A comparison of US and Korean students' mathematics skills using a cognitive diagnostic testing method: linkage to instruction

The purposes of the present study were (a) to compare US and Korean 8th graders' mastery of knowledge and skills in the mathematics test of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 using a cognitive diagnostic testing method and (b) to find links between teachers' instruction and students' mastery of mathematics knowledge and skills. The participants included 740 US and 439 Korean 8th graders who took the Booklet 3 mathematics test. The results showed substantial differences between the US and Korean students' performance in problem restructuring and reasoning, measurement, and geometry. The most helpful instructional strategy for both Korean and US students was encouraging students' independent problem solving. Reviewing, re-teaching, and clarifying content were especially effective for the US students. Implications for teaching and learning are discussed.     

3. HISTORY

TIJUANA BIBLES: ART AND WIT IN AMERICA'S FORBIDDEN FUNNIES, 1930s‐1950s edited by Bob Adelman (New York: Simon &; Schuster, 1997—124.00, ISBN 0–684–83461–8, 160 pp.)

HOGARTH AND HIS TIMES: SERIOUS COMEDY by David Bindman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997—$45.00/29.95, ISBN 0–520–21299–1 hard, 0–520–21300–9 paper, 208 pp., photos)

FOR THE LOVE OF PRAGUE by Gene Deitch (Prague: Peter Lemkin, 1997— $20.00, ISBN 80–7205–467–8)

ART IN MOTION: ANIMATION AESTHETICS by Maureen Furniss (Sydney: John Libbey, 1998—$24.95, ISBN 1–86462–038–2)

GEORGE GROSZ: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by George Grosz, translated by Nora Hodges (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998—$17.95, paper, ISBN 0–520–21327–0)

CARTOONING AND COMIC ART IN SOUTHEAST ASIA edited by John Lent (Singapore: Times Academic Press, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, 25:1, special issue [1997]—$26.50, ISSN 0303–8246, ISBN 981–210–111‐X, 166 pp., illustrations, references)

COMIC ART IN ASIA: HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND POLITICAL ROOTS edited by John Lent (Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters, Asian Pacific Communication, 7:1–2, special issue [1996]—$16.00, ISSN 0957–6851, 86 pp., illustrations, references)

SEAL OF APPROVAL: THE HISTORY OF THE COMICS CODE by Amy Kiste Nyberg (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi “Studies in Popular Culture,”; 1998—$45.00/18.00, ISBN 0–87805–974–1 hard, 0–87805–975‐X paper, 208 pp.)

CELEBRITY CARICATURE IN AMERICA by Wendy Wick Reaves (Washington and New Haven: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Yale University Press, 1998—$45.00, ISBN 0–300–07463–8, 306 pp.)

READING THE RABBIT: EXPLORATIONS IN WARNER BROS. ANIMATION edited by Kevin S. Sandier (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998—$49.00/19.00, ISBN 0–8135–2537–3 hard, 0–8135–2538–1 paper, 271 pp.)

EDITORIAL CARTOONING AND CARICATURE: A REFERENCE GUIDE by Paul P. Somers, Jr. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998— $69.50, ISBN 0–313–22150–2, 205 pp.)     

Implementation of BTOP funding for public computing centers: Goal consensus and project performance

This paper seeks to perform an assessment of the current state of implementation of BTOP-funded public computing center projects based on insights from principal–agent theory. Using newly available data on BTOP-funded PCC projects and correlating them with socioeconomic and geographic data derived from the US census and the FCC, we seek to assess whether program funds were targeted at unserved/underserved areas as required by program objectives, as well as the progress towards completion of PCC projects by type of grantee and funding amount. On the distribution of funds, we find that the PCCs supported were located in areas of high broadband availability as well as high demand: while this is contrary to the BTOP's stated purpose, we argue that it is actually more cost-effective to also target areas of high demand. It was also found that whereas a majority of PCC grants went to governmental agencies, who also received larger grants than non-governmental recipients, they were no more likely to generate a significantly higher percentage of matching funds or to move toward project completion sooner. We speculate that the intense competition for grants might have narrowed the performance gap between these categories of applicants.     

The theory of reasoned action and self‐construal in predicting intention of studying among Korean college students

The study tested the Theory of Reasoned Action in Korea. Questionnaires measuring behavioral intention to study for final exams were distributed to 144 Korean college students. The findings indicated that attitude toward behavior and subjective norm predicted behavioral intention. When attitude toward behavior was divided into social and personal attitudes toward behavior based on the types of outcomes that behavior brings about, it was only social attitude toward behavior had a significant weight in predicting behavioral intention among the Korean students. Positive correlations were observed between the strength of interdependent self‐construal and the normative component and between the strength of independent self‐construal and the attitudinal component. Self‐construals, however, did not influence the relative weights of the two components in predicting behavioral intention.     

Connections at Work: How Friendship Networks Relate to Job Satisfaction

Previous research in the association between network centrality and job satisfaction has not established a consistent relationship between the two. Considering a specific type of network and multiple measures of centrality may clarify this relationship. Thus, the current study examined the association between various types of centrality in workplace friendship networks and job satisfaction in a Korean construction company. Friendship network centrality measured as closeness was positively related to job satisfaction. However, friendship centrality measured as betweenness and degree was not related to job satisfaction. The results suggest that distinguishing among measures of centrality and network type is vital for future research.     

The Impact of Media Use and Cultural Exposure on the Mutual Perception of Koreans and Japanese1 The present research has been conducted by the Research Grant of Kwangwoon University in 2004

This study examines how the use of a foreign country's media and culture influences perceptions of that country. A total of 315 Korean and 290 Japanese college students were surveyed in 2002 to facilitate the author's analysis of the flow of cultural products between Korea and Japan and the impact of their use. Between countries cultural products flow in one direction because of differences in market size and cultural competitiveness. This paper aims to reconfirm the asymmetric flow of cultural products between Korea and Japan. Its results reveal that Korean college students spend 25.40% of their media usage time consuming Japanese media products, whereas only 1.79% of Japanese students devote any time at all to Korean products. Next, studying both domestic and foreign media use, the author examined the effects of asymmetric cultural consumption on how Koreans and the Japanese perceive each other. Perception of a country is described in terms of three variables: cultural affinity, product purchase intention, and preference for the country. Use levels of foreign media, cultural exposure to the foreign country, and social demographics were hypothesized to influence these variables. Traveling experience to the counterpart country and preference for that country's food were measured to represent cultural exposure. Gender was a significant variable influencing cross-cultural perception. For Japanese students, first-hand exposure to Korean culture affected their perception of Korea significantly, whereas Korean students were more strongly affected by media use. Interestingly, Korean students’ domestic media use negatively affected their cultural proximity to Japan, while Japanese students’ domestic media use positively affected their intentions to purchase Korean products.     

Fault tolerant flight control system for the tilt-rotor UAV

A fault tolerant control scheme for actuator and sensor faults is proposed for a tilt-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system. The tilt-rotor UAV has a vertically take-off and landing (VTOL) capability like a helicopter during the take-off & landing while it could cruise with a high speed as a conventional airplane flight mode. A dual system in the flight control computer (FCC) and the sensor is proposed in this study. To achieve a high reliability, a fault tolerant flight control system is required for the case of actuator or sensor fault. For the actuator fault, the fault tolerant control scheme based on model error control synthesis is presented. A designed fault tolerant control scheme does not require system identification process and it provides an effective reconfigurability without fault detection and isolation (FDI) process. For the sensor fault, the fault tolerant federated Kalman filter is designed for the tilt-rotor UAV system. An FDI algorithm is applied to the federated Kalman filter in order to improve the accuracy of the state estimation even when the sensor fails. For a linearized six-degree-of-freedom linear model and nonlinear model of the tilt-rotor UAV, numerical simulation and process-in-the-loop simulation (PILS) are performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed fault tolerant control scheme.     

An integrated framework for RFID adoption and diffusion with a stage-scale-scope cubicle model: A case of Indonesia

This study presents a comprehensive framework to identify dynamic radio frequency identification (RFID) adoption and diffusion from three different perspectives: stages of adoption, levels of analysis, and domain of issues. The main concern of this study is stages of adoption, which covers three phases in respect of the maturity of the RFID project and the sophistication of business applications and RFID technology. The level of analysis involves different units of analysis beyond the organization level, including the industry- and country-level, which is lacking in the current literature. To understand dimensions of RFID issues, a strategy, technology, organization, people and environment (STOPE) based approach was applied. An extensive review of prior literature was conducted to find various RFID success factors and the Delphi method was applied to find positions of these factors within the framework. Based on the Delphi, some factors belong to early stage of adoption, and some others persist in the later stages of adoption. At the country level, factors such as RFID national policy, R&D policy and income per capita were accepted by most experts at the preliminary and intermediate stage; strategy and environment were accepted as important domains. To find practical implications of the framework, a case study of Indonesia was conducted at each level of analysis. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was applied to identify most important factors and important domains of issues with respect to the factors from the Delphi results. At country level, RFID policy, vision of leadership and RFID potential market are the most important factors; strategy and environment are the most important domains.     

Effects of various characteristics of social commerce (s-commerce) on consumers’ trust and trust performance

The development of social networking sites (SNSs) has given rise to a new e-commerce paradigm called social commerce (s-commerce). S-commerce is a subset of e-commerce and uses SNSs for social interactions and user contributions to facilitate the online buying and selling of various products and services. Recent years have witnessed the rapid growth of s-commerce in Korea, but this growth has involved a number of transaction-related issues such as no delivery and the delivery of wrong items. In particular, consumers’ trust has become a crucial factor in the success of s-commerce firms, requiring these firms to make more effort to gain this trust. In this regard, this study identifies the key factors in s-commerce [reputation, size, information quality, transaction safety, communication, economic feasibility, and word-of-mouth (WOM) referrals], that is, the characteristics of s-commerce influencing Korean consumers’ trust in s-commerce. In addition, the study assesses the effects of trust on trust performance (purchase intentions and WOM intentions). The results of an empirical analysis based on a sample of 371 s-commerce users indicate that all the characteristics of s-commerce (except for economic feasibility) had significant effects on trust and that trust had significant effects on purchase and WOM intentions. The results have important implications for s-commerce firms wishing to develop a successful business model for providing their customers with trustworthy services.