English read by Japanese phonetic corpus: an interim report

The primary purpose of this paper is to explain the procedure of developing the English Read by Japanese Phonetic Corpus. A series of preliminary studies (Makino 2007, 2008, 2009) made it clear that a phonetically-transcribed computerized corpus of Japanese speakers’ English speech was worth making. Because corpus studies on L2 pronunciation have been very rare, we intend to fill this gap. For the corpus building, the 1,902 sentence files in the English Read by Japanese speech database scored for their individual sounds by American English teachers trained in phonetics in Minematsu, et al. (2002b) have been chosen. The files were pre-processed with the Penn Phonetics Lab Forced Aligner to generate Praat TextGrids where target English words and phonemes were forced-aligned to the speech files. Two additional tiers (actual phones and substitutions) were added to those TextGrids, the actual phones were manually transcribed and the other tiers were aligned to that tier. Then the TextGrids were imported to ELAN, which has a much better searching functionality. So far, fewer than 10% of the files have been completed and the corpus-building is still in its initial stage. The secondary purpose of this paper is to report on some findings from the small part of the corpus that has been completed. Although it is still premature to talk of any tendency in the corpus, it is worth noting that we have found evidence of phenomena which are not readily predicted from L1 phonological transfer, such as the spirantization of voiceless plosives, which is not considered normal in the pronunciation of Japanese

Effects of roadways on seasonal movement strategies and mate location success in an imperiled pit viper (Crotalus horridus)

Understanding animal movement behavior is fundamental to effective conservation and management. Within populations, various movement strategies can be displayed in search of critical resources, and these strategies are influenced by multiple factors related to individuals and the environment. Mating partners are one critical resource that affect movement during mating seasons. For many large-bodied snakes, male mate-searching movements are the primary determinant of mate location success, however, males incur significant risks associated with elevated movement. In an increasingly human-modified world, this often includes increased interactions with anthropogenic landscape features. A recent range-wide status assessment for Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) identified roadways among the leading threats to population persistence, and more specifically in the Piedmont ecoregion of Georgia, USA. Before effective management can be developed, it is critical to identify behavioral mechanisms that mediate the relative risk that roads pose to populations and individuals. Beyond road mortality, the sub-lethal effects of roads remain largely untested in snakes. In order to fill these gaps and better inform conservation, I propose an integration of radio telemetry and accelerometry to quantify the effects of proximity to roads and road interaction frequency on mate searching movements and mate location success in C. horridus from the Georgia Piedmont

Eighth graders' web searching strategies and outcomes: The role of task types, web experience and epistemological beliefs

Abstract This study reported an investigation of eighth graders' (14-year-olds) web searching strategies and outcomes, and then analyzed their correlations with students' web experiences, epistemological beliefs, and the nature of searching tasks. Eighty-seven eighth graders were asked to fill out a questionnaire for probing epistemological beliefs (from positivist to constructivist-oriented views) and finished three different types of searching tasks. Their searching process was recorded by screen capture software and answers were reviewed by two expert teachers based on their accuracy, richness and soundness. Five quantitative indicators were used to assess students' searching strategies: number of keywords, visited pages, maximum depth of exploration, refinement of keyword, and number of words used in the first keyword. The main findings derived from this study suggested that, students with richer web experiences could find more correct answers in ''closeended" search tasks. In addition, students with better metacognitive skills such as keyword refinement tended to achieve more successful searching outcomes in such tasks. However, in ''open-ended" tasks, where questions were less certain and answers were more elaborated, students who had more advanced epistemological beliefs, concurring with a constructivist view, had better searching outcomes in terms of their soundness and richness. This study has concluded that epistemological beliefs play an influential role in open-ended Internet learning environments

Continual Evolution: The Experience Over Three Semesters of a Librarian Embedded in an Online Evidence-Based Medicine Course for Physician Assistant Students

This column examines the experience, over three years, of a librarian embedded in an online Epidemiology and Evidence-based Medicine course, which is a requirement for students pursing a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies at Pace University. Student learning outcomes were determined, a video lecture was created, and student learning was assessed via a five-point test during year one. For years two and three, the course instructor asked the librarian to be responsible for two weeks of the course instruction and a total of 15 out of 100 possible points for the course. This gave the librarian flexibility to measure additional outcomes and gather more in-depth assessment data. The librarian then used the assessment data to target areas for improvement in the lessons and Blackboard tests. Revisions made by the librarian positively affected student achievement of learning outcomes, as measured by the assessment conducted the subsequent semester. Plans for further changes are also discussed

Rancang Bangun Sistem Informasi Kepegawaian Berbasis Web di STIE Kesatuan

STIE Kesatuan personnel information system is a problem of special concern in IBI Kesatuan HRD. This is with the ease and effectiveness in processing employee data such as employee data entry, editing employee data, searching employee data, reporting employee data either on screen or printed on paper. There are still many STIE Kesatuan who have not filled in data on manual paper, such as employees who have to fill out a leave form and wait for approval. So to overcome this we need a personnel information system that is better than the previous system, for now the employee information is only from Microsoft Excel and manual data. This study uses a system design implemented with the Diagram Unified Modeling Language (UML). The expected end result is that the employee web-based information system can solve system problems that run more optimally in the employee data entry process. With this research, it is hoped that it can help IBI Kesatuan, especially HRD, to develop a management information system. Keywords: Information Systems, UML Diagram