Warning! You Are About to Enter The Friend Zone : College Students\u27 Experiences with the Friend Zone and Perceptions of Fictional Characters in Friend-Zone Roles

People are put into “the friend zone” when they want to pursue a romantic relationship with a friend but find that their friend wants only a platonic relationship. With this research I (a) estimated the frequencies of heterosexual college students\u27 having put an opposite-sex friend into the friend zone and having been put into the friend zone by an opposite-sex friend, (b) examined the emotions associated with these friend-zone experiences, and (c) explored college students\u27 perceptions of characters navigating a friend-zone experience as depicted in two short video clips. Discussion focuses on results concerning the ubiquity of friend-zone experiences, the emotions associated with rejecting and being rejected by a friend, and identification with and interpretation of fictional characters

Cross-representational interactions: Interface and overlap mechanisms

A crucial question facing cognitive science concerns the nature of conceptual representations as well as the constraints on the interactions between them. One specific question we address in this paper is what makes cross representational interplay possible? We offer two distinct theoretical scenarios: According to the first scenario, co-activated knowledge representations interact with the help of an interface established between them via congruent activation in a mediating third party general cognitive mechanism, e.g., attention. According to the second scenario, co-activated knowledge representations interact due to an overlap between their features, for example when they share a magnitude component. First, we make a case for cross-representational interplay based on grounded and situated theories of cognition. Second, we discuss interface-based interactions between distinct (i.e., non-overlapping) knowledge representations. Third, we discuss how co-activated representations may share their architecture via partial overlap. Finally, we outline constraints regarding the flexibility of these proposed mechanisms

AN EXPLORATION OF ERP ADOPTION AT SMES IN GAUTENG AS A STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in developing countries like South Africa. They face many detrimental challenges, including COVID-19 and a shrinking economy. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can help SMEs mitigate some critical risks by providing real-time accurate information to aid decision making.The study was conducted with active Covid-19 restrictions in South Africa. A qualitative research method was applied using semi-structured interviews and snowball sampling to gain a better understanding of the perceptions and unique perspectives on the use of ERP by SMEs in Gauteng. Thematic analysis, aided by NVivo version 12 software, was used to analyse the data.When SMEs reach a size where they cannot keep track of company information themselves, an ERP system becomes a great asset. It provides timely and accurate information to facilitate decision making and strategic planning. SMEs tend to purchase a mixed selection of ERP software. ERP provides SMEs with the capabilities to become more sustainable and there is a great desire for such systems to be implemented, budget permitting. SMEs using ERP systems are in a better competitive position when compared with those enterprises who choose not to use it.SMEs can become more resilient in times of crises so the integration of ERP systems must be part of the strategic objectives of SMEs

A Racial Impact Analysis of HB 869/SB 274

Virginia is growing. Between 1990 and 2000, Virginia’s population rose by over 14% - the largest population growth experienced by the state in a single decade (Pollard, 2007). And the state continues to grow. It has been estimated that by 2030, Virginia’s total population may exceed 9.8 million people (Pollard, 2007). Along with population growth, land development has increased which in turn affects transportation, housing and job placement across the Commonwealth. In fact, in many parts of the state, development has outpaced population growth. According to Pollard, “If current patterns continue, Virginia will develop more land in the next 40 years than in the previous 400 years (p.8).” In an effort to curb sprawling development and decrease transportation expenditure, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 3202 in 2007. One major outcome of this multifaceted legislation was the introduction of mandatory Urban Development Areas (UDAs). The goal of UDAs was for localities to concentrate growth and development in order to reduce the cost of transportation and increase opportunities to build multi-use developments and expand affordable housing. In 2012, the General Assembly passed House Bill 869 and Senate Bill 274 which effectively make UDAs no longer mandatory but optional for all localities in the Commonwealth. In this paper, we analyze the racial impact and explore the political history of HB 869/SB 274 while addressing the larger issue of sprawl across the Commonwealth. Smart Growth policies are known to positively impact the environment but they also positively impact low-income and minority communities by increasing access to housing, transportation and ultimately jobs. The story behind Urban Development Areas in the Commonwealth is one of politics and regulation but issues as critical as housing, transportation and job access should be focused much more on the citizens of the Commonwealth. The friction created by the UDA policy between the localities and the state has the potential to spark a statewide conversation about land use and more importantly - the need for people-centered solutions to a growing problem

Design analysis of the Grade 9 technology curriculum in South Africa.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.During the years of apartheid (pre 1994) there were two main streams that one could follow while studying at school viz. academic or technical. The majority of South African learners followed the more traditional academic stream allowing some to enter careers as doctors, lawyers, policemen/woman, school teachers and the like, while the remainder ended up jobless. Those pupils who followed the technical stream were considered by some of the more academically inclined persons, to be the 'duller' type of pupil, who could learn a trade and end up as a blue-collar worker. As the cost of technical education has always been much higher than the purely academic courses, the number of schools offering technical subject courses in South Africa has always been in the minority. The entire scene changed after the banning of apartheid (post 1994) and the introduction of the notion of globalisation. Rapid developments suddenly appeared world-wide especially with the introduction of new technologies, mainly in informatics. Suddenly the world seemed to be a much smaller place as one could e-mail, fax, or use a cell phone anywhere in the world at the touch of a button. In order for South Africa to become part of the new world order, and to think about global markets, certain essential changes had to be made firstly to the local environment. A depressed economy needed rejuvenation. There was a growing awareness that serious change was needed in the way children think and learn at school and to start aligning ideas with international trends. To do this, the Department of Education in Pretoria (DoE), decided to radically transform the education sector by introducing a new system of education known as outcomes-based education (OBE). The new OBE system brought with it mixed reactions from the South African public and from the teachers within the system. Many teachers did not want to accept that education could be done in a different way than they had been used to, in the past twenty to forty years. Younger teachers on the other hand did embrace change but are still trying to get the right balance within the prescribed parameters laid down in national education policy documents. To try and achieve such balance, the minister of education called for an independent review committee to re-work the general education and training phase curricula in order for them to be made more 'user-friendly' as many complaints had been received about the policy documents being overly complicated and unmanageable in the normal classroom situation. This process was concluded in May 2001 and Technology education remained as one of the eight new learning areas within the general education and training phase (GET) of South African schooling. The first draft of the Technology education curriculum was handed out for public comment in October 1997 and was used as the basis for a pilot study at selected schools in 1998. This information was used as the basis for analyzing the design of the Technology curriculum at grade 9 level. Grade 9 was selected as it is the final exit from general education and training (GET) into further education and training (FET), and because it was the starting point for the pilot project in 1998. Valuable data was available at the pilot project school sites to be used in this study. Not all the provinces were able to initiate a pilot project due to a number of reasons but those that did viz. Kwazulu/Natal, Gauteng, and the Western Cape were visited individually to collect data. This study therefore 'unpacks' the Technology curriculum into component parts using an analysis tool developed from a theoretical framework. This unpacking of the parts allows one the opportunity to critically check whether or not certain important aspects of the design were omitted either intentionally or unintentionally by the design team (NTT). Chapter one orientates the reader and sets the scene from where I, as researcher, locate myself and what the prevailing conditions are like at South African schools. The study problem is highlighted as are the obstacles that have tended to have an impact on the final curriculum design. Chapter two provides an overview of the related theory associated with the field of curriculum study. Technology education is discussed as broadly as possible within the framework of the new OBE education system for South African schools. Chapter three discusses the methodologies applied to ensure reliability and validity of the findings. The design analysis tool is presented with an explanation of each of the eight components. Chapter four relates an interesting story about the findings. A description of the educational sites is presented together with descriptions of the educators at the six pilot schools, as well as some background of the national technology design team (NTT). All recorded evidence was gathered during personal visits to the schools and individual meetings with the design team members. Chapter five provides a discussion of the data to analyse the Technology curriculum. In this way the reader is directed to the problem areas that were identified and supported the purpose of this curriculum study. Chapter six firstly answers the three critical questions posed in Chapter one. An alternative model for curriculum design and development is presented. This theoretical model is intended to reduce the weaknesses of the present curriculum design if applied to any similar initiative in the future. This will allow educators greater freedom to do what they do best - to teach from a curriculum policy that they clearly understand and are trained to deliver. In this way South African schools and all learners will be rewarded by being well prepared for a variety of challenging careers in the global world that we live in

Random word generation reveals spatial encoding of syllabic word length

Existing random number generation studies demonstrate the presence of an embodied attentional bias in spontaneous number production corresponding to the horizontal Mental Number Line: Larger numbers are produced on right‐hand turns and smaller numbers on left‐hand turns (Loetscher et al.,2008, Curr. Biol., 18, R60). Furthermore, other concepts were also shown to rely on horizontal attentional displacement (Di Bono and Zorzi, 2013, Quart. J. Exp. Psychol., 66, 2348). In two experiments, we used a novel random word generation paradigm combined with two different ways to orient attention in horizontal space: Participants randomly generated words on left and right head turns (Experiment 1) or following left and right key presses (Experiment 2). In both studies, syllabically longer words were generated on right‐hand head turns and following right key strokes. Importantly, variables related to semantic magnitude or cardinality (whether the generated words were plural‐marked, referred to uncountable concepts, or were associated with largeness) were not affected by lateral manipulations. We discuss our data in terms of the ATOM (Walsh, 2015, The Oxford handbook of numerical cognition, 552) which suggests a general magnitude mechanism shared by different conceptual domains

Food Safety Education and Disparities in North Carolina Emergency Food

Each year, an estimated 48 million Americans (1 in 6) contract foodborne illness (Scallan, 2011) stemming from grocery stores, hospitals, day care centers, church banquets, county fairs, restaurants, private homes, schools, and even food banks (CDC FOOD, 2011). However, little research has explored the potential connection between food-insecure populations and risk of foodborne illness, especially for emergency foods (c.f. Henley et al., 2012; Koro et al., 2010; Quinlan, 2013). For the majority of people who seek food assistance, food pantries are a fixed part of food sources; that is, the pantries are for subsistence and no longer just “emergency food” (Feeding America, 2010). Food pantries in North Carolina, like in many states, exist in a regulatory desert outside of food inspection requirements at any level of government, leaving pantry managers and volunteers serving a vulnerable population without written operating procedures, formal food handling training, or guidance regarding foodborne illness risk. In North Carolina, there are approximately 2,500 food pantries, many that partner with local Feeding America food banks and others that operate completely independently, many that receive food donations from numerous local and distant sources each week, and all that operate outside the traditional food system. With an ardent concentration on food access and availability, the managers who run the pantries have varying levels of food safety education. This mixed-methods research is compiled from interviews and observations in 105 urban, rural, and suburban food pantries in 12 counties across North Carolina and explores the dissimilarities within its food pantry system.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fss2015/1002/thumbnail.jp

Interactions between knowledge representations: affordances, numbers, and words

Understanding the world involves complex cognitive processes occurring and interacting within the mind. Traditionally, this has been thought of as analogous to computational processes, with strict rules that encapsulate obligatory and domain specific modules. Current theories of cognition suggest a radically different approach in that sensorimotor simulation forms a necessary basis of abstract and concrete knowledge. These theories suggest that the ability to represent knowledge relies not only on brain-based processing, but also on the embodied experiences of the cognizer in the environment. However, there remains little agreement as to the nature of such embodied representations, particularly at the level of what constrains their properties and their ability to interact with one another. This thesis focuses on how cross-representational interplay is made possible. Through an empirical dataset, a case for a conceptual interface is made, suggesting co-activated distinct representations may interact by means of a third-party mediating mechanism (e.g. a joint attentional bias). This is demonstrated across a range of experiments using concepts representing several conceptual knowledge domains from more abstract to more concrete, including concepts denoting numerical magnitude, spatial semantics, emotional valency, and manual affordances