Spread of Risk Information Through Microblogs: Twitter Users with More Mutual Connections Relay News That is More Dreadful1

In elucidating the spread of risk information through microblogging, it is important to understand the behaviors of numerous average users, in addition to the activities of authorities. We followed the transmission pathways of 10 actual widely spread tweets concerning several risk information topics, including natural disasters, nuclear disasters, and infectious diseases, and we identified the types of risk that affected retweeting by classifying each tweet based on Slovic's risk-perception model. Furthermore, we examined the types of users who did and did not retweet the information. Users with few connections in the form of followers (i.e., people who are following a user) or followees (people a user is following), or with a low ratio of mutual followers within their connections, had a tendency to retweet a large amount of risk information, regardless of the type of risk involved. On the other hand, users with a high ratio of mutual followers exhibited a greater tendency to retweet risk information when it was perceived as dreadful, though they did not retweet risk information much on the whole. These results suggest that there are two mechanisms by which risk information is spread within the Twitter network: information exchange and social sharing of personal reactions.     

Color of computer display frame in work performance, mood, and physiological response

The effects of the color of a personal computer screen on work performance, psychological mood, and autonomic response were investigated. 24 subjects were asked to perform visual tasks presented on the computer display. Three types of computer monitor, which were colored red, blue, or beige, were employed to present visual cognitive tasks. The mood measure, the Japanese Stress Arousal Check List, and heart rate measurement were administered before and after work on each color of computer monitor. Analysis of a low-demand task (Exp. 1) showed that the red computer monitor reduced visual task performance compared to that with the blue, while the blue monitor decreased visual task performance on a high-demand task (Exp. 2). The color of the monitor did not affect mood or heart rate. Based on these findings, the effect of the color of environmental cues on work was discussed.     

Effects of receptive listening on the congruence of speakers' response latencies in dialogues

The present study investigated the receptiveness of speakers toward conversational partners in dialogues by comparing duration of response latencies in both Compromise and Debate conditions. 12 dyads of speakers holding opposing opinions participated in a 15-min. dialogue. Six dyads in the Compromise condition reached a conclusion through discussion and consideration of the partner's opinion. The six dyads in the Debate condition imposed their opinion on the conversational partner. Analysis indicated that in compromise dialogues, the response latencies of the conversational partners become similar over the time course, while in debate diaogues, the response latency does not become similar, suggesting that speakers having a receptive attitude adjust their response latencies to match the partner's. The role of congruence of response latencies in dyadic communication was discussed.     

Effects of the degree of fluctuation on subjective preference for a 1 Hz flickering light

Humans are believed to have a preferred amount of stimulus variation in their perceptual environment. Here, paired comparison tests were conducted to examine whether the fluctuation of a flickering light improves subjective preference. Sine-wave and bandpass noise acted as the light source. We have previously shown that the preferred temporal frequency of a flickering light without any fluctuation is approximately 1 Hz (Soeta et al 2002 Journal of the Optical Society of America A 19 289 - 294). This was used as the center frequency of the light source. The bandwidth was set at 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 Hz, to control the amplitude of the first peak of the autocorrelation function, phi1. Results show that the preferred phi1 of a flickering light is 0.46.     

A review of time-motion analysis and combat development in mixed martial arts matches at regional level tournaments

Mixed martial arts (MMA) have become a fast-growing worldwide expansion of martial arts competition, requiring high level of skill, physical conditioning, and strategy, and involving a synthesis of combat while standing or on the ground. This study quantified the effort-pause ratio (EP), and classified effort segments of stand-up or groundwork development to identify the number of actions performed per round in MMA matches. 52 MMA athletes participated in the study (M age = 24 yr., SD = 5; average experience in MMA = 5 yr., SD = 3). A one-way analysis of variance with repeated measurements was conducted to compare the type of action across the rounds. A chi-squared test was applied across the percentages to compare proportions of different events. Only one significant difference (p < .05) was observed among rounds: time in groundwork of low intensity was longer in the second compared to the third round. When the interval between rounds was not considered, the EP ratio (between high-intensity effort to low-intensity effort plus pauses) was 1:2 to 1:4. This ratio is between ratios typical for judo, wrestling, karate, and taekwondo and reflects the combination of ground and standup techniques. Most of the matches ended in the third round, involving high-intensity actions, predominantly executed during groundwork combat.