Embracing the Unexpected: A Quasi-experiment to Explore the Effects of Power and Gender on the Decision to Reciprocate a Hug-Or Not-in the Workplace

In business, the ability to develop rapport with a potential exchange partner can significantly impact the outcome of a negotiation. Although non-verbal communication is a key factor in relationship-building, there is little research on use of touch in business, and even less about hugging, even though hugging is becoming more common in the US. To explore hugging as a nonverbal form of communication in the workplace, the researcher adopted a quasi-experimental design informed by Social Exchange Theory (SET). During the experiment, power and dyadic gender composition were manipulated to study their effects on a “hugee’s” decision to reciprocate a hug, or not, in a business setting. Following a scenario-based encounter between subject and confederate, the subjects answered a series of questions about themselves and their experience. This research shows that female research participants are more likely than male participants to reciprocate a hug offered by a same-gender exchange partner; that the power (status) of a “hugger” does not significantly influence whether or not a research participant will reciprocate a hug offered by an exchange partner; that the gender of the research participant does not moderate the effect of power of the exchange partner such that power will have a greater effect on female participants than male participants and that individual traits of Emotional Sensitivity and Social Flexibility do not predict hugging in the workplace

HTC Scientific Computing in a Distributed Cloud Environment

This paper describes the use of a distributed cloud computing system for high-throughput computing (HTC) scientific applications. The distributed cloud computing system is composed of a number of separate Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds that are utilized in a unified infrastructure. The distributed cloud has been in production-quality operation for two years with approximately 500,000 completed jobs where a typical workload has 500 simultaneous embarrassingly-parallel jobs that run for approximately 12 hours. We review the design and implementation of the system which is based on pre-existing components and a number of custom components. We discuss the operation of the system, and describe our plans for the expansion to more sites and increased computing capacity

The Role of Executive Functions in Classroom Instruction of Students with Learning Disabilities

In this article, we describe executive functions and their role in determining student academic success. We focus on the executive function difficulties of students with learning disabilities and explain how executive dysfunctions can negatively affect different academic areas (e.g., reading comprehension, mathematics). Finally, we offer ways teachers can modify their instruction to better address the diverse needs of students with learning disabilities who are struggling to perform various academic tasks

Linking Executive Functions and Written Language Intervention for Students with Language Learning Disorders

Purpose: School based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) has an important role in the identification and intervention of problems in oral and written language. In collaboration with classroom teachers, they often are asked to develop intervention plans that include evidence-based practices for those students with language learning disabilities (LLD) who have language deficits. The purpose of this article is to bridge theory to practice by explaining an evidence-based instructional model, the self-regulated strategy development model (SRSD), for SLPs to consider as they deliver instruction to support the written language deficits of students with LLD. Method: The authors examine critically the relationship between executive functions (EFs) and written expression. They discuss the EFs researchers have identified as important to students’ development of written expression and the difficulties students with LLD encounter in completing written expression tasks. The authors outline a model of EFs in relationship to the Not-So-Simple view of writing model which provides a framework for viewing the multiple components of the writing system. Conclusion: Based on the review of the literature, the SRSD is an effective evidence-based teaching model for instructing students with LLD that integrates and scaffolds the EFs essential for developing written expression skills

Sparrows can't sing : East End kith and kinship in the 1960s

Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963) was the only feature film directed by the late and much lamented Joan Littlewood. Set and filmed in the East End, where she worked for many years, the film deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. Littlewood’s career spanned documentary (radio recordings made with Ewan MacColl in the North of England in the 1930s) to directing for the stage and the running of the Theatre Royal in London’s Stratford East, often selecting material which aroused memories in local audiences (Leach 2006: 142). Many of the actors trained in her Theatre Workshop subsequently became better known for their appearances on film and television. Littlewood herself directed hardly any material for the screen: Sparrows Can’t Sing and a 1964 series of television commercials for the British Egg Marketing Board, starring Theatre Workshop’s Avis Bunnage, were rare excursions into an area of practice which she found constraining and unamenable (Gable 1980: 32). The hybridity and singularity of Littlewood’s feature may answer, in some degree, for its subsequent neglect. However, Sparrows Can’t Sing makes a significant contribution to a group of films made in Britain in the 1960s which comment generally on changes in the urban and social fabric. It is especially worthy of consideration, I shall argue, for the use which Littlewood made of a particular community’s attitudes – sentimental and critical – to such changes and for its amalgamation of an attachment to documentary techniques (recording an aural landscape on location) with a preference for nonnaturalistic delivery in performance

The sonographic digital portfolio: a longitudinal ultrasound image tracking program

BACKGROUND: Ultrasonography (US) at the medical student level is developing. As clinical skills and simulation centers expand, US equipment miniaturizes, and more students are exposed to ultrasound; a digital portfolio comprised of US images and videos may be useful in demonstrating experience and possibly competency. METHODS: Medical students participated in US curricula consisting of didactics and hands-on training. From 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2008, student images and videos were saved. Total images and videos were evaluated and catalogued. RESULTS: A total of 10,074 images and 1,227 videos were saved during the 2-year period. For the academic year 2006 to 2007, 159 medical students obtained 3,641 of the images (84.9%) and 270 of the videos (86.0%). First year students obtained 778 images and 20 videos; second year students, 1,174 images and 64 videos; third year students, 211 images and 20 videos; and fourth year students, 1,478 images and 166 videos. For the academic year 2007 to 2008, 222 medical students obtained 4,340 images (75%) and 619 videos (67.8%). First year students obtained 624 images and 109 videos; second year students, 555 images and 81 videos; third year students, 132 images and 14 videos; and fourth year students, 3,029 images and 415 videos. CONCLUSIONS: The ultrasound digital portfolio allows medical students to collate and document their ultrasound experience. Currently, there is no requirement for ultrasound training, documentation of competency, or minimum numbers of US exams for medical education. The ultrasound digital portfolio may be a useful tool in documenting ultrasound proficiency

Ensayo de una metodología innovadora para la detección de masas polimetálicas profundas: modelo geológico y exploración geotérmica preliminares de la Masa Valverde (Huelva).

Se presentan los resultados provisionales de los trabajos iniciales realizados para el Proyecto Innovative Geothermal Methodology to detect deep blind Polymetallic Ore Bodies, financiado por la CE Y co-financiado por DGICYT y organizaciones participantes. Los principales objetivos de este Proyecto son la cuantificación de los efectos térmicos "in situ" de masas polimetálicas profundas a fin de desarrollar nuevos métodos geotérmicos específicos que puedan detectar depósitos no aflorantes. Dichos métodos deberían proporcionar, previsiblemente, un procedimiento rápido y barato para la detección superficial de cuerpos profundos, midiendo perfiles térmicos en sondeos cortos. La exploración geotérmica permite, a diferencia de otros métodos (por ejemplo gravimetría), discriminar anomalías significativas. Para detectar pequeñas anomalías de temperatura (teniendo en cuenta que el efecto térmico decrece rápidamente hacia la superficie), la resolución térmica medida debe ser del orden de O,001ºC. Se han calibrado nuevos termistores muy sensibles en el Laboratoire National d'Essais (LNE) de París para obtener la máxima sensibilidad en el intervalo de temperaturas considerado (lO a 60ºC). Se miden conductividades térmicas sobre testigos con una precisión del 5% y una reproductibilidad del 2%, que permiten determinar las anomalías del gradiente de temperatura relacionadas con las litologías. Para poner a punto el método, se modelizarán las medidas y se compararán con la realidad de cuerpos conocidos, a fin de establecer un modelo fiable y de aplicación general. Esta metodología se ensaya en primer lugar en la MV (Masa Valverde, Huelva), descubierta y reconocida mediante sondeos por la E.N. Adaro, a fin de partir de un modelo suficientemente preciso para la modelización geotérmica. Los trabajos geológicos realizados integran observaciones de campo, examen y desmuestres de testigos de sondeos, geoquímica, geología estructural y estudio de testigos por diversas técnicas como petrografía, microscopía de menas, DRX, MEB, Microsonda Electrónica, etc. A pesar de la profundidad (en torno a los 600 m.l y de la complejidad de la estructura de MV puesta de manifiesto por el presente estudio, los resultados del primer año de investigación geológica -objeto de esta comunicación-, conducen a un modelo provisional que sirve de base a la interpretación de los datos térmicos. Dicho modelo difiere de los anteriormente conocidos en aspectos como: la posición, definición e interpretación de ciertos tramos litológicos; la demostración de muy frecuentes contactos tectónicos acompañados de procesos de deformación dúctil a veces muy intensa; la identificación de fallas o cabalgamientos que definen unidades independientes, entre las cuales los tramos litológicos, incluidos los cuerpos mineralizados, no son correlaciona bies; la estructura del cuerpo mineralizado, caracterizada por una superposición de escamas imbricadas con geometría antiformal, resultado de procesos tectónicos relacionados con la Tectónica de cabalgamientos de la región y recientemente demostrados -ITGE- en la parte española de la FPI (Faja Pirítica Ibérica). Los resultados provisionales arrojan, pues, un resultado coherente desde las diversas perspectivas de trabajo, particularmente por lo que respecta a los modelos geotérmico y geológico - geométrico, y permiten albergar fundadas esperanzas en una rápida puesta a punto del método, para su aplicación en exploración

Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Balloon Flight Data Handling Overview

The GLAST Balloon Flight Engineering Model (BFEM) represents one of 16 towers that constitute the Large Area Telescope (LAT), a high-energy (>20 MeV) gamma-ray pair-production telescope being built by an international partnership of astrophysicists and particle physicists for a satellite launch in 2006. The prototype tower consists of a Pb/Si pair-conversion tracker (TKR), a CsI hodoscopic calorimeter (CAL), an anti-coincidence detector (ACD) and an autonomous data acquisition system (DAQ). The self-triggering capabilities and performance of the detector elements have been previously characterized using positron, photon and hadron beams. External target scintillators were placed above the instrument to act as sources of hadronic showers. This paper provides a comprehensive description of the BFEM data-reduction process, from receipt of the flight data from telemetry through event reconstruction and background rejection cuts. The goals of the ground analysis presented here are to verify the functioning of the instrument and to validate the reconstruction software and the background-rejection scheme.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in IEEE Transacations on Nuclear Science, August 200