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Sustaining Focus When It\u27s Hardest: Emotional Design Strengthens Sustained Learning, Especially In Contexts With Attractive Alternatives
No full textLearners increasingly use digital devices such as laptops or tablets for studying. While these devices offer advantages, they also pose challenges. They present attractive alternative opportunities for learners, such as communication or entertainment opportunities that may distract from learning. Such alternatives increase demand for self-control, particularly over time. We investigated the potential of emotional design in learning materials to support self-control by triggering and maintaining situational interest, thereby reducing the mental load required for self-control. We hypothesize that emotional design becomes especially effective in distraction-prone learning situations, such as during extended learning durations or when attractive alternative opportunities are present. We employed a 2 × 2 × 2 mixed design, varying video design (neutral vs. emotional) and opportunity presentation (no opportunity vs. opportunity presented) as between-subjects factors, and learning phase (beginning vs. end of the video) as a within-subjects factor. Our participants (N = 144) learned from a 16-min video on photography. We assessed triggered and maintained situational interest, mental load, and learning outcomes. Emotional design interacted with the learning phase, enhancing learning outcomes particularly at the end of the video. This learning benefit was mediated by the development of situational interest and a reduction in mental load. The positive impact of emotional design on learning at the end of the video was significantly stronger when an alternative opportunity was present (three-way interaction). Emotional design seems to be particularly helpful when self-control demands are high. Such conditions include extended learning sessions, the presence of attractive alternatives, or situations where multiple self-control demands come together
“I Don’t Do Horror, Ryan Coogler” — Black Magic’s Dr. Yvonne Chireau On Sinners And Bringing Hoodoo To Life
No full text‘To Zero By Thirty-Five’ Geoexchange System Optimization
No full textSwarthmore College’s ’To Zero by Thirty Five’ project involves the construction of a geothermal exchange plant to provide heating and cooling to campus buildings. This report follows the implementation of the project and the impact of building envelopes on the effectiveness of the system. Groups of potential upgrades and their impacts on building performance were analyzed using integer linear programming and the PuLP python library. This analysis provides recommendations on which buildings to upgrade according to the priorities of Swarthmore College
The Robust Autonomy of Hezbollah: Countering the narrative of Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy
No full textKhrushchevka: A Historical and Economic Analysis of Russian Housing, Privatization, and Urban Renewal in Putin’s Russia
Get PDFThe Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative (Инициатива обновления городов Москвы, 2017-) is the joint project of President Vladimir Putin (1999-2008, 2012-) and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin (2010-) to remove dilapidated housing structures in Moscow. Since 2017, the programme has already displaced about 20,000 Muscovites, with plans to displace 1.5 million more by its completion goal of 2032. These displacements have revealed significant economic deficiencies in the post-Soviet market economy of the Russian Federation. Delays in the programme due to the COVID-19 pandemic have only escalated issues further – as has the War on Ukraine. Understanding the importance of the Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative requires a formed understanding of the financial development of the new Russian Federation. The regenerative goals of the Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative have forced a fundamental reconciliation of how all Russians experience housing and the market, well beyond the scope of the initial privatization sweep of 1991. By piecing together the history of the initial privatization of 1991, both major wars, and the three financial crises thereafter this essay ties the goals of initial privatization with those of the Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative, this essay creates a narrative between these events and Russian economic life while opening a debate regarding the Initiative’s future
Gone with the Wind: The Confederacy\u27s Trojan Horse
Get PDFThis paper analyzes the film Gone with the Wind as a piece of Southern nationalist propaganda. This includes an exploration of the earlier Southern nationalist film Birth of a Nation, as well as a comparison to Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel Gone with the Wind. In my analysis of Gone with the Wind’s production process, including memos between producer David O. Selznick and other members of the production team, I find that Selznick maintained tight control over the film’s production and was extremely concerned with maintaining positive publicity for his film. This led him to allow a few seemingly progressive deviations from the novel, including the elimination of the Ku Klux Klan and the removal of the novel’s most racist language. Selznick, in an attempt to avoid controversy, created a benign and engaging vehicle for promulgating Lost Cause mythology. I argue that, instead of undermining its effectiveness, efforts to temper the film allowed it to become a more durable fixture of American cinema. Stripped of the novel’s ugliest expressions of racism, Gone with the Wind became free to enter the mainstream of American culture, becoming the highest-grossing film ever made
Dancing Bare Feet And Sitting Cross-legged: South-Asian Movement Practice And Anthropology Of The Body
No full textAs an anthropologist and a Kathak dancer engaged for decades in connecting theory and practice, my classrooms are somatic sites for embodied ways of knowing. My pedagogical philosophy has taken shape collaboratively with my students in my classes where they get direct exposure to the multidimensionality of our sensory universe: sound, movement, kinesthetic, textual, and visual. The class activities are not just centered on the textual immanence of language, and detached reasoning but on perception. Through experiential and analytical learning and inquiry, we explore bodily ways of knowing where thoughts are not isolated from emotions. In this chapter, I will explore how knowledge is transmitted, created, and expressed in my Kathak studio classes that connect the bodily discipline of dance with critical inquiry
Are Estimands Being Correctly Used? A Review Of UK Research Protocols
No full textBackground: The use of estimands in clinical trials was formalised with the adoption of the final International Conference on Harmonisation E9 Addendum on Estimands and Sensitivity Analysis in Clinical Trials (ICH E9(R1) Addendum) in November 2019. The declared objective of the ICH E9(R1) Addendum is to bring clarity and transparency to the research question of interest. For this to be achieved, the estimand must be described in accordance with the requirements of the ICH E9(R1) Addendum so that the target treatment effect is clear to all stakeholders. Previous reviews of publications and published protocols have found that few trials explicitly defined the primary estimand. To obtain a more complete picture of how the use of estimands has changed over time, whether trials are using estimands correctly (i.e. correctly defining the five attributes of an estimand), and which strategies are being used to handle intercurrent events, we obtained access to an extensive database of original research protocols (n = 29,212) submitted to the United Kingdom’s Health Research Authority, which oversees ethical review of clinical trials. Methods: Protocols were eligible for review if they included the term ‘estimand’ and attempted to define at least one attribute of the primary estimand. For eligible protocols, we extracted information on trial characteristics such as whether the trial was randomized and the therapeutic area, as well as whether the estimand attributes used for the primary outcome were correctly defined, and which strategies were used to handle intercurrent events. Results: We found that the number of protocols defining a primary estimand increased starkly with publication of the ICH E9(R1) Addendum (approximately 3 protocols/year pre-ICH E9(R1) Addendum vs. 18 protocols / year during the consultation period vs. 23 protocols in the year following the adoption of the ICH E9(R1) Addendum). However, the description of the primary estimand was suboptimal; many protocols failed to mention specific attributes (such as population or treatment conditions) in the estimand description, and many protocols incorrectly defined estimand attributes (e.g. by describing the estimand population based on their analysis population). Conclusions: Although release of the ICH E9(R1) Addendum has dramatically increased the use of estimands in clinical trials, their reporting is suboptimal. There is still work to be done to ensure estimands reach their full potential in bringing clarity and focus to research questions
Review Of Problem-Based Ethics: A New Approach To The Application Of Moral Theory By S. Kahn
No full textProblem-Based Ethics is a compendium of arguments for and against positions on 22 different topics (each chapter approximately 15–20 pages long). Kahn (Indiana Univ. Indianapolis) makes no claim to advancing original arguments but aspires instead to give researchers, primarily graduate students, a “lay of the land” on each topic. Most, but not all, of the chapters concentrate on normative questions: e.g., the ethics of abortion, punishment, loyalty, the limits of consent, who should rule, the meaning of life, euthanasia, affirmative action, vegetarianism, Black reparations, and sex and gender. Each topic is clearly and engagingly addressed, so there is much to recommend. However, there are two serious problems with, especially given the target audience. First, while the book gives a glimpse of the terrain from a great height, graduate students will want to get closer to the ground to see the complexities of positions and arguments. Second, there are sources readily available (and free) on the internet that provide a substantial discussion of most if not all of the topics in detail with extensive bibliographies: e.g., the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (CH, Sup\u2706, 43Sup-0193). So despite its virtues, it is not clear that the book justifies its cost. Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Graduate students through faculty
Problem-Driven Mathematical Explanations In Science
No full textIn his recent book, The Making of Mathematics, Carol Celucci raises three objections to the possibility of mathematical explanations in science; the Problem of Aboutness, the Problem of Abstraction, and the Problem of Arbitrariness. I argue that only the last of these raises any serious concerns. The current mainstream view on how mathematics is applied in science is that this involves the mapping of physical phenomena onto mathematical apparatus. The mapping is supposed to relate physical structure to mathematical structure, but arbitrariness occurs because any given physical phenomenon exhibits a myriad of different structures. To illustrate, I discuss the well-known bridges of Königsberg example, and the less well-known river crossings of Manhattan example. I explore a possible solution to this problem that involves linking mathematics not to phenomena but to problems. The idea is that a problem may naturally prioritize one physical structure over others, thus picking out a unique structure for the mapping relation