Museums

Executive summary of research undertaken by ExhibitsUSA, under the auspices of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, to assess the needs of small and midsize museums among Knight communities for professional development and institutional advancement

Sensing the Urban Interior

Following the principle of “spatial inversion” (Attiwill, 2011), whereby spaces between buildings habitually referred to as exteriors become interiors, this paper presents the background research, methodology and key findings from a case study framed as a perceptual documentation of an urban interior, the More London Estate, a riverside business development in London, England. The location sits at the boundaries between inside and outside, private and public, enclosed and open space. This distinctive position and promise of interiority makes it an ideal site of enquiry. The objective of the research is to uncover connections between the way we feel and our sense of belonging by investigating the correlation between the site’s embodied atmosphere and its perceptual affect on the body. The methodology is inspired by Peter Zumthor’s (2006) writings on atmospheres, James J. Gibson’s (1966, 1986) studies of ecology and perceptual systems, and Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka’s (2004) work on sensory design. Key findings reveal a duality in existing perceptual narratives, and the recognition of the way the urban interior resonates with our senses provides a framework for reflection and an incentive towards sensory transformations

Learning 101: The untaught basics

Despite the accessibility of a wealth of information in the current era-books, universities, and online massive open online courses (MOOCs)-well-intentioned and hard-working students often fail to learn effectively due to deficient learning techniques or improper mind-sets. Two things, in particular, hinder students from achieving their potential. First, the students' intuition regarding how learning works is often flawed and counterproductive; second, despite significant progress in the research discipline of "learning sciences," these hard-earned scientific insights have not yet filtered their way through the research community to the students who stand to benefit most from this knowledge

The Opportunistic Transmission of Wireless Worms between Mobile Devices

The ubiquity of portable wireless-enabled computing and communications devices has stimulated the emergence of malicious codes (wireless worms) that are capable of spreading between spatially proximal devices. The potential exists for worms to be opportunistically transmitted between devices as they move around, so human mobility patterns will have an impact on epidemic spread. The scenario we address in this paper is proximity attacks from fleetingly in-contact wireless devices with short-range communication range, such as Bluetooth-enabled smart phones. An individual-based model of mobile devices is introduced and the effect of population characteristics and device behaviour on the outbreak dynamics is investigated. We show through extensive simulations that in the above scenario the resulting mass-action epidemic models remain applicable provided the contact rate is derived consistently from the underlying mobility model. The model gives useful analytical expressions against which more refined simulations of worm spread can be developed and tested.Comment: Submitted for publicatio