Prisoners on the Great White Way: Short Eyes and Zoot Suit as the First US Latina/o Plays on Broadway

The first two Latina/o-written and directed plays on Broadway were Miguel Piñero’s Short Eyes in 1974 and Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit in 1979. Both plays use Latino prisoners as their central characters. Though the reception of the two plays in the popular press differed, with Short Eyes receiving glowing praise and Zoot Suit largely dismissed, the critics used the same rubric to judge them: the plays were overtly evaluated in terms of received notions of cultural authenticity and criminality. Ultimately, the commercial success of Short Eyes and Zoot Suit’s failure on Broadway both had to do with the ways in which New York critics registered the playwrights’ differing representations of racialized criminality. (AL, Article in English

A Comparison of Correction Formats: The Effectiveness and Effects of Rating Scale versus Contextual Corrections on Misinformation

What style of journalistic factchecking is most convincing to readers? This study uses an online survey experiment to compare two prevailing approaches to correcting both consumer and political misinformation: factchecks that rely only on written analysis to assess claims, and those that also deploy a graphical meter or "truth scale." Testing a series of simulated factchecks from a fictitious factchecking organization, GetTheFacts.org, we find first of all that both approaches were effective on the whole, with respondents who saw either format significantly more likely than a control group to correctly evaluate a claim that had been previously debunked. Does using a truth meter make a difference? In the case of a misleading advertising claim unrelated to politics, adding a meter to the written analysis appeared to make the correction more convincing. However, both formats proved equally effective in challenging political misinformation. Both formats also yielded their largest improvements among readers who selfidentified from the same party as the politician being checked. Although respondents scored best in identifying misinformation from a politician of the opposing party, seeing a correction made no significant difference in that case. Among other results, we also find that when given the choice, just over half of respondents preferred to see corrections that included a truth scale

Correcting political and consumer misperceptions

While fact-checking has grown dramatically in the last decade, little is known about the relative effectiveness of different formats in correcting false beliefs or overcoming partisan resistance to new information. This article addresses that gap by using theories from communication and psychology to compare two prevailing approaches: An online experiment examined how the use of visual “truth scales” interacts with partisanship to shape the effectiveness of corrections. We find that truth scales make fact-checks more effective in some conditions. Contrary to theoretical predictions and the fears of some journalists, their use does not increase partisan backlash against the correction or the organization that produced it

How does leadership influence the level of performance in virtual teams?

Background In recent years, globalization, competitive pressures, increased joint ventures and partnerships, and advances in technology have led to more virtual team work. Virtual teams are defined as teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks (McShane & Von Glinow, 2009). Although today’s communication technologies drastically reduce the need for face-to-face contact, the geographical distance and lack of richness in virtual communication present challenges to virtual teams in achieving greater effectiveness. Therefore, leaders of virtual teams must identify potential challenges of virtual teamwork and think of innovative ways to facilitate effective communication and create a sense of trust, shared reality and cohesiveness in their virtual teams. Research Questions This presentation addresses the following questions: 1) What are the factors that prevent virtual teams from achieving a high level of performance compared to face-to-face teams? 2) How can a virtual team leader compensate for the lack of richness in communication? 3) How can a virtual team leader raise of the level of trust and motivation? 4) How else can a virtual team leader raise the team effectiveness

Efficacy of High-performance Vision Training on Improving the Reaction Time of Collegiate Softball Athletes: A Randomized Trial

Purpose. A well-developed visual system is integral to the dynamic nature of sport performance among collegiate athletes. Occupational therapists play an important role in addressing an athlete’s visual skills through incorporating meaningful occupation, in this case sport, into interventions while addressing specific client factors. The aim of the study was to examine the efficacy of occupational therapist led high-performance visual training in improving the reaction time of collegiate softball athletes. Method. A mixed method approach was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data were collected to assess athlete perceptions of sport, and quantitative data were collected using a mixed within group and between group design. Twenty-one participants were randomly allocated into two groups, each receiving a 6-week intervention which followed an evidence-based protocol. Group A consisted of Dynavision™ D2 training, and Group B of non-machine, therapist-led, visual training, twice weekly for 10-15 minutes each. Results. Results of the study highlight perceived meaningfulness of sport and display that both theory-based protocols were effective, as Group A and Group B experienced significant decreases in reaction time. However, decreases in reaction time were more significant for Group A in both proactive and reactive Dynavision™ D2 training modes. Conclusion. Results suggest that both the Dynavision™ D2 and alternative vision training as led by occupational therapists may be beneficial in improving the proactive and reactive reaction times of collegiate athletes, enhancing their abilities to participate in meaningful sports, but the Dynavision™ D2 may be a more effective training tool, especially related to proactive reaction time training

Peptide conformational sampling using the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm

Protein folding -- the problem of predicting the spatial structure of a protein given its sequence of amino-acids -- has attracted considerable research effort in biochemistry in recent decades. In this work, we explore the potential of quantum computing to solve a simplified version of protein folding. More precisely, we numerically investigate the performance of a variational quantum algorithm, the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), in sampling low-energy conformations of short peptides. We start by benchmarking the algorithm on an even simpler problem: sampling self-avoiding walks, which is a necessary condition for a valid protein conformation. Motivated by promising results achieved by QAOA on this problem, we then apply the algorithm to a more complete version of protein folding, including a simplified physical potential. In this case, based on numerical simulations on 20 qubits, we find less promising results: deep quantum circuits are required to achieve accurate results, and the performance of QAOA can be matched by random sampling up to a small overhead. Overall, these results cast serious doubt on the ability of QAOA to address the protein folding problem in the near term, even in an extremely simplified setting. We believe that the approach and conclusions presented in this work could offer valuable methodological insights on how to systematically evaluate variational quantum optimization algorithms on real-world problems beyond protein folding.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figure

Uma conversa sobre arte e teatro nas prisões com Ashley Lucas

Nesta entrevista, Ashley Lucas, pro- fessora da Universidade de Michigan, ex- põe seu processo de trabalho para criar o espetáculo O Visitante Atrás das Grades, em 2004. Ashley detalha também o seu trabalho no Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), fundado em 1990 pelo Professor Buzz Alexander, bem como o seu envol- vimento com o trabalho cênico nas pri- sões. Ashley expõe o envolvimento deste projeto com a UNIRIO e o Brasil

O visitante atrás das grades

Apresenta-se aqui a tradução do texto Doin´Time: Through the visiting glass, batizado aqui de O visitante atrás das grades, dramaturgia que resultou de um trabalho a partir das memórias da própria autora e de pesquisa com familiares de pessoas encarceradas. Composta por doze quadros, o texto explora o impacto da prisão na intimidade das famílias obrigadas a lidar com o contexto carcerário