Human factors considerations for the use of color in display systems

Identified and assessed are those human factor considerations impacting an operator's ability to perform when information is displayed in color as contrasted to monochrome (black and white only). The findings provide valuable guidelines for the assessment of the advantages (and disadvantages) of using a color display system. The use of color provides an additional sensory channel (color perception) which is not available with black and white. The degree to which one can exploit the use of this channel is highly dependent on available display technology, mission information display requirements, and acceptable operational modes

The Organizational Commitment of Sonographers in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States

Sonographers are skilled medical professionals who operate specialized equipment that utilizes sound waves to create images of the body. Radiologist and physicians depend on sonographers to summarize their findings by creating a preliminary report that is sent, along with images, to them for diagnosis and treatment purposes. Organizational commitment is described by John Meyer and Natalie Allen, through their organizational commitment three component model, as a mindset reflecting a desire, a need, or obligation to maintain membership in an organization. Specifically, affective organizational commitment is the desire an employee demonstrates that allows them to remain with their employer because of an emotional attachment, a sense of fitting in, or them identifying with the organization’s goals and values. Employees demonstrating a higher score in affective commitment are happy with their work-life experience, typically demonstrating a good attendance record, better job performance, and display organizational citizenship behavior crucial to their organization’s success. Contrarily, employees with higher continuance commitment scores are driven more by the costs associated with leaving. Those who demonstrate more of a sense of obligation to an organization influenced by experiences both prior to and upon entry into an organization will demonstrate higher scores in normative commitment. Subsequently, employees with higher scores in continuance and normative commitment tend to possess behaviors different than those with high emotional attachment. Although the three components of commitment presumably increase the likelihood that employees will remain with their employing organization, employees’ motive for remaining, reflecting behaviors, and productivity levels will differ based on which component is possessed in higher amounts by the employee. The purpose of this study was to identify three organizational commitment components of sonographers in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States by documenting and revealing the following: scores on each of the commitment components, the relationship between each commitment component and certain sociodemographic variables and the effect perceived organizational support has on the organizational commitment components of sonographers. Using a multiple component survey (Affective Commitment Survey, Continuance Commitment Survey, Normative Commitment Survey, and the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support collectively), this quantitative, cross-sectional design measured the organizational commitment scores of 110 sonographers and determined the impact of sociodemographic variables and perceived organizational support using means, standard deviations, stepwise and mixed hierarchical multiple regression analyses. The results of these analyses showed sonographers in the study’s sample having a continuance commitment, affective commitment, and normative commitment score of 4.62, 4.30, and 3.46 respectively. Results also showed living in Pennsylvania, years at current organization, being a registered cardiac sonographer, and being single were significant variables that contributed to the variance of organizational commitment scores of sonographers. After accounting for the variance in each commitment component influenced by the sociodemographic variables, the results showed the support a sonographer perceived to receive from their employer explained over 50% of the total variance in their affective and normative commitment score. The results of this study did not show perceived organizational support as influencing a sonographer’s continuance commitment score. In conclusion, by documenting the scores of each organizational commitment component and identifying variables that contribute to a sonographer’s organizational commitment it provides a complete picture of the connection employees have with their employing organization. These results also could possibly answer questions about a sonographer’s performance, work behavior, and attendance record

The manifold operations of the gothic double

The gothic novel’s emergence as a dominant genre in the 19th century is illustrative of a shift in popular ideology taking place in Western Europe during this period. Competing viewpoints, particularly between opposing classes, directly reflect the uncertainties, anxieties, and aspirations of a continent undergoing a significant transition. Because the gothic draws upon the tension between contending attitudes—spiritualism and secularism, realism and romanticism, nationalism and imperialism, and aristocratic and bourgeois—it exposes how ideology embedded in these concepts either adds to or detracts from the greater good of the community. The technique of doubling is utilized to locate divergent ideologies and to demonstrate the complexity of reconciling them. The preferential treatment of middle-class values in the gothic helped shift mainstream conceptions of morality. In combination with contemporary critical theory, through the treatment of doubles, this thesis aims to address how the gothic influenced shifts in social and cultural trends

Brief Note: Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Status of Spring Ephemerals in Two Ohio Forests

Author Institution: Biology Department, Lakeland Community CollegeNineteen spring ephemerals (7 monocots and 12 dicots) were surveyed for vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) in two Ohio forests during spring 1993 and 1994. Eleven of the nineteen species sampled displayed VAM development which was consistent between years and sites, except for Cardamine concatenata (Brassicaceae). Patterns of VAM occurrence primarily reflected the taxonomic classification of the sampled species. In this study, all monocots sampled were mycorrhizal, while only 25% of the dicots developed VAM relationships. The occurrence of VAM in the dicots primarily reflected their taxonomy as well. All Ranunculaceae species were mycorrhizal while those in the other five dicot families were not

Missing Data and IRT Item Parameter Estimation

Non-randomly missing data has theoretically different implications for item parameter estimation depending on whether joint maximum likelihood or marginal maximum likelihood methods are used in the estimation. The objective of this paper is to illustrate what potentially can happen, under these estimation procedures, when there is an association between ability and the absence of response. In this example, data is missing because some students, particularly low-ability students, did not complete the test