Space invaders: Do mobile phone conversations invade peoples’ personal space

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study designed to investigate whether or notparticipants felt that they were encroaching upon the personal space of an individual who became engaged in conversation using a mobile phone in a public place. The hypothesis being tested was that people would perceive themselves as being drawn into the personal or intimate zone (Hall,1966) of the person having the mobile phone conversation. The study also explored whether or not this was dependent on the perceived nature of the conversation, e.g.private (a telephone call from the bank regarding an overdraft request) or social (arranging to meet a friend for a drink). The data obtained from the study was analysed in two parts: analysis of video recordings of user behaviour during the trial and the data obtained from open-ended questions answered by participants after the mobile phone conversation had taken place. The findings suggest that participants felt that they were being drawn into the personal space of the receiver of the mobile phone call, regardless of the perceived nature of the call. Although some participants felt uncomfortable about this, others admitted they enjoyed the voyeuristic aspect of this type of situation. These findings are discussed in relation to Hall’s (1966) theory of interpersonal distance and suggestions are put forward of how to develop this exploratory work into a more formal research investigation

The Petrographic Analysis of Sherds from the Musgano Site (41RK19), Rusk County, Texas

Characterizing the mineralogical composition of ceramic vessels and sherds from Caddo sites in East Texas by means of petrographic analysis provides a unique opportunity to gather and investigate empirical evidence from ceramic vessels on: (1) technological and manufacturing practices, and (2) their trade and exchange at varying scales conducted by ancestral Caddo people with their neighbors, both near and far (i.e., other ancestral Caddo groups as well as non-Caddo communities). This evidence in turn can be used to explore changes in the nature of social and economic relationships between particular Caddo groups and other prehistoric populations. Identified compositional and paste differences that have been recognized between the different wares made by Caddo groups (i.e., plain wares, utility wares, and fine wares) can also be employed to explore functional and technological differences in vessel function and form. It is important to build on existing petrographic studies of Caddo vessels and vessel sherds by examining unstudied assemblages to (1) better clarify the compositional nature of these ceramic wares across the Caddo temporal and geographic landscape; (2) to help pinpoint other ceramic manufacturing locales and mineralogical compositional groups, but also to assess their apparent technological complexity; and (3) lead to better evaluations of the regional character of prehistoric and historic Caddo trade and interaction networks that existed, and more definitively establish whether there were changes through time in the direction and intensity of local and long distance trade and interaction. The disparate pieces of information contained within the sherds and vessel fragments of Caddo ceramics found on many prehistoric and early historic sites throughout the region have the potential to address these questions and research issues, and can contribute unique information concerning those relationships that existed in the distant (and not-so-distant) past between Caddo farmers. Twenty decorated sherds from the Musgano ceramic assemblage curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) were selected for petrographic analysis. The sherds were split and one of the remaining fragments of each pair was used for the production of thin sections. Originally, the other half of each sherd was to be submitted for instrumental neutron activation analysis, but such analyses were not done; the remaining sherd fragment was returned for continued curation at TARL. Upon the receipt of the thin sections, they underwent petrographic analysis as reported on herein. The 20 sherds include sherds from engraved fine wares (n=8, 40 percent)—bottles and carinated bowls— as well as sherds from utility wares (n=12, 60 percent). The utility wares have brushed-appliqued, incised, incised-punctated (from Maydelle Incised, Weches Fingernail Impressed, and Washington Square Paneled vessels), and punctated decorative elements. Ten percent of the sherds are from bone-tempered vessels, based on macroscopic examination, while the others are from grog-tempered vessels

Mobile Government in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Opportunities

M-government has gained increasing global attention in recent years, especially among developed countries, as a mechanism to reduce costs, increase effectiveness and improve public access to governmental services. The concept is increasingly being adopted in developing countries, however it faces different challenges and opportunities. This study explores the opportunities and challenges for the deployment of mobile government (M-government) services in Saudi Arabia. Collecting data from 77 semi-structured interviews, this study found that there are many opportunities for M-government in the country, requiring increasing awareness amongst the people about the government initiatives of mobile government services and promoting willingness to use these services. This study also highlights different barriers faced by M-government in Saudi Arabia, including issues of internet quality and speed, customization of services and data security and privacy as well as infrastructural challenges and bureaucratic attitude of government departments

Predicting Consumer Decisions to Adopt Mobile Commerce in Saudi Arabia

Developments in the field of wireless communications have enhanced the amount of people using mobile devices, which has also meant there has been significant growth in the mobile commerce arena. This research is centred on examining the variables that can estimate consumer intention to adopt m-commerce within the context of Saudi Arabia. The research develops and expands on the TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), and makes reference to a number of critical areas, namely financial cost, individual differences and trust, with information gathered from 574 individual smartphone users located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (K.S.A.). The findings from this research are considered valuable for the fields of m-commerce, particularly when such organisations seek to devise and implement marketing strategies

Community Funding: Rural Grocery Stores Like IKE!

IKE is the “Invest Kansas Exemption” for conducting a public offering of securities in a Kansas community without having to register with the Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner (KSC). The Home Town Market in Minneola, KS used IKE to finance building renovations and equipment for the grocery store and deli. KSC presenters will explain how IKE and other alternatives for grocery store financing are possible under Kansas and federal securities laws. IKE is designed to assist small businesses and other organizations formed in Kansas raise up to a total of $1,000,000 during a 12-month period. Sales to any one purchaser are limited to$5,000 unless the purchaser is an accredited investor. There are no fee requirements; issuer’s only need to submit a one-page form for notice to KSC; and KSC staff is available to help with questions before and after an IKE offering. Following Kansas being the first state to enact an exemption like this, several other states have also formed similar exemptions and laws. You can go to our website and review more about IKE at www.ksc.ks.gov/IKE. Other common exemptions are listed on the left panel of this page

The Petrographic Analysis of Sherds from the Craig Mound at the Spiro site (34Lf40), the Moore #3/Ainsworth site (34Lf31), and the Geren site (34Lf36), LeFlore County, Oklahoma

James A. Brown commissioned James W. Porter to carry out a preliminary assessment of the paste of sherds from the Spiro site (34Lf40), as well as sherds from the nearby Geren (34Lf36) and Moore (34Lf31) sites. According to Brown, Porter’s goal was to “make assessments of the clay mineralogy and petrography of thin sections,” specifically with an “interest in discriminating between (1) grog and grit temper and (2) shell and grog temper with shell inclusions.” Twenty-nine thin sections were prepared, 27 from sherds from the Craig Mound, and one sherd each from the Moore/ Ainsworth and Geren sites, both not far from Spiro. Shortly after Ferring and Perttula completed petrographic studies of red-slipped pottery from sites in Oklahoma and Texas, Brown offered to send the thin-sections from his Spiro area studies to Ferring for more detailed petrographic studies. This he did sometime in 1987, but the 29 thin-sections were never fully studied, and they languished for years at the University of North Texas. In 2012, Ferring relocated the thin-sections and corresponding sherds and sent them to Perttula to complete the petrographic analysis of the Spiro area sherd series. The results of the petrographic analysis of a total of 23 of the 29 thin-sections are discussed in this article; there are provenience issues with the other six thin-sections

Model server enabled management of collaborative changes in building information models

The issues and challenges involved in controlling the collaborative changes in a Building Information Modeling (BIM) data repository, in a multi-model collaboration environment, are discussed. It is suggested that managing iterative changes in BIMs is a database problem, exacerbated by the long transaction times needed to support collaborative design progression. This is yet to be resolved in the construction industry and better solutions are needed to support the underlying workflows and computing operations for seamless collaboration on BIMs. With this in mind, this paper proposes the use of the structural and semantic characteristics of BIM objects as a mechanism for tracking changes across co-developed solutions. The creation of object signatures, using hash codes derived from their characteristics, provides a potential mechanism for object comparison and effective change recognition and management

The User Experience of Mobile Music Making: An Ethnographic Exploration of Music Production and Performance in Practice

The research herein describes the investigation of usability of software and hardware tools for musicians. Through an ethnographic approach, the aim is to broaden the scope of investigation and measure the usability of tools for musicians in a real world setting. Six musicians are observed through the planning and preparation stages, rehearsals, performing and post-performance in order to better understand the tools that they use and how these tools could be improved. This work builds on previous investigations into more traditional production environments. This investigation also explores how requirements and tools have changed. The research highlights main areas of usability problems in navigation, clarity of expression, problems in understanding flow and a mismatch between requirements and software tools that currently exist. The results highlight strengths in the flexibility of such systems and identify where they solve traditional, hardware based problems. The paper culminates in a discussion regarding the values, strengths and weaknesses of hard and soft tools and points to potential future directions of research

Changing hydroclimatic and discharge patterns in the northern Limpopo Basin, Zimbabwe

Changing regional and global trends in climate and discharge, such as global warming-related declines in annual rainfall in south-eastern Africa, are likely to have a strong influence on water resource availability, and to increase livelihood risk. It is therefore important to characterise such trends. Information can be obtained by examining and comparing the rainfall and runoff records at different locations within a basin. In this study, trends in various parameters of temperature (4 stations), rainfall (10 stations) and discharge (16 stations) from the northern part of the Limpopo Basin, Zimbabwe, were statistically analysed, using the Spearman rank test, the Mann-Kendall test and the Pettitt test. It was determined that rainfall and discharge in the study area have undergone a notable decline since 1980, both in terms of total annual water resources (declines in annual rainfall, annual unit runoff) and in terms of the temporal availability of water (declines in number of rainy days, increases in dry spells, increases in days without flow). Annual rainfall is negatively correlated to an index of the El Niño – Southern Oscillation phenomenon. The main areas of rising risk are an increasing number of dry spells, which is likely to decrease crop yields, and an increasing probability of annual discharge below the long-term average, which could limit blue-water availability. As rainfall continues to decline, it is likely that a multiplier effect will be felt on discharge. Increasing food shortages are a likely consequence of the impact of this declining water resource availability on rain-fed and irrigated agriculture. Declining water resource availability will also further stress urban water supplies, notably those of Zimbabwe’s second-largest city of Bulawayo, which depends to a large extent from these water resources and already experiences chronic water shortages. Keywords: climate variability, climate change, discharge analysis, Pettitt test, rainfall analysis, water resources, Limpopo Basin, Zimbabwe, Southern Afric