Examing Gender DIF on a Multiplechoice Test of Mathematics: A Confirmatory Approach

Do eighth-grade males and females display the same DIF patterns as older examinees? Are the patterns the same for different content areas in mathematics? Does a DIF test for essential dimensionality yield expected results?     

永别了,派克

Gregory Peck didn' t play characters. He stood in the shoes of icons-from Atticus Finch to Captain Ahab. He didn't battle bad guys. He faced down incalculable (不可计算的) odds-from racial injustice to Satan.     

Retrieving information on the neurophysiology of speech.

A search for literature on the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and speech was performed via the DIALOG Information Service on four databases: BIOSIS Previews, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO. A doctoral candidate in the Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences at Purdue University reviewed the citations retrieved for relevancy. Then, the coverage of the relevant literature by the four databases was analyzed. MEDLINE yielded the greatest number of relevant citations followed by EMBASE, BIOSIS, and PsycINFO. The four databases showed little overlap in coverage of citations or journal titles. This study indicates that it would be advantageous to search all four databases for the speech scientist.     

Strategic planning by academic institutions — following the corporate path?

This article compares the findings from two surveys of strategic planning practices in Australia: those of academic institutions and those of manufacturing corporations. The similarities and differences are identified and in broad terms explained by the stage of evolution of strategic planning that has been reached by academic institutions when compared to corporations. Given the recent questioning of the value of strategic planning by corporations, the validity of academic institutions continuing on this path is questioned with the conclusion that the planning process per se is desirable.     

IPOP: A Theory of Experience Preference

The theory and practice of IPOP emerged from structured observations and interviews with visitors to the Smithsonian Institution museums in Washington, D.C. from the 1990s to the present—a dataset useful in constructing a long view. This research has had one overarching intention: to serve museum visitors better, that is, to provide visitors with experiences that are above average, special, significant, and memorable. In numerous studies and interviews during the last 16 years, visitors have repeatedly spoken about their reactions to Smithsonian museum exhibitions in four typologies distilling their primary interests: I = ideas, P = people, O = objects, and—as we were obliged to add at a later stage—a second P for “physical.” The evidence suggests that exhibitions that strongly appeal to all four visitor typologies will be highly successful with visitors.     

Graduate Education for Information Organization,Cataloging, and Metadata

Discussions of cataloging and metadata education are popular in social media outlets, scholarly literature, conference meetings, and so on. This article, the third installment of a longitudinal study on the state of information organization (IO) education, analyzes the recent literature to identify new and continuing themes related to IO education. It provides an overview of the curricula of the 58 library and information science graduate programs in the United States and Canada accredited by the American Library Association (ALA). It examines the current conditions in 2012–2013 and compares them to data from earlier studies. It provides an overview of the types of IO courses available, program requirements, the number of schools offering IO courses, and the number of schools teaching those courses.     

An Examination of Support (In)Adequacy: Types,Sources, and Consequences of Social Support among Infertile Women

This study investigated gaps between the supportive communication people desire and receive in the context of infertility. Our findings advance the notion of support adequacy by positioning social support as a dynamic resource that is contributed to from a variety of sources in numerous ways. A community sample of 301 infertile women indicated that they experience discrepancies in the support they desire compared to what they receive from their spouses, friends and family, medical professionals, and online sources. Participants experienced the most discrepancies from medical professionals, and in almost all of these discrepancies people desired more support than they received. The magnitude of the gap between people's desires and what they receive corresponds with evaluations of support quality.