Facilitating communication in children with multiple disabilities: three case studies of girls with Rett syndrome

Purpose: To investigate the effect of cueing on communicative responses of children with multiple disabilities in an educational setting. It was hypothesized that differences would exist in teacher interactional styles and the use of orienting cues would increase the communicative responses of the participants. Method: A naturalistic observation research method was employed in order to examine the interaction of three student-teacher dyads in three special schools. Three different activity types were videotaped from which interactions were coded and analysed. Results: Multi-modal cueing facilitated communicative responses of children with Rett syndrome. However, increased communication opportunities provided by caregivers did not elicit increased responses from the girls. Conclusion: There is a difference in cueing by teachers in their interactions with children with multiple disabilities. Also, more frequent communicative interactions did not necessarily lead to increased student responses. It is suggested that amount and type of cueing may need to be considered to be effective in generating student responses. The small number of participants, however, means findings should be viewed cautiously and that more research is indicated.

The effect of provocation in the form of mild erotica on attitude to the ad and corporate image: Differences between cause-related and product-based advertising

Provocative advertising is characterized by a deliberate attempt to gain attention through shock. This research investigates the reactions of individuals to a provocative appeal for a cause as opposed to a provocative advertisement for a standard consumer product, using mild erotica as the element of provocative imagery. An experiment using 391 adult subjects was conducted, and two analyses were performed. The first examined the effect of stimulus type (mildly erotic/nonerotic) by product category (cause appeal/consumer product) on attitude to the ad. The second examined the effect of stimulus type (mildly erotic/nonerotic) by cause (AIDS [acquired immunodeficiency syndrome]/SIDS [sudden infant death syndrome]) on corporate image. Both analyses also included gender as a third independent variable. The results suggest that people prefer mildly erotic ads generally, that an organization using mild erotica in appeals for a cause will be viewed more favorably where the erotica is congruent with the cause, and that women may be more responsive to mild erotica in cause appeals than are men.

Effect of mutual coupling on the interference rejection capabilities of linear and circular arrays in CDMA systems

This paper is concerned with assessing the interference rejection capabilities of linear and circular array of dipoles that can be part of a base station of a code-division multiple-access cellular communication system. The performance criteria for signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) improvement employed in this paper is the spatial interference suppression coefficient. We first derive an expression for this figure of merit and then analyze and compare the SIR performance of the two types of arrays. For a linear array, we quantitatively assess the degradation in SIR performance, as we move from array broadside to array end-fire direction. In addition, the effect of mutual coupling is taken into account.

The mirror-ball effect: Investigating channels, messages and participation levels

Journalists have always used equipment which has been generally available in the communities in which they worked. This has been a result both of economy and necessity, since they found they had to connect with their audiences using means that were available to the audience, not just to the sender. Newspapers sold on street corners in the very early media days; SMS and email have become the rule for the early 21st century. This development also admits the possibility of the roles of the communication professional and the community merging during the “public journalism” process, and has become most recently evident in the areas around the Bay of Bengal, struck by the tsunami on December 26, 2004, especially in the Indonesian province of Banda Aceh, and in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where tiny portable radios, featuring solar panels and hand-cranked dynamos, have suddenly become part of a vital news media channel. In this article participant-observation and personal interview techniques are used to record and compare many of the digital channels used by news and information senders up to 2005. It also investigates the level of genuine participation which these new technologies have brought to the communications process.

A self-categorization explanation for the third-person effect

Three studies tested a self-categorization theory explanation for the third-person effect. In Study 1 (N = 49) undergraduate students judged the influence of the National Enquirer, Wall Street Journal, and TV show Friends on themselves, relative to low- and high-status outgroup members, and other undergraduate students. The profile of first- and third-person perceptions was largely consistent with predictions, and the size of the third-person effect decreased as perceived similarity to target others increased-but only for media that were normative for comparison others. Study 2 (N = 49) provided evidence for this process with different media and showed that the profile of first- and third-person perceptions matched closely with perceived norms of media consumption-but not the social desirability of those media. Study 3 (N = 64) showed that the third-person effect for the same media and target other shifts with the frame of reference in which the judgment is made. Taken together, the findings are consistent with self-categorization theory and difficult to reconcile with other explanations.

'You can criticize because you care': Identity attachment, constructiveness, and the intergroup sensitivity effect

Criticism of one's group (e.g. nation, gender, or organization) is typically received in a less defensive way when it stems from another ingroup member than when it stems from an outsider (the intergroup sensitivity effect). We present two experiments demonstrating that this effect is driven not by group membership per se, but by the extent to which critics are perceived to be psychologically invested in the group they are criticizing. In Experiment 1 (N = 117), Australian participants were exposed to criticisms of their country from either other Australians (ingroup critics) or non-Australians (outgroup critics). Furthermore, the ingroup critics were described as having either strong or weak attachment to their Australian identity. Ingroup critics were only received more positively than outgroup critics when they appeared to have a psychological investment in the group. In Experiment 2 (N = 96) we show how outgroup critics (Asian-Australians) can overcome defensiveness among Anglo-Australians by locating themselves within a shared, superordinate identity (Australian). Implications for communication within and between groups are discussed.

Communicative practices in online communication: A case of agreeing to disagree

Online communities have evolved beyond the realm of social phenomenon to become important knowledge-sharing media with real economic consequences. However, the sharing of knowledge and the communication of meaning through Internet technology presents many difficulties. This is particularly so for online finance forums where market-sensitive information and disinformation about exchange-traded stocks is regularly disseminated. The development of trust and the effect of misinformation in this environment are important in the growth of this communication medium. Forum administrators need to better understand and handle the development of trust. In this article, we analyze and discuss the communicative practices of a group of investors and members of an online community of interest. We found that conflict as a driver of knowledge sharing is an important consideration for forum administrators and designers.

Quantum computation by communication

We present here a new approach to scalable quantum computing - a 'qubus computer' - which realizes qubit measurement and quantum gates through interacting qubits with a quantum communication bus mode. The qubits could be 'static' matter qubits or 'flying' optical qubits, but the scheme we focus on here is particularly suited to matter qubits. There is no requirement for direct interaction between the qubits. Universal two-qubit quantum gates may be effected by schemes which involve measurement of the bus mode, or by schemes where the bus disentangles automatically and no measurement is needed. In effect, the approach integrates together qubit degrees of freedom for computation with quantum continuous variables for communication and interaction.

Effect of line of sight propagation on capacity of an indoor MIMO system

In this paper the performance of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) wireless communication system operating in an indoor environment, featuring both line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight (NLOS) signal propagation, is assessed. In the model the scattering objects are assumed to be uniformly distributed in an area surrounding the transmitting and receiving array antennas. Mutual coupling effects in the arrays are treated in an exact manner. However interactions with scattering objects are taken into account via a single bounce approach. Computer simulations are carried out for the system capacity for varying inter-element spacing in the receiving array for assumed values of LOS/NLOS power fraction and signal to noise ratio (SNR).

Investigations into the effect of LOS signal blocking on capacity of an indoor MIMO system

In indoor environments the properties of communication channel are affected by the presence of various objects which block the Line Of Sight signal propagation. For example, this occurs because of presence of movement of humans and furniture. In this paper, the effect of reflection and scattering due to the presence of such objects is studied with respect to the capacity of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) wireless system. The carried out investigations are performed by applying a simple electromagnetic model, in which transmitting and receiving antennas of MIMO system, as well as signal blocking objects, are represented by wire dipoles. In order to provide a fair assessment, calculations of MIMO capacity are performed under both fixed transmitted power and fixed received power conditions.