An Intergenerational E-mail Pal Project on Attitudes of College Students Toward Older Adults

Intergenerational interactions have demonstrated some success at improving attitudes of college students toward older adults. This quasiexperimental study involved undergraduate college students paired with older adults for a six-week e-mail exchange. Student attitudes toward older adults were measured pre- and posttest with Polizzi's revised version of the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD). Students were assigned to an intervention group (n = 23) or a control group (n = 20). The intervention group demonstrated significant improvement in attitude toward older adults as compared to the control group (F 14.694, p < .05). This educational approach holds promise for using readily accessible technology to connect the generations.     

Predictors of learner satisfaction in an academic computer conference

This study tested the Adult Distance Study Through Computer Conferencing (ADSCC) model developed by Eastmond (1994), to determine if learner readiness, online features, and CMC‐related learning approaches are associated with learner satisfaction in an academic computer conference. All three variables were correlated with learner satisfaction and online features emerged as the best predictor of learner satisfaction. Results indicate interrelationships between the three variables. The ADSCC model was a good predictor of learner satisfaction. It provided a useful framework for understanding learner satisfaction by showing how to categorise the different components that influence satisfaction in an academic computer conference.     

Exploring ancestral phenotypes and evolutionary development of the mammalian middle ear based on Early Cretaceous Jehol mammals

We report a new Cretaceous multituberculate mammal with 3D auditory bones preserved. Along with other fossil and extant mammals, the unequivocal auditory bones display features potentially representing ancestral phenotypes of the mammalian middle ear. These phenotypes show that the ectotympanic and the malleus-incus complex changed notably during their retreating from the dentary at various evolutionary stages and suggest convergent evolution of some features to extant mammals. In contrast, the incudomalleolar joint was conservative in having a braced hinge configuration, which narrows the morphological gap between the quadroarticular jaw joint of non-mammalian cynodonts and the incudomalleolar articulations of extant mammals. The saddle-shaped and abutting malleus-incus complexes in therians and monotremes, respectively, could have evolved from the braced hinge joint independently. The evolutionary changes recorded in the Mesozoic mammals are largely consistent with the middle ear morphogenesis during the ontogeny of extant mammals, supporting the relation between evolution and development.     

Deceptive Journalism: Characteristics of Untrustworthy News Items

ABSTRACT

Trustworthiness is key in journalism, yet some journalists intentionally deceive their audiences by fabricating sources or inventing news stories altogether. Earlier research suggests that deceitful news articles have characteristics that are different from trustworthy news articles. We aimed to confirm and expand on the existing literature by examining the case of Perdiep Ramesar, an esteemed Dutch journalist until it was discovered in 2014 that sources were non-existing in 126 of his articles for national newspaper Trouw (“Fidelity”). Using content analysis, we searched for systematic differences in source use and presentation comparing Ramesar’s deceptive news articles with two same-sized sets of reliable articles, (1) articles on similar topics from other journalists and (2) articles with verifiable sources from Ramesar himself. Results indicate that compared to real news sources, fictitious sources are more often secondary definers, who are presented in more stereotypical ways and through more and longer direct quotations. Furthermore, negations and self-references occur more often in deceptive news articles.     

Why are they not accessing it? User barriers to clinical information access

The Medical Library Association''s InSight Initiative provides an open and collaborative environment for library and industry partners to discuss vexing problems and find solutions to better serve their users. The initiative''s fifth summit, continuing work from the previous summit, focused on understanding how users discover and access information in the clinical environment. During the summit, participants were divided into working groups and encouraged to create a tangible product as a result of their discussions. At the end of the summit, participants established a framework for understanding users'' pain points, discussed possible solutions to those points, and received feedback on their work from an End User Advisory Board comprising physicians, clinical researchers, and clinical faculty in biomedicine. In addition to the pain point framework, participants are developing MLA InSight Initiative Learning content with modules to educate librarians and publishers about critical aspects of user behavior. The 2020 Insight Initiative Fall Forum will serve as a virtual home for constructive dialogue between health sciences librarians and publishers on improving discovery and access to information.     

Support for student and staff wives in social transition in a university setting

This paper describes an university sponsored, professionally mediated self-help support program for wives of graduate students and staff members and discusses the rationale for its structure. First, we identify the kinds of problems these women have that make it difficult for them to adapt to their new surroundings. We then present the program as it now functions, together with reports on the wives' assessments of different features of the program. In the discussion that follows, we outline the problems of implementing and maintaining this kind of support program and suggest why self-help groups for this constituency need the active involvement of a professional familiar with the details of campus resources and social life. We also address the importance of locating that professional in a strategic place within the organization to be able to act on that knowledge.