The corporate image of the public relations man: the pr man as seen by top-level business executives in the three largest New England cities

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Evaluating visitor experiences with interactive art

The Music Room is an interactive installation that allows visitor to compose classical music by moving throughout a space. The distance between them and their average speed maps the emotionality of music: in particular, distance influences the pleasantness of the music, while speed influences its intensity. This paper focuses on the evaluation of visitors' experience with The Music Room by examining log-data, video footages, interviews, and questionnaires, as collected in two public exhibitions of the installation. We examined this data to the identify the factors that fostered the engagement and to understand how players appropriated the original design idea. Reconsidering our design assumptions against behavioural data, we noticed a number of unexpected behaviours, which induced us to make some considerations on design and evaluation of interactive art

Homeland Security and the Police Mission

The terrorist attacks on America are seen as a pivotal period for the nation and for policing. They have thrust policing into a new mission that will have a wide ranging impact on the police role, organizational strategies, staffing, training and policy. State, local and tribal police are now at the forefront of Homeland Security activities, yet there remains a great deal of uncertainty about their mission.The ramp-up efforts by federal and state government are reminiscent of the staging for civil defense in the 1960\u27s. As a result of 9/11, there has been an invigoration for cities and towns to develop response plans for any localized terrorist incidents. The safety of the public is important and falls to government agencies.Community policing was intended to encourage community input and involvement. As communities and our country attempt to put safeguards in place and raise awareness, community and business leaders, and neighborhood groups should be enlisted to assist. The tenets of community policing can be utilized to plan and engage the community as police agencies endeavor to respond to a new mission.Using a sample of New England police agencies and police practitioners, this research will query whether police agencies are changing their organizational mission to integrate Homeland Security activities. The researchers used several methods to analyze police agencies and their role in Homeland Security. First, examining police agency mission statements through content analysis, the authors found little evidence of a formal Homeland Security focus. This research utilized a web-based survey tool to elicit officer perspectives on Homeland Security objectives

Analysis of the Racial and Ethnic Representation of Adult Male Inmates in Large Jail Isolation Units in the United States

Black males are overrepresented in US large jails, and this overrepresentation may extend into their isolations units, or DHUs. While overrepresentation in prison populations has been explored and well documented in academic literature. Far less is known about overrepresentation in jail populations where prisoners serve far less time, and in some cases, may not yet be convicted of crimes. The study analyzed the classification of adult male prisoners to DHU within large jails. This central research question of the study primarily focused on exploring the causes and prevalence of overrepresentation in DHUs in jails based on race or ethnicity. The theoretical construct of this study was based on Foucault’s (1975) theory of panopticism. The purpose of this quantitative study was first to document whether an overrepresentation problem existed among US large jails. The sample for this study included wardens or directors of 40 large jails across the US. Data were collected by an electronic survey and were analyzed by logistic regression. Findings indicate a statistically significant relationship between race and ethnicity and the potential placement in DHUs, particularly among adult Black male populations. This statistical finding indicates that Foucault’s panopticism theory does not address correctional staff training and potential bias

Reflections about Future Directions for the Basic Communication Course and Basic Course Scholarship

The importance of the basic communication course is underscored by a somewhat overused but decidedly meaningful phrase—it’s our discipline’s front porch! While serving as the president of the National Communication Association, Beebe (2013) coined that phrase in reference to the basic course serving as the critical point-of-entry to the communication discipline, introducing students to communication studies for the first time. More recently, others (Bertelsen & Goodboy, 2009; Morreale et al., 2022; Myers et al., 2021) have pointed to the increasing presence of the basic course in general education and the fact that it is one of most frequently taught courses in most communication departments. Against this backdrop, it may be time for communication scholars to engage in public conversations about the need for reflection and dialogue about the most promising future for this critical course in the communication curriculum. At the core of these conversations would be a concern for the basic course changing with changing times in order to make its finest contributions to the discipline, to higher education, and, more importantly, to our students

Risky choices in strategic environments: An experimental investigation of a real options game

Managers frequently make decisions under conditions of fundamental uncertainty due the stochastic nature of the outcomes and competitive rivalry. In this study, we experimentally test a theoretical model under fundamental uncertainty and competitive rivalry by designing a sequential interaction game between two players. The first mover can decide either to choose a sure outcome that assigns a risky outcome to the second mover or to pass the decision to the second mover. If the second player gets the chance to decide, she can choose between a sure outcome, conditioned by the assignment of a risky payoff to the first mover, or the sharing of the risky outcome with the first mover. We then introduce the following experimental treatments: (i) relegating second-mover participants to a purely passive role and substituting them with a random device (absence of strategic uncertainty - that is, when the source of uncertainty is a human subject); (ii) providing information about the behaviour of second-mover counterparts; and (iii) completely removing the second-mover participant.We find that decision makers are sensitive to the presence or absence of strategic uncertainty; indeed, in the presence of strategic uncertainty, first movers more often diverge from the behaviour predicted by the model. Given our experimental results, the theoretical model needs to be revisited. The standard model of monetary payoff-maximizing agents should be substituted by one of decision makers who maximize a utility function which includes the psychological cost induced by strategic uncertainty. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V

The Pracademic and Academic in Criminal Justice Education: A Qualitative Analysis

Over the past several years, a few hundred colleagues involved in criminal justice education have participated in panel discussions and roundtables to discuss the trials and issues that have been observed by practitioners turned academics, or “pracademics.” Some complained of having difficulty breaking into academia. A debate has occurred in a number of colleges and universities over the benefit of having faculty with traditional academic credentials versus hiring non-traditional scholars with a blend of educational and practical experience. Similarly, there have been lively discussions over the appropriateness of a J.D. or professional doctorate as opposed to a Ph.D. in criminal justice. This debate started in an article in ACJS Today (2002) and continued in subsequent publications. It is believed that there is importance, benefit and relevance to incorporating practical experience on college and university campuses. In academic program after program, internships, externships, observation, and practicums have become essential in preparing students for the real world

Corneal thickness in children with growth hormone deficiency: The effect of GH treatment.

Abstract OBJECTIVE: The eye represents a target site for GH action, although few data are available in patients with GH deficiency (GHD). Our aim was to evaluate central corneal thickness (CCT) and intraocular pressure (IOP) values in GHD children to assess the role played by GHD or GH treatment on these parameters. DESIGN: In 74 prepubertal GHD children (51M, 23F, aged 10.4\ub12.4years) we measured CCT and IOP before and after 12months of treatment. A baseline evaluation was also made in 50 healthy children matched for age, gender and body mass index. The study outcome considered CCT and IOP during treatment and their correlations with biochemical and auxological data. RESULTS: No difference in CCT and IOP between GHD children at baseline and controls was found (all p>0.005). GHD children after 12months of therapy showed greater CCT (564.7\ub113.1\u3bcm) than both baseline values (535.7\ub117\u3bcm; p<0.001) and control subjects (536.2\ub112.5\u3bcm; p<0.001), with a concomitantly higher corrected mean IOP (15.6\ub10.7mmHg; p<0.001) than both baseline (12.5\ub10.8mmHg; p<0.001) and controls (12.3\ub10.5mmHg; p<0.001), without correlation with auxological and biochemical parameters. CONCLUSIONS: 12months of GH treatment in children with GHD, regardless of auxological and biochemical data, affect CCT and IOP. Our findings suggest careful ocular evaluation in these patients to prevent undesirable side effects during the follow-up