5,234 research outputs found
Influencing a Swift Trust for Elevating Communications of a Virtual Learning Community
The reduced range of online communication means that less information is available for the parties in a communication to acquire an accurate meaning of words, phrases, or concepts in an exchange process. In online communication, encoded emotional information is often subtle and difficult to interpret with any degree of accuracy; this interpretation is even more difficult in academic discussions that are lacking in emotion. The resulting misunderstandings contribute to a degree of uncertainty and confusion with some students, and to full-blown conflict with others. Uncertainty is problematic because it can inhibit or altogether collapse a conventional trust perception. The most valuable communications, therefore, develop on a foundation of trust. This study was designed to explore swift trust, a lesser form of trust that can form instantly from the initial communications expressed in a community. A swift trust perception can bridge social development and allow communicants to ignore the communication and environmental challenges that impede a conventional form of trust from developing for virtual communities. This quantitative study utilized multiple regression analysis to predict relationships between the predictive variables and examine the criterion variables in focus. The multiple regression analysis was used to interpret the survey data and provide insight into the trust-inducing potential of a fragile swift trust perception for elevating online discussions to a higher level
Photometry of GSC 762-110, a new triple-mode radially pulsating star
Stars pulsating in three radial modes are very rare; only three examples are
known in the Galaxy. These stars are very useful since their periods may be
measured very precisely, and this will constrain the global stellar parameters
and the models of the star's interior. The purpose of this paper is to present
a new example of the class of triple-mode radial pulsators. A search for
candidate multi-mode pulsators was carried out in public survey data.
Time-series photometry of one of the candidates, GSC 762-110, was performed.
GSC 762-110 was found to be a triple-mode radial pulsator, with a fundamental
period of 0.1945d and period ratios of 0.7641 and 0.8012. In addition two
non-radial modes were found, for which the amplitude has diminished
considerably over the last few years.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
The Aftermath of Croson: A Blueprint for a Constitutionality Permissible Minority Set-Aside Program
Population Structure and Biomass of Some Common Snakes in Central North America
Samples of 113 to 1762 individuals were obtained from local populations of 11 common
species of snakes in Kansas and one in Oklahoma. An age-size correlation was established for each
species from the records of marked individuals that were recaptured. Each snake in the samples was
tentatively allocated on the basis of its snout-vent length (or alternatively on its rattle string in Crotalus).
Local populations were interpreted to consist of from eight (Thamnophis sirtalis) to 18 (Crotalus
atrox) annual age cohorts. In samples of Coluber constrictor, Nerodia sipedon, and Thamnophis sirtalis,
females outnumbered males and attained larger mean size. In Nerodia and Thamnophis, females survived
longer than males; in Coluber the sexes were similar in longevity. In Agkistrodon contortrix, Crotalus
atrox, C. horridus, C. viridis, Elaphe obsoleta, Lampropeltis calligaster, L. triangulum, and Pituophis catenifer,
males outnumbered females, grew larger,-and survived longer on average. In Diadophis punctatus,
males were more numerous than females and survived longer, but females had average larger size. In
each species sample, first-year young were poorly represented, with only 4 to 46% of expected numbers,
and it seemed that their cryptic behavior and markings caused them to be overlooked much
more often than adults, regardless of the method of sampling. Biomasss calculations indicated that
Diadophis punctatus constituted nearly half of the total, with Coluber constrictor, Elaphe obsoleta, Thamnophis sirtalis, Lampropeltis calligaster, and Agkistrodon contortrix making up from 18% to 5%, whereas
Crotalus horriidus, Lampropeltis triangulum, Nerodia sipedon, and Pituophis catenifer made up only very small percentage
Evidence of a structural anomaly at 14 K in polymerised CsC60
We report the results of a high-resolution synchrotron X-ray powder
diffraction study of polymerised CsC in the temperature range 4 to 40 K.
Its crystal structure is monoclinic (space group I2/m), isostructural with
RbC. Below 14 K, a spontaneous thermal contraction is observed along
both the polymer chain axis, and the interchain separation along [111],
. This structural anomaly could trigger the occurrence of the spin-singlet
ground state, observed by NMR at the same temperature.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitte
Cross modal perception of body size in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)
While the perception of size-related acoustic variation in animal vocalisations is well documented, little attention has been given to how this information might be integrated with corresponding visual information. Using a cross-modal design, we tested the ability of domestic dogs to match growls resynthesised to be typical of either a large or a small dog to size- matched models. Subjects looked at the size-matched model significantly more often and for a significantly longer duration than at the incorrect model, showing that they have the ability to relate information about body size from the acoustic domain to the appropriate visual category. Our study suggests that the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms at the basis of size assessment in mammals have a multisensory nature, and calls for further investigations of the multimodal processing of size information across animal species
Performance of Deaf Participants in an Abstract Visual Grammar Learning Task at Multiple Formal Levels: Evaluating the Auditory Scaffolding Hypothesis
Previous research has hypothesized that human sequential processing may be dependent upon hearing experience (the âauditory scaffolding hypothesisâ), predicting that sequential rule learning abilities should be hindered by congenital deafness. To test this hypothesis, we compared deaf signer and hearing individualsâ ability to acquire rules of different computational complexity in a visual artificial grammar learning task using sequential stimuli. As a group, deaf participants succeeded at all levels of the task; Bayesian analysis indicates that they successfully acquired each of several target grammars at ascending levels of the formal language hierarchy. Overall, these results do not support the auditory scaffolding hypothesis. However, age- and education-matched hearing participants did outperform deaf participants in two out of three tested grammars. We suggest that this difference may be related to verbal recoding strategies in the two groups. Any verbal recoding strategies used by the deaf signers would be less effective because they would have to use the same visual channel required for the experimental task
- âŠ