Anytime, anywhere, anyplace : articulating the meaning of flexible delivery in built environment education

This paper describes a process for negotiating aspects of flexible learning through the consideration of flexibility from student, teacher and institutional perspectives. The process aimed to reconcile, in an Australian school of architecture, the competing demands of learner’s increasing flexibility demands, teacher’s attributes and pedagogical objectives and the structural limitations that militate against the delivery, resourcing and maintenance of flexibility. Results indicated that the only categories of flexibility (out of time, content, access/entry requirements, pedagogy and delivery) that were demanded by students were pedagogy (but only in the choice of working in groups) and delivery; whereas teachers were merely willing to offer flexibility in delivery. Thus, what students desired of teaching, and what teachers were able to provide, were multiple mediums of knowledge delivery that allowed students flexibility in when and where they could learn. These findings, it is suggested, have relevance for course redesign throughout the creative/visual arts.

Measurement of the deformation and adhesion of solids in contact

Two curved surfaces of molecularly smooth mica are brought into contact under a controlled load, and their deformed shape is measured using optical interference fringes of equal chromatic order. This technique allows exceptionally accurate measurements of surface profiles at separations down to a molecular scale. Contact between the surfaces can be made either adhesive or nonadhesive by suitable choice of the medium between them. Results have been obtained in both cases and compared with the theories of Hertz (nonadhesive contact) and Johnson, Kendall, and Roberts (adhesive contact).

A comparative study of supervised learning techniques for data-driven haptic simulation

This paper focuses on the choice of a supervised learning algorithm and possible data preprocessing in the domain of data-driven haptic simulation. This is done through a comparison of the performance of different supervised learning techniques with and without data preprocessing. The simulation of haptic interactions with deformable objects using data-driven methods has emerged as an alternative to parametric methods. The accuracy of the simulation depends on the empirical data and the learning method. Several methods were suggested in the literature and here we provide a comparison between their performance and applicability to this domain. We selected four examples to be compared: singular learning mechanism which is artificial neural networks (ANN), attribute selection followed by ANN learning process, ensemble of multiple learning techniques, and attribute selection followed by the learning ensemble. These methods performance was compared in the domain of simulating multiple interactions with a deformable object with nonlinear material behavior.

Developing a placebo-controlled trial in surgery : issues of design, acceptability and feasibility

Background: Surgical placebos are controversial. This in-depth study explored the design, acceptability, and feasibility issues relevant to designing a surgical placebo-controlled trial for the evaluation of the clinical and cost effectiveness of arthroscopic lavage for the management of people with osteoarthritis of the knee in the UK.
Methods: Two surgeon focus groups at a UK national meeting for orthopaedic surgeons and one regional surgeon focus group (41 surgeons); plenary discussion at a UK national meeting for orthopaedic anaesthetists (130 anaesthetists); three focus groups with anaesthetists (one national, two regional; 58 anaesthetists); two focus groups with members of the patient organisation Arthritis Care (7 participants); telephone interviews with people on consultant waiting lists from two UK regional centres (15 participants); interviews with Chairs of UK ethics committees (6 individuals); postal surveys of members of the British Association of Surgeons of the Knee (382 surgeons) and members of the British Society of Orthopaedic Anaesthetists (398 anaesthetists); two centre pilot (49 patients assessed).
Results: There was widespread acceptance that evaluation of arthroscopic lavage had to be conducted with a placebo control if scientific rigour was not to be compromised. The choice of placebo surgical procedure (three small incisions) proved easier than the method of anaesthesia (general anaesthesia). General anaesthesia, while an excellent mimic, was more intrusive and raised concerns among some stakeholders and caused extensive discussion with local decision-makers when seeking formal approval for the pilot. Patients were willing to participate in a pilot with a placebo arm; although some patients when allocated to surgery became apprehensive about the possibility of receiving placebo, and withdrew. Placebo surgery was undertaken successfully.
Conclusions: Our study illustrated the opposing and often strongly held opinions about surgical placebos, the ethical issues underpinning this controversy, and the challenges that exist even when ethics committee approval has been granted. It showed that a placebo-controlled trial could be conducted in principle, albeit with difficulty. It also highlighted that not only does a placebo-controlled trial in surgery have to be ethically and scientifically acceptable but that it also must be a feasible course of action. The place of placebo-controlled surgical trials more generally is likely to be limited and require specific circumstances to be met. Suggested criteria are presented.

Prediction of age, sentiment, and connectivity from social media text

Social media corpora, including the textual output of blogs, forums, and messaging applications, provide fertile ground for linguistic analysis material diverse in topic and style, and at Web scale. We investigate manifest properties of textual messages, including latent topics, psycholinguistic features, and author mood, of a large corpus of blog posts, to analyze the impact of age, emotion, and social connectivity. These properties are found to be significantly different across the examined cohorts, which suggest discriminative features for a number of useful classification tasks. We build binary classifiers for old versus young bloggers, social versus solo bloggers, and happy versus sad posts with high performance. Analysis of discriminative features shows that age turns upon choice of topic, whereas sentiment orientation is evidenced by linguistic style. Good prediction is achieved for social connectivity using topic and linguistic features, leaving tagged mood a modest role in all classifications.

Self-service technology complaint channel choice : exploring consumers' motives

Purpose – This study aims to explore consumers' motives for their choice of complaint channel in the context of self-service technology (SST) failure. Traditional and evolving communication channels are considered.

Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative self-report data from consumers who had recently experienced dissatisfaction with SSTs were collected via an open-ended survey question. Three independent coders used a deductive and inductive iterative process to code the data.

Findings – The findings suggest that both consumer complaint behaviour (CCB) theory and media richness theory (MRT) help to explain consumers' motivation for channel choice. However, consumers' choice appears to be motivated to a greater degree by convenience rather than task-medium fit.

Research limitations/implications – This study was set solely in the SST context and explored consumers' hypothetical complaint channel choice, not actual channel use. Future research could examine the actual performance of complaint channels as perceived by consumers. Consumers' motivation to choose other emerging electronic complaint channels, such as complaint blogs and forums, could also be explored.

Practical implications – Understanding consumers' complaint channel choice is important for organisations to enable them to provide effective and efficient ways for consumers to complain. As complaint channels proliferate, it is difficult for organisations to know which channels to offer.

Originality/value – Choosing an appropriate channel for resolving a complaint is an important consumer decision, which the study of CCB needs to be broadened to include. The current study addresses this gap by, for the first time, integrating CCB theory and MRT. This is valuable because it is common for consumers not to voice their complaints to organisations. To facilitate voiced complaints, organisations need to determine which complaint channels will be most effective and efficient and in which situations.

Are we predicting the actual or apparent distribution of temperate marine fishes?

Planning for resilience is the focus of many marine conservation programs and initiatives. These efforts aim to inform conservation strategies for marine regions to ensure they have inbuilt capacity to retain biological diversity and ecological function in the face of global environmental change – particularly changes in climate and resource exploitation. In the absence of direct biological and ecological information for many marine species, scientists are increasingly using spatially-explicit, predictive-modeling approaches. Through the improved access to multibeam sonar and underwater video technology these models provide spatial predictions of the most suitable regions for an organism at resolutions previously not possible. However, sensible-looking, well-performing models can provide very different predictions of distribution depending on which occurrence dataset is used. To examine this, we construct species distribution models for nine temperate marine sedentary fishes for a 25.7 km2 study region off the coast of southeastern Australia. We use generalized linear model (GLM), generalized additive model (GAM) and maximum entropy (MAXENT) to build models based on co-located occurrence datasets derived from two underwater video methods (i.e. baited and towed video) and fine-scale multibeam sonar based seafloor habitat variables. Overall, this study found that the choice of modeling approach did not considerably influence the prediction of distributions based on the same occurrence dataset. However, greater dissimilarity between model predictions was observed across the nine fish taxa when the two occurrence datasets were compared (relative to models based on the same dataset). Based on these results it is difficult to draw any general trends in regards to which video method provides more reliable occurrence datasets. Nonetheless, we suggest predictions reflecting the species apparent distribution (i.e. a combination of species distribution and the probability of detecting it). Consequently, we also encourage researchers and marine managers to carefully interpret model predictions.

The impact of test medium on use of visual analogue scales

Objectives: Visual analog scales are frequently used as a means of allowing participants to rate symptoms during clinical trials. The accuracy and reproducibility of these scales play an important role in determining the experimental value of the data they provide. This study was initiated to compare the data collected using paper- and computer-based (Tablet PC) analog scales to better understand the variability in data provided by a visual analog scale.

Methods: Thirty participants rated ocular comfort, redness, and clarity of vision (right and left eyes) on a nondemarcated horizontal line on both paper and a Tablet PC. Measurements were taken in the morning between the hours of 8:30 and 10:30 am and again the same day between 2:30 and 4:30 pm.

Results: The mean difference between the measures recorded in the morning for the 2 media was 2.6 ± 0.9 (confidence intervals, 2 standard errors of the differences) units on a 100 unit scale, with the Tablet PC having the higher mean measure. The limits of agreement (2 standard deviations of the differences) was 9.4 units. Comparing the difference of the differences (1.0 ± 1.3) between the 2 methods of measure (morning vs. afternoon) the visual analog scales on the Tablet PC seemed to have good reproducibility of agreement in comparison with the paper version.

Conclusions: Discrepancy analysis yielded no significant difference and slight bias between paper- and computer-based analog scales. Repeatability of measures using the Tablet PC was also demonstrated. These results suggest that the choice of medium does not significantly influence the outcome for subjective analog scales.

Exercising sociomathematical norms in classroom discourse about data representation : insights from one case study of a grade 6 lesson in Indonesia

This paper examines a research study to foster mathematical discourse about data representations among Indonesian students. It was situated in the context of implementing an Indonesian version of Realistic Mathematics Education, labelled as PMRI, in primary schools. A case study of one lesson involving Grade 6 students on the choice of data representations in Yogyakarta will be discussed. The analysis focused on the enacted social norms and sociomathematical norms during a wholeclass discussion and their impacts on students’ knowledge of data representations. The need for constant effort to enact these norms in classroom mathematical discourse is highlighted.

Real estate employability : differing perceptions of graduates from undergraduate and postgraduate courses

Purpose – Employability is likely to be at the forefront of any degree applicant's mind in England and Wales due to an impending large increase in the cost of tuition. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a Centre for Education in the Built Environment-funded project which has investigated real estate graduate competencies and employability. The paper concentrates on significant differences in emphasis by graduates from undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses.

Design/methodology/approach – Following an extensive literature review, 72 competencies have been identified and the Confederation of British Industry classification of knowledge, skills and attributes has been adopted. An online survey of 639 graduates (half UG and half PG) asked respondents to complete five-point Likert attitude scales to rate how their course enabled development of the 72 competencies. Themes developed from the results of the questionnaire study have been explored in greater detail with five real estate education providers and the human resource managers of four large London employers.

Findings – Rather surprisingly, UGs rated their gaining of the vast majority of the competencies more highly than PGs. This finding seems to be at odds with the impression given by the educators and employers, both of whom perceive a preference for the greater maturity and commercial awareness of graduates from PG courses.

Originality/value – Real estate course providers can use the results of this study to ensure that their programmes of study adequately address what is likely to become the crucial factor in the choice of any future programme of study – employability.

The robust result in meta-analysis of aid effectiveness : a response to Mekasha and Tarp

In this response to Mekasha and Tarp (2013) we show that contrary to what they state, their study validates our basic analysis. They confirm that the literature finds that aid is of little economic importance in generating growth. The results also show that the literature systematically selects control variables for their effect on aid effectiveness. We argue that their choice of the random effects model is not appropriate for the problem at hand, and that the way they use multiple meta-regression analysis contradicts the robust results reached at the basic analysis.

Statistical approaches to testing the relationships of the built environment with resident-level physical activity behavior and health outcomes in cross-sectional studies with cluster sampling

To achieve valid conclusions, studies exploring associations of the built environment with residents' physical activity and health-related outcomes need to employ statistical approaches accounting for clustered data. This article discusses the following main statistical approaches: analysis of covariance, regression models with robust standard errors, generalized estimating equations, and multilevel generalized linear models. The choice of a statistical method depends on the characteristics of the study and research questions. While the first three approaches are employed to account for clustering in the data, multilevel models can also help unravel more substantive issues within a social ecological theoretical framework of health behavior.

A modified LLC panel unit root test of the PPP hypothesis

In a recent study, Westerlund (Empir Econ 37:517–531, 2009) shows that the performance of the popular LLC (Levin et al., J Econ 108:1–24, 2002) panel unit root test depends critically on the choice of lag truncation used when correcting for serial correlation, and that it is only when this parameter is set as a function of time that the power raises above size. The purpose of the current paper is to propose a modified test that does not suffer from this drawback. The new test is not only simpler to compute but also superior in terms of small-sample performance, which is illustrated using an example purchasing power parity for less developed countries.

A critical review of psychological instruments used in police officer selection

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the instruments used in the screening process, with particular attention given to supporting research validation. Psychological screening is a well-established process used in the selection of employees across public safety industries, particularly in police settings. Screening in and screening out are both possible, with screening out being the most commonly used method. Little attention, however, has been given to evaluating the comparative validities of the instruments used.

Design/methodology/approach
This review investigates literature supporting the use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the California Personality Inventory (CPI), the Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI), the Australian Institute of Forensic Psychology's test battery (AIFP), and some other less researched tests. Research supporting the validity of each test is discussed.

Findings
It was found that no test possesses unequivocal research support, although the CPI and AIFP tests show promise. Most formal research into the validity of the instruments lacks appropriate experimental structure and is therefore less powerful as “evidence” of the utility of the instrument(s).

Practical implications
This research raises the notion that many current screening practices are likely to be adding minimal value to the selection process by way of using instruments that are not “cut out” for the job. This has implications for policy and practice at the recruitment stage of police employment.

Originality/value
This research provides a critical overview of the instruments and their validity studies rather than examining the general process of psychological screening. As such, it is useful to those working in selection who are facing the choice of psychological instrument. Possibilities for future research are presented, and development opportunities for a best practice instrument are discussed.

Retention divergence of terpenes with porous graphitized carbon and C18 stationary phases

The significant divergence between the retention of 16 terpene standards on porous graphitized carbon (PGC) and C18 packing materials are illustrated. The PGC surface is shown to provide a selectivity toward shape, polarity, and structure that is not afforded by the C18 surface. This observation is illustrated by plots of the retention factors similar to those typically used to represent 2D-HPLC separations. A geometric approach to factor analysis was used to measure the separation divergence together with the selectivity and the product selectivity factors of closely related species. When a methanol mobile phase was used with the PGC surface, a large fraction of the separation space could be utilized. That is further reflected by a spreading angle of 80.3°. The PGC material was also successful at resolving structural isomers where the C18 phase was not. It was also found that the choice of the mobile phase is important when using this material. A much larger degree of space utilization was seen with methanol than with acetonitrile that displayed a spreading angle of only 40.8°.