Facets Of Communication Research Articles

Graph theory to evaluate communication in industrial multiagent systems

Industrial systems are complex, distributed and need high-quality tools for their control and monitoring. Although, multiagent systems (MAS) are well adapted to such applications, there is still a gap between academic research on MAS and their potential use on a large scale as in industry. Such domain, with important economic stakes, requires high-performance and reliable applications. However, performance issues were rarely discussed in multiagent environments; the existing works focus only on evaluation of multiagent design methodologies and development platforms. In this paper, we identify, among the MAS features, those that make them suitable to industrial applications. Then, we give an overview on MAS evaluation and we propose a measurement model based on the graph theory to analyse several communication facets in MAS. An experimentation is carried out on two architectures of a multiagent diagnosis application. The comparison of the results points out the correlation between the measurement model and the communication network.

Writing a Scientific Paper II. Communication by Graphics

This paper discusses facets of visual communication by way of images, graphs, diagrams and tabular material. Design types and elements of graphical images are presented, along with advice on how to create graphs, and on how to read graphical illustrations. This is done in astronomical context, using case studies and historical examples of good and bad graphics. Design types of graphs (scatter and vector plots, histograms, pie charts, ternary diagrams and three-dimensional surface graphs) are explicated, as well as the major components of graphical images (axes, legends, textual parts, etc.). The basic features of computer graphics (image resolution, vector images, bitmaps, graphical file formats and file conversions) are explained, as well as concepts of color models and of color spaces (with emphasis on aspects of readability of color graphics by viewers suffering from color-vision deficiencies). Special attention is given to the verity of graphical content, and to misrepresentations and errors in graphics and associated basic statistics. Dangers of dot joining and curve fitting are discussed, with emphasis on the perception of linearity, the issue of nonsense correlations, and the handling of outliers. Finally, the distinction between data, fits and models is illustrated.

The Family Talk About Smoking (FTAS) Paradigm: New Directions for Assessing Parent–Teen Communications About Smoking

Smoking experimentation represents transient risk taking for some youth, whereas for others, it is the onset of a chronic smoking trajectory. However, distinguishing these groups during the experimentation phase has proved challenging. We theorized that variations in parent and teen discourse about smoking might be informative for characterizing this heterogeneity. However, standardized methods for direct assessments of these family processes have been lacking. We examined the predictive utility of directly observed facets of smoking-specific communication for predicting persistence of teen smoking experimentation using a novel method, the Family Talk About Smoking (FTAS) paradigm. The FTAS was tested in a sample of 344 teens with a history of smoking experimentation during interactions with their mothers and fathers. Level of disapproval, smoking expectancies, elaboration of consequences, and quality of personal disclosure were coded during videotaped parent-teen discussions about smoking. Patterns of observed smoking-specific communication varied by teen and parent smoking status. Predictive validity of the FTAS for teen persistent experimentation was demonstrated, net effects of reported smoking-specific socialization, general quality of communication, and parental smoking status. Teen smoking expectancies, disclosure, and disapproval predicted teen persistent experimentation with some differences based on whether interactions were with mothers or fathers. Prediction of persistent experimentation by observed maternal disclosure and elaboration of consequences was moderated by maternal smoking status. Direct observations show promise for generating detailed characterization of individual differences in patterns of family communication about smoking. Implications for targeted prevention and future research are discussed.

Using a family systems approach to investigate cancer risk communication within melanoma families

The family provides an important communication nexus for information and support exchange about family cancer history, and adoption of family-wide cancer risk reduction strategies. The goals of this study were to (1) use the family systems theory to identify characteristics of this sample of families at increased risk of developing melanoma and (2) to relate familial characteristics to the frequency and style of familial risk communication. Participants were first-degree relatives (n=313) of melanoma patients, recruited into a family web-based intervention study. We used multivariable logistic regression models to analyze the association between family functioning and family communication. Most participants were female (60%), with an average age of 51 years. Fifty percent of participants reported that they spoke to their relatives about melanoma risk and people were more likely to speak to their female family members. Familial adaptation, cohesion, coping, and health beliefs were strongly associated with an open style of risk communication within families. None were associated with a blocked style of risk communication. Only cohesion and adaptation were associated with the amount of risk communication that occurred within families. Overall, individuals who came from families that were more highly cohesive, adaptable, and shared strong beliefs about melanoma risk were more likely to communicate openly about melanoma. The fact that this association was not consistent across blocked communication and communication frequency highlights the multifaceted nature of this process. Future research should focus on the interplay between different facets of communication.

WWDD? (What Would Darwin Do?)

WWDD? (What Would Darwin Do?)

Facets of Corporate Identity, Communication and Reputation

Facets of Corporate Identity, Communication and Reputation

Strategic Sport Communication (review)

Reviewed by: Strategic Sport Communication Brad Schultz Paul M. PedersenKimberly S. MilochPamela C. Laucella. Strategic Sport Communication. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2007. First of all, thanks to Paul Pedersen, Kimberly Miloch and Pam Laucella for undertaking the effort to produce Strategic Sport Communication. It almost goes without saying that sport is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that affects all areas of society, including communication. Understanding how sport communication works is something that has long deserved attention, as the authors rightly acknowledge in their preface. But there is more to like about this book than the effort; the end result is comprehensive, thorough, detailed and ideal for use in any course focusing on sport communication. One of the common ways to approach a very broad topic is to publish research pieces from the leaders in the field, such as was done with the Handbook of Sports Media, an excellent compendium of essays released in 2006. But Handbook works much better as a research tool than a textbook. Strategic Sport Communication can be effectively used to teach and understand sport communication in the classroom, because the authors systematically took a complex field and reduced it to digestible and understandable parts. The theoretical approach to the subject is sound — the view of sport communication as “process within context” (76) that can be [End Page 95] organized into coherent segments. The Strategic Sport Communication Model (SSCM) helps the reader understand the authors’ approach and serves as a logical organization for the text. The SSCM approaches sport communication from three perspectives — personal and organizational communication, mass media and advertising/promotion — and the authors do a commendable job in all areas. The section on personal/interpersonal communication includes helpful information on leadership styles and nonverbal communication. The mass media portion correctly underscores the importance of new media, and even presents a model for online sport communication. The advertising/promotion section gets into areas often overlooked, such as crisis management. The authors also devote chapters to the legal and sociological aspects of sport communication; areas that do not fit neatly into their overall approach, but which still deserve and receive extended analysis. All of the chapters are detailed and thoroughly supported with previous research. They also include a useful profile of a current sports communication professional from all areas of the industry, including promotions, new media, and research. Organizationally, the book is laid out fairly well, although the area which focuses on career advice and planning (Chapter Two) should come much later, while the chapter on history should probably be moved up. There are other areas that could be improved upon. A discussion of sport communication ethics is noticeably missing, and the text does not have a very strong finish. It just seems to ‘end’ on the discussion of legal issues. But again, these observations are relatively minor. At first glance, it would seem that this text tried to do too much by covering such a large field. But Pedersen, Miloch and Laucella have done an admirable job of bringing all the various facets of sport communication and tying them into a comprehensible whole. The result is a text useful for students, instructors and anyone else interested in this growing field. [End Page 96] Copyright © 2009 University of Nebraska Press

Communicating Social Identity

This article examined communicative aspects of social identity theory in the context of the deeply divided community of Northern Ireland. Self-disclosure was selected for analysis, given its central role in the development of cross-group friendships and related reduction of negative bias towards the outgroup. In view of previous research on factors that mediate the decision to self-disclose to the outgroup, and using the Disclosure Decision Model as a guiding framework, the authors hypothesized that outgroup contact would be a key determinant of disclosure but that contact would be mediated by degree of trust and attraction for the outgroup, as well as by strength of ingroup identification. The findings supported these predictions. The results are discussed both in relation to the importance of communication facets of social identity theory and in light of wider policy implications for cross-group communication in Northern Ireland.

New communicative challenges: Dundee, place branding and the reconstruction of a city image

This article reviews the expanding literature on city marketing and place branding to explore the strategic dilemmas associated with transforming a negative city image. It conceptualises the emerging communicative logic, which is becoming more evident in the urban regeneration and planning and development discourses. The article puts forward a framework to explain how contemporary theories of city communications can be used to help understand the potential active interplay between the physical (infrastructure) and landscape (urban design, green spaces) dimensions of managing urban change and the governance (structural, organisational) and behavioural (strategic planning and leadership) facets of image communication. These activities can have important effects on how a city is perceived, and can work in tandem with formal and deliberate communicative activities, such as the use of slogans. This conceptualisation is illustrated with reference to Dundee, a relatively small post-industrial city in Scotland, w...

Existential Communication and Leadership

The aim of this article is to introduce and explain a number of important existentialist philosophers and concepts that we believe can contribute to a critical approach to leadership theory. Emphasis is placed on understanding the nature of communication from an existentialist perspective and so Jaspers' conceptualization of existential communication is introduced along with important related concepts that may be regarded as important facets of leader communication including Being-in-the-world, the Other, intersubjectivity, dialogue and indirect communication. Particular attention is paid to Buber's ideas on communication as relationship and dialogue. Throughout, reference is made to contemporary, and what is often regarded as orthodox, thinking regarding the centrality of communication to leadership practice as a means by which to highlight the salience of an existentialist analysis.

The application of holistic risk management in the banking industry

Purpose: The application of holistic risk management is fast becoming a standard measure of good governance in the business arena. What role can holistic risk management play in the management of risk in the financial services industry? The aim of this paper is to propose a holistic risk management framework for the management of risk. Design/Methodology/Approach: A comprehensive framework that covers the holistic view risk management is proposed/developed out of an extensive literature review. Findings: Given the deliberations of various frameworks, a holistic risk management is proposed. The proposed framework ensures that all components of risk management are taken into account when strategizing for risk management in general and holistic risk management in particular; thereby improving the management of risk in the banking industry. Implications: The article proposes a holistic approach to risk management which takes into account all the facets of risk management, e.g. analyzing, planning, strategy, communication, implementation, motivation, systems review and plan modification. This holistic approach, when implemented in the banking industry, can have a significant impact on the improved management of risk. Originality/Value: The new proposed holistic risk management framework offers a fresh perspective of strategizing for risk management in terms of risk analysis, risk planning, risk strategy, risk communication, risk implementation, risk motivation, risk review and risk plan modification.

An EM Algorithm for Blind Hop Timing Estimation of Multiple FH Signals Using an Array System With Bandwidth Mismatch

Hop timing estimation for noncooperative frequency-hopped (FH) signals is an important problem that feeds into the multiple facets of military communications, from interception of noncooperative communications to interference mitigation. If there is a mismatch between the receiver's observation band and the hop bandwidth of the transmitted signals in an FH system, signals appear to hop in and out of the observation frequency band. This causes model-order variations and high-resolution parametric methods that assume fixed model order may fail. Using an antenna array and capitalizing on the data structure of 2-D frequency mixture (space and time), this paper proposes an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for blind hop timing and frequency estimation with possible bandwidth mismatch. The initialization of the EM algorithm is given by the data spectrogram. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method performs well even at low-to-moderate signal-to-noise ratio with unknown hop sequences.

Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening: Perspectives in Applied Linguistics

In this paper I examine the citations in recent review articles in applied linguistics to point out that there appears to be a distinct lack of overlap between references to work in four inter-related areas-reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I then point to areas of research where I think it particularly important to consider these different facets of communication together, and I list one or two papers where this is done.

Downsview Park, Toronto: A part of the natural city of the 21st century

The author has been with Parc Downsview Park Inc. for close to five years. After only two years he has risen to lead the company as Executive Vice-President, which he has done for nearly three years through an extremely challenging period that included the change in governance and reorganization of the company and hosting two very large international events. Mr Genco has an extensive breadth of experience and skills in all facets of public affairs, communications, government relations and management. He is active in many charitable and community activities, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Woodbridge Agricultural Society, the Community Home Assistance for Seniors (CHATS), the Columbus Centre, Heritage Vaughan and is a member of the Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network. The text that follows is an edited and revised version of a paper presented at the international symposion on 'The Natural City," Toronto, 23-25 June, 2004, sponsored by the University of Toronto's Division of the Environment, Institute for Environmental Studies, and the World Society for Ekistics.

HANDWRITING DEVELOPMENT

Language is, and since its invention or discovery has always been, the most important means man ever devised It is the mean more than any other with which he makes his living, he makes his home and he makes his life. As man becomes more and more social beings, as the world becomes more and more social community, and communication even grows more imperative. Language is the basic communication. Language is the instruments with which we think, and thinking is the rarest and the most needed commodity in the world. Language, however, can be separated from the facets of communications (listening, writing, reading and speaking). Yet, the focus of this scientific of study will be on the writing (handwriting) in college. The scientific study of writing (handwriting) begins with discussing the nature of the students in these grades. Writer will then describe the instructional emphases, instructional strategies, problems, and assessments measure associated with providing an isolated space (time) to practice the writing competency in these grades.Key Words: Handwriting, Instructional, Strategies, Composition.

Ethics in publication.

In this review, various facets of scientific communication are explored from the ethics point of view and specific questions related to the relevant steps of producing a scientific publication are addressed. Firstly, a brief overview of the ethics concept is presented with its association to other moral directives such as traditions, law and conscience, while the intersections of logic and faith with the hypothetic boundary of ethics, are analyzed by using a Venn diagram. Secondly, the everchanging concept of scientific (co)authorship is evaluated according to the degree of intellectual contribution to the final outcome and a brief emphasis is placed on the importance of an urgent need for rapidly developing the ethical rules for electronic publication in cyberspace. And lastly, the characteristics of different forms of scientific misconduct are summarized.

Adolescent Perceptions of Cohesion, Adaptability, and Communication: Revisiting the Circumplex Model

One hundred eighty young adults completed measures of family cohesion and adaptability, communication expressiveness and clarity, and problem solving. The results of polynomial regression trend analyses yielded a linear relationship between cohesion and communication expressiveness, clarity, and problem solving whether cohesion was defined linearly as emotional bonding or curvilinearly as family togetherness. There also was a linear relationship between adaptability, defined linearly as flexibility to master family life cycle stage transitions and these facets of family communication. However, the relationship for communication clarity was curvilinear when adaptability was defined in a curvilinear way as the degree of power, control, and organization in the home. Overall, these results tend not to support Olson’s circumplex model of couples and family systems.

The movement from monoliths to component-based network elements

To be competitive in a rapidly growing market requires rapid upgrades to the performance and functionality of the network. One way to manage rapid upgrades of the network with minimum risk is to deploy equipment using a modular system architecture. Modularity allows a network operator to mix and match best of breed components to achieve the desired system rather than rely on vendors to implement specific technology before making crucial business decisions. This article begins with an overview of the current global movement toward standards that support network elements with modular system architecture. The story begins with university initiatives and the forming of OpenSig and IEEE P1520 more than five years ago, continuing with related and complementary initiatives by the Parlay Group, Softswitch Consortium, Multiservice Switching Forum, and several IETF working groups. Next, special attention is given to the component-based architecture of the Multiservice Switching Forum released in summer 2000. The trend of building network equipment from components with distinctly different functional specialties is described in three examples: media gateways, IP routers, and virtual IP routers. It is envisioned that component-based network infrastructure will spawn new markets for entrepreneurial developers, spurring competition and accelerating the creation of innovative solutions for all facets of global communications. The article concludes with a smorgasbord of new market opportunities.

The E‐volution of preprints in the scholarly communication of physicists and astronomers

To learn how e-prints are cited, used, and accepted in the literature of physics and astronomy, the philosophies, policies, and practices of top-tier physics and astronomy journals regarding e-prints from the Los Alamos e-print archive, arXiv.org, were examined. Citation analysis illustrated e-prints were cited with increasing frequency by a variety of journals in a wide range of physics and astronomy fields from 1998 to 1999. The peak e-print citation rate of 3 years observed was comparable to that of print journals, suggesting a similarity in citation patterns of e-prints and printed articles. The number of citations made to 37 premier physics and astronomy journals and their impact factors have remained constant since arXiv.org's inception in 1991, indicating that e-prints have yet to make an impact on the use of the printed literature. The degree of acceptance stated by the journals' editors and the policies given in the journal's instructions to authors sections concerning the citing of e-prints and subsequent publication of papers that have appeared as e-prints differed from journal to journal, ranging from emphatically unacceptable to “why not?” Even though the use of the traditional literature has not changed since arXiv.org began and the policies concerning e-print citation and publication were inconsistent, the number of citations (35,928) and citations rates (34.1%) to 12 arXiv.org archives were found to be large and increasing. It is, therefore, evident that arXiv.org e-prints have evolved into an important facet of the scholarly communication of physics and astronomy.

Structuring the concept of relational communication

Since the distinction was first drawn between content and relational aspects of communication, the notion of relational communication has evolved from a unitary focus on dominance to a multi‐faceted concept that embraces as many as 12 subcomponents. With the aim of devising a theoretical structure to these many concepts, we advanced three proposals. First, we distinguished intensifier variables, such as involvement, and substantive variables, such as dominance and affiliation. Second, we argued that relational judgments are hierarchically organized such that dominance and affiliation subsume the more specific facets of relational communication identified in prior research. Third, we suggested that dominance and affiliation constitute competing frames for interpreting involvement cues during social interaction. A study was conducted in which participants (N= 805) responded to the Burgoon and Hale (1987) Relational Message Scale. First‐order factor analysis was largely successful in reconfirming the structure of the subscales. Second‐order factor analysis revealed the anticipated two‐factor structure interpreted as dominance and affiliation. Although involvement was positively correlated with both dominance and affiliation, the magnitude of the association varied as a function of the salient relational frame.