Pinch Keyboard: Natural Text Input for Immersive Virtual Environments

Text entry may be needed for system control tasks in immersive virtual environments, but no efficient and usable techniques exist. We present the pinch keyboard interaction technique, which simulates a standard QWERTY keyboard using Pinch Gloves™ and 6 DOF trackers. The system includes visual and auditory feedback and a simple method of calibration

High School Student Attitudes Toward Physical Education: The Comparison of a United States and New Zealand School

Negative health indices, specifically obesity, are not confined to the United States (US). In New Zealand (NZ) many young persons are affected (Center for Disease Control, 2010; NZ Ministry of Health, 2012). Physical education (PE) seeks to address obesity and other health issues (Pate, O’Neil, & McIver, 2011). By researching student attitudes toward PE, the efficacy of learning outcomes for students can be improved (Cothran & Ennis, 1999). This mixed methods study involved 125 students from one high school in the US and one in NZ. Results showed that the curricula of each school were greatly varied, while student attitudes were positive toward each programming. Students cared about PE in both countries, largely because of how assessment was tied to the subject. However qualitative data showed that attitudes varied between populations for diverse reasons. Further research in the area of student attitudes toward PE, especially concerning assessment, is recommended

IMPLEMENTATION OF A VERTICALLY INTEGRATED ICE SHEET MOMENTUM BALANCE MODEL

A new high-fidelity ice sheet momentum balance model meant for inclusion in the Glimmer community ice-sheet model is presented. As a component of the Community Earth Systems Model the newly developed momentum balance will directly benefit from ice/ocean and ice/atmosphere coupling efforts occurring elsewhere. The objectives of this thesis are to develop a model which converges quickly (quadratic convergence rates) for non-Newtonian Stokes flow approximations, and to provide a clear and low-level discussion of its derivation, variation and discretization. The model utilizes the Finite Element Method to discretize variational forms of the first variation arising from the Galerkin method and for vertically-integrated Stokes flow. The model employs a hybridization of two commonly used approximations to Stokes flow. It couples the Shallow Shelf Approximation (SSA) and Shallow Ice Approximation (SIA). This approximation is then differentiated symbolically. Efficient sparse matrix formats are manipulated directly to avoid invoking costly sorting routines in the underlying linear solvers. The code was not only developed for standards-compliant FORTRAN 90 compilers but also for automatic differentiation tools. The model is verified against published model intercomparison projects

Archaeological predictive model of southwestern Kansas

Knowledge on the archaeological condition of southwestern Kansas is anomalously low, therefore a high-resolution archaeological predictive model has been constructed for the High Plains region of southwestern Kansas. Using quantitative data about the environment as independent variables, the model was constructed using a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and statistical software. The location of sites was quantitatively related to the environment through a binary logistic regression analysis. The derived regression equation was used to create a unique probability score for each of the 20 million land parcels in the study area. Analysis indicates the model offers a significant increase (30%) over a random classification. 85% of known site locations and 60% of known non-site locations are accurately predicted. In total, the area predicted as site-present comprises 41% of the total study area; within which, the chances of finding a site are 2.15 times as likely as random

A Recipe for Literacy: Making Meaning Through Cake

Within this article, we explore cake artistry as a means of demonstrating a process of meaning-making (Starratt, 1996). We contend that the cakes themselves are tactile examples of literacy events (Heath, 1982) due to the embodiment and relationality present within their design process (Johnson et al., 2020). This article discusses two unique cakes that explore elements of literacy related to storytelling, personal reflection, and emotional expression. We, the authors, strive to position literacy, as explored through cakes, within a post-humanist perspective and provide an opportunity for authentic engagement and humanized/ing actions with meaning-making (Beucher et al., 2019; Garrett et al., 2019; Perry & Medina, 2015). We hope that this article will encourage our readers to think about literacy differently as well as what it means to be “literate” within different professions.  

Foreign Currency for Long-Term Investors

Conventional wisdom holds that conservative investors should avoid exposure to foreign currency risk. Even if they hold foreign equities, they should hedge the currency exposure of these positions and should hold only domestic Treasury bills. This paper argues that the conventional wisdom may be wrong for long-term investors. Domestic bills are risky for long-term investors, because real interest rates vary over time and bills must be rolled over at uncertain future interest rates. This risk can be hedged by holding foreign currency if the domestic currency tends to depreciate when the domestic real interest rate falls, as implied by the theory of uncovered interest parity. Empirically this effect is important and can lead conservative long-term investors to hold more than half their wealth in foreign currency.

Imagery to the Crowd, MapGive, and the CyberGIS: Open Source Innovation in the Geographic and Humanitarian Domains

The MapGive initiative is a State Department project designed to increase the amount of free and open geographic data in areas either experiencing, or at risk of, a humanitarian emergency. To accomplish this, MapGive seeks to link the cognitive surplus and good will of volunteer mappers who freely contribute their time and effort to map areas at risk, with the purchasing power of the United States Government (USG), who can act as a catalyzing force by making updated high resolution commercial satellite imagery available for volunteer mapping. Leveraging the CyberGIS, a geographic computing infrastructure built from open source software, MapGive publishes updated satellite imagery as web services that can be quickly and easily accessed via the internet, allowing volunteer mappers to trace the imagery to extract visible features like roads and buildings without having to process the imagery themselves. The resulting baseline geographic data, critical to addressing humanitarian data gaps, is stored in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) database, a free, editable geographic database for the world under a license that ensures the data will remain open in perpetuity, ensuring equal access to all. MapGive is built upon a legal, policy, and technological framework developed during the Imagery to the Crowd phase of the project. Philosophically, these projects are grounded in the open source software movement and the application of commons-based peer production models to geographic data. These concepts are reviewed, as is a reconception of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) called GIS 2.0

Moral Grandstanding in Public Discourse: Status-Seeking Motives as a Potential Explanatory Mechanism in Predicting Conflict

Public discourse is often caustic and conflict-filled. This trend seems to be particularly evident when the content of such discourse is around moral issues (broadly defined) and when the discourse occurs on social media. Several explanatory mechanisms for such conflict have been explored in recent psychological and social-science literatures. The present work sought to examine a potentially novel explanatory mechanism defined in philosophical literature: Moral Grandstanding. According to philosophical accounts, Moral Grandstanding is the use of moral talk to seek social status. For the present work, we conducted six studies, using two undergraduate samples (Study 1, N = 361; Study 2, N = 356); a sample matched to U.S. norms for age, gender, race, income, Census region (Study 3, N = 1,063); a YouGov sample matched to U.S. demographic norms (Study 4, N = 2,000); and a brief, one-month longitudinal study of Mechanical Turk workers in the U.S. (Study 5, Baseline N = 499, follow-up n = 296), and a large, one-week YouGov sample matched to U.S. demographic norms (Baseline N = 2,519, follow-up n = 1,776). Across studies, we found initial support for the validity of Moral Grandstanding as a construct. Specifically, moral grandstanding motivation was associated with status-seeking personality traits, as well as greater political and moral conflict in daily life

How much can exercise raise creatine kinase level-- and does it matter?

Moderate-intensity exercise (maintaining heart rate between 55% and 90% of maximum) may elevate creatine kinase (CK) to levels that meet the diagnostic criteria for rhabdomyolysis if the exercises involve eccentric muscle contractions, such as weight lifting or downhill running (strength of recommendation [SOR]: C, small observational studies). The clinical significance of exercise-induced elevations in CK is unclear because the renal complications associated with classic rhabdomyolysis haven't been observed