Texas A&M International University: Research Information Online (RIO)
Not a member yet
951 research outputs found
Sort by
Much Ado About Nothing: The Misestimation and Overinterpretation of Violent Video Game Effects in Eastern and Western Nations: Comment on Anderson et al. (2010)
No full textThe issue of violent video game influences on youth violence and aggression remains intensely debated in the scholarly literature and among the general public. Several recent meta-analyses, examining outcome measures most closely related to serious aggressive acts, found little evidence for a relationship between violent video games and aggression or violence. In a new meta-analysis, C. A. Anderson et al. (2010) questioned these findings. However, their analysis has several methodological issues that limit the interpretability of their results. In their analysis, C. A. Anderson et al. included many studies that do not relate well to serious aggression, an apparently biased sample of unpublished studies, and a best practices analysis that appears unreliable and does not consider the impact of unstandardized aggression measures on the inflation of effect size estimates. They also focused on bivariate correlations rather than better controlled estimates of effects. Despite a number of methodological flaws that all appear likely to inflate effect size estimates, the final estimate of r = .15 is still indicative of only weak effects. Contrasts between the claims of C. A. Anderson et al. (2010) and real-world data on youth violence are discussed. © 2010 American Psychological Association
Carabaza, J. y Lozano, J.C. (Eds.) (2009). Comunicación y Medio Ambiente. Monterrey, México: ITESM
No full textEl libro Comunicación y medio ambiente, editado por los autores Julieta Carabaza y José Carlos Lozano, aborda el tema del medio ambiente en los medios masivos de comunicación y su impacto en la cultura ambiental de audiencias. Los autores se plantean como objetivos principales detectar que tanto se promueve o afecta el desarrollo de una conciencia ambiental en los televidentes de todo tipo de géneros y secciones, y propiciar la discusión y análisis de lo que se reflexiona y se debate en países como México en relación a esta temática
The maternalist politics of road construction at pine mountain settlement school, 1900-1935
No full textDepartamentos de comunicación en museos: la planificación estratégica de la comunicación en instituciones artísticas y culturales
No full textEste artículo reporta una investigación que tuvo como objetivo estudiar la gestión de la comunicación en los museos, desde sus precursores hasta el personal que decide y dan forma al discurso de una forma estratégica y planificada. Desde las primeras civilizaciones, la humanidad ha manifestado necesidades de carácter intelectual, como la conservación de su cultura y la comunicación con sus semejantes. Los museos, desde el siglo 18, se han responsabilizado del primer tópico, pero no fue sino desde finales del siglo 20 cuando comenzaron a preocuparse por lo segundo: comunicarse con sus públicos. Los responsables de los museos perciben como una necesidad en la sociedad actual, establecer vínculos con los distintos públicos del museo, de una manera planificada y con personal cualificado para esta función. Por lo tanto, este artículo intenta resolver dos cuestiones básicas, ¿quién gestiona la comunicación de los museos? y ¿cómo lo hacen? Palabras clave: Comunicación estratégica, relaciones públicas, museos, gestión, departamento
El diagnóstico de la cultura organizacional o las culturas de la cultura
No full textEste trabajo reporta los hallazgos de una indagación teórica que destaca la existencia de un enfoque poco explorado en la investigación de la cultura organizacional y que tiene que ver con la cultura de grupos subyacentes, sus procesos interactivos y su impacto en la construcción de la cultura de la organización. En este sentido se sustenta la necesidad emergente de una reconceptualización del fenómeno que aporte mayores elementos para la construcción de métodos de diagnóstico e intervención, desde donde sea posible no sólo conocer la cultura de una organización, sino comprenderla desde su origen. En este artículo se describe también la metodología utilizada, desde un enfoque clínico, para diagnosticar la cultura organizacional en una dependencia del gobierno municipal en la ciudad de Saltillo, Coahuila. En el estudio de caso se instrumentó una metodología mixta y se utilizaron diferentes técnicas de recopilación, tales como: observación, revisión de fuentes documentales, encuesta, entrevista dirigida y grupos focalizados. La información fue obtenida e interpretada, a partir de la segmentación, de acuerdo a los grupos naturales -por tarea- al interior de la organización. Palabras clave: cultura organizacional, cultura de grupo, interacción
The Public Health Risks of Media Violence: A Meta-Analytic Review
No full textObjective: To conduct a meta-analytic review of studies that examine the impact of violent media on aggressive behavior and to determine whether this effect could be explained through methodological problems inherent in this research field. Study design: A detailed literature search identified peer-reviewed articles addressing media violence effects. Effect sizes were calculated for all studies. Effect sizes were adjusted for observed publication bias. Results: Publication bias was a problem for studies of aggressive behavior, and methodological problems such as the use of poor aggression measures inflated effect size. Once corrected for publication bias, studies of media violence effects provided little support for the hypothesis that media violence is associated with higher aggression. The corrected overall effect size for all studies was r = .08. Conclusions: Results from the current analysis do not support the conclusion that media violence leads to aggressive behavior. It cannot be concluded at this time that media violence presents a significant public health risk. © 2009 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved
The State and Profile of Open Source Software Projects in health and medical informatics
No full textPurpose: Little has been published about the application profiles and development patterns of open source software (OSS) in health and medical informatics. This study explores these issues with an analysis of health and medical informatics related OSS projects on SourceForge, a large repository of open source projects. Methodology: A search was conducted on the SourceForge website during the period from May 1 to 15, 2007, to identify health and medical informatics OSS projects. This search resulted in a sample of 174 projects. A Java-based parser was written to extract data for several of the key variables of each project. Several visually descriptive statistics were generated to analyze the profiles of the OSS projects. Results: Many of the projects have sponsors, implying a growing interest in OSS among organizations. Sponsorship, we discovered, has a significant impact on project success metrics. Nearly two-thirds of the projects have a restrictive license type. Restrictive licensing may indicate tighter control over the development process. Our sample includes a wide range of projects that are at various stages of development (status). Projects targeted towards the advanced end user are primarily focused on bio-informatics, data formats, database and medical science applications. Conclusion: We conclude that there exists an active and thriving OSS development community that is focusing on health and medical informatics. A wide range of OSS applications are in development, from bio-informatics to hospital information systems. A profile of OSS in health and medical informatics emerges that is distinct and unique to the health care field. Future research can focus on OSS acceptance and diffusion and impact on cost, efficiency and quality of health care. © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved
The metabolic syndrome in diabetic hispanic adults and the role of secondary actos treatment in insulin sensitivity based on gender
No full textBackground: The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in diabetics is highest among Hispanic adults. A thiazolidinedione antidiabetic agent found in Actos contributes to its mechanism of action. Actos also decreases insulin resistance in margin of the liver, resulting in increased insulin-dependent glucose disposal and decreased hepatic glucose output. This study primarily focuses on the effects of the secondary treatment of Actos on a group of South Texas Hispanics at risk for Type II diabetes; the participants\u27 ages ranged from 22 to 86 years. These results were based on their metabolic syndrome health data and the extent of recovery on the basis of their gender. Multiple regression analyses have been conducted to determine the factors affecting the metabolic syndrome data on the gender after secondary treatment. Some auxiliary analyses pertaining to cholesterol levels and weight vs. gender comparisons have been carried out to show the gender disparity. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to establish the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in the South Texas region and of individual variables which contributed to obesity of Hispanics at risk for Type II diabetes. Patients with the metabolic syndrome have three or more of these risk factors that include excessive abdominal fat, hypertension, low amounts of HDL cholesterol, elevated triacylglyceride levels, and abnormal blood sugar. They are also three-and-a-half times as likely to die from risks associated with coronary heart disease, as well as an increased risk of liver and kidney disease, and possibly cancer. Non- drug treatment programs for metabolic syndrome such as weight loss, dietary changes, and increased physical activity, decreased the incidence of metabolic syndrome by almost 41 percent, whereas the incidence rate among these patients on drug therapy was reduced by only 17 percent to conclude that there are other options available. Methods and Experimental Design: A group of individuals comprising of both males and females, had been treated with Actos. Some were administered secondary medication. They were frequently monitored and health data was collected afterwards. Participants in the study were selected by the utilization of a convenience sample technique from those who lived in Laredo, Webb County, Texas, US. Criteria for inclusion included being treated with Actos for metabolic syndrome or diabetes mellitus. The patients were of Hispanic background ranging in age from 22 to 86 with a roughly equal gender representation. Half of the sample was treated with Actos and the other half was not. Data collection included levels of total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), triacylglycerides, fasting blood glucose prior to each scheduled visit with the provider every three to four months. Blood pressure, height, weight, and abdominal girth measurements were taken on the scheduled appointment day. Results and Findings: Statistical analysis was done to determine the gender differences in physical and metabolic characteristics after secondary Actos treatment using the general linear model and other relevant statistical determinations. Some auxiliary analyses have been done to show the effects of secondary medications on weight, cholesterol, as well as on the gender. For each category of data, the percentages of the average metabolic syndrome data reductions using means± standard error of means (SEM) among Weight, Girth, B/P (blood pressure), BMI (body mass index), FBS (fasting blood sugar), Chol. (Cholesterol), HDL (high-density lipoprotein), LDL (low-density lipoprotein), and TG (triacylglycerides or Trigl.) were computed. However, the lower B/P reading is noted as more critical than upper reading for the analysis of the individual metabolic syndrome health data. The aggregate test indicator (ATI) was introduced to measure overall benefit from all metabolic syndrome variables. Conclusion: Data concluded that 8 percent of the participants using ATP III criterion and 11 percent of the participants using WHO criterion as potentially at risk of having metabolic syndrome. It was determined that the secondary treatment helped 77.78 percent of males and 66.67 percent of females. Also 55.56 percent of all subjects without the secondary treatment demonstrated noticeable reduction of metabolic syndrome concluding that the secondary dose of medication was needed for stronger long-term relief from Actos treatment. This secondary treatment was more effective for males than for their female counterparts. Linear correlations between health data appeared more insignificant for males compared to that of females. For all other subjects, regardless of gender, the secondary treatment helped to reduce their metabolic syndrome variables. The aggregate test indicator (ATI), which measures the effectiveness of the secondary medication, showed that males were doing better as compared to females. © 2009 Goonatilake, R. et al
Consumo televisivo en Torreón: distribuciones por sexo, edad y escolaridad
No full textLa preocupación por los desequilibrios en la oferta de mensajes audiovisuales entre países, y sus consecuencias para la cultura y la identidad de las naciones menos desarrolladas es una temática presente en las últimas décadas entre los estudiosos de la comunicación. En este artículo se muestran algunos de los hallazgos obtenidos en la ciudad de Torreón, Coahuila, en la investigación Consumo de medios audiovisuales en el noreste de México. A través de una encuesta telefónica se trató de dar respuesta a las interrogantes ¿cuáles son los patrones de consumo de medios audiovisuales en las audiencias de la región?, ¿existen diferencias en los patrones de consumo de medios audiovisuales según el grupo social a que se pertenece? Entre los hallazgos principales se encontró que los hombres encuestados consumen más programación estadounidense que las mujeres, y que las personas más jóvenes, así como quienes cuentan con mayor escolaridad, ven más programación estadounidense
Discontinuous Galerkin least-squares finite element methods for singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problems with discontinuous coefficients and boundary singularities
No full textIn this paper, a discontinuous Galerkin least-squares finite element method is developed for singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problems with discontinuous coefficients and boundary singularities by recasting the second-order elliptic equations as a system of first-order equations. In a companion paper (Lin in SIAM J Numer Anal 47:89-108, 2008) a similar method has been developed for problems with continuous data and shown to be well-posed, uniformly convergent, and optimal in convergence rate. In this paper the method is modified to take care of conditions that arise at interfaces and boundary singularities. Coercivity and uniform error estimates for the finite element approximation are established in an appropriately scaled norm. Numerical examples confirm the theoretical results. © 2008 Springer-Verlag