Hierarchy of interactive functions in father-mother-baby three-way games

In developmental research, the family has mainly been studied through dyadic interaction. Three-way interactions have received less attention, partly because of their complexity. This difficulty may be overcome by distinguishing between four hierarchically embedded functions in three-way interactions: (1) participation (inclusion of all participants), (2) organization (partners keeping to their roles), (3) focalization (sharing a common focus) and (4) affective contact (being in tune). We document this hierarchical model on a sample of 80 families observed in the Lausanne Trilogue Play situation across four different sites. Hierarchy between functions was demonstrated by means of Guttman scalability coefficient. Given the importance of the child's development in a threesome, the pertinence of this model for family assessment is discussed.

The InterActive Choice Aid: A new approach to supporting online consumer decision making

Interactive Choice Aid (ICA) is a decision aid, introduced in this paper, that systematically assists consumers with online purchase decisions. ICA integrates aspects from prescriptive decision theory, insights from descriptive decision research, and practical considerations; thereby combining pre-existing best practices with novel features. Instead of imposing an objectively ideal but unnatural decision procedure on the user, ICA assists the natural process of human decision-making by providing explicit support for the execution of the user's decision strategies. The application contains an innovative feature for in-depth comparisons of alternatives through which users' importance ratings are elicited interactively and in a playful way. The usability and general acceptance of the choice aid was studied; results show that ICA is a promising contribution and provides insights that may further improve its usability.

Interactive readings of children's literature in day care: Microgenetic analysis of the semiopictorial construction.

In line with educational issues involved in emergent literacy practices in preschool, in particular those concerning comprehension processes, this paper focuses on picture-based narrative comprehension during an interactive reading session of a wordless picture book, involving a group of children aged three and their teacher. Children are asked to make inferences about the meaning and outcome of the story, a procedure which gradually elicits their responses on how events link together, thus enhancing their capacity to use prior and implicit knowledge to build the story meaning. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of interaction for developing comprehension. Data collected was analysed following didactic microgenesis, an analytical approach showing that knowledge built during interaction depends on the joint construction of a zone of common meaning by which teacher and children try to adjust to each other. In order to help the process of merging different meanings of the story built online, a text written by researchers, following the narrative structure of the story, was read by the teacher after the picture-based reading. This led us to examine through interactional analysis which semiotic cues were used during recall on the following day, as an additional measure of knowledge construction.

Analysing Professional Discourse in Interactive Learning: Integrating Historical and Situational Perspectives

Peer-reviewed

Sexual dimorphism in a dioecious population of the wind-pollinated herb Mercurialis annua: the interactive effects of resource availability and competition.

Background and Aims Male-biased sex allocation commonly occurs in wind-pollinated hermaphroditic plants, and is often positively associated with size, notably in terms of height. Currently, it is not well established whether a corresponding pattern holds for dioecious plants: do males of wind-pollinated species exhibit greater reproductive allocation than females? Here, sexual dimorphism is investigated in terms of life history trade-offs in a dioecious population of the wind-pollinated ruderal herb Mercurialis annua.Methods The allocation strategies of males and females grown under different soil nutrient availability and competitive (i.e. no, male or female competitor) regimes were compared.Key Results Male reproductive allocation increased disproportionately with biomass, and was greater than that of females when grown in rich soils. Sexual morphs differentially adjusted their reproductive allocation in response to local environmental conditions. In particular, males reduced their reproductive allocation in poor soils, whereas females increased theirs, especially when competing with another female rather than growing alone. Finally, males displayed smaller above-ground vegetative sizes than females, but neither nutrient availability nor competition had a strong independent effect on relative size disparities between the sexes.Conclusions Selection appears to favour plasticity in reproductive allocation in dioecious M. annua, thereby maintaining a relatively constant size hierarchy between sexual morphs. In common with other dioecious species, there seems to be little divergence in the niches occupied by males and females of M. annua.

Online brands: Branding, possible worlds, and interactive grammars

This paper proposes to reflect from a semiotic perspective on the transformation that brands have undergone since the rise of the Internet. After a brief theoretical introduction to digital communication and the semiotics of brands, the case of the Google brand is analyzed by applying concepts of generative and interpretive semiotics. The paper holds that the iconic and linguistic enunciations are secondary with respect to interaction. In digital media interaction — the interactive experience that the Internet user lives — is a fundamental component of the hypermedia cocktail and occupies a central position in the brand building process. The article concludes with some of the questions and special characteristics raised by so-called eBranding.

An interactive web-GIS tool for risk analysis: a case study in the Fella River basin, Italy

This paper presents a prototype of an interactive web-GIS tool for risk analysis of natural hazards, in particular for floods and landslides, based on open-source geospatial software and technologies. The aim of the presented tool is to assist the experts (risk managers) in analysing the impacts and consequences of a certain hazard event in a considered region, providing an essential input to the decision-making process in the selection of risk management strategies by responsible authorities and decision makers. This tool is based on the Boundless (OpenGeo Suite) framework and its client-side environment for prototype development, and it is one of the main modules of a web-based collaborative decision support platform in risk management. Within this platform, the users can import necessary maps and information to analyse areas at risk. Based on provided information and parameters, loss scenarios (amount of damages and number of fatalities) of a hazard event are generated on the fly and visualized interactively within the web-GIS interface of the platform. The annualized risk is calculated based on the combination of resultant loss scenarios with different return periods of the hazard event. The application of this developed prototype is demonstrated using a regional data set from one of the case study sites, Fella River of northeastern Italy, of the Marie Curie ITN CHANGES project.

Interactive Calculus in a Virtual Learning Environment

The teaching of higher level mathematics for technical students in a virtual learningenvironment poses some difficulties, but also opportunities, now specific to that virtuality.On the other hand, resources and ways to do now manly available in VLEs might soon extend to all kinds of environments.In this short presentation we will discuss anexperience carried at Universitat Oberta deCatalunya (UOC) involving (an on line university), first, the translation of LaTeX written existent materials to a web based format(specifically, a combination of XHTML andMathML), and then the integration of a symbolic calculator software (WIRIS) running as a Java applet embedded in the materials, intending to achieve an evolution from memorising concepts and repetitive algorithms to understanding and experiment concepts and the use of those algorithms.

Self-reported sitting time and physical activity: interactive associations with mental well-being and productivity in office employees

Abstract Background: Little is known about how sitting time, alone or in combination with markers of physical activity (PA), influences mental well-being and work productivity. Given the need to develop workplace PA interventions that target employees’ health related efficiency outcomes; this study examined the associations between self-reported sitting time, PA, mental well-being and work productivity in office employees. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Spanish university office employees (n = 557) completed a survey measuring socio-demographics, total and domain specific (work and travel) self-reported sitting time, PA (International Physical Activity Questionnaire short version), mental well-being (Warwick-Edinburg Mental Well-Being Scale) and work productivity (Work Limitations Questionnaire). Multivariate linear regression analyses determined associations between the main variables adjusted for gender, age, body mass index and occupation. PA levels (low, moderate and high) were introduced into the model to examine interactive associations. Results: Higher volumes of PA were related to higher mental well-being, work productivity and spending less time sitting at work, throughout the working day and travelling during the week, including the weekends (p < 0.05). Greater levels of sitting during weekends was associated with lower mental well-being (p < 0.05). Similarly, more sitting while travelling at weekends was linked to lower work productivity (p < 0.05). In highly active employees, higher sitting times on work days and occupational sitting were associated with decreased mental well-being (p < 0.05). Higher sitting times while travelling on weekend days was also linked to lower work productivity in the highly active (p < 0.05). No significant associations were observed in low active employees. Conclusions: Employees’ PA levels exerts different influences on the associations between sitting time, mental well-being and work productivity. The specific associations and the broad sweep of evidence in the current study suggest that workplace PA strategies to improve the mental well-being and productivity of all employees should focus on reducing sitting time alongside efforts to increase PA.

Digital social media: An interactive technology incorporated as a competitive advantage for business

In a more transparent and dynamic world, in which consumers trust other consumers more for advice and recommendations on products and services, the continuity of organizations appears to be associated with socialization, the sharing of interests and the interaction with the audience. This is associated with the incorporation of digital technologies to business, specifically the use of social media. Consequently, it is timely and interesting to explore the phenomenon of virtual socialization, although it is a littlestudied field and what is needed is an innovative and theoretical approach based upon theories of marketing and communication. Expertise in these areas is present in all organizations and their performance is important for appropriate development of them. This work is a qualitative analysis about the behavior, reactions and attitudes of individuals to organizations, in order to understand the social factors that contribute to sustainable competitive advantages of organizations which can support strategic and future actions. We conclude that relevant factors associated with the tacit knowledge of the organization, specifically to learning and social interaction of the organization and their knowledge of virtual communities. The higher the coexistence of factors, the more difficult is the replication and greater will be the hypothesis of sustainable competitive advantage.