Person to Person in Costa Rica

While still in the midst of their study abroad experiences, students at Linfield College write reflective essays. Their essays address issues of cultural similarity and difference, compare lifestyles, mores, norms, and habits between their host countries and home, and examine changes in perceptions about their host countries and the United States. In this essay, David Mack describes his observations during his study abroad program at Centro Cultural e Histórico José Figueres Ferrer, in San Ramón, Costa Rica

Core-periphery analysis: a tale of two nations

Bias, unreliability and omission have been documented in traditional sources of trade data; the lack of service data in trade statistics is the most frequently cited shortcoming. Current trade liberalization is likely to exacerbate these deficiencies. This paper develops and applies a location quotient based methodology for analysing core-periphery dualism, thus obviating the use of trade data. Our application to the European Union shows agglomeration in core areas of high technology, large scale manufacturing, and producer service industries. Peripheral countries are shown to specialize in agriculture, extractives, low technology manufacturing, and standardized production. Detailed examination of two peripheral economies, Ireland and Denmark, finds that each departs from the mean of peripheral nations. A comparison of proxied trade data to actual trade data indicates that the location quotient method is a statistically viable means of proxying trade patterns

Personality, payoff information and behaviour in a two-person bargaining game

Previous studies of the influence of personality on behaviour in experimental games have provided conflicting and inconclusive results. The present investigation was designed to search on a broad front for personality correlates of behaviour in a two-person bargaining game, the one used being a derivation of the Deutsch and Krauss Trucking Game. Five personality tests, covering fifty-three personality traits, were administered to 192 undergraduate students attending courses at The University of Stirling, and from these the experimental groups were randomly chosen, the only constraint being the sex of the subjects. The tests were The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, The Guilford/Zimmerman Temperament Survey, The Study of Values Test, The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, and The Test of Social Insight. The trucking game was played for 30 trials by two groups of subjects, each containing 24 male dyads and 24 female dyads, under two experimental conditions: Condition I, where subjects had access to full information regarding the other's payoffs, and Condition II, where only incomplete information of the other's payoffs was available. It was hypothesized that behaviour in the game would be influenced by (i) amount of information available about the payoffs of the other; (ii) sex of the players (comparing single-sexed dyads); and (iii) players' personality. No differences due to either amount of information available about the other's payoffs, or sex of the players, were found. An analysis of the data provided by the combined experimental groups, however, successfully located indications of personality effects on behaviour in the game, as measured by total joint payoff summed over 30 trials, total time taken, the number of concessions made to the other player, and first strategy-choice on individual trials. The personality variables concerned were Emotional Stability and Radicalism/Conservatism, (Factors C and Ql of The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire); Personal Relations, (Factor P of The Guilford/Zimmerman Temperament Survey); Theoretical Value, (T scale of The Study of Values Test); Exhibition, ('exh' variable of The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule); and Cooperativeness, (Scale III of The Test of Social Insight). It is suggested that the relationship of these personality variables to game-playing behaviour should be the subject of further investigation

Improving Fidelity of Implementation of a Tier I Phonics Program: an Improvement Science Study

The purpose of this research was to enhance the fidelity of the Tier 1 phonics program at an elementary school in Southwest Bakersfield, California. I used an explanatory mixed methods approach and the Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice as the research design. To improve the implementation fidelity of the Tier 1 phonics program, I employed the plan-do- study-act framework. During the cycle, the network improvement community convened to proactively identify problems and develop change ideas to enhance the overall fidelity of implementation of the Tier 1 phonics program. The study also involved a root cause analysis to determine the underlying issues responsible for the inadequate fidelity with which the Tier 1 phonics program had been implemented. The study conducted a systematic observation of 12 teachers of kindergarten to Grade 3 to assess the implementation of all program components. Furthermore, a pre- and postintervention interview protocol was used to gather information from the participating teachers on instructional delivery time, required resources, necessary support systems, progress reporting, and modifications to implement the intervention with fidelity. The results of the survey data indicated an increase in implementation fidelity after the network improvement community implemented the change ideas

Silo filling methods and costs

Cover title.Includes bibliographical references

WE-MAP: Crowdsourced map based mobile application for the wheelchair accessibility

Ce travail de Bachelor fait partie du projet WE-MAP de l’Institut d’informatique de gestion. Dans ce travail, nous nous sommes tout d’abord penchés sur l’état de l’art des techniques de calcul d’itinéraire. Nous avons étudié les outils existants pour la manipulation de cartes. Puis nous avons ajouté une fonctionnalité d’itinéraire à la plateforme existante de l’Institut d’informatique de gestion. Cette fonctionnalité tient compte des particularités liées aux personnes à mobilité réduite. L’application WE- MAP dispose d’une base de données contenant des informations sur les difficultés d’accès, telles que pente trop raide, trottoir trop étroit ou obstacle, et sur les services, tels que parking ou toilettes pour handicapés ou accès sans marches. Cette base de données a déjà été complétée par les facteurs de Sierre, du Val d’Anniviers et de Sion qui ont recensé environ 800 points. Nous avons ensuite étudié les méthodes permettant de motiver les utilisateurs à saisir des informations, car le point fort de l’application est la possibilité d’améliorer la base de données grâce au crowdsourcing. Nous avons terminé ce travail par une analyse qualitative de l’application dans sa forme actuelle. Cette analyse a été faite en focus groups. Elle a permis d’apporter quelques améliorations à l’application dans le cadre de ce travail

Arabian Nights

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3840/thumbnail.jp

The effects of video game play on the characteristics of saccadic eye movements

AbstractVideo game play has become a common leisure activity all around the world. To reveal possible effects of playing video games, we measured saccades elicited by video game players (VGPs) and non-players (NVGPs) in two oculomotor tasks. First, our subjects performed a double-step task. Second, we asked our subjects to move their gaze opposite to the appearance of a visual target, i.e. to perform anti-saccades. As expected on the basis of previous studies, VGPs had significantly shorter saccadic reaction times (SRTs) than NVGPs for all saccade types. However, the error rates in the anti-saccade task did not reveal any significant differences. In fact, the error rates of VGPs were actually slightly lower compared to NVGPs (34% versus 40%, respectively). In addition, VGPs showed significantly higher saccadic peak velocities in every saccade type compared to NVGP. Our results suggest that faster SRTs in VGPs were associated with a more efficient motor drive for saccades. Taken together, our results are in excellent agreement with earlier reports of beneficial video game effects through the general reduction in SRTs. Our data clearly provides additional experimental evidence for an higher efficiency of the VGPs on the one hand and refutes the notion of a reduced impulse control in VGPs on the other