Cross‐time attitudes,concept formation,and achievement in college freshman physics

The relationships among science and engineering attitude, physics conceptual understanding, and physics achievement were explored for a population of college freshman engineering students over two semesters. Gender and SAT‐Quantitative measures were included as exogenous variables in a longitudinal path analysis. Attitude was theorized to predict achievement contemporaneously and at the next time point, while conceptual understanding was theorized to predict physics achievement contemporaneously and at the next time point. Each at one time was theorized to predict scores at the next time. A sample of 200 freshman engineering students participating in an integrated curriculum were assessed in September, December, and April (with a loss of 64 students) with the Force Concepts Inventory (FCI), Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT), and a locally developed attitude measure. The observed model indicated that the FCI predicted attitude at time 1 with no other paths between them, that FCI at time 1 predicted MBT at time 1 and time 2, FCI at time 2 predicted MBT at time 3, and MBT at time 1 predicted FCI at time 2. Gender and SAT‐Quantitative scores were predictive only of FCI and MBT at time 1. Results supported an interactive model of conceptual understanding and achievement, with attitude largely irrelevant to the process for this population. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 1112–1120, 2000     

Female Administrators: A Crack in the Glass Ceiling

This experimental study investigates the effects of gender of the evaluator, gender of the applicant, and gender of the reference source at the screening stage of the selection process. Specifically, male and female principals were asked to evaluate re´sume´s and reference letters of hypothetical male and female applicants for the focal position of assistant principal. In the context of selection of an assistant principal, the authors hypothesized that male principals would prefer male applicants and female principals would prefer female applicants. This hypothesis was based on the sex similarity-attraction paradigm. The sex similarity-attraction paradigm suggests that same-sex applicants will be regarded as more similar than opposite-sex applicants (Gallois, Callan & Palmer, 1992) and that applicants who are perceived as similar will be evaluated favorably (Cardy & Dobbins, 1986). Finally, although the authors anticipated that sex similarity-attraction would support an interaction effect between gender of applicant and gender of rater, as strengthened by gender of the reference letter source, the findings did not support this interaction. In fact, the main effect for gender of applicant indicates that hypothetical female administrator candidates are evaluated significantly higher than hypothetical male administrator candidates. This is contrary to about half of past selection research that suggested female applicants are given lower evaluations than male applicants. Thus, these results may be an indication that the evaluations of female applicants for administrative positions are improving to the extent that female applicants were more likely to be offered employment interviews than male applicants.     

Interactive Cross-Language Document Selection

The problem of finding documents written in a language that the searcher cannot read is perhaps the most challenging application of cross-language information retrieval technology. In interactive applications, that task involves at least two steps: (1) the machine locates promising documents in a collection that is larger than the searcher could scan, and (2) the searcher recognizes documents relevant to their intended use from among those nominated by the machine. This article presents the results of experiments designed to explore three techniques for supporting interactive relevance assessment: (1) full machine translation, (2) rapid term-by-term translation, and (3) focused phrase translation. Machine translation was found to better support this task than term-by-term translation, and focused phrase translation further improved recall without an adverse effect on precision. The article concludes with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluation framework used in this study and some remarks on implications of these results for future evaluation campaigns.     

A comparison of extrinsic clustering evaluation metrics based on formal constraints

There is a wide set of evaluation metrics available to compare the quality of text clustering algorithms. In this article, we define a few intuitive formal constraints on such metrics which shed light on which aspects of the quality of a clustering are captured by different metric families. These formal constraints are validated in an experiment involving human assessments, and compared with other constraints proposed in the literature. Our analysis of a wide range of metrics shows that only BCubed satisfies all formal constraints. We also extend the analysis to the problem of overlapping clustering, where items can simultaneously belong to more than one cluster. As Bcubed cannot be directly applied to this task, we propose a modified version of Bcubed that avoids the problems found with other metrics.

Key website factors in e-business strategy

The design of a quality website, as part of e-business strategy, has become a key element for success in the online market. This article analyzes the main factors that must be taken into account when designing a commercial website, concentrating on the Aceros de Hispania company and its business model. We have studied the features which determine website quality: accessibility, speed, navigability, content, and we have calculated the Web Assessment Index (WAI) proposed by Miranda and Bañegil [Miranda, F. J., & Bañegil, T. M. (2004). Quantitative evaluation of commercial websites: An empirical study of Spanish firms. International Journal of Information Management, 24(4), 313–328]. The results obtained provide several lessons which should be borne in mind when designing a commercial e-strategy. Firstly, it can be observed that Internet popularity and search engine positioning facilitate entry to practically inaccessible markets. Secondly, the navigability makes users feel comfortable and secure when browsing it, which increases the probability of a transaction being completed. Finally, the information provided on the website must be accurate, informative, updated and relevant to customers’ requirements. Like Aceros de Hispania, any company, thanks to the Internet, will be able to overcome the barriers which would impede its successful worldwide development in the offline market.     

Interactive question answering: Is Cross-Language harder than monolingual searching?

Is Cross-Language answer finding harder than Monolingual answer finding for users? In this paper we provide initial quantitative and qualitative evidence to answer this question.     

Baseline Intraocular Pressure Is Associated With Subjective Sensitivity to Physical Exertion in Young Males

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to (a) investigate the effect of physical effort (cycling for 60 min at 60 ± 5% of individually computed reserve heart-rate capacity), combined with 2 different levels of cognitive demand (2-back, oddball), on intraocular pressure (IOP) and subjective judgments of perceived exertion (ratings of perceived exertion [RPE]), affect (Affective Valence subscale of the Self-Assessment Manikin [SAM]), and mental workload (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index [NASA-TLX]); and (b) ascertain whether baseline IOP, measured before exercise, is associated with individual differences in subjective assessments of effort and affective response during exercise. Method: Seventeen participants (M_age = 23.28 ± 2.37 years) performed 2 physical/cognitive dual tasks, matched in physical demand but with different mental requirements (2-back, oddball). We assessed IOP before exercise, after 2 min of active recovery, and after 15 min of passive recovery, and we also collected RPE and SAM measures during the sessions (28 measurement points). We used NASA-TLX and cognitive performance as checks of the mental manipulation. Results: (a) Intraocular pressure increased after concomitant physical/mental effort, with the effect reaching statistical significance after the 2-back task (p = .002, d = 0.35) but not after the oddball condition (p = .092, d = 0.29). (b) Baseline IOP was associated with subjective sensitivity to effort and showed statistical significance for the oddball condition (p = .03, ?_p² = .622) but not for the 2-back task (F < 1). Conclusions: Results suggest a relationship between IOP and physical/cognitive effort, which could have implications for the management of glaucoma. Additionally, a rapid measure of IOP could be used as a marker of individual effort sensitivity in applied settings.     

The Radio and the Portuguese 1974 Revolution. The Military,the Radio Personnel and a Successful Cooperation

The importance of the media in the Portuguese 1974 Revolution is recognized by the military, politicians, and journalists. In this context, the major role of the radio broadcast in the course of events is undisputable. In the dawn of April 25, a popular Portuguese song was the start signal for the military coup and other counter signals followed, sounds that became symbols of the Revolution. Radio was the medium chosen by the Armed Forces Movement (MFA or Movimento das Forças Armadas in the original) to communicate with the parties involved in the coup and it was also used to inform the population of the goals and progress of the military operations. The following manoeuvres eventually transformed Radio Clube Português, one of the radio stations, in the commanding post of all the operations and the Portuguese people became aware of the MFA goals and victories by the bulletins that were broadcasted by the military on the radio. In a country with high illiteracy, radio played a crucial role in terms of information, which confirms its unquestionable centrality in the course of the April Revolution (also known as the Carnations Revolution). This study aims to explain how this process was achieved and it is based on the recollection of documents, archives, and other information. The recovery of testimonies and reconstruction of events allow us to explore the way military interacted with radio personnel and how radio logics prevailed and helped the military to successfully achieve their goals.