8,287 research outputs found
Oral Communication Apprehension and Its Relationship to Language Achievement and Attitudes Toward the Language Arts
This study examined the occurrence of oral communication apprehension
(OCA) among 547 sixth grade students in two Maryland schools. The
focus was on the relationship between OCA and language achievement, as
well as attitudes towards the language arts including sex differences.
The Personal Report of Communication Fear Scale (McCroskey, 1977)
was administered to categorize the subjects into five OCA levels - Low,
Moderately Low, Moderate, Moderately High, and High. The scores gained
on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills - Language Subtest were used to assess
students' levels of language achievement, and their attitudes toward the
language arts were measured by their scores on the Attitudes Toward the
Language Arts Scale (Arlin-Hills)
Frequencies and percentages were computed for estimating differences
in the occurrence of oral communication apprehension among the groups and
sexes while Chi-square analysis was used for testing significance of sex
differences. Two-way ANOVA and Scheffe test for testing significance of
sex differences in language achievement and attitudes to the language arts, as well as one-way ANOVA and intercorrelations of the scores of
the PRCF and the two other measures were done to assess relationships
between these variables.
The following were the findings:
1. The High OCA group consisted of 15 percent of the sample, the
Low 16 percent and the three combined Moderate OCA groups 69 percent.
2. Sex differences in the occurrence of OCA at each level were of
no statistical significance, but slightly more girls than boys were
highly apprehensive about oral communication.
3. The Low and Moderate OCA girls' groups scored significantly
higher in language achievement than boys in these groups.
4. Sex differences in attitudes toward the language arts were not
significant.
5. There was a relationship between OCA and language achievement
indicated by a statistically significant difference among the five group
means and the high apprehensives scored below the sample mean, while the
low apprehensives scored above.
6. There was no relationship between OCA and attitudes towards the
language arts as there was no statistically significant difference among
the five OCA group means for the attitude scale
Binge drinking: a confused concept and its contemporary history
Binge drinking is a matter of current social, political and media concern. It has a long-term, but also a recent, history. This paper discusses the contemporary history of the concept of binge drinking. In recent years there have been significant changes in how binge drinking is defined and conceptualised. Going on a ‘binge’ used to mean an extended period (days) of heavy drinking, while now it generally refers to a single drinking session leading to intoxication. We argue that the definitional change is related to the shifts in the focus of alcohol policy and alcohol science, in particular in the last two decades, and also in the role of the dominant interest groups. The paper is a case study in the relationship between science and policy. We explore key themes, raise questions and point to a possible agenda for future research
The normalisation of binge drinking? An historical and cross cultural investigation with implications for action
Binge drinking is a matter of current social, media and political concern, rarely out of the headlines and a focus of policy activity. Discussion of binge drinking has focussed on the activities of young people and it is believed to have resulted in significant harm to individuals and to communities. Binge drinking is sometimes portrayed as a recent phenomenon but it has a history and concern about it is not new. This project aimed to set the phenomenon of binge drinking in its historical cultural and contemporary context by considering: historical and anthropological perspectives; the definition and measurement of binge drinking; the contemporary situation in cross national perspective. The overall aim is to draw lessons for policy through the interaction of social science and historical perspectives
"Some of us need to be taken care of": young adults' perspectives on support and help in drug reducing interventions in coercive contexts in Denmark and the UK
This paper provides an account of young people’s experiences of and perspectives on help and support in drug reducing interventions. It is based on interviews with young people age 14–25 who were in contact with the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and, at the same time, participated in a drug reducing intervention. The interview data forms part of the EU funded EPPIC project. Two main themes emerged from the young peoples’ accounts that cut across different types of interventions and social systems in both countries. The first revolves around the ‘system’ of welfare, criminal justice, health and educational services and the barriers young people encountered in navigating the system to find help. The second revolves around the young people’s experiences with professionals, including what they appreciated and what they found problematic in professionals’ approach to them. Basing our analysis on data from two different countries, we are able to emphasize similarities in the young peoples’ perspectives, despite being enrolled in different drug reducing and CJS interventions. The insights gained indicate a need for systems and service changes that can facilitate a better balance between building individual resilience and providing appropriate, timely and adequate support within a ‘resilience-building environmen
Ages of White Dwarf-Red Subdwarf Systems
We provide the first age estimates for two recently discovered white
dwarf-red subdwarf systems, LHS 193AB and LHS 300AB. These unusual systems
provide a new opportunity for linking the reliable age estimates for the white
dwarfs to the (measurable) metallicities of the red subdwarfs. We have obtained
precise photometry in the bands and spectroscopy covering
from 6000\AA to 9000\AA for the two new systems, as well as for a comparison
white dwarf-main sequence red dwarf system, GJ 283 AB. Using model grids
available in the literature, we estimate the cooling age as well as
temperature, surface gravity, mass, progenitor mass and {\it total} lifetimes
of the white dwarfs. The results indicate that the two new systems are probably
ancient thick disk objects with ages of at least 6-9 Gyr. We also conduct
searches of red dwarf and white dwarf compendia from SDSS data and the
L{\'e}pine Shara Proper Motion (LSPM) catalog for additional common proper
motion white dwarf-red subdwarf systems. Only seven new candidate systems are
found, which indicates the rarity of these systems.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap
Superposition as memory: unlocking quantum automatic complexity
Imagine a lock with two states, "locked" and "unlocked", which may be
manipulated using two operations, called 0 and 1. Moreover, the only way to
(with certainty) unlock using four operations is to do them in the sequence
0011, i.e., where . In this scenario one might think that the
lock needs to be in certain further states after each operation, so that there
is some memory of what has been done so far. Here we show that this memory can
be entirely encoded in superpositions of the two basic states "locked" and
"unlocked", where, as dictated by quantum mechanics, the operations are given
by unitary matrices. Moreover, we show using the Jordan--Schur lemma that a
similar lock is not possible for .
We define the semi-classical quantum automatic complexity of a
word as the infimum in lexicographic order of those pairs of nonnegative
integers such that there is a subgroup of the projective unitary
group PU with and with such that, in terms of a
standard basis and with , we have
and for all with . We show that is
unbounded and not constant for strings of a given length. In particular, and
.Comment: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, UCNC (Unconventional Computation
and Natural Computation) 201
Emerging Issues in Micro Finance Banks in Nigeria
Microfinance is an economic development strategy intended to provide financial services such as credit, savings, micro insurance micro leasing and payment services to the poor and low income client. This paper shall be dealing with emerging issues in microfinance banks in Nigeria. This paper is divided into eleven sections. Introduction, microfinance concept and needs, characteristics and ownership of microfinance banks microfinance banking in Nigeria will be discussed. The paper also discusses functions and number of licensed MFB’s, forms of lending and microfinancing challenges. This paper concludes by recommending measures for improvement of microfinancing services in Nigeria
Process development exploiting competitive adsorption-based displacement effects in monoclonal antibody aggregate removal—A new high-throughput screening procedure for membrane chromatography
Universal Mandelbrot Set as a Model of Phase Transition Theory
The study of Mandelbrot Sets (MS) is a promising new approach to the phase
transition theory. We suggest two improvements which drastically simplify the
construction of MS. They could be used to modify the existing computer programs
so that they start building MS properly not only for the simplest families.
This allows us to add one more parameter to the base function of MS and
demonstrate that this is not enough to make the phase diagram connectedComment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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