Why Communication is Important: A Rationale for the Centrality of the Study of Communication

This article defends the importance of studying communication. Academic disciplines in higher education are routinely called upon to explain and justify their role in the educational enterprise. Some academic fields such as history and philosophy are more central in the pursuits of liberal arts, while others such as business administration and engineering are more related to career development. The discipline of communication is fairly unique as it crosses these boundaries. As a result, a need exists to provide a rationale for the study of communication. The National Communication Association, in response to requests from communication departments and administrators for evidence supporting the centrality of their discipline, has collected and annotated nearly 100 articles, commentaries, and publications which call attention to the importance of the study of communication in contemporary society. Four of five major themes in the bibliography provide support for the importance of communication education to: the development of the whole person; the improvement of the educational enterprise; being a responsible citizen of the world, both socially and culturally; and, succeeding in one\u27s career and in the business enterprise. A fifth theme highlights the need for communication education to be provided by those who are specialists in its study

Self-conscious emotions in patients suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain: a brief report.

OBJECTIVE: The role of self-conscious emotions (SCEs) including shame, guilt, humiliation and embarrassment are of increasing interest within health. Yet, little is known about SCEs in the experience of chronic pain. This study explored prevalence and experience of SCEs in chronic pain patients compared to controls and assessed the relationship between SCEs and disability in pain patients. DESIGN AND MEASURES: Questionnaire assessment comparing musculoskeletal pain patients (n=64) and pain-free control participants (n=63). Pain was assessed using the McGill Pain Questionnaire; disability, using the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire; and six SCEs derived from three measures (i) Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3 yielding subscales of shame, guilt, externalisation and detachment (ii) The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale and (iii) The Pain Self-Perception Scale assessing mental defeat. RESULTS: Significantly greater levels of shame, guilt, fear of negative evaluation and mental defeat were observed in chronic pain patients compared to controls. In the pain group, SCE variables significantly predicted affective pain intensity; only mental defeat was significantly related to disability. CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the prevalence of negative SCEs and their importance in assessment and management of chronic pain. The role of mood in this relationship is yet to be explored

Temporal and spatial occurrence of thin phytoplankton layers in relation to physical processes

In 1996 three cruises were conducted to simultaneously quantify the fine-scale optical and physical structure of the water column. Data from 120 profiles were used to investigate the temporal occurrence and spatial distribution of thin layers of phytoplankton as they relate to variations in physical processes. Thin layers ranged in thickness from a few centimeters to a few meters. They may extend horizontally for kilometers and persist for days. Thin layers are a recurring feature in the marine environment; they were observed and measured in 54% of our profiles. Physical processes are important in the temporal and spatial distribution of thin layers. Thin layer depth was closely associated with depth and strength of the pycnocline. Over 71% of all thin layers were located at the base of, or within, the pycnocline. The strong statistical relationships between thin layers and physical structure indicate that we cannot understand thin layer dynamics without understanding both local circulation patterns and regional physical forcing

Chiral phase transition and Anderson localization in the Instanton Liquid Model for QCD

We study the spectrum and eigenmodes of the QCD Dirac operator in a gauge background given by an Instanton Liquid Model (ILM) at temperatures around the chiral phase transition. Generically we find the Dirac eigenvectors become more localized as the temperature is increased. At the chiral phase transition, both the low lying eigenmodes and the spectrum of the QCD Dirac operator undergo a transition to localization similar to the one observed in a disordered conductor. This suggests that Anderson localization is the fundamental mechanism driving the chiral phase transition. We also find an additional temperature dependent mobility edge (separating delocalized from localized eigenstates) in the bulk of the spectrum which moves toward lower eigenvalues as the temperature is increased. In both regions, the origin and the bulk, the transition to localization exhibits features of a 3D Anderson transition including multifractal eigenstates and spectral properties that are well described by critical statistics. Similar results are obtained in both the quenched and the unquenched case though the critical temperature in the unquenched case is lower. Finally we argue that our findings are not in principle restricted to the ILM approximation and may also be found in lattice simulations.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figure

Illinois Waterfowl Surveys and Investigations W-43-R-62 Annual Progress Report Period: 1 July 2014 – 30 June 2015

This study addresses the following objectives: 1)Inventory abundance and distribution of waterfowl and other waterbirds (a minimum of 10 species and guilds) during autumn migration at a minimum of 40 sites along the Illinois and central Mississippi rivers; 2) Investigate the ecology of canvasback and lesser scaup during spring migration in the central Illinois River valley (IRV) and Pool 19 of the Mississippi River; 3) Estimate waterfowl and other waterbird population sizes (a minimum of 10 species and guilds) during autumn migration using an aerial quadrat survey in the IRV for comparison with aerial inventories (Objective 1); 4) Determine breeding bird use of a minimum of 10 moist-soil wetlands managed for waterfowl during summer in central Illinois; 5) Investigate the breeding ecology of sandhill cranes during spring and summer in northeastern Illinois; 6) Distribute our findings to site managers and biologists, make recommendations for future management, and draw conclusions relevant to regional conservation planning during the project period as appropriate and requested.Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Contract Number: RC09-13FWUIUCunpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Therapeutic end points for the treatment of atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia by catheter-guided radiofrequency current

AbstractObjectives. The purpose off this prospective study was to test the hypothesis that the elimination of inducible repetitive atrioventricular (AV) node reentry the persistence of slow AV pathway conduction is a valid end point for radiofrequency catheter ablation procedures in patients with supraventricular tachycardia due to AV node reentry.Background. Although modification of AV node physiology by radiofrequency current can eliminate AV node reentrant tachycardia, therapeutic end points that are definitive of a satisfactory result in patients undergoing modification of the slow AV pathway have not been established. Applications of radiofrequency current at selected sites may eliminate all evidence of slow pathway conduction or sufficiently modify the refractory properties of the slow pathway to preclude sustained arrhythmias. Accordingly, total abolition of dual AV node physiology may not be necessary to prevent arrhythmia recurrence.Methods. Radiofrequency catheter ablation of the slow AV pathway was attempted in 59 patients with typical AV node reentry. Tissue ablation was performed with a continuous wave of 500-kHz radiofrequency current. Twenty-five to 35 W was applied for 60 s at the site selected for destruction.Results. Dual AV node physiology was eliminated completely in 35 patients (59%), persisted without inducible AV node reentry in 13 patients (22%) and persisted with inducible single AV reentrant beats in 11 patients (19%). In patients with persistent dual AV node physiology, the maximal difference between the effective refractory period of the fast and slow pathways was reduced from 104 ± 62 ms before the procedure to 37 ± 37 ms after AV conduction had been modified (p < 0.001). During a mean follow-up interval of 15 months (range 4 to 28), only one patient (2%) had a recurrence of the tachycardia.Conclusions. Resulte demonstrate that when complete elimination of dial AV node physiology is difficult, modification of slow pathway conduction to the extent that repetitive AV node reentry cannot be induced is a definitive end point that portends a good prognosis

On the spectral density from instantons in quenched QCD

We investigate the contribution of instantons to the eigenvalue spectrum of the Dirac operator in quenched QCD. The instanton configurations that we use have been derived, elsewhere, from cooled SU(3) lattice gauge fields and, for comparison, we also analyse a random `gas' of instantons. Using a set of simplifying approximations, we find a non-zero chiral condensate. However we also find that the spectral density diverges for small eigenvalues, so that the chiral condensate, at zero quark mass, diverges in quenched QCD. The degree of divergence decreases with the instanton density, so that it is negligible for the smallest number of cooling sweeps but becomes substantial for larger number of cools. We show that the spectral density scales, that finite volume corrections are small and we see evidence for the screening of topological charges. However we also find that the spectral density and chiral condensate vary rapidly with the number of cooling sweeps -- unlike, for example, the topological susceptibility. Whether the problem lies with the cooling or with the identification of the topological charges is an open question. This problem needs to be resolved before one can determine how important is the divergence we have found for quenched QCD.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures (RevTex), substantial revisions; to appear in Phys.Rev.

DDO Photometry of M71: Carbon and Nitrogen Patterns Among Evolving Giants

We present V, B-V, and DDO C(41-42) and C(42-45) photometry for a sample of 75 red giants down to M_V = +2 in the relatively metal-rich Galactic globular cluster M71. The C(41-42) colors reveal a bimodal distribution of CN band strengths generally anticorrelated with CH band strength as measured by the C(42-45) color. Both DDO colors agree well with those found in 47 Tucanae -- a nearby globular cluster of similar metallicity -- and suggest nearly identical C and N abundance patterns among the giants of both clusters. A comparison with synthetic DDO colors demonstrates that little change in surface C or N abundance is required to match the colors of the M71 giants over the entire luminosity range observed. Apparently like 47 Tuc (a cluster of much greater mass and central concentration), M71 exhibits an abundance pattern which cannot be solely the result of internal mixing.Comment: To appear in the Astronomical Journal, November 2001. 17 Pages, 5 Figure

Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Non-Ideal Fluids

A lattice Boltzmann scheme able to model the hydrodynamics of phase separation and two-phase flow is described. Thermodynamic consistency is ensured by introducing a non-ideal pressure tensor directly into the collision operator. We also show how an external chemical potential can be used to supplement standard boundary conditions in order to investigate the effect of wetting on phase separation and fluid flow in confined geometries. The approach has the additional advantage of reducing many of the unphysical discretisation problems common to previous lattice Boltzmann methods.Comment: 11 pages, revtex, 4 Postscript figures, uuencode

Prioritizing Conservation of Ungulate Calving Resources in Multiple-Use Landscapes

BACKGROUND: Conserving animal populations in places where human activity is increasing is an ongoing challenge in many parts of the world. We investigated how human activity interacted with maternal status and individual variation in behavior to affect reliability of spatially-explicit models intended to guide conservation of critical ungulate calving resources. We studied Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus) that occupy a region where 2900 natural gas wells have been drilled. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We present novel applications of generalized additive modeling to predict maternal status based on movement, and of random-effects resource selection models to provide population and individual-based inference on the effects of maternal status and human activity. We used a 2×2 factorial design (treatment vs. control) that included elk that were either parturient or non-parturient and in areas either with or without industrial development. Generalized additive models predicted maternal status (parturiency) correctly 93% of the time based on movement. Human activity played a larger role than maternal status in shaping resource use; elk showed strong spatiotemporal patterns of selection or avoidance and marked individual variation in developed areas, but no such pattern in undeveloped areas. This difference had direct consequences for landscape-level conservation planning. When relative probability of use was calculated across the study area, there was disparity throughout 72-88% of the landscape in terms of where conservation intervention should be prioritized depending on whether models were based on behavior in developed areas or undeveloped areas. Model validation showed that models based on behavior in developed areas had poor predictive accuracy, whereas the model based on behavior in undeveloped areas had high predictive accuracy. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: By directly testing for differences between developed and undeveloped areas, and by modeling resource selection in a random-effects framework that provided individual-based inference, we conclude that: 1) amplified selection or avoidance behavior and individual variation, as responses to increasing human activity, complicate conservation planning in multiple-use landscapes, and 2) resource selection behavior in places where human activity is predictable or less dynamic may provide a more reliable basis from which to prioritize conservation action