Técnicas para el análisis y visualización de interacciones en ambientes virtuales

Foros asíncronos, listas de correo electrónico, y salas de chat crean ambientes de interacción virtual en los cuales puede ser difícil detectar problemas de comunicación entre los participantes. Quien quiera enseñar por medio de un ambiente en línea, se encuentra con que los actuales sistemas de gestión de aprendizajes no proveen mucha información respecto de la estructura de comunicación del grupo, nivel de participación, y otras características estructurales de la interacción que se da en este medio. En este trabajo, se exploró el uso de metodología de análisis de redes sociales (ARS) y visualizaciones en espacios en línea. Se muestra de qué modo se pueden crear objetos visuales que representan las intangibles interacciones en línea y se analizó la utilidad de esas imágenes como dispositivos para reconocimiento de patrones. Se examinó la validez de las técnicas de ARS y visualizaciones como herramientas para que instructores de cursos en línea e investigadores evalúen participación e interacción en foros de discusión. Este estudio mostró que las métricas ARS y la visualización de interacciones son herramientas útiles y potencialmente efectivas para analizar patrones de interacción en línea.Asynchronous forums, e-mail lists, and chat rooms create virtuaql environments where it may not be easy to detect communication problemas among the participants. Anyone who wants to teach through an online environment finds that current learning management systems do not provide enough information about the communication structure of the group, level of participation, and other structural characteristics of the interactions that happen in this environment. In this work, the use of social network analisis methods (SNA) and visualizations for online environments had been explored. The procedures to create the visual objects that represent intangible online interactions are shown and the usefulness of these images as devices for data pattern recognition is analized. The validity of SNA techniques and visualizations as tools for instructors of online courses and researchers to evaluate participation and interaction in discussion forums was examined. This study showed that SNA metrics and the visualization of interactions are useful and potentially effective tools to analize online interaction patterns

Assessing Causation in Breast Implant Litigation: The Role of Science Panels

In two recent cases, federal judges appointed panels of scientific experts to help assess conflicting scientific testimony regarding causation of systemic injuries by silicone gel breast implants. This article will describe the circumstances that gave rise to the appointments, the procedures followed in making the appointments and reporting to the courts, and the reactions of the participants in the proceedings

Learning in virtual worlds : Using communities of practice to explain how people learn from play

Although there is interest in the educational potential of online multiplayer games and virtual worlds, there is still little evidence to explain specifically what and how people learn from these environments. This paper addresses this issue by exploring the experiences of couples that play World of Warcraft together. Learning outcomes were identified (involving the management of ludic, social and material resources) along with learning processes, which followed Wenger’s model of participation in Communities of Practice. Comparing this with existing literature suggests that productive comparisons can be drawn with the experiences of distance education students and the social pressures that affect their participation

Mixed-method study of a conceptual model of evidence-based intervention sustainment across multiple public-sector service settings.

BackgroundThis study examines sustainment of an EBI implemented in 11 United States service systems across two states, and delivered in 87 counties. The aims are to 1) determine the impact of state and county policies and contracting on EBI provision and sustainment; 2) investigate the role of public, private, and academic relationships and collaboration in long-term EBI sustainment; 3) assess organizational and provider factors that affect EBI reach/penetration, fidelity, and organizational sustainment climate; and 4) integrate findings through a collaborative process involving the investigative team, consultants, and system and community-based organization (CBO) stakeholders in order to further develop and refine a conceptual model of sustainment to guide future research and provide a resource for service systems to prepare for sustainment as the ultimate goal of the implementation process.MethodsA mixed-method prospective and retrospective design will be used. Semi-structured individual and group interviews will be used to collect information regarding influences on EBI sustainment including policies, attitudes, and practices; organizational factors and external policies affecting model implementation; involvement of or collaboration with other stakeholders; and outer- and inner-contextual supports that facilitate ongoing EBI sustainment. Document review (e.g., legislation, executive orders, regulations, monitoring data, annual reports, agendas and meeting minutes) will be used to examine the roles of state, county, and local policies in EBI sustainment. Quantitative measures will be collected via administrative data and web surveys to assess EBI reach/penetration, staff turnover, EBI model fidelity, organizational culture and climate, work attitudes, implementation leadership, sustainment climate, attitudes toward EBIs, program sustainment, and level of institutionalization. Hierarchical linear modeling will be used for quantitative analyses. Qualitative analyses will be tailored to each of the qualitative methods (e.g., document review, interviews). Qualitative and quantitative approaches will be integrated through an inclusive process that values stakeholder perspectives.DiscussionThe study of sustainment is critical to capitalizing on and benefiting from the time and fiscal investments in EBI implementation. Sustainment is also critical to realizing broad public health impact of EBI implementation. The present study takes a comprehensive mixed-method approach to understanding sustainment and refining a conceptual model of sustainment

Personality, conventional Christian belief and unconventional paranormal belief : a study among teenagers

A sample of 10,851 pupils (5493 males and 5358 females) attending Year 9 classes (13- to 14-year-olds) and a sample of 9494 pupils (4787 males and 4707 females) attending Year 10 classes (14- to 15-year-olds) in non-denominational state-maintained secondary schools in England and Wales completed questions concerned with conventional Christian belief and unconventional paranormal belief, alongside the short-form Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The data demonstrated that conventional Christian belief and unconventional paranormal belief occupy different locations in relation to the Eysenckian model of personality in respect of the psychoticism scale and the lie scale. While conventional Christian belief is associated with lower psychoticism scores and higher lie scale scores (greater social conformity), unconventional paranormal belief is associated with higher psychoticism scores and lower lie scale scores (lower social conformity)

On Length Spectra of Lattices

The aim of this thesis is to study Schmutz Schaller\u27s conjecture that in dimensions 2 to 8 the lattices with the best sphere packings have maximal lengths. This means that the distinct norms which occur in these lattices are greater than those of any other lattice in the same dimension with the same covolume. Although the statement holds asymptotically we explicitly present a counter-example. However, it seems that there is nothing but this exception

“Real” Places in Marguerite Duras’s Wartime Paris

In the four autobiographical narratives in Marguerite Duras’s La Douleur (1985) The War (1994), over one hundred proper place names appear. While these place names all refer to real places, the relationship between these signifiers and their actual geographical referents is mediated, first by their signifieds—the reader’s mental constructs of the places mentioned—and further by their appearance in a text that necessarily creates its own, non-material world. Yet this essay argues that in this uncharacteristically realist text Duras works hard to create the illusion that the Paris there is in fact Occupied Paris, the real city in which she lived out the experiences recounted in her text. She does this, in large part, by indicating the location of each scene with meticulous precision, thus grounding the stories, quite literally, in a geographically and historically situated reality. While many of these sites are among the best-known, and literal, lieux de mémoire ‘sites of memory’ of the Paris of the Second World War, the mention of more obscure places might appear gratuitous. Yet it is precisely in their gratuity, that such details become essential elements of the forceful effet de réel ‘reality effect’ created in the text