Transforming Teaching in Inclusive Settings: An Educator Looks at VIM

Inclusive classrooms are those in which students with special needs are educated alongside their non-disabled peers. This article examines the attitudes that teachers in inclusive settings may hold that are believed to be barriers to successful inclusion. Given that historically, students with special needs in inclusive classrooms have made limited academic progress through traditional whole-class instruction, it is suggested that a transformation in inclusive teaching take place. This article suggests that educators apply Dallas Willard’s (2002) concept of VIM, outlined in his book, Renovation of the Heart. Christian teachers may find the vision, intention, and means Willard advocates to be useful in bringing about the desired transformation

Toward Enhancing the Quality and Quantity of Marketing Majors

This article reports the findings of a survey of undergraduate students designed to examine the key factors involved in selecting a marketing major. A discussion follows, dealing with the initiatives undertaken by marketing departments at various universities in an attempt to enhance the quality and quantity of marketing majors.Statistics Working Papers Serie

Customer Retention and Unplanned Purchases on the Web

The explosion of business to consumer electronic commerce creates new challenges for companies to design electronic systems and interactions that retain customers and increase sales. This exploratory study examines the impacts of select system design and other variables that can influence customer intention to return and the number of unplanned purchases made in an online store. We find that both the level of perceived control and the shopping enjoyment experienced by new web customers can increase their intention to return. However, repeat customers do not seem to be influenced by either perceived control or shopping enjoyment in terms of their intention to return. We also find that an engaging web store design that utilizes value-added search mechanisms and presents a positively challenging experience can increase the customers' perceived control and enjoyment. Our results also indicate that product involvement is less important to new customers as opposed to repeat customers but the more often customers return to a web store the more their shopping enjoyment is determined by their product involvement. Finally, our study shows that neither perceived control nor shopping enjoyment have any significant impact on the number of unplanned purchases made by customers. Our results deepen our understanding of the consumer online shopping experience and suggests the need for the design of systems which increase the user's perceived control to encourage repeat use of online storesInformation Systems Working Papers Serie

Customer Retention and Unplanned Purchases on the Web

With the explosion of business to consumer commerce on the web, many companies are faced with new challenges in their efforts to retain customers and increase sales. Our study explores some of the important factors that increase customer intention to return and the number of unplanned purchases made. We find that both the level of perceived control and the shopping enjoyment experienced by new web customers can increase their intention to return. However, repeat customers do not seem to be influenced by either perceived control or shopping enjoyment in terms of their intention to return. We also find that an engaging web store design that utilizes value-added search mechanisms and presents a positively challenging experience can increase the customers' perceived control and enjoyment. Our results also indicate that product involvement is less important to new customers as opposed to repeat customers but the more often customers return to a web store the more their shopping enjoyment is determined by their product involvement. Finally, our study shows that neither perceived control nor shopping enjoyment have any significant impact on the number of unplanned purchases made by customers. Our results deepen our understanding of the consumer online shopping experience and provide guidelines for the more effective design and implementation of web-based stores.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Discovery of a flux-related change of the cyclotron line energy in Her X-1

We present the results of ten years of repeated measurements of the Cyclotron Resonance Scattering Feature (CRSF) in the spectrum of the binary X-ray pulsar Her X-1 and report the discovery of a positive correlation of the centroid energy of this absorption feature in pulse phase averaged spectra with source luminosity.Our results are based on a uniform analysis of observations bythe RXTE satellite from 1996 to 2005, using sufficiently long observations of 12 individual 35-day Main-On states of the source. The mean centroid energy E_c of the CRSF in pulse phase averaged spectra of Her X-1 during this time is around 40 keV, with significant variations from one Main-On state to the next. We find that the centroid energy of the CRSF in Her X-1 changes by ~5% in energy for a factor of 2 in luminosity. The correlation is positive, contrary to what is observed in some high luminosity transient pulsars. Our finding is the first significant measurement of a positive correlation between E_c and luminosity in any X-ray pulsar. We suggest that this behaviour is expected in the case of sub-Eddington accretion and present a calculation of a quantitative estimate, which is very consistent with the effect observed in Her X-1.We urge that Her X-1 is regularly monitored further and that other X-ray pulsars are investigated for a similar behaviour.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted by A&A Letter

Decision Tree Classifiers for Star/Galaxy Separation

We study the star/galaxy classification efficiency of 13 different decision tree algorithms applied to photometric objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven (SDSS DR7). Each algorithm is defined by a set of parameters which, when varied, produce different final classification trees. We extensively explore the parameter space of each algorithm, using the set of $884,126$ SDSS objects with spectroscopic data as the training set. The efficiency of star-galaxy separation is measured using the completeness function. We find that the Functional Tree algorithm (FT) yields the best results as measured by the mean completeness in two magnitude intervals: $14\le r\le21$ ($85.2$) and $r\ge19$ ($82.1$). We compare the performance of the tree generated with the optimal FT configuration to the classifications provided by the SDSS parametric classifier, 2DPHOT and Ball et al. (2006). We find that our FT classifier is comparable or better in completeness over the full magnitude range $15\le r\le21$, with much lower contamination than all but the Ball et al. classifier. At the faintest magnitudes ($r>19$), our classifier is the only one able to maintain high completeness ($>$80%) while still achieving low contamination ($\sim2.5$). Finally, we apply our FT classifier to separate stars from galaxies in the full set of $69,545,326$ SDSS photometric objects in the magnitude range $14\le r\le21$.Comment: Submitted to A

Ontogenetic scaling patterns and functional anatomy of the pelvic limb musculature in emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae)

Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) are exclusively terrestrial, bipedal and cursorial ratites with some similar biomechanical characteristics to humans. Their growth rates are impressive, as their body mass increases eighty-fold from hatching to adulthood whilst maintaining the same mode of locomotion throughout life. These ontogenetic characteristics stimulate biomechanical questions about the strategies that allow emus to cope with their rapid growth and locomotion, which can be partly addressed via scaling (allometric) analysis of morphology. In this study we have collected pelvic limb anatomical data (muscle architecture, tendon length, tendon mass and bone lengths) and calculated muscle physiological cross sectional area (PCSA) and average tendon cross sectional area from emus across three ontogenetic stages (n = 17, body masses from 3.6 to 42 kg). The data were analysed by reduced major axis regression to determine how these biomechanically relevant aspects of morphology scaled with body mass. Muscle mass and PCSA showed a marked trend towards positive allometry (26 and 27 out of 34 muscles respectively) and fascicle length showed a more mixed scaling pattern. The long tendons of the main digital flexors scaled with positive allometry for all characteristics whilst other tendons demonstrated a less clear scaling pattern. Finally, the two longer bones of the limb (tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus) also exhibited positive allometry for length, and two others (femur and first phalanx of digit III) had trends towards isometry. These results indicate that emus experience a relative increase in their muscle force-generating capacities, as well as potentially increasing the force-sustaining capacities of their tendons, as they grow. Furthermore, we have clarified anatomical descriptions and provided illustrations of the pelvic limb muscle–tendon units in emus

The Effects of Conceptual Factors on Visual Masking

Potter (1975, 1976) has shown that visual masks can exert effects both at the level of the icon and at higher levels of processing. Her methodology involved presenting pictures in a sequence at very fast rates, in order to mimic naturalistic saccadic viewing. The present study used similar methodology in order to investigate whether a picture which violates an expectation about pictures in that series exerts more of a masking effect than a picture which coincides with the expectation. Each of 38 subjects was shown 36 sequences of eight pictures. In nine trials, every picture in the trial was drawn from the same category. In 27 of the trials, seven pictures were from the same category, and one picture (the mask) was from a different category. The mask appeared in nine trials in the fourth position of the serial presentation, in nine trials in the fifth position, and in nine trials in the sixth position. Before each trial, the category of the majority of the pictures was annonuced. After each trial, subjects were given a forced-choice recognition task. Recognition of pictures presented in the series adjacent to non-conceptually related items was compared to recognition for items adjacent to conceptually related items. Mask items tended to be remembered more frequently than conceptually related items located in the same serial position. In four of six comparisons, items adjacent to masks were recognized less frequently than control items. In one of six comparisons, items were remembered more frequently. Thus, in a quickly presented series of conceptually related pictures, a non-conceptually related mask exerts more of a masking effect on adjacent items than does a conceptually related item. In some mask positions, however, this finding was not obtained. Possible explanations for the discrepancy are discussed