Paleoethnobotany of the Late Woodland Mason Phase in the Elk and Duck River Valleys, Tennessee

A substantial sample of paleobotanical residues from two Late Woodland Mason phase components in southeastern Middle Tennessee were examined. The data were analyzed to determine what plants were available to Mason populations, which of those plants were utilized, the local geographic areas exploited, and the impact of man\u27s procurement practices on the environment. Inferences derived from paleobotanical analysis are used to suggest a pattern of Mason plant utilization that can be integrated with other subsystems to provide definitive statements concerning the cultural whole. These statements provide a basis for comparing Mason with other cultural manifestations in the local cultural sequence of the Eastern Highland Rim

A Pedagogical Guide to Teaching an Interpersonal Communication Course

This forum article focuses on the instruction of an interpersonal communication course. Interpersonal communication courses are widely included in undergraduate communication curriculum and can be fundamental to student development. The authors provide foundational material and various content areas generally included in such a course. The authors also provide various applied assignments and issues to consider when teaching an interpersonal communication course

Hedonic versus Eudaimonic Conceptions of Well-Being: Evidence of Differential Associations with Self-Reported Well-Being

Conceptions of well-being are cognitive representations of the nature and experience of well-being. These conceptions can be described generally by the degree to which hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions are emphasized as important aspects of the experience of well-being. In two studies, the prediction that eudaimonic dimensions of individual conceptions of well-being are more robustly associated with self-reported well-being than hedonic dimensions was investigated. Correlational analyses indicated that both hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions were associated with well-being, with more robust associations observed between the eudaimonic dimension and each measure of well-being. In several regression analyses, only the eudaimonic dimension significantly predicted well-being, with the hedonic dimension failing to account for unique variance in well-being beyond that predicted by the eudaimonic dimension. Results thus generally suggest that conceptualizing well-being in eudaimonic terms may be relatively more important for positive psychological functioning

Measuring Lay Conceptions of Well-Being: The Beliefs About Well-Being Scale

A number of explicit conceptions of well-being have been provided by philosophers and psychologists, but little is known about laypersons’ conceptions of well-being. Two studies investigating the content and measurement of lay conceptions of well-being are presented. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic procedures, the 16-item Beliefs about Well-Being Scale (BWBS) was developed to measure lay conceptions of well-being along four theoretically-meaningful dimensions: (1) the Experience of Pleasure, (2) Avoidance of Negative Experience, (3) Self-Development, and (4) Contribution to Others. Initial evidence concerning the reliability and validity of the BWBS indicated that this new scale has acceptable psychometric properties. In both studies, associations between each subscale, representing the above four dimensions, and multiple self-report measures of experienced well-being were also examined. Each subscale was significantly associated with well-being, with Self-Development and Contribution to Others indicating stronger associations with measures of well-being than either Experience of Pleasure or Avoidance of Negative Experience. Implications for future research using this economical new scale are discussed

The Effect of Contact With Natural Environments on Positive and Negative Affect: A Meta-Analysis

A growing body of empirical research suggests that brief contact with natural environments improves emotional well-being. The current study synthesizes this body of research using meta-analytic techniques and assesses the mean effect size of exposure to natural environments on both positive and negative affect. Thirty-two studies with a total of 2,356 participants were included. Across these studies, exposure to natural environments was associated with a moderate increase in positive affect and a smaller, yet consistent, decrease in negative affect relative to comparison conditions. Significant heterogeneity was found for the effect of nature on positive affect, and type of emotion assessment, type of exposure to nature, location of study, and mean age of sample were found to moderate this effect. The implications of these findings for existing theory and research are discussed, with particular emphasis placed on potential avenues for fruitful future research examining the effects of nature on well-being

Nature Connectedness Moderates the Effect of Nature Exposure on Explicit and Implicit Measures of Emotion

Previous research indicates that both short-term and long-term exposure to natural environments is associated with higher levels of emotional well-being. However, less research has examined whether person-related factors may impact the salutogenic effects of nature. In the current study, we examined whether trait-level nature connectedness moderates the effect of exposure to nature on explicit and implicit measures of affect. Participants (n = 89) completed baseline measurements of trait nature connectedness and affective state. Approximately two weeks later, participants viewed a lab-based immersive simulation of either a natural or built environment and then again completed measures of affective state. Findings indicated that trait nature connectedness moderated the effect of nature on affect, with more positive outcomes of nature exposure observed among those high in nature connectedness. These findings suggest that interacting with nature may be especially beneficial for those who already feel a strong sense of connectedness to the natural environment

PrivacyFL: A simulator for privacy-preserving and secure federated learning

Federated learning is a technique that enables distributed clients to collaboratively learn a shared machine learning model while keeping their training data localized. This reduces data privacy risks, however, privacy concerns still exist since it is possible to leak information about the training dataset from the trained model's weights or parameters. Setting up a federated learning environment, especially with security and privacy guarantees, is a time-consuming process with numerous configurations and parameters that can be manipulated. In order to help clients ensure that collaboration is feasible and to check that it improves their model accuracy, a real-world simulator for privacy-preserving and secure federated learning is required. In this paper, we introduce PrivacyFL, which is an extensible, easily configurable and scalable simulator for federated learning environments. Its key features include latency simulation, robustness to client departure, support for both centralized and decentralized learning, and configurable privacy and security mechanisms based on differential privacy and secure multiparty computation. In this paper, we motivate our research, describe the architecture of the simulator and associated protocols, and discuss its evaluation in numerous scenarios that highlight its wide range of functionality and its advantages. Our paper addresses a significant real-world problem: checking the feasibility of participating in a federated learning environment under a variety of circumstances. It also has a strong practical impact because organizations such as hospitals, banks, and research institutes, which have large amounts of sensitive data and would like to collaborate, would greatly benefit from having a system that enables them to do so in a privacy-preserving and secure manner