The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains

Two forms of programs have been developed so far. One is called linear programming and the other branching programming. The linear type of program was invented by Professor B. F. Skinner on the basis of a conditioned reflex theory of learning. In linear programs the student is given small bits of information, is asked to respond to this information by filling in a blank in a sentence, or giving a one word response to a question and then is immediately informed of the correct response. This is followed by another small bit of information, another statement requiring a response by the student, and again the student is informed of the correct response. This pattern is continued over and over again.

Chapter 7 - dis-card

VIEWED from a suitable height, the aggregating clusters of medical scientists in the bright sun-light of the boardwalk at Atlantic City, swarmed there from everywhere for the annual meetings, have the look of assemblages of social insects. There is the same vibrating, ionic movement, interrupted by the darting back and forth of jerky individuals to touch antennae and exchange small bits of information; periodically, the mass casts out, like a trout-line, a long single file unerringly toward Childs's. If the boards were not fastened down, it would not be a surprise to see them put together a nest of sorts. . . .

Unlocking My Father's Story Deanne Quinn Miller (bio) I grew up as a child in a little town in Attica, New York, the daughter of a murdered corrections officer. I was five years old at the time, in first grade, when I heard the prison sirens blow shortly after 9:00 a.m. It was a short time after that when our school principle arrived at my classroom doorway and walked me down to the office where I saw my neighbor standing. She was taking my sister and me to my grandparents in Darien. My grandmother said our father had been hurt at work and that my mom was going to see him. I knew my dad worked in the prison, but I could not fathom that that morning before school would be the last time I would see him. Two days later, on September 11, 1971, our father, William Quinn, died in a Rochester hospital due to injuries he sustained by rioting inmates. My life was forever changed. As I grew older, memories of my dad became harder to recall. Later in life I would learn how childhood trauma affects memory, sometimes creating a wall that blocks recollections, only allowing snapshot-like memories. There are still long spans of my childhood that I cannot unearth from my memory. Sometimes a partial memory is prompted by a photograph or an anecdote from a family member, but many are gone completely. Now, even fifty years later, I still see those early days in fragments. As the years have passed, I have combined my spotty memories with the few details my family and others shared with me. I knew my connection, but I didn't know my history. Those are two different things. I was the oldest daughter of the first person to die in the Attica riot, but who was I? Who was my dad? I recognized that there was more to know, more to learn, and I could either run from it or search for it. In my childhood I would sometimes ask my mom or relatives questions about my father, only to receive small bits of information. I'm still not sure if this was an attempt to shield my sisters and me from the truth or if it was instead a form of my family's own selfpreservation. But, after my father's death, his parents rarely spoke about him. My grandparents were strong Irish Catholics, but the death of their son was just too much to bear. I always knew that my questions about my father were sometimes not welcome, too painful for [End Page 35] Click for larger view View full resolution Grandpa's Keys by Cassidy Quinn Miller (charcoal on paper). This drawing depicts three keys to the Attica State Correctional Facility. The keys were recovered on the belt of Corrections Officer William Quinn, who was killed in the line of duty during the initial uprising at Attica in September 1971. The keys were one of the few tangible connections to the uprising available to Officer Quinn's family. Drawn by his granddaughter, the grey cement background represents the outside walls of Attica Prison. The dragonfly symbolizes transformation and adaptability. It appears in people's lives to remind them to embrace lightness and joy. courtesy of cassidy quinn miller anyone in my family to relive, especially for my mother. I longed to know what my father was like, since my cherished childhood memories continued to fade with each passing day. I first recall the riot coming up in a social studies class in junior high. I'm not sure if the rest of the country studied the riot—after all this was only eight years later—but I assume we did because of the proximity to the prison and its history. On the occasions when I was able to stay in class and listen to the history lecture on Attica, it was quite different than what I had heard in my home growing up. The riot's anniversary would typically prompt discussions, and at other times in the school year it would come up in the normal curriculum flow. I'd get upset because...

Real time observation of trans– cis isomerization on azobenzene SAM induced by optical near field enhancement

Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Macroeconomics

Do different fields of knowledge require different research strategies? A numerical model exploring different virtual knowledge landscapes, revealed two diverging optimal search strategies. Trend following is maximized when the popularity of new discoveries determine the number of individuals researching it. This strategy works best when many researchers explore few large areas of knowledge. In contrast, individuals or small groups of researchers are better in discovering small bits of information in dispersed knowledge landscapes. Bibliometric data of scientific publications showed a continuous bipolar distribution of these strategies, ranging from natural sciences, with highly cited publications in journals containing a large number of articles, to the social sciences, with rarely cited publications in many journals containing a small number of articles. The natural sciences seem to adapt their research strategies to landscapes with large concentrated knowledge clusters, whereas social sciences seem to have adapted to search in landscapes with many small isolated knowledge clusters. Similar bipolar distributions were obtained when comparing levels of insularity estimated by indicators of international collaboration and levels of country-self citations: researchers in academic areas with many journals such as social sciences, arts and humanities, were the most isolated, and that was true in different regions of the world. The work shows that quantitative measures estimating differences between academic disciplines improve our understanding of different research strategies, eventually helping interdisciplinary research and may be also help improve science policies worldwide.

The use of large amounts of distributed and heterogeneous information has become extremely cumbersome; this difficulty is mainly related to exploring the data, rather than actually storing or exchanging it. The user who is interested in small bits of information is getting more and more confused when having to dig under a large volume of diverse and more importantly semi-structured data. In this paper, we propose an interactive and adaptive framework that guides the user in the search for data, by disclosing only a part of the underlying information at a time. It first provides the user with a high-level view of the raw data and gradually adapts to his/her needs in order to offer a refined answer. The proposed model offers the possibility to query a semistructured database based on general schema-related constraints imposed by the user or identified by the system, but without specific knowledge of the underlying metadata. This is achieved by receiving initially an amorphic query, which may consist of one or more basic paths, and helping the user to refine it gradually to a specific semistructured query, expressed in a language like XQuery or Lorel.

Our daily work is intrinsically tied to our personal image (Alvesson, 2001; Dahlberg, 2004; Gini, 1998). This is particularly true for Americans, since our personal identity is defined by what we do and how we accomplish our tasks (Alvesson, 2001; Gini, 1998). For example, in social gatherings, after learning a person’s name, the first piece of information requested is, “What do you do?” Job references provide a wealth of information regarding income, work habits, tasks, levels of responsibility, educational background, etc. Often, the generalizations that people make from this small bit of information are materially incorrect, but that is not usually considered relevant in the social context. It is more important for society to construct a category for placement of the person. In the literature on motivation, Steers and Porter (1991) posit that work primarily impacts individuals in four ways. First, people typically expect to be compensated or rewarded for their efforts (e.g., salary and bonuses). Second, work provides an opportunity for people to interact socially (with some obvious exceptions). Third, employment may influence people’s status in the community, outside of the work environment. This is most evident in the case of corporate executives and various professionals. Fourth, “from a psychological standpoint, [work] can be an important source of identity, self-esteem, and self-actualization,” (Steers & Porter, 1991, p. 574, italics added). Basically, people are internalizing their work experiences. In other words, when workers look in the mirror, what do they see? How would they classify themselves? To what group do they personally relate? Specifically, is there homogeneity in the work identities of IT professionals? The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the impact of gender on the developmental process of work identity creation in the IT field and its impact on job-related outcomes. This article begins with a general description of work identity in the IT profession, including a review of current literature on the formation of work identities. The next section summarizes research findings on gender from a larger study on work identity in the technology field, providing insights into the effect of gender on job satisfaction and intent to leave. The future trends and conclusion sections provide suggestions and managerial and academic implications.

As we saw in the last chapter, one of the major problems with social psychology, until very recently, has been that it lacked theoretical coherence. Traditional social psychology consisted largely of numerous small bits of information, each covering just one or two small facets of social living, and having no connection at all with each other. Although one or two ‘themes’ can be seen recurring from time to time, such as reinforcement explanations for social events, or social exchange processes, these have been limited in their scope, and have failed to provide general links or overarching theories.

I distinguish two types of macroeconomic models. The first type are top-down models in which some or all agents are capable of understanding the whole picture and use this superior information to determine their optimal plans. The second type are bottom-up models in which all agents experience cognitive limitations. As a result, these agents are only capable of understanding and using small bits of information. These are models in which agents use simple rules of behavior. These models are not devoid of rationality. Agents in these models behave rationally in that they are willing to learn from their mistakes. These two types of models produce a radically different macroeconomic dynamics. These differences are analyzed in this article. (JEL codes: E10, E32, D83)

Reviewed by: Lexicographica Graeca: Contributions to Greek Lexicography Gregory R. Crane John Chadwick. Lexicographica Graeca: Contributions to Greek Lexicography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. vi 1 343 pp. Cloth, $85. This books constitutes, as the opening sentence of the introduction states, “the product of a lifetime of Greek studies,” and every Hellenist is aware of John Chadwick’s work on Linear B. Less conspicuous but immensely important have been his lexicographic efforts, the influence that he has had upon the new [End Page 636] supplement to LSJ, and the impact that he promises to have upon the desperately needed revision to the Liddell-Scott Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. His Lexicographica Graeca allows us to assess many of his ideas and reveals to an audience beyond the committees, memos, and private presentations of scholarly production the directions in which he would like future work to proceed. The majority of the book consists of notes and analyses on individual entries in LSJ—one could describe Lexicographica Graeca as a three-hundred-page referee’s report that found its way into print. In many cases, the comments assume that readers will have first familiarized themselves with the LSJ entry. Few without strong lexicographic interests may find this exercise appealing, but anyone seriously concerned with the ways in which we write about Greek language will find plenty to consider in this publication. The thirty-page introduction, however, is well written and engaging, and I imagine that this section of the book will be much photocopied and much more widely read. In itself it is a document of great historical importance and should be scrutinized carefully by any subsequent historian of the study of Greek, for Chadwick articulates a succinct but broad-minded view of where Greek lexicography stands as the twentieth century comes to an end. Yet there is a central irony to this publication. Chadwick’s introduction dwells quite engagingly on the length of his career, but he makes it clear towards the end that he still sees himself as the bright young man who began more than forty years ago to challenge a hidebound establishment. He prophesies “with assurance” (and, it might be added, with obvious relish) “that many of the new ideas to be found in these pages will be attacked and rejected simply because they are not what everyone expects to find” (25). While I can see much that is new and can imagine outraged philologists shaking their heads at Chadwick’s presumption (if anyone of his distinction and seniority can be said to be presumptuous), I find the book itself to be significant precisely because it takes traditional lexicography about as far as it can go. It stands at—and, I suspect, marks—the end of a tradition of lexicographic practice that Liddell and Scott began more than a century and a half ago. All of our assumptions about what a lexicon can and might be must take into account the physical media at our disposal. The limitations and strengths of LSJ are inextricably intermeshed with the limitations and strengths of the printed codex. Chadwick is acutely aware of this: he prints (19) a formula that equates the “efficiency” of a lexicon to “usefulness” divided by “weight”: in other words, a 2 kilogram lexicon is half as efficient as a 1 kilogram lexicon. He agonizes over the fact that any enlargement would have to be justified in terms of the added weight (29). He is not unaware of electronic tools and offers the commonplace assertion (28) that “whatever the future of personal computers, it is hard to imagine that we shall ever be able to dispense with the printed book.” He then goes on to make a subtly perceptive statement: “For most purposes small-scale dictionaries will always be needed” (emphasis mine). The qualification [End Page 637] is significant in that he makes no attempt to argue explicitly for the value of massive print lexicons, instead shifting his ground to much more defensible smaller publications. The codex is a horrible medium for the publication of massive reference works in which readers look up small bits of information at a time and which ought to be updated on a regular basis...

Human voice waveform follows a smooth graph. Sudden changes offrequency are missing in a normal human voice. Small amount of information can be embedded in voice as abrupt frequency changes. These abrupt frequency changes are very unlikely to exist in any normal human voice. Such abrupt frequency changes can be separated from normal human voice using digital signal processing techniques such as Goertzel algorithm. These abrupt frequency changes can be used to encode information tones. Abrupt frequency changes can be merged with normal voice again using digital signal processing techniques. Such voice merging techniques are already being used in conference calls to merge audio streams from various callers in a conference call. These information tones can be later decoded as meaningful text using same encoding/decoding scheme. There can be number of encoding/decoding schemes possible, each identified by a magic number. These information tones of abrupt frequency changes can occur both in audible frequency range of human voice or outside. IOT devices can use voice as a medium to communicate small bit of information among themselves. Also, such IOT device can also extract information from voice of public broadcasts and act upon this information without any manual intervention. This opens host of applications that can be designed to exploit this feature. There can be a trigger mechanism at receiving IOT device. User can set a trigger on IOT device for a key text by various input means such as inbuilt keypad or by a short-range communication protocol such as Bluetooth and whenever this key text is detected by IOT device in voice announcements happening in real time it raises an alert or event. This event can be used for any business interaction.

A biomarker is a diagnostic indicator of a medical condition – a sign that provides a physician or healthcare specialist with the critical information needed to diagnose, monitor, prognosticate and/or treat a disease or other condition of biological or medical interest (1). Organisms and their maladies are exceedingly complex, but biomarkers, by representing faithfully the underlying reality, allow the physician to reduce the complexity of disease and thereby deal with it. A biomarker is a small bit of information that stands in for the enormous and unattainable facts of biological existence. Fever, for example, serves and has served patients, shamans, and other healthcare practitioners as a useful biomarker for thousands of years before Western medical science discovered the immune system, pathogens, cytokines and all the rest; fever is a faithful biomarker because it is a simple, measurable outcome of the enormous complexity of known and unknown factors that generate it. Healthcare would just not be possible without biomarkers.

Microblogs are increasingly gaining attention as an important information source in emergency management. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to reuse this information source during emergency situations, because of the sheer amount of unstructured data. Especially for detecting small scale events like car crashes, there are only small bits of information, thus complicating the detection of relevant information.We present a solution for a real-time identification of small scale incidents using microblogs, thereby allowing to increase the situational awareness by harvesting additional information about incidents. Our approach is a machine learning algorithm combining text classification and semantic enrichment of microblogs. An evaluation based shows that our solution enables the identification of small scale incidents with an accuracy of 89% as well as the detection of all incidents published in real-time Linked Open Government Data.KeywordsTraining DatasetSituational AwarenessIncident TypeLink Open DataSemantic EnrichmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.