Explaining Away A Model of Affective Adaptation

We propose a model of affective adaptation, the processes whereby affective responses weaken after one or more exposures to emotional events. Drawing on previous research, our approach, represented by the acronym AREA, holds that people attend to self-relevant, unexplained events, react emotionally to these events, explain or reach an understanding of the events, and thereby adapt to the events (i.e., they attend less and have weaker emotional reactions to them). We report tests of new predictions about people's reactions to pleasurable events and discuss the implications of the model for how people cope with negative events, experience emotion in different cultures, and other topics.Psycholog

In Blended Courses, What Should Students Do Online?

This presentation gives teachers advice on what to do in blended classrooms and what resources to use in their online classrooms. Ike Shibley, is an assistant professor, associate professor of chemistry at the Penn State Berks campus. Tim Wilson is an assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario in anatomy and cell biology.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/onlineseminars/1023/thumbnail.jp

Anticipating One's Troubles: The Costs and Benefits of Negative Expectations

Although negative expectations may have the benefit of softening the blow when a negative event occurs, they also have the cost of making people feel worse while they are waiting for that event to happen. Three studies suggest that the cost of negative expectations is greater than the benefit. In 2 laboratory experiments and a field study, people felt worse when they were expecting a negative than a positive event; but once the event occurred, their prior expectations had no measurable influence on how they felt. These results suggest that anticipating one's troubles may be a poor strategy for maximizing positive affect.Psycholog

Analysis of the Port of Portland Facility Hinterlands

Most of the United States port authorities delineate their hinterland by the use of freight rate schedules used by inland carriers. The hinterland is defined as that region having favorable rates to and from a port. The use of freight rate schedules can be applied to a) individual commodities or to b) all the commodities moving through a port. The freight rate method is built on the rational man concept. That is, a situation is assumed where there is perfect knowledge and a desire to minimize transportation costs. This assumption does not always coincide with reality. This paper classifies commodities according to the facilities required to handle them. This is most relevant to port authorities who decide what special facilities may be needed. This classification is also highly relevant to the delineation of port hinterlands. If a port does not provide a given facility for loading and unloading, commodities requiring that type of facility for handling cannot move through that port. The delineation of facility hinterlands has two advantages. First, it more closely approximates reality than does the use of freight rates. Second, while it is more time consuming than using freight rates, it does not require expenditures of time and money as large as with the determination of individual commodity hinterlands. Facility hinterland delineation, thus, offers an alternative for port authorities. The Port of Portland has four main groups of facilities for handling imports and exports: dry bulk, break-bulk, containerized cargo and liquid bulk. In addition, the Port of Portland has special import facilities for steel and automobiles, and special export facilities for grain and logs. The major source of data used to obtain the domestic origins and destinations, by tonnage, for each facility group was the 1973 Export and Import Domestic City Origin and Destination Report Quarterly Reports. The origins and destinations are, in most cases, warehousing and distribution points. Therefore, the hinterlands, as identified, are not necessarily ultimate origin and destination hinterlands, but rather they are hinterlands of transshipment points. A port city is a focal point, a gateway, for inbound and outbound cargo. It is expected, therefore, that Portland should have a larger warehousing sector in its economy, than cities which are not ports, which handles a great deal of cargo that does not originate in, nor is destined for, Portland. In an attempt to ascertain the volume, by facility group, of cargo that actually originated in or was destined for Portland, a questionnaire was sent to the exporters and importers who handled cargo originating in or destined for Portland. The questionnaire was sent to all exporters and/or importers who handled 100 tons or more in any given quarter of 1973. The data from the responses to the questionnaires was combined with the original data to delineate the Port of Portland\u27s hinterlands. Edward Ullman\u27s three-factor typology fits the flow of export goods from domestic origins, through the Port of Portland, to foreign destinations. Complementarity, transferability, and intervening opportunity, each represent factors making the northwest quadrant of the United States the Port of Portland\u27s export hinterland. Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming make up the heart of this hinterland to varying degrees generally correlated to distance. The states bordering the hinterland tend to be less important than those in the hinterland, but more important than states even more distant. The three-factor typology, also, fits the flow of import goods from the Port of Portland to domestic destinations. The three factors combine to place the Port of Portland\u27s import hinterland primarily in Oregon and Washington. However, complementarity provides a basis for an extended commodity flow in terms of distance and magnitudes for imports

An Examination of College Students’ Computer Self-Efficacy as Related to Various Demographic Characteristics

Despite extensive computer exposure, today’s students vary in their judgments of their capabilities in using technology, referred to as computer self-efficacy (CSE). A survey of university students revealed highest CSE in word processing skills followed closely by file management and presentation skills. Students reported moderate ability levels in spreadsheet skills and less than moderate skill levels in database management, webpage design, and computer programming. Females tended to report higher CSE in file management and word processing applications, whereas males indicated higher CSE in web page development. Students whose parents did not attend college were likely to have lower CSE in spreadsheet applications, presentation software, and database applications as compared to students whose parents attended college

Measuring College Students’ Technology Selfefficacy

The pervasiveness of computer technology and continuing developments in software, multimedia, and Internet resources have led to the implementation of new teaching and learning methods. Educators committed to the integration of technology into the learning process believe it will expand learning and better prepare students to participate effectively in today’s workplace. Employers demand workers who can not only use technology to complete a variety of work tasks and processes but who can leverage technology to advance the firm’s strategic operations. While many students perceive themselves to be computer competent, research indicates that their preparation is not always complete or adequate. Computer self-efficacy (CSE) refers to individuals’ judgment of their capabilities to use computers in diverse situations (Marakas, Mun, & Johnson, 1998). CSE has been shown to influence an individual’s choice to engage in a technology task and the effort expended to accomplish it (Bouffard-Bourchard, 1990). Researchers have postulated that positive attitudes toward computers, high computer self-efficacy, and low computer anxiety levels can be important factors in helping students learn computer skills and use computers

Electrochemical Solutions for Advanced Life Support

The Oxygen Generating Assembly (OGA) on-board the International Space Station (ISS) employs a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis cell stack to electrochemically dissociate water into its two components oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen is provided to the cabin atmosphere for crew respiration while the hydrogen is delivered to a carbon dioxide reduction system to recover oxygen as water. The design of the OGA evolved over a number of years to arrive at the system solution that is currently operational on ISS. Future manned missions to space will require advanced technologies that eliminate the need for resupply from earth and feature in-situ resource utilization to sustain crew life and to provide useful materials to the crew. The architects planning such missions should consider all potential solutions at their disposal to arrive at an optimal vehicle solution that minimizes crew maintenance time, launch weight, installed volume and energy consumption demands. Skyre is developing new technologies through funding from NASA, the Department of Energy, and internal investment based on PEM technology that could become an integral part of these new vehicle solutions. At varying stages of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) are: an oxygen concentrator and compressor that can separate oxygen from an air stream and provide an enriched oxygen resource for crew medical use and space suit recharge without any moving parts in the pure oxygen stream; a regenerative carbon dioxide removal system featuring a PEM-based sorbent regenerator; a carbon dioxide reduction system that electrochemically produces organic compounds that could serve as fuels or as a useful intermediary to more beneficial compounds; and an electrochemical hydrogen separator and compressor for hydrogen recycle. The technical maturity of these projects is presented along with pertinent performance test data that could be beneficial in future study efforts

The Surprising Power of Neighborly Advice

Two experiments revealed that (i) people can more accurately predict their affective reactions to a future event when they know how a neighbor in their social network reacted to the event than when they know about the event itself and (ii) people do not believe this. Undergraduates made more accurate predictions about their affective reactions to a 5-minute speed date (n = 25) and to a peer evaluation (n = 88) when they knew only how another undergraduate had reacted to these events than when they had information about the events themselves. Both participants and independent judges mistakenly believed that predictions based on information about the event would be more accurate than predictions based on information about how another person had reacted to it.Psycholog

Influences on consumption of soft drinks and fast foods in adolescents

Soft drink and fast food are energy dense foodstuffs that are heavily marketed to adolescents, and are likely to be important in terms of risk of obesity. This study sought to examine the influences on soft drink and fast food consumption among adolescents as part of a cross-sectional survey of 2,719 adolescents (aged 11-16) from 93 randomly selected schools in New South Wales, Australia. Students provided information on soft drink and fast food consumption, and responded to statements examining influences over consumption. Over half of the boys and more than one third of the girls reported drinking soft drink daily, and consumption peaked in Grade 8 students. A quarter of students reported choosing soft drinks instead of water or milk, and around 40% agreed that soft drink was usually available in their homes. Availability in the home and drinking soft drinks with meals was most strongly associated with consumption in all age groups. Fast food consumption was higher among boys than girls in all age groups. Convenience and value for money yielded the strongest associations with fast foodconsumption in boys, while preferring fast food to meals at home and preferring to &ldquo;upsize&rdquo; meals were most strongly associated with consumption in girls. Interventions to reduce consumption of soft drinks should target availability in both the home and school environment by removing soft drinks and replacing them with more nutritive beverages. Fast food outlets should be encouraged to provide a greater range of healthy and competitively priced options in reasonable portions.<br /

Arrangement of sympathetic fibers within the human common peroneal nerve: Implications for microneurography

Recently, interest has grown in the firing patterns of individual or multiunit action potential firing patterns in human muscle sympathetic nerve recordings using microneurography. Little is known, however, about sympathetic fiber distribution in human lower limb nerves that will affect the multiunit recordings. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the sympathetic fiber distribution within the human common peroneal nerve using immunohistochemical techniques (tyrosine hydroxylase, avidin-biotin complex technique). Five-micrometer transverse and 10-μm longitudinal sections, fixed in formaldehyde, were obtained from the peroneal nerve that had been harvested from three human cadavers (83 ± 11 yr) within 24 h of death. Samples of rat adrenal gland and brain served as controls. Sympathetic fiber arrangement varied between left and right nerves of the same donor, and between donors. However, in general, sympathetic fibers were dispersed throughout ∼25-38 fascicles of the peroneal nerve. The fibers were grouped in bundles of ∼2-44 axons or expressed individually throughout the fascicles, and the distribution was skewed toward smaller bundles with median and interquartile ratio values of 5 and 1 axons/bundle, respectively. These findings confirm the bundled organization of sympathetic axons within the peroneal nerve and provide the anatomical basis for outcomes in microneurographic studies. Copyright © 2013 the American Physiological Society