Parameters in television captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing adults: effects of caption rate versus text reduction on comprehension

Caption rate and text reduction are factors that appear to affect the comprehension of captions by people who are deaf or hard of hearing. These 2 factors are confounded in everyday captioning; rate (in words per minute) is slowed by text reduction. In this study, caption rate and text reduction were manipulated independently in 2 experiments to assess any differential effects and possible benefits for comprehension by deaf and hard-of-hearing adults. Volunteers for the study included adults with a range of reading levels, self-reported hearing status, and different communication and language preferences. Results indicate that caption rate (at 130, 180, 230 words per minute) and text reduction (at 84%, 92%, and 100% original text) have different effects for different adult users, depending on hearing status, age, and reading level. In particular, reading level emerges as a dominant factor: more proficient readers show better comprehension than poor readers and are better able to benefit from caption rate and, to some extent, text reduction modifications.     

Nonverbatim captioning in Dutch television programs: a text linguistic approach

In the Netherlands, as in most other European countries, closed captions for the deaf summarize texts rather than render them verbatim. Caption editors argue that in this way television viewers have enough time to both read the text and watch the program. They also claim that the meaning of the original message is properly conveyed. However, many deaf people demand verbatim subtitles so that they have full access to all original information. They claim that vital information is withheld from them as a result of the summarizing process. Linguistic research was conducted in order (a) to identify the type of information that is left out of captioned texts and (b) to determine the effects of nonverbatim captioning on the meaning of the text. The differences between spoken and captioned texts were analyzed on the basis of on a model of coherence relations in discourse. One prominent finding is that summarizing affects coherence relations, making them less explicit and altering the implied meaning.     

Maltreatment perpetrators: a 54-month analysis of recidivism

OBJECTIVE: This study compared recidivism rates for alleged maltreatment perpetrators whose initial report was substantiated and those whose initial report was not substantiated, to determine whether they returned to the child welfare system at differing rates. METHOD: Statewide administrative child welfare services data over a period of 4 1/2 years was analyzed. The sample included 31,531 perpetrators of intrafamilial maltreatment. Separate analyses were conducted for each type of maltreatment (sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect). RESULTS: Bivariate relationships (substantiation status and recidivism) were analyzed using survival curves, and the study found that recidivism patterns differed by type of maltreatment and by substantiation status at the index event. Multivariate analyses using Cox Proportional Hazards models found that bivariate relationships held true even when controlling for neighborhood mean income, ethnicity, and gender. CONCLUSIONS: The study's finding that perpetrators whose index event was not substantiated return to the child welfare system at a high rate suggests the need to learn how to discriminate those unsubstantiated alleged perpetrators who are most at risk for recidivism. The finding of frequent cross-type recidivism indicates that intervention should focus on common themes across maltreatment types.     

Gesture as a window on children's beginning understanding of false belief

Given that gestures may provide access to transitions in cognitive development, preschoolers' performance on standard tasks was compared with their performance on a new gesture false belief task. Experiment 1 confirmed that children (N=45, M age=54 months) responded consistently on two gesture tasks and that there is dramatic improvement on both the gesture false belief task and a standard task from ages 3 to 5. In 2 subsequent experiments focusing on children in transition with respect to understanding false beliefs (Ns=34 and 70, M age=48 months), there was a significant advantage of gesture over standard and novel verbal-response tasks. Iconic gesture may facilitate reasoning about opaque mental states in children who are rapidly developing concepts of mind.     

Lipschitz-Nikolskii Constants of the Baskakov Operators

In this paper,we obtain Lipschitz-Nikolskii constants for the Baskakov operators V_n(f,x)。     

电脑杀手 齐佩在冷笑

齐佩在冷笑１刀刺进了枕头里，鹅毛四处乱飞！詹尼抽了个空朝插头那面墙爬去，使尽浑身力气将插头拔松了。所有的一切都消失了，屏幕恢复了灰色，布赖恩———不再是齐佩，松开了手指，小刀滑落到了地板上。詹尼赶紧将小刀收好，这才跪在布赖恩旁边，布赖恩一动不动地躺在地上。“布赖恩，你能听到我的声音吗？”詹尼轻轻地叫他。“发生了什么事情？”布赖恩很茫然地睁开眼睛，“我为什么会在这里？我，我……”“这正是我想问你的！”詹尼说。“我，我想睡觉！”布赖恩不敢正视姐姐的眼睛，怯怯地说。“是你插上电源的吗？”“是的。”布赖…     

Can squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) plan for the future? Studies of temporal myopia in food choice

In seven experiments, 2 squirrel monkeys were given choices between arrays of food that varied in the quantity offered. In Experiments 1-5, the monkeys were offered choices between quantities of the same food that varied in a 2:1 ratio. The squirrel monkeys failed to show the temporal myopia effect or a decrease in preference for the larger quantity as the absolute number of food items offered increased. Even when given choices of 8 versus 16 peanuts and 10 versus 20 peanuts, both monkeys significantly preferred the larger quantity. An examination of the monkeys' rates of consumption indicated that 20 peanuts were consumed over a 1- to 2-h period, with eating bouts separated by periods of nonconsumption. In Experiments 6A, 6B, and 7, food was either pilfered or replenished 15 min after an initial choice, so that choice of the smaller quantity led to more total food in the long run. These manipulations caused both monkeys to reduce choice of the larger quantity, relative to baseline choice. The results suggest that squirrel monkeys anticipated the future consequences of their choices.     

Kinetics study on biomass pyrolysis for fuel gas production

Kinetic knowledge is of great importance in achieving good control of the pyrolysis and gasification process and optimising system design. An overall kinetic pyrolysis scheme is therefore addressed here. The kinetic modelling incorporates the following basic steps: the degradation of the virgin biomass materials into primary products (tar, gas and semi-char), the decomposition of primary tar into secondary products and the continuous interaction between primary gas and char. The last step is disregarded completely by models in the literature. Analysis and comparison of predicted results from different kinetic schemes and experimental data on our fixed bed pyrolyser yielded very positive evidence to support our kinetic scheme. Project (No. 2001CB409600) Supported by the National Key Basic Research Program (973) of China     

日美课程改革的比较分析——美国学者谈日本教育改革

二战后受美国的影响,日本现行的课程模式是在美国初、中等教育课程结构的基础之上建立起来的。但是,日本课程结构的核心精华却有着丰富悠久的历史。它具有强烈的美学意识和热爱大自然的传统观念,并受到诸如日本神道教、佛教、孔子之道等各种不同道教思想的影响。如今人们访问日本学校不难发现这些特点随处可见。只有通过对这些方面的了解,人们才有可能较详尽地理解日本的教育改革。目前在任何一个国家都明显地表现出经济、社会、文化和政治对课程结构所产生的影响。在日本由于课程编制是由中央集权直接控制的,因而更加容易看到这些影响。