Relational turbulence and perceptions of partner support during reintegration after military deployment

The transition from deployment to reintegration can be stressful for returning military personnel and at-home partners, and support plays a key role in their ability to transition effectively. We draw on relational turbulence theory to advance predictions about how parameters of the relationship between returning service members and at-home partners predict their perceptions of their partner’s support during the post-deployment transition. We surveyed 235 individuals (117 returning service members, 118 at-home partners) who had experienced the transition within the past 6 months. Findings consistent with the theory indicated that relational turbulence partially mediated the negative associations that relational uncertainty and interference from a partner shared with partner support. Partner uncertainty was a direct negative predictor of partner support as well. We consider how these results extend theory, research, and practice.     

Institutional policy process improvement: using structurating activity theory to inform practice

Organizational communication scholars are increasingly called upon to use theoretical knowledge to address problematic processes in public institutions. This article reports a process improvement project focused on a university conflict of interest (COI) policy as an example of how scholars can engage theory to improve ongoing policy processes. The project team included communication scholars and research administration staff who designed, implemented, and evaluated the mixed-methods project guided by structurating activity theory. Baseline survey results were used to design the process improvement project. Results of the follow-up survey indicate that researchers who participated in some aspect of the process improvement project (i.e. attending a policy café, using the redesigned website, or reading the new Quick Reference Guide) reported higher levels of policy communication and knowledge and more positive attitudes toward the COI policy than researchers who had not engaged with process improvement efforts. We offer theoretical and practical implications of results for organizational communication scholars and practitioners.     

The Information Nature of Culture

This paper explores the information nature of culture. It is represented as an extragenetic and nonorganizational information process and system. Information is regarded as a universal property of matter that is essentially associated with development processes and realizes various forms and ways of storage and circulation at various development stages of global evolution. The socio-cultural principle of exogenous accumulation, transmission, and transformation of information is analyzed in the context of the continuing growth of the information content of material systems on the superhighway of global-universal evolution. It is noted that the information concept of culture evolves into a new area of cultural studies, that is information and cultural studies, advancing our understanding of the nature of culture and cultural genesis.     

Social Comparisons and Need Fulfillment: Interpreting Video Game Enjoyment in the Context of Leaderboards

This study examines how social comparison information provided by video game leaderboards may influence players’ retrospective judgments of autonomy, competence, and relatedness need fulfillment. Participants played a video game and were randomly assigned to receive no postgame feedback or were shown a leaderboard that placed them in the top or bottom quartile of players. Results indicate downward social comparisons increase enjoyment by increasing competence and relatedness perceptions. However, upward comparisons did not have an opposite effect, nor did either type of social comparison influence players’ autonomy perceptions. Implications for applying Self-Determination Theory to video game enjoyment in the context of social comparison feedback is discussed.     

Reasons for Student Engagement in Extra-Class Communication

This study extends instructional communication research on extra-class communication (ECC) by presenting an integrative analysis comparing the explanatory utility of student- and instructor-oriented reasons for student engagement in frequent ECC. Results from 495 college students suggested that student-oriented reasons, specifically the relational and functional student motives, were the only significant, positive predictors of students’ perceptions of frequent ECC engagement. Other student motives (excuse making, participation, sycophancy) and perceptions of instructor approachability did not significantly predict perceived frequency of ECC engagement.     

A comparison of two approaches for measuring interdisciplinary research output: The disciplinary diversity of authors vs the disciplinary diversity of the reference list

This study investigates the convergence of two bibliometric approaches to the measurement of interdisciplinary research: one based on analyzing disciplinary diversity in the reference list of publications, the other based on the disciplinary diversity of authors of publications. In particular we measure the variety, balance, disparity and integrated diversity index of, respectively, single-author, multi-author single-field, and multi-author multi-field publications. We find that, in general, the diversity of the reference list grows with the number of fields reflected in a paper’s authors’ list and, to a lesser extent, with the number of authors being equal the number of fields. Further, we find that when fields belonging to different disciplines are reflected in the authors’ list, the disparity in the reference list is higher than in the case of fields belonging to the same discipline. However, this general tendency varies across disciplines, and noticeable exceptions are found at individual paper level.     

审美游戏与中学课程教学

审美游戏是人类特有的一种融创造性、娱乐性和教育性为一体的活动,由于学校教育和审美游戏在本质上具有同一性,因而在实践活动中可以将二者有机地结合起来。以中学课程教学为例:语文和哲学是关于语言和解释的游戏,音乐和数学是关于符号和序列的游戏,美术和历史是关于时间和变化的游戏,地理和物理是关于空间和运动的游戏,生物和化学是关于模拟与复制的游戏。搞好课程教学的关键在于充分发掘身体、器物和符号这三者之间的内在联系并不断地促使其相互转化。     

大学的收益:留学生教育中的经济学意义

留学生教育的经济收益是国际教育服务贸易中的重要部分,国外有关学者、政府机构和国际组织都非常关注,但在国内,人们对留学生教育的认识还主要集中在政治和文化层面。通过建构的经济收益测算模型(包括图式模型和数学模型),并以上海一所大学的留学生样本进行试测,研究显现出我国高校留学生教育的经济学意义:留学生教育促进了教育服务贸易,增加了我国经济总量;能够缩减我国在国际教育服务贸易中的巨大逆差;增加了高校的"预算外收入";改变了高校的教育资源结构,提高了教育管理效率。     

苏格拉底的教育方法及其危机

苏格拉底假定了某种现象背后的"先在本质"的存在。知识就是认识者透过事物的现象把握本质,这就是杜威所嘲讽的"旁观者知识观"。缘自古希腊自然哲学家的旁观者知识观经苏格拉底等人的维护使"接受学习"长时间地主导了人类的求知方式。苏格拉底的教育方法使学生处于被动状态,使学生在知识面前没有了自由探索的空间。     

Circulating Cell-Free DNA Level in Prediction of COVID-19 Severity and Mortality: Correlation of with Haematology and Serum Biochemical Parameters

Lymphocyte dysregulation in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a major contributing factor linked to disease severity and mortality. Apoptosis results in the accumulation of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in circulation. COVID-19 has a heterogeneous clinical course. The role of cfDNA levels was studied to assess the severity and outcome of COVID-19 patients and correlated with other laboratory parameters. The current case series included 100 patients with mild COVID-19 (MCOV-19) and 106 patients with severe COVID-19 (SCOV-19). Plasma cfDNA levels were quantified using SYBR green quantitative real-time PCR through amplification of the β-actin gene. CfDNA level was significantly higher in SCOV-19 at 706.7 ng/ml (522.6–1258) as compared to MCOV-19 at 219.8 ng/ml (167.7–299.6). The cfDNA levels were significantly higher in non-survivor than in survivors (p = 0.0001). CfDNA showed a significant correlation with NLR, ferritin, LDH, procalcitonin, and IL-6. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of cfDNA in the discrimination of SCOV-19 from MCOV-19 were 90.57% & 80%, respectively. CfDNA showed a sensitivity of 94.74% in the differentiation of non-survivors from survivors. CfDNA levels showed a significant positive correlation with other laboratory and inflammatory markers of COVID-19. CfDNA levels, NLR, and other parameters may be used to stratify and monitor COVID-19 patients and predict mortality. CfDNA may be used to predict COVID-19 severity with higher diagnostic sensitivity.