The cultural mosaic: a metatheory for understanding the complexity of culture

Workforce population trends have increased the numbers and kinds of culturally diverse people who work together. Researchers in organizational behavior have often examined culture through values; however, cultural values can be based on collections of people other than traditional nation states. A cultural mosaic is presented as a framework to identify demographic, geographic, and associative features underlying culture. An individual's unique collage of multiple cultural identities yields a complex picture of the cultural influences on that person. Developments in chaos and complexity theories are proposed as a theoretical base for study on the complexity of culture at the individual level. Additional developments in network theory serve as a theoretical base for cultural research at the group level. The cultural mosaic is described as a complex system with localized structures, linking cultural tiles in ordered and chaotic ways. Research propositions examining multiple cultural identities at individual and group levels are discussed.     

A note on “pattern variants on a square field”

It is shown how results of Prokhovnik on the number of pattern variants that may be formed byk markers on a square network ofm ² positions may be derived more simply by means of a combinatorial theorem of Pólya's, which may also be used to solve systematically many other problems of this type.     

A new puzzle about belief and credence

I present a puzzle about belief and credence, which takes the form of three independently supported views that are mutually inconsistent. The first is the view that S has a modal belief that p (e.g., S believes that probably-p) if and only if S has a corresponding credence that p. The second is the view that S believes that p only if S has some credence that p. The third is the view that, possibly, S believes that p without a modal belief that p. [Word Count: 85]     

Aggression against middle and high school teachers: Duration of victimization and its negative impacts

Prior research indicates that student aggression against teachers is widespread, and it has negative impacts on victimized teachers’ emotional and physical well-being and job performance. However, little is known about the relationship between the recency and duration of victimization and teachers’ thoughts about quitting the teaching profession and related job dissatisfaction and disconnectedness to school. Analyses of data from a longitudinal study of 1,236 US teachers fills these gaps. The study found that many teachers experienced theft/vandalism and sexual harassment victimization that was limited to just 1 year. In contrast, sizeable proportions of teachers experienced verbal abuse and nonphysical contact aggression that occurred over 2 years. Multiple regression analyses showed that teachers who reported recent or multiyear victimization had lower levels of connectedness to school, less job satisfaction, and more thoughts about ending their teaching careers. These results may indicate that unless victimization recurs, negative effects of victimization are contemporaneous and are less likely to persist. Additional research is needed to examine victimization over longer than 2 years, investigate the effects of the frequency of different types of aggression against teachers, and identify school policies and interventions that weaken the connection of victimization to negative outcomes.     

Pedagogy for teaching and learning cooperatively on the Web: a Web-based pharmacology course.

The Internet is becoming a preferred place to find information. Millions of people go online in the search of health and medical information. Likewise, the demand for Web-based courses grows. This article presents the development, utilization and evaluation of a web-based pharmacology course for nursing students. The course was developed based on 150 commonly used drugs. There were 110 year 1 nursing students took part in the course. After attending six hours face to face lecture of pharmacology over three weeks, students were invited to complete a questionnaire (pre-test) about learning pharmacology. The course materials were then uploaded to a WebCT for student's self-directed learning and attempts to pass two scheduled online quizzes. At the end of the semester, students were given the same questionnaire (post-test). There were a significant increase in the understanding compared with memorizing the subject content, the development of problem solving ability in learning pharmacology and becoming an independent learner (p ,0.05). Online quizzes yielded satisfactory results. In the focused group interview, students appreciated the time flexibility and convenience associated with web-based learning, also, they had made good suggestions in enhancing web-based learning. Web-based approach is promising for teaching and learning pharmacology for nurses and other health-care professionals.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Gender-Role Characteristics: The Assignment of Postdivorce Child Care and Custody

Adults (151 female, 130 male; 17.4% African American/Black, 48% Caucasian, 22.8% Latino/Hispanic, 11.7% “other”) assigned postdivorce parental care and custody for four combinations of traditional/nontraditional mothers and fathers described in vignettes of divorcing parents. Parental gender characteristics influenced the assignment of parental care and child custody to divorcing mothers and fathers described in the scenarios and interacted with child gender. Across scenarios, female participants assigned more parental care and custody to mothers than did male participants. When feminine qualities were paired with masculine qualities, greater custody was assigned to the parent described with feminine characteristics (whether a father or mother) than when that parent was described with masculine characteristics. The role of feminine gender characteristics for child custody and care was discussed with regard to maternal primacy and possible changes for father involvement in the aftermath of divorce.     

Stability control of grasping objects with different locations of center of mass and rotational inertia

The objective of this study was to observe how the digits of the hand adjust to varying location of the center of mass (CoM) above or below the grasp and rotational inertia (RI) of a handheld object. Such manipulations do not immediately affect the equilibrium equations while stability control is affected. Participants were instructed to hold a handle, instrumented with 5 force-torque transducers and a 3-D rotational tilt sensor, while either the location of the CoM or the RI values were adjusted. On the whole, people use 2 mechanisms to adjust to the changed stability requirements; they increase the grip force and redistribute the total moment between the normal and tangential forces offsetting internal torques. The increase in grip force, an internal force, and offsetting internal torques allows for increases in joint and hand rotational apparent stiffness while not creating external forces-torques that would unbalance the equations of equilibrium.     

Understanding Oral Learners

A five‐year research project of seminary students from various cultural backgrounds revealed that the slight majority of contemporary seminary students studied are oral learners. Oral learners learn best and have their lives most transformed when professors utilize oral teaching and assessment methods. After explaining several preferences of oral learners, suggestions for effective teaching are provided in this article in order to improve both teaching and assessment of oral learners. Applications are provided for face‐to‐face and online learning contexts.     

Individual differences in cardiac vagal tone are associated with differential neural responses to facial expressions at different spatial frequencies: An ERP and sLORETA study

A previous study has shown that greater cardiac vagal tone, reflecting effective self-regulatory capacity, was correlated with superior visual discrimination of fearful faces at high spatial frequency Park et al. (Biological Psychology 90:171?C178, 2012b). The present study investigated whether individual differences in cardiac vagal tone (indexed by heart rate variability) were associated with different event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in response to fearful and neutral faces. Thirty-six healthy participants discriminated the emotion of fearful and neutral faces at broad, high, and low spatial frequencies, while ERPs were recorded. Participants with low resting heart rate variability??characterized by poor functioning of regulatory systems??exhibited significantly greater N200 activity in response to fearful faces at low spatial frequency and greater LPP responses to neutral faces at high spatial frequency. Source analyses??estimated by standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA)??tended to show that participants with low resting heart rate variability exhibited increased source activity in visual areas, such as the cuneus and the middle occipital gyrus, as compared with participants with high resting heart rate variability. The hyperactive neural activity associated with low cardiac vagal tone may account for hypervigilant response patterns and emotional dysregulation, which heightens the risk of developing physical and emotional problems.