The Digital Flynn Effect: Complexity of Posts on Social Media Increases over Time

Parents and teachers often express concern about the extensive use of social media by youngsters. Some of them see emoticons, undecipherable initialisms and loose grammar typical for social media as evidence of language degradation. In this paper, we use a simple measure of text complexity to investigate how the complexity of public posts on a popular social networking site changes over time. We analyze a unique dataset that contains texts posted by 942, 336 users from a large European city across nine years. We show that the chosen complexity measure is correlated with the academic performance of users: users from high-performing schools produce more complex texts than users from low-performing schools. We also find that complexity of posts increases with age. Finally, we demonstrate that overall language complexity of posts on the social networking site is constantly increasing. We call this phenomenon the digital Flynn effect. Our results may suggest that the worries about language degradation are not warranted

Archaeological Studies for the San Antonio Channel Improvement Project, including Investigations at Guenther\u27s Upper Mill (41BX342)

Under Contract No. DACW63-81-C-0022 to the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, in the spring of 1981, conducted historic research and survey in the areas to be affected by the San Antonio Channel Improvement Project. In the summer of 1981, extensive archaeological testing and excavation were done to determine the extent of the structural remains on the sites of Guenther\u27s Upper Mill and the Stribling House. In the spring and summer of 1982, the Center documented the removal and replacement of the mill\u27s west wall. As a result of the investigations, it can now be affirmed that most of the foundation of the east section of the mill is still present beneath the ground. The main foundation walls are made of cut limestone and measure two feet in thickness, except for the west wall which is three feet thick. Of the other buildings at various times related to the mill, only portions of a late (ca. 1910) stone and cement foundation for the Reigler Creamery still remain in the ground. The survey revealed no other cultural resources to be affected by the project

A Qualitative Approach to Investigating the Behavioral Definitions of the Four Paradigm Theory of Information Systems Development

Hirschheim, Klein and Lyytinen introduced the four-paradigm theory of information systems development (ISD) as a significant attempt to systematise developer assumptions. The theory perspective is that developers hold key assumptions that may be grouped together and classified into paradigms, and that these paradigms influence their ISD behaviour. The aims of the research described here are theory exploration and explanation in case studies concerning the ISD process in three public National Health Service (NHS) institutions in the north of England. We focus on the behavioral rather than the cognitive (assumptions) aspect of the theory. Our conclusions are, firstly, that qualitative theory explanation is desirable because we need to test theory in practice to show its applicability to wider settings. A rigorous qualitative, interpretive method, paying attention to openness and validity, can satisfactorily undertake such theory explanation; such research can help our IS community to gain wider credibility, authority and acceptance. Secondly, with regard to the four-paradigm theory, its predictions were largely met, as the paradigms were capable of classifying developer behaviour and developers had a dominant paradigm, namely functionalism. We found the theory to be very relevant to the investigation of current IS issues, and we introduce the concept of developer paradigmatic inconsistency

A New Method for Obtaining Binary Pulsar Distances and its Implications for Tests of General Relativity

We demonstrate how measuring orbital period derivatives can lead to more accurate distance estimates and transverse velocities for some nearby binary pulsars. In many cases this method will estimate distances more accurately than is possible by annual parallax, as the relative error decreases as t^-5/2. Unfortunately, distance uncertainties limit the degree to which nearby relativistic binary pulsars can be used for testing the general relativistic prediction of orbital period decay to a few percent. Nevertheless, the measured orbital period derivative of PSR B1534+12 agrees within the observational uncertainties with that predicted by general relativity if the proper-motion contribution is accounted for.Comment: 4 pages, latex, uuencoded compressed postscript + source, no figures, uses aaspptwo.sty and dec.sty, accepted for publication in ApJL, omitted reference now include

Bridgehead-methyl Analog of SC-53116 as a 5-HT4 Agonist

Pyrrolizidine benzamide (±)-2, the bridgehead-methyl analog of SC-53116, was prepared and evaluated for 5-HT4 agonism activity in the rat tunica muscularis (TMM) mucosae assay. Compound (±)-2 has an EC50 of 449 nM in the TMM assay, as compared to 23 nM for SC-53116, and 66 nM for the racemate of SC-53116

M Dwarfs from Hubble Space Telescope Star Counts. IV

We study a sample of about 1400 disk M dwarfs that are found in 148 fields observed with the Wide Field Camera 2 (WFC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope and 162 fields observed with pre-repair Planetary Camera 1 (PC1), of which 95 of the WFC2 fields are newly analyzed. The method of maximum likelihood is applied to derive the luminosity function and the Galactic disk parameters. At first, we use a local color-magnitude relation and a locally determined mass-luminosity relation in our analysis. The results are consistent with those of previous work but with considerably reduced statistical errors. These small statistical errors motivate us to investigate the systematic uncertainties. Considering the metallicity gradient above the Galactic plane, we introduce a modified color-magnitude relation that is a function of Galactic height. The resultant M dwarf luminosity function has a shape similar to that derived using the local color-magnitude relation but with a higher peak value. The peak occurs at $M_V \sim 12$ and the luminosity function drops sharply toward $M_V \sim 14$. We then apply a height-dependent mass-luminosity function interpolated from theoretical models with different metallicities to calculate the mass function. Unlike the mass function obtained using local relations, which has a power-law index $\alpha = 0.47$, the one derived from the height-dependent relations tends to be flat ($\alpha = -0.10$). The resultant local surface density of disk M dwarfs (12.2 +/- 1.6 M_sun pc^{-2}) is somewhat smaller than the one obtained using local relations (14.3 +/- 1.3 M_sun pc^{-2}). Our measurement favors a short disk scale length, H = 2.75 +/- 0.16 (statistical) +/- 0.25 (systematic) kpc.Comment: 20 pages, 10 ps figures, accepted for publication in Ap

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Security-first thinking and educational practices for young children in foster care in Sweden and England: A think piece

While the education of looked after children has attracted considerable policy attention in Europe and North America, and globally the early education of preschool aged children is the subject of substantial investment, the early education of young children in foster care is neglected in both research and policy. This paper is a cross-national think piece to stimulate research and debate about young children in foster care. We present findings from two studies, one in England and one in Sweden, exploring foster carers’ views and practices with young children. We argue that there is a perceived tension, in foster care policy and practice, between education and emotional wellbeing such that young children's attachment relationships and sense of security is privileged over their engagement in educational practices. Attachment relationships are a necessary but insufficient condition for optimal development of fostered children

The Microbiome of an Active Meat Curing Brine

Traditional food products are important to our culture and heritage, and to the continued success of the food industry. Many of the production processes associated with these products have not been subjected to an in-depth microbial compositional analysis. The traditional process of curing meat, both preserves a natural protein source, as well as increasing its organoleptic qualities. One of the most important salting processes is known as Wiltshire curing. The Wiltshire process involves injecting pork with a curing solution and immersing the meat into microbial-rich brine which promotes the development of the distinct organoleptic characteristics. The important microbial component of Wiltshire brine has not been extensively characterized. We analyzed the key microbial component of Wiltshire brine by performing microbiome analysis using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies. This analysis identified the genera, Marinilactibacillus, Carnobacterium, Leuconostoc, and Vibrio as the core microflora present in Wiltshire curing brine. The important food industrial applications of these bacteria were also assessed. The bacterial diversity of the brine was investigated, and the community composition of the brine was demonstrated to change over time. New knowledge on the characterization of key microbiota associated with a productive Wiltshire brine is an important development linked to promoting enhanced quality and safety of meat processing in the food industry