THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MUSICAL STIMULI IN SPATIAL AUDIO DISPLAYS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF VOLUME AND SPATIAL PROCESSING DETAIL

Audio displays have potential to convey spatial information to users without taxing their visual resources, but have been shown to annoy some users. Musical stimuli have the potential to reduce user annoyance, but their potential to be localized spatially is untested. These experiments tested how well musical stimuli can be localized at different volumes and when using different spatial processing techniques to manipulate the spatial information. The two experiments presented participants with brief musical stimuli simulating spatial locations between -40¡ and 40¡ from the saggital plane and asked participants to report the perceived direction of the sound. In Experiment 1, two spatial processing techniques were compared, and it was determined that a simple processing technique involving only manipulating the relative volume of two speakers is as effective as a more resource-intensive processing technique that incorporates multiple spatial cues. Experiment 2 manipulated the overall volume from 55 dBA to 65 dBA and showed that, throughout this range, there are no significant differences in spatial location ability

Counterinsurgency In Iraq: Theory and Practice

Small Wars, Asymmetric Wars, Insurgencies, Guerrilla Wars. They have been occupying a larger and larger share of violent conflicts over the last two centuries, and have posed more significant challenges to status quo states as time has gone on. The approach of brutal repression, once considered the only method to wage war, has been questioned more frequently as the only method to approaching the challenge these insurgencies face. With an enemy hiding amongst a non-combatant public, much of the criticism has been about the morality of indiscriminate violence when innocents will necessarily be caught in the crossfire. Increasingly, more of the criticism is around the efficacy of simple repression. In Iraq, these criticisms became more stark as the conflict dragged on, with violence increasing every year under an approach that did not take the “hearts and minds” strategy seriously. Once this approach took center-stage, violence declined precipitously. This thesis attempts to measure, using a review of recent literature and a fixed effects regression model, how the efforts in this changed approach may have contributed to the reduction in violence seen in the Iraqi insurgency. Overall, the evidence appears to show moderate support for the change in strategy to a more precisely hearts and minds style of counterinsurgency

A User-Focused Reference Model for Wireless Systems Beyond 3G

This whitepaper describes a proposal from Working Group 1, the Human Perspective of the Wireless World, for a user-focused reference model for systems beyond 3G. The general structure of the proposed model involves two "planes": the Value Plane and the Capability Plane. The characteristics of these planes are discussed in detail and an example application of the model to a specific scenario for the wireless world is provided

The Effects of Biased Literature on Self- and Social-Perceptions of LGBTQ Individuals

Though media portrayal of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals has increased significantly in recent years, the representation has brought and cemented harmful stereotypes along with it. People who are discovering their identity as sexual minorities might consume media that portrays LGBTQ individuals negatively, or even kills them in many cases, and believe that they are doomed to the same outcome. Literature is no exception to this influx of negative stereotypes. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of stereotypes in LGBTQ literature on those who identify with the characters presented in the text to the same extent that LGBTQ stereotypes in television have been explored. This study employs priming to determine if negative or positive biases in literature excerpts cause readers to perceive their sexuality negatively or positively respectively, with a neutral text as a control condition. By contacting over 100 LGBTQ resource centers at universities across the country and having their leaders send the survey to their listserv, 50 participants were recruited to respond to the survey. Results from this study were meant to give insight into the ways literature can influence social identity and self-perception

ARE DISTRACTED DRIVERS AWARE THAT THEY ARE DISTRACTED?: EXPLORING AWARENESS, SELF-REGULATION, AND PERFORMANCE IN DRIVERS PERFORMING SECONDARY TASKS

Research suggests that driving while talking on a mobile telephone causes drivers not to respond to important events but has a smaller effect on their lane-keeping ability. This pattern is similar to research on night driving and suggests that problems associated with distraction may parallel those of night driving. Here, participants evaluated their driving performance before and after driving a simulated curvy road under different distraction conditions. In experiment 1 drivers failed to appreciate their distraction-induced performance decrements and did not recognize the dissociation between lane-keeping and identification. In Experiment 2 drivers did not adjust their speed to offset being distracted. Continuous feedback that steering skills are robust to distraction may prevent drivers from being aware that they are distracted

Evaluation of Helicobacter hepaticus bacterial shedding in fostered and strategically housed C57BL/6 mice

The murine pathogen Helicobacter hepaticus has important confounding effects on research. Neonatal fostering has been studied in our laboratory for elimination of infection in mice. The purpose of our study was to examine fostering of pups from experimentally infected dams in male-absent parturition, and to determine the significance of gender and time on quantity of bacterial colonization in the cecum and feces of C57BL/6 mice. Approximately 20 C57BL/6 mice were fostered per day from one to four days of age. None of the C57BL/6 pups tested positive by PCR in fecal or cecal samples through four days of age. This data showed that removal of the male C57BL/6 mouse prior to parturition is crucial for extending the fostering period to obtain Helicobacter-free mice. In a second experiment, H. hepaticus infected mice were housed under varying arrangements to determine the effects of gender and housing on fecal and cecal colonization. Neither time or housing group affected bacterial fecal shedding. However, there was a significant overall effect of gender and a significant difference between male and female mice in both fecal and cecal bacterial copy number. Male fecal and cecal samples contained more copies of H. hepaticus than did female samples. Additionally, significant correlations between fecal and cecal H. hepaticus values were found both overall and by gender. Novel predictive algorithms were formulated to predict cecal bacterial colonization levels in fecal pellets. These findings should prove useful in Helicobacter elimination efforts, and in future work to further elucidate the role of H. hepaticus in transmission and disease

Hog cholera

Cover title

Class dream

Collection of poetry by Clarence C. Crisler entitled The Class Dream