Children's and adults' understanding of punishment and the criminal justice system.

Adults' judgments regarding punishment can have important social ramifications. However, the origins of these judgments remain unclear. Using the legal system as an example domain in which people receive punishment, the current work employed two complementary approaches to examine how punishment-related concepts emerge. Study 1 tested both 6- to 8-year-olds and adults to ascertain which components of “end-state” pun- ishment concepts emerge early in development and remain stable over time, and which components of pun- ishment concepts change with age. Children, like adults, agreed with and spontaneously generated behavioral explanations for incarceration. However, children were more likely than adults to attribute incarceration to internal characteristics. Neither children nor adults reported that incarceration stems from societal-level factors such as poverty. Study 2 built on the results of Study 1 by probing the extent to which early punishment-related concepts in the legal domain emerge from a specific form of social experience—namely, parental incarceration. Children of incarcerated parents, like children whose parents were not incarcerated, were more likely to re- ference internal and behavioral factors than societal factors when discussing why people come into contact with the justice system. Taken together, these studies clarify how punishment-related concepts arise and therefore contribute to theories of moral psychology, social cognitive development, and criminal justice

Under the Surface: The United States’ Failure to Effectively Communicate and Gain Credibility with Iraqis

In the short term, the United States negatively impacted the relationships among the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. The United States’ lack of communication and credibility led to this negative impact. Six variables: the United States’ lack of knowledge about Iraq, the preexisting anti-western political culture, removal of local elites and army, inadequate media outreach, impact on reactionary violence, and the inability to fulfill all their promises to the Iraqi population expanded problems in credibility and communication. Although the United States brought democracy to Iraq by enforcing equality for Shiites and Kurds, and expanding Kurdish autonomy in the north, this lack of communication and credibility made it difficult for the United States to convey its democratic values. A public relations campaign can improve communications and credibility with the Iraqis and help emphasize democratic goals. Iraq is beginning to build a strong democratic future, and the United States can help with the country’s democratic strides by improving its communications and credibility with Iraqis

Evaluating Usability Evaluations

We live in an age when consumers can now shop and browse the web using hand-held devices. This means that competitive companies need to have a website to represent their brand and to conduct business. E-commerce sites need to pay special attention to the usability of their sites, since it has such an impact on how potential costumers view their brand. Jakob Nielsen defines usability as a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use ; he separates usability into five quality components: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction. The current standard for testing usability involves having a number of users physically use a site in order to determine where they have trouble. This kind of usability testing can be time consuming and costly. In order to mitigate some of these costs, many tools are being developed to help automate the process. However, many automated tools evaluate only one of the five components, or simply look for errors. In an attempt to increase the reliability and scope of such testing, this paper investigates the effectiveness of automated usability evaluators and proposes methods for future researchers to test them. Specifically, this paper details an experiment performed to test the some freely available usability evaluators against more traditional usability evaluations. The experiment attempts to determine whether automatic usability evaluations might be used as a cheaper alternative to more traditional usability evaluations

Validating a set of Japanese EFL proficiency tests: demonstrating locally designed tests meet international standards

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThis study applied the latest developments in language testing validation theory to derive a core body of evidence that can contribute to the validation of a large-scale, high-stakes English as a Foreign Language (EFL) testing program in Japan. The testing program consists of a set of seven level-specific tests targeting different levels of proficiency. This core aspect of the program was selected as the main focus of this study. The socio-cognitive model of language test development and validation provided a coherent framework for the collection, analysis and interpretation of evidence. Three research questions targeted core elements of a validity argument identified in the literature on the socio-cognitive model. RQ 1 investigated the criterial contextual and cognitive features of tasks at different levels of proficiency, Expert judgment and automated analysis tools were used to analyze a large bank of items administered in operational tests across multiple years. RQ 2 addressed empirical item difficulty across the seven levels of proficiency. An innovative approach to vertical scaling was used to place previously administered items from all levels onto a single Rasch-based difficulty scale. RQ 3 used multiple standard-setting methods to investigate whether the seven levels could be meaningfully related to an external proficiency framework. In addition, the study identified three subsidiary goals: firstly, toevaluate the efficacy of applying international standards of best practice to a local context: secondly, to critically evaluate the model of validation; and thirdly, to generate insights directly applicable to operational quality assurance. The study provides evidence across all three research questions to support the claim that the seven levels in the program are distinct. At the same time, the results provide insights into how to strengthen explicit task specification to improve consistency across levels. This study is the largest application of the socio-cognitive model in terms of the amount of operational data analyzed, and thus makes a significant contribution to the ongoing study of validity theory in the context of language testing. While the study demonstrates the efficacy of the socio-cognitive model selected to drive the research design, it also provides recommendations for further refining the model, with implications for the theory and practice of language testing validation

Biogeochemistry and geochemical paleoceanography of the South Pacific Gyre

Pelagic clays cover nearly one half of the ocean floor, but are rarely used for paleoceanographic research because of their extremely slow sedimentation rates, post-depositional alteration(s), and the lack of biogenic material available to provide ages. My dissertation develops and applies approaches to study pelagic clays by targeting the largest marine sediment province in the world: the South Pacific Gyre (SPG). I present an unprecedented spatially and temporally extensive paleoceanographic history of the SPG and discuss authigenic processes in pelagic clays that are linked to changes in global seawater composition through the Cenozoic. My research was based on an extensive inorganic geochemical dataset I developed from samples gathered during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 329. I applied multivariate statistical techniques (e.g., Q-mode factor analysis and constrained least squares multiple linear regression (CLS)) to the dataset in order to (a) identify the existence of six end-members in pelagic clay (namely, eolian dust, Fe/Mn-oxyhydroxides, apatite, excess Si, and two types of volcanic ash), (b) quantify their abundances, (c) determine their mass accumulation rates, and (d) infer major features in the paleoceanographic evolution of the SPG. Key parts of my research also developed improved MATLAB codes to facilitate and speed the search for best fitting end-member combinations in CLS modeling. Additionally, I expanded the natural gamma radiation instrumental capabilities on the D/V JOIDES Resolution to quantify concentrations of uranium, thorium, and potassium. I dated the pelagic clay at four of the IODP sites with a cobalt-based age model that I developed, and documented that the seawater behavior of cobalt determines the extent to which this method can be applied. Collectively, the results track the spatial extent of dust deposition in the SPG during the aridification of Australia, dispersed ash accumulation from episodes of Southern Hemisphere volcanism, and other features of Earth’s evolution during the Cenozoic. I further quantified two geochemically distinct types of authigenic ash alterations within the pelagic clay, indicating that altered ashes may be a significant and variable sink of magnesium in seawater over geologic timescales

Children's and Adults' Understanding of Punishment and the Criminal Justice System

Adults’ judgments regarding punishment can have important social ramifications. However, the origins of these judgments remain unclear. Using the legal system as an example domain in which people receive punishment, the current work employed two complementary approaches to examine how punishment-related concepts emerge. Study 1 tested both 6- to 8-year-olds and adults to ascertain which components of “end-state” punishment concepts emerge early in development and remain stable over time, and which components of punishment concepts change with age. Children, like adults, agreed with and spontaneously generated behavioral explanations for incarceration. However, children were more likely than adults to attribute incarceration to internal characteristics. Neither children nor adults reported that incarceration stems from societal-level factors such as poverty. Study 2 built on the results of Study 1 by probing the extent to which early punishment-related concepts in the legal domain emerge from a specific form of social experience—namely, parental incarceration. Children of incarcerated parents, like children whose parents were not incarcerated, were more likely to reference internal and behavioral factors than societal factors when discussing why people come into contact with the justice system. Taken together, these studies clarify how punishment-related concepts arise and therefore contribute to theories of moral psychology, social cognitive development, and criminal justice

Synergizing Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy: Designing an Integrated Foundations Course for Health Education

The Occupational Therapy Department at University of the Pacific embarked on a tailored initiative to reshape the occupational therapy foundations course for entry-level Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) students. Collaboratively designed and co-taught by the first and second authors, experienced occupational therapists in both clinical and academic realms, alongside the third author, a seasoned occupational scientist with a rich background in instructing graduate and undergraduate professionals, this innovative course aligns with the program\u27s biopsychosocial philosophy. The primary objective of this course was to provide students with an expansive perspective on the fundamental role of occupation in human life. Various assessment methods were employed to gauge students\u27 grasp of the course content, culminating in a summative course evaluation survey supplemented with comments at the conclusion of the term. This paper elucidates the course design model, its integration within the curriculum, the implementation process, and insights gleaned from student feedback. The outlined approach for crafting a novel course that incorporates diverse professional viewpoints will prove invaluable to OTD programs preparing entry-level occupational therapists for the multifaceted challenges of contemporary healthcare. By sharing this course design, the authors aspire to contribute to the evolution of OT education and address the dynamic demands of healthcare through the utilization of integrated professional perspectives

Pliocene expansion of C-4 vegetation in the core monsoon zone on the Indian Peninsula

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Dunlea, A. G., Giosan, L., & Huang, Y. Pliocene expansion of C-4 vegetation in the core monsoon zone on the Indian Peninsula. Climate of the Past, 16(6), (2020): 2533-2546, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2533-2020.The expansion of C4 vegetation during the Neogene was one of the largest reorganizations of Earth's terrestrial biome. Once thought to be globally synchronous in the late Miocene, site-specific studies have revealed differences in the timing of the expansion and suggest that local conditions play a substantial role. Here, we examine the expansion of C4 vegetation on the Indian Peninsula since the late Miocene by constructing a ∼6-million-year paleorecord with marine sediment from the Bay of Bengal at Site U1445, drilled during International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 353. Analyses of element concentrations indicate that the marine sediment originates from the Mahanadi River in the Core Monsoon Zone (CMZ) of the Indian Peninsula. Hydrogen isotopes of the fatty acids of leaf waxes reveal an overall decrease in the CMZ precipitation since the late Miocene. Carbon isotopes of the leaf wax fatty acids suggest C4 vegetation on the Indian Peninsula existed before the end of the Miocene but expanded to even higher abundances during the mid-Pliocene to mid-Pleistocene (∼3.5 to 1.5 million years ago). Similar to the CMZ on the Indian Peninsula, a Pliocene expansion or re-expansion has previously been observed in northwest Australia and in East Africa, suggesting that these tropical ecosystems surrounding the Indian Ocean remained highly sensitive to changes in hydroclimate after the initial spread of C4 plants in late Miocene.This research has been supported by the Ocean and Climate Change Institute Postdoctoral Scholarship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to Ann Dunlea, and the U.S. National Science Foundation to Liviu Giosan (grant no. NSF OCE-0652315). USSSP post-cruise support was provided to Expedition 353 shipboard participants Liviu Giosan and Yongsong Huang