Effects of text structures on interest and memory in expository texts

Abstract: The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of expository-text structures on interest and memory. Three methods of structuring texts used in the study were detailing, contextualizing, and questioning strategies. Students in grades 6 and 7 participated in the study. Two experiments were conducted. In the experiment 1, a within-subject design was used to investigate differences in text interests among different forms of texts. In the experiment 2, a between-subject design was used to investigate the effects of the textstructuring strategies on text comprehension and memory as well as text interest. Results of the experiment 1 showed that students selected contextualized texts as the most interesting. The reason was that students felt contextualized texts practically relevant to their real lives. In addition, texts constructed by using the strategies showed significantly higher levels of interest than the base text where no strategies were applied. However, in the experiment 2, no significant differences in text interest were found among the different forms of texts. In addition, scores on the text comprehension and memory tests were significantly higher in the base and questioning-strategy texts than in the other two forms of texts. Especially, the lowest performance was found in the contextualized texts. The results of the study provide practical implications on how to structure expository texts commonly used in school to enhance motivation and learning outcomes. Specifically, the results suggested that it would be the most desirable to construct text contents so as to create cognitive conflicts to readers, when text interest, comprehension, and memory are all considered

What Causes the M&A Performance of High-Tech Firms?

We perform an event study on 2824 cases of domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that were disclosed in the Korean domestic stock exchange and took effect between 2002 and 2015. We focus on Korean capital markets to define the factor variables affecting the disclosure effect of M&A in high-tech industries and the effect of disclosure on long-term performance. We find the following. First, the disclosure effect of M&A benefits acquirers’ shareholder wealth; this effect is more pronounced for high-tech firms than for non-high-tech firms. Second, M&A of high- and non-high-tech firms harm acquirers’ shareholder wealth via the disclosure effect. Finally, M&A between high- and non-high-tech firms negatively affect long-term firm performance. However, acquirers that are mature high-tech firms have a positive effect on long-term performance. This result affirms that organizationally mature firms adapt better to highly specialized technologies and knowledge that are not yet internalized as corporate routines owing to their learned capabilities and breadth of experience. This study provides a significant novel perspective on high-tech M&A by emphasizing the financial performance of firms involved in them

What Causes the M&A Performance of High-Tech Firms?

We perform an event study on 2824 cases of domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that were disclosed in the Korean domestic stock exchange and took effect between 2002 and 2015. We focus on Korean capital markets to define the factor variables affecting the disclosure effect of M&A in high-tech industries and the effect of disclosure on long-term performance. We find the following. First, the disclosure effect of M&A benefits acquirers’ shareholder wealth; this effect is more pronounced for high-tech firms than for non-high-tech firms. Second, M&A of high- and non-high-tech firms harm acquirers’ shareholder wealth via the disclosure effect. Finally, M&A between high- and non-high-tech firms negatively affect long-term firm performance. However, acquirers that are mature high-tech firms have a positive effect on long-term performance. This result affirms that organizationally mature firms adapt better to highly specialized technologies and knowledge that are not yet internalized as corporate routines owing to their learned capabilities and breadth of experience. This study provides a significant novel perspective on high-tech M&A by emphasizing the financial performance of firms involved in them

Investigation of Robust CMOS Amplifiers for Josephson-CMOS Hybrid Memories

AbstractIn this paper, we investigated three types of robust and high-speed cryogenic CMOS amplifiers for Josephson-CMOS hybrid memories. One is a cascaded CMOS amplifier and the others are source-follower CMOS amplifiers. The source-follower CMOS amplifiers consist of a first-stage PMOS-input source-follower to shift the input voltage level, and a second-stage self-biased differential amplifier. For the first-stage source-follower, we employed two types of circuits: a single-ended source-follower and a self-biased differential source-follower. We compared their performance and robustness by circuit simulations using a cryogenic device model. It was found that the amplifier with the self-biased differential source-follower has better characteristics in terms of speed, power consumption and robustness. We also measured transient characteristics of the amplifiers at liquid helium temperature and showed that the amplifier with the self-biased differential source-follower has wider and robust bias margins

Analysis of Connection Times in Bipartite Network Data: Development of the Bayesian Latent Space Accumulator Model with Applications to Assessment Data

Conventional social network analysis typically focuses on analyzing the structure of the connections between pairs of nodes in a sample dataset. However, the process and the consequences of how long it takes pairs of nodes to be connected, i.e., node connection times, on the network structure have been understudied in the literature. In this article, we propose a novel statistical approach, so-called the Bayesian latent space accumulator model, for modeling connection times and their influence on the structure of connections. We focus on a special type of bipartite network composed of respondents and test items, where connection outcomes are binary and mutually exclusive. To model connection times for each connection outcome, we leverage ideas from the competing risk modeling approach and embed latent spaces into the competing risk models to capture heterogeneous dependence structures of connection times across connection outcome types. The proposed approach is applied and illustrated with two real data examples

Development of A BIM-Based Maintenance Decision-Making Framework for the Optimization between Energy Efficiency and Investment Costs

Eco-friendly materials have been developed recently that have made it possible to significantly reduce the maintenance cost of buildings when they are appropriately used in renovation. Indeed, it became extremely important to consider the eco-friendly energy-saving effects on design alternatives during renovation. The present study proposes a framework for the optimum maintenance decision-making model for considering eco-friendly energy to help people interested in making decisions concerning renovation; it requires that both the environmental friendliness and economic feasibility of the target building be simultaneously considered. Several studies mainly cover the structural aspects for energy improvements based on innovation and technology. However, energy simulation in existing buildings needs some additional consideration regarding the economic analysis of energy savings and the recovery period of construction costs. A case study was conducted as a research method by utilizing the proposed framework, which aims to: (1) make energy simulations with different basic design assumptions; (2) perform the energy simulations through building information modeling (BIM) technology; and (3) analyze the economic feasibility of the alternatives. As a result, an alternative combination that can save the net maximum energy cost during the life cycle period and invest the lowest renovation costs has been recommended. Furthermore, effective guidelines were proposed on which items the building owner values, depending on his economic investment conditions in decision-making regarding the level of design, through a comprehensive review of the energy savings by design variable. It is expected that the research findings will be utilized in the decision-making process and for conducting further relevant research in future

Particulated autologous cartilage transplantation for the treatment of osteochondral lesion of the talus: can the lesion cartilage be recycled?

Aims: Osteochondral lesions of the talus (OLT) are a common cause of disability and chronic ankle pain. Many operative treatment strategies have been introduced; however, they have their own disadvantages. Recently lesion repair using autologous cartilage chip has emerged therefore we investigated the efficacy of particulated autologous cartilage transplantation (PACT) in OLT. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 32 consecutive symptomatic patients with OLT who underwent PACT with minimum one-year follow-up. Standard preoperative radiography and MRI were performed for all patients. Follow-up second-look arthroscopy or MRI was performed with patient consent approximately one-year postoperatively. Magnetic resonance Observation of Cartilage Repair Tissue (MOCART) score and International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) grades were used to evaluate the quality of the regenerated cartilage. Clinical outcomes were assessed using the pain visual analogue scale (VAS), Foot Function Index (FFI), and Foot Ankle Outcome Scale (FAOS). Results: All patients had ICRS grade IV cartilage lesions, except for one (ICRS grade III). The paired MOCART scores significantly improved from 42.5 (SD 1.53) to 63.5 (SD 22.60) (p = 0.025) in ten patients. Seven patients agreed to undergo second-look arthroscopy; 5 patients had grade I (normal) ICRS scores and two patients had grade II (nearly normal) ICRS scores. VAS, FFI, and all subscales of FAOS were significantly improved postoperatively (p ≤ 0.003). Conclusion: PACT significantly improved the clinical, radiological, and morphological outcomes of OLT. We consider this to be a safe and effective surgical method based on the short-term clinical results of this study. Cite this article: Bone Jt Open 2023;4(12):942–947

Association of Emotional Labor and Occupational Stressors with Depressive Symptoms among Women Sales Workers at a Clothing Shopping Mall in the Republic of Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study

In the distribution service industry, sales people often experience multiple occupational stressors such as excessive emotional labor, workplace mistreatment, and job insecurity. The present study aimed to explore the associations of these stressors with depressive symptoms among women sales workers at a clothing shopping mall in Korea. A cross sectional study was conducted on 583 women who consist of clothing sales workers and manual workers using a structured questionnaire to assess demographic factors, occupational stressors, and depressive symptoms. Multiple regression analyses were performed to explore the association of these stressors with depressive symptoms. Scores for job stress subscales such as job demand, job control, and job insecurity were higher among sales workers than among manual workers (p < 0.01). The multiple regression analysis revealed the association between occupation and depressive symptoms after controlling for age, educational level, cohabiting status, and occupational stressors (sβ = 0.08, p = 0.04). A significant interaction effect between occupation and social support was also observed in this model (sβ = −0.09, p = 0.02). The multiple regression analysis stratified by occupation showed that job demand, job insecurity, and workplace mistreatment were significantly associated with depressive symptoms in both occupations (p < 0.05), although the strength of statistical associations were slightly different. We found negative associations of social support (sβ = −0.22, p < 0.01) and emotional effort (sβ = −0.17, p < 0.01) with depressive symptoms in another multiple regression model for sales workers. Emotional dissonance (sβ = 0.23, p < 0.01) showed positive association with depressive symptoms in this model. The result of this study indicated that reducing occupational stressors would be effective for women sales workers to prevent depressive symptoms. In particular, promoting social support could be the most effective way to promote women sales workers’ mental health