The use of signal properties for signal representation

An efficient procedure for signal representation, based on known signal properties, is presented. The representation minimizes the maximum of the ratio of the error and the signal norm, the per cent error. Signal classes are specified by normalized quadratic functionals. These results are contrasted with the theory of n-widths of signal classes, and several applications are developed.     

Competitive marketing of distance education: A model for placing quality within a strategic planning context

Abstract

Increasing competitive forces are compelling academic administrators to think strategically about specific offerings in their distance education programs. Across a wide variety of educational contexts, quality is being recognized as a major source of competitive advantage. This paper examines the role of quality in determining appropriate market‐driven strategies. A model for integrating quality based on competitive ability and market attractiveness is presented.     

Teachers as Air Traffic Controllers: Helping Adolescents Navigate the Unfriendly Skies of Executive Functioning

The purpose of this article is to familiarize teachers with the concept of executive functioning and to provide them with a collection of strategies that they can use to help support middle and high school students with planning, organization, task-initiation, and impulse control.     

Sex Testing and the Maintenance of Western Femininity in International Sport

During the Cold War, women from Eastern Europe excelled in international sport. Rather than applauding the successes of these female athletes, many in the Cold-War-West responded with suspicion, contempt and derision. Armed with rumours and anecdotes, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) implemented sex testing in 1966, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) followed suit two years later. Despite the introduction of a compulsory sex/gender control, many continued to lament the muscular physiques of the Cold-War-Eastern victors. The known and suspected sex test ‘failures’ from North Korea, the Philippines, Poland, the Soviet Union and Spain served to exacerbate the fears of gender fraudulence. As global dynamics shifted, however, so, too, did the anxieties in sport. When women from the People's Republic of China dominated the international sports scene in the 1990s, many in the geographic-West again doubted the authenticity of the achievements and called for a return to gender verification. A decade later, the international plights of Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan and South African runner Caster Semenya convinced the IAAF and the IOC that such a reestablishment was necessary. Using the ‘colonial/modern gender system’ framework, this article explores the political and racialised sex/gender concerns medical professionals and sport authorities possessed, which led to the establishment, abandonment and reintroduction of sex testing/gender verification in elite sport. Through these three phases of sex testing/gender verification, the IAAF and the IOC reaffirmed a binary notion of sex and privileged white, Western gender norms.     

From platform jumping to self-censorship: internet freedom,social media,and circumvention practices in Zambia

This article describes the complex media environment of urban Zambia based on qualitative interviews with 42 active ICT and social media users in Lusaka. After a contextual discussion of media censorship and Internet freedom, the article draws upon interview data to delineate four circumvention practices: (1) platform jumping; (2) anonymity; (3) self-censorship; and (4) negotiation of legal challenges. Rather than approach circumvention as a set of techniques disseminated from the information capitals of the world to those in the “global south,” this study approaches it as a set of cultural practices that emerges within particular sociohistorical conditions and platforms of communication.     

The Psychophysics of Kinesthesis for Positioning Responses: The Physical Stimulus-Psychological Response Relationship

Abstract

The physical stimulus-psychological response relationship has been described as being either a prothetic or a metathetic continuum. That is, as the stimulus intensity increases, the response magnitude increases (prothetic) or stays the same (metathetic). The first experiment of this study considered this relationship for a movement having the final limb position, or location, as its goal. The second experiment focused on an extent movement. Subjects were tested on a linear positioning apparatus in both experiments using the method of constant stimuli for determining thresholds. On the basis of the Weber ratios and the JND's for the three increasing movement locations and extents, a metathetic continuum was determined as best describing location movements, while a prothetic continuum was considered more appropriate for extent movements. JND's indicated sensitive discrimination for location movements (1.08 to 1.39 cm for 25 to 75 cm locations) and less precise discrimination capability for extent movements (2.49 to 5.76 cm for 25 to 75 cm extents). Results are discussed in terms of their possible implications for addressing issues related to mechanisms subserving active kinesthesis, and in terms of their implications for experimental procedures for learning and memory investigations using discrete positioning responses.     

Boomers to Millennials: Generational Stereotypes at Work in Academic Librarianship

Over the past 30?years, as the American workforce has become more generationally diverse, library administrators and academic librarians alike have focused on navigating dynamics that arise in a multigenerational workplace. Much scholarly research has been conducted on generational differences; however, most of this research assumes that the individuals studied adhere to or believe in generational stereotypes. This exploratory study used a hybrid experience-perception survey to examine the role or influence generational stereotypes have on academic librarians and how those stereotypes influence the academic library workforce. While few specific generational stereotypes were found to be held by participants, perceptions of generational stereotypes still have a significant influence in academic librarians' interactions with their colleagues. This finding means that regardless of their validity, the impact of generational stereotypes cannot be disregarded in academic library workplaces.