Pedagogical Agents as Learning Companions: The Role of Agent Competency and Type of Interaction

This study was designed to examine the effects of the competency (low vs. high) and interaction type (proactive vs. responsive) of pedagogical agents as learning companions (PALs) on learning, self-efficacy, and attitudes. Participants were 72 undergraduates in an introductory computer-literacy course who were randomly assigned to one of four treatments: Low-Proactive, Low-Responsive, High-Proactive, and High-Responsive. Results indicated a main effect for PAL competency. Students who worked with the high-competency PAL in both proactive and responsive conditions achieved higher scores in applying what they had learned and showed more positive attitudes toward the PAL. However, students who worked with the low-competency PAL reported significantly enhanced self-efficacy beliefs in the learning tasks. Also, there was a main effect far PAL interaction type. A proactive PAL had a significantly positive impact on recall. These different results on learning and motivational outcomes suggest that the competency and interaction type of a PAL should be designed according to the desired learning and motivational goals.     

The relationship between perceived ageism and depressive symptoms in later life: Understanding the mediating effects of self-perception of aging and purpose in life,using structural equation modeling

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between perceived ageism and depression in later life and to clarify the mechanism underlying this relationship by examining the mediating effects of self-perception of aging and purpose in life. The Health and Retirement Study surveys were used for this secondary analysis of data. The sample included 3,991 older adults, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses using structural regression models were conducted. SEM analyses revealed that full mediation effects of self-perception of aging and purpose in life exist. Older adults who perceive ageism are likely to have negative self-perception of aging, and this negative view of their own aging is likely to decrease purpose in life and increase depressive symptoms. The results of this study imply that more efforts and resources are necessary to reduce ageism and its negative effect on depression among older adults. Additionally, the current study suggests the necessity of anti-ageism policies and social services. Increasing positive self-perception of aging, purpose in life, and resilience could be the key to a better quality of life for older adults.     

美国优质网络课程的案例介绍

近十年来,我国高校网络课程建设成果显著,但其中暴露出的理论与实践相脱离的现象也比较严重。通过介绍美国德克萨斯A&M大学Dooley教授开设的网络课程《远程教育的高级方法》,尝试剖析其作为优质网络课程在管理平台、教学设计、交互安排、评价方法以及支持服务等方面所具有的特征,以期与国内远程教育的研究者和实践者分享经验。     

Robotic automation of droplet microfluidics

Droplet microfluidics enables powerful analytic capabilities but often requires workflows involving macro- and microfluidic processing steps that are cumbersome to perform manually. Here, we demonstrate the automation of droplet microfluidics with commercial fluid-handling robotics. The workflows incorporate common microfluidic devices including droplet generators, mergers, and sorters and utilize the robot''s native capabilities for thermal control, incubation, and plate scanning. The ability to automate microfluidic devices using commercial fluid handling will speed up the integration of these methods into biological workflows.     

Application of network meta-analysis in the field of physical activity and health promotion

Continued advancement in the field of physical activity and health promotion relies heavily on the synthesis of rigorous scientific evidence. As such, systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials have led to a better understanding of which intervention strategies are superior (i.e., produce the greatest effects) in physical activity-based health behavior change interventions. Indeed, standard meta-analytic approaches have allowed researchers in the field to synthesize relevant experimental evidence using pairwise procedures that produce reliable estimates of the homogeneity, magnitude, and potential biases in the observed effects. However, pairwise meta-analytic procedures are only capable to discerning differences in effects between a select intervention strategy and a select comparison or control condition. In order to maximize the impact of physical activity interventions on health-related outcomes, it is necessary to establish evidence concerning the comparative efficacy of all relevant physical activity intervention strategies. The development of network meta-analysis (NMA)—most commonly used in medical-based clinical trials—has allowed for the quantification of indirect comparisons, even in the absence of direct, head-to-head trials. Thus, it stands to reason that NMA can be applied in physical activity and health promotion research to identify the best intervention strategies. Given that this analysis technique is novel and largely unexplored in the field of physical activity and health promotion, care must be taken in its application to ensure reliable estimates and discernment of the effect sizes among interventions. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to comment on the potential application and importance of NMA in the field of physical activity and health promotion, describe how to properly and effectively apply this technique, and suggest important considerations for its appropriate application in this field. In this paper, overviews of the foundations of NMA and commonly used approaches for conducting NMA are provided, followed by assumptions related to NMA, opportunities and challenges in NMA, and a step-by-step example of developing and conducting an NMA.     

Creative labor as moral and ethical subjects and its limitation: Creative City Yokohama,Japan

This study aims to reconsider and re-evaluate the rapid circulation of global creative city policy from the viewpoint of its creative workforce by focusing on the case of Yokohama, Japan. To shed light on this workforce’s everyday experiences and labor subjectivity, this investigation draws ideas from recent research trends of “creative labor” from the field of media and cultural studies, sociology of work, and political economy of communication. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observations, this research focuses on how the ethical and moral dimensions of labor subjectivity in creative work are prominently important in explaining Yokohama workers’ everyday living and working experiences as creative labor. Unexpectedly, this study found that these moral and ethical sentiments and actions, which take on the role of retaining their labor motivation, actually limit the development of political subjects who can resist given precarious working conditions and thereby hinder them from building a collective solidarity as “workers.” Thus this investigation concludes that the creative worker’s subjectivity retreats to solely a moral dimension rather than to a political one. Through this finding, this study explores whether the articulation of moral-political and social values in the course of cultural work can evolve from creative workers’ moral and ethical sensitivities and actions.     

Factorial Invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale among Senior Women in the Nurses’ Health Study Cohort

The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) across subgroups based on demographic, health-related, behavioral, and environmental characteristics among Nurses’ Health Study participants (N = 2,919; age M = 73.0, SD = 6.9 years) living in California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. A series of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate increasingly restrictive hypotheses of factorial invariance. Factorial invariance was supported across age, walking limitations, and neighborhood walking. Only partial scalar invariance was supported across state residence and neighborhood population density. This evidence provides support for using the NEWS-A with older women of different ages, who have different degrees of walking limitations, and who engage in different amounts of neighborhood walking. Partial scalar invariance suggests that researchers should be cautious when using the NEWS-A to compare older adults living in different states and neighborhoods with different levels of population density.