Browsing by Subject "information"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Age, Working Memory, Figurative Language Type, And Reading Ability: Influencing Factors In African American Adults' Comprehension Of Figurative Language
    (2003-02) Qualls, Constance D.; Harris, Joyce L.; Harris, Joyce L.
    This study investigated the cognitive and linguistic factors presumed to be associated with adult comprehension of figurative language, including age, working memory (WM), figurative language type, and reading comprehension (RC). Forty younger (M = 22 years) and 40 older (M = 63 years) healthy African American adults completed WM and reading tasks, and the 60-item forced-choice multiple-category (20 idioms, 20 metaphors, and 20 metonyms) Figurative Language Comprehension Test. After controlling for WM and RC, the older adults outperformed the younger adults on idioms and metonyms. Metaphor comprehension was comparable between the groups. Findings demonstrate that WM and RC underlie adults' comprehension of figurative language and should be considered when interpreting performance on tests assessing figurative language competence in this population.
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    Bayesian Estimation of the Discrepancy with Misspecified Parametric Models
    (2013) De Blasi, Pierpaolo; Walker, Stephen G.; Walker, Stephen G.
    We study a Bayesian model where we have made specific requests about the parameter values to be estimated. The aim is to find the parameter of a parametric family which minimizes a distance to the data generating density and then to estimate the discrepancy using nonparametric methods. We illustrate how coherent updating can proceed given that the standard Bayesian posterior from an unidentifiable model is inappropriate. Our updating is performed using Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods and in particular a novel method for dealing with intractable normalizing constants is required. Illustrations using synthetic data are provided.
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    Climategate Undermined Belief in Global Warming Among Many American TV Meteorologists
    (2011-01) Maibach, Edward; Witte, James; Wilson, Kristopher; Wilson, Kristopher
    CLIMATEGATE UNDERMINED BELIEF IN GLOBAL WARMING AMONG MANY AMERICAN TV METEOROLOGISTS Television (TV) meteorologists are a potentially important source of informal climate change education in that most American adults watch local TV news and consider TV weather reporters to be a trusted source of global warming information. In January 2010, we used a Web-based survey of TV meteorologists nationwide to assess the impact of "Climategate" the unauthorized release of; and news stories about, e-mails between climate scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom on their beliefs about climate change; the response rate was 52%. Most respondents (77%) had followed the story; 42% of those who did indicated it made them more certain that global warming is not happening. Conservatives (57%) were more likely than moderates (43%) and liberals (15%) to endorse this view (chi(2) = 49.89, p < 0.001), and those who believed global warming is not happening (74%), or who did not know (46%), were more likely to endorse the view than those who believed it is happening (25%; chi(2) = 108.59, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that political ideology, belief in global warming, and gender each predicted a negative impact of the story, but certifications from professional associations did not. Furthermore, respondents who followed the story reported less trust in climate scientists (2.8 versus 3.2; p < 0.01), and in the IPCC (2.2 versus 2.7; p < 0.01), than those who had not. We conclude that, at least temporarily, Climategate has likely impeded efforts to encourage some weathercasters to embrace the role of climate change educator. These results also suggest that many TV weathercasters responded to Climategate more through the lens of political ideology than through the lens of meteorology. (Page 31)
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    Creating Climates for Growth
    (Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, 1967) Fuller, Frances F.; Bown, Oliver H.; Peck, Robert F.
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    Exploring Psychosocial Support Online: A Content Analysis of Messages in an Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Community
    (2012-10) Love, Brad; Crook, Brittani; Thompson, Charee M.; Zaitchik, Sarah; Knapp, Jessica; LeFebvre, LeFebvre; Jones, Barbara; Donovan-Kicken, Erin; Eargle, Emily; Rechis, Ruth; Love, Brad; Crook, Brittani; Thompson, Charee M.; Zaitchik, Sarah; Knapp, Jessica; LeFebvre, LeFebvre; Jones, Barbara; Donovan-Kicken, Erin; Eargle, Emily; Rechis, Ruth
    The increased usage of online cancer support groups as a resource for health-related information and social support has sparked numerous discussions about the role of online support in healthcare. However, little is known about the role of social-networking groups focused on supporting adolescents and young adults (AYAs) dealing with cancer. The current investigation report findings from a content analysis designed to explore how AYAs use an online support group to meet their psychosocial needs. Overall, members of the community focused on exchanging emotional and informational support, coping with difficult emotions through expression, describing experiences of being an AYA dealing with cancer through language (metaphors), enacting identity through evaluations of the new normal (life with and after cancer), and communicating membership as an AYA with cancer. This study highlights the unique needs of the AYA cancer community and offers a preliminary roadmap for practitioners, and network members, such as family and friends, to attempt to meet the needs of this unique community.
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    Phylotastic! Making Tree-of-Life Knowledge Accessible, Reusable and Convenient
    (2013-05) Stoltzfus, Arlin; Lapp, Hilmar; Matasci, Naim; Deus, Helena; Sidlauskas, Brian; Zmasek, Christian M.; Vaidya, Gaurav; Pontelli, Enrico; Cranston, Karen; Vos, Rutger; Webb, Campbell O.; Harmon, Luke J.; Pirrung, Megan; O'Meara, Brian; Pennell, Matthew W.; Mirarab, Siavash; Rosenberg, Michael S.; Balhoff, James P.; Bik, Holly M.; Heath, Tracy A.; Midford, Peter E.; Brown, Joseph W.; McTavish, Emily Jane; Sukumaran, Jeet; Westneat, Mark; Alfaro, Michael E.; Steele, Aaron; Jordan, Greg; Mirarab, Siavash
    Scientists rarely reuse expert knowledge of phylogeny, in spite of years of effort to assemble a great "Tree of Life" (ToL). A notable exception involves the use of Phylomatic, which provides tools to generate custom phylogenies from a large, pre-computed, expert phylogeny of plant taxa. This suggests great potential for a more generalized system that, starting with a query consisting of a list of any known species, would rectify non-standard names, identify expert phylogenies containing the implicated taxa, prune away unneeded parts, and supply branch lengths and annotations, resulting in a custom phylogeny suited to the user's needs. Such a system could become a sustainable community resource if implemented as a distributed system of loosely coupled parts that interact through clearly defined interfaces. Results: With the aim of building such a "phylotastic" system, the NESCent Hackathons, Interoperability, Phylogenies (HIP) working group recruited 2 dozen scientist-programmers to a weeklong programming hackathon in June 2012. During the hackathon (and a three-month follow-up period), 5 teams produced designs, implementations, documentation, presentations, and tests including: (1) a generalized scheme for integrating components; (2) proof-of-concept pruners and controllers; (3) a meta-API for taxonomic name resolution services; (4) a system for storing, finding, and retrieving phylogenies using semantic web technologies for data exchange, storage, and querying; (5) an innovative new service, DateLife.org, which synthesizes pre-computed, time-calibrated phylogenies to assign ages to nodes; and (6) demonstration projects. These outcomes are accessible via a public code repository (GitHub.com), a website (www.phylotastic.org), and a server image. Conclusions: Approximately 9 person-months of effort (centered on a software development hackathon) resulted in the design and implementation of proof-of-concept software for 4 core phylotastic components, 3 controllers, and 3 end-user demonstration tools. While these products have substantial limitations, they suggest considerable potential for a distributed system that makes phylogenetic knowledge readily accessible in computable form. Widespread use of phylotastic systems will create an electronic marketplace for sharing phylogenetic knowledge that will spur innovation in other areas of the ToL enterprise, such as annotation of sources and methods and third-party methods of quality assessment.
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    Safety In Numbers: Improving the University of Texas’ Security Climate Through the Control and Transmission of Information
    (2018-05) Black III, Michael
    Campus safety and security is a concern that challenges colleges across the country. This is true also for The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). With two recent homicides, a growing awareness of rampant sexual assault, and the political polarization of the student body, the dialogue surrounding UT Austin and its safety environment has become especially urgent and energetic. Interview with campus administrators suggested that one of the most effective ways to create a secure student body is to educate its constituents so that they can make informed decisions about their safety. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways that UT Austin can enhance its ability to create that informed community. The topic was divided into three categories, information, communication, and transparency that were analyzed individually. The first section investigates what information UT Austin is disseminating, how the data are formatted, how the information is contextualized, and what data are often inaccessible to the public. Delaying or withholding information degrades administrative transparency, which can erode student feelings of safety. The final section investigates ways that the University improve that relationship through performance analysis and feedback solicitation. To conduct this analysis, research on campus safety and security from 2000 to 2017 and interviews with campus administrators were synthesized along with a dataset comparing twenty peer institutions across a series of performance metrics. The results indicate that UT Austin currently has substantial growth potential in regards to its safety environment, and the study concludes by suggesting recommendations for the University that include publishing crime data in more open formats, increasing student involvement in campus security, streamlining and formatting online resources, and ensuring the recency of security information.
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    What is an Intelligence Contest? (Fall 2020)
    (Texas National Security Review, 2020) Rovner, Joshua