Greater Convergence Research Articles

Invited reaction: Learning on their own

Willis suggests the uniqueness of Clardy’s research study in seeking to develop a typology of self-directed learning with an emphasis on frontline employees. However, she raises issues about the methodology and the nature of the research on self-directed learning. She questions whether there needs to be greater convergence among the research related to workplace learning.

In the eye of the beholder: risk and protective factors in rural American Indian and Caucasian adolescents.

This study examines how relations between risk and protective factors and psychopathology vary by ethnic group, gender, and informant. Data were collected from Caucasian and American Indian adolescents, and their teachers. Results indicate a need for interventions that reduce risk, increase protective factors, and bring about greater convergence in the perceptions of teachers and youth.

Is practical nursing experience necessary in administration, education, and research?

Because nursing is a practice discipline involving a relationship between nurse and client based on moral commitments of nurse to client, it is critically important that nurse administrators, educators, and researchers have experienced that relationship in practice. Nurse administrators need that basis to found a vision of nursing required to lead and guide. Nurse educators need to have experienced nursing practice to engage nursing students in praxis, that act of reflection and action. Nurse researchers need to have practiced nursing to identify critical areas of focus in nursing practice and to give meaning to the interpretation of findings. The author urges greater convergence and clarity in identifying the nonnegotiables of nursing's art and science, including the importance of nursing practice as foundational to nursing work.

Improving the eigenvalue using higher order elements without re-solving

High order finite element have a greater convergence rate than low order finite elements, and in general produce more accurate results. These elements have the disadvantage of being more computationally expensive and often require a longer time to solve the finite element analysis. High order elements have been used in this paper to obtain a new eigenvalue solution with out re-solving the new model. The optimisation of the eigenvalue via the differentiation of the Rayleigh quotient has shown that the additional nodes associated with the higher order elements can be condensed out and solved using the original finite element solution. The higher order elements can then be used to calculate an improved eigenvalue for the finite element analysis.

Self-Disclosure Responses to Stigmatizing Disclosures

Knowledge gained through symbolic and instrumental interpretations of attitudes toward persons with AIDS suggests that positive attitudes toward gays or persons with AIDS (symbolic factors) and less knowledge and greater fear ofAIDS contraction (instrumental factors) will lead to more convergence of self-disclosure outcomes in interactions with gays or persons withAIDS. The initial prediction, and the findings of the current investigation, are consistent with a communication accommodation theory prediction of greater convergence being related to greater liking or tolerance of an interaction partner's group membership. Finally, whereas the extant literature regarding whether more convergence should be evidenced in nonstigmatized, gay, or potentially HIV+ interactions was inconsistent, the current investigation found selfdisclosure convergence on privateness, emotional intensity, and social desirability across all interactions regardless of stigmatization condition. Convergence on uniqueness and vulnerability was most evidenced in the nonstigmatized condition.

VARIABILITY OF PHYSICOCHEMICAL ANALYTICAL RESULTS FROM MINESOILS AND QA/QC CONSIDERATIONS

The Texas Mining and Reclamation Association (TMRA) has sponsored a soil sample round robin program since 1990. To date, 17 different soil samples (including blind duplicate samples M and P) have been analyzed in a series of six rounds of analysis. Five laboratories have participated in this program. Three of these were commercial laboratories, one was an electric utility`s in-house laboratory, and one was the state regulatory authority`s laboratory. Samples submitted for analysis included minesoils and native soils. Results indicate that average inter-laboratory variability was approximately five times greater than intra-laboratory variability. The level of variation was affected by the sample being analyzed and the analytical parameter that was involved. The larger inter-laboratory variability suggest that a greater convergence of analytical results may be attained through a rigorous examination of individual laboratory methodologies and implementation of widely-used standard operating procedures (SOPs). An examination of coefficient of variation (C.V.) data from twelve analytical parameters indicated that pH was the least variable and trace elements were among the most variable. The inclusion of near minimum detection level (MDL) values tended to increase the C.V. of data. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) indicated that the sources of variation of most parameters were inconsistent overmore » time. Differences in equipment, sample extraction, and personnel could also account for different values among the laboratories. Analytical parameters that exhibited a sample by laboratory (S X L) interaction suggest that there was inconsistency among laboratories over time. Samples M and P were blind duplicates of the same sample, included in the round robin to assess the precision of the participating laboratories.« less

When I call you up and you're not there: Application of communication accommodation theory to telephone answering machine messages

This investigation extends Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) to an everyday situation in which non‐simultaneous, temporally limited, and less information rich communication occurs. Specifically, this study explores whether callers converge to structural (script and message features) and relational (verbal immediacy cues) message aspects found in recorded answering machine messages. After comparing recorded answering machine messages and caller messages, we found that callers exhibited greater convergence to relational than to structural aspects. Both female and male callers converged with levels of immediacy in answering machine messages. Implications for future research in CAT are outlined.

Evaluating Change in European Industrial Relations: Research Evidence on Trends at Organisational Level

As far back as 1960, Kerr et al. argued that there was a logic to industrialism which would lead to greater convergence, with, in particular, technological and economic forces bringing about greater similarities in industrial relations systems. This debate on the transformation of the industrial relations systems of different countries in response to the internationalisation of markets, technological innovations and increased workforce diversity has been the focus of much research in industrial relations in the last decade (Locke et al., 1995). In Europe in particular, according to Gunnigle and Roche (1995), the analysis of industrial relations practices and policies has never been so closely tied to an appreciation of commercial, national and international political pressures. The challenges to traditional or established industrial relations arise from such major forces as intensified international competition, changes to the structure of product and service markets, European integration and new approaches to the management of manufacturing technologies. However, the response to these pressures is not the same in every country. Rather, according to Locke et al., (1995, p. 158) employment relations ‘are shaped in systematic and predictable ways by institutions which filter these external pressures and the [decisions] of the key actors. Patterns of adjustment in countries that have a history of strong centralised industrial relations institutions tend to follow an incremental, negotiated pattern and aim to achieve results that balance the interests of different social groups and economic interests’.

Dimensional Analysis of past and Present Satisfaction in Relation to Present Marital Satisfaction

The Past and Present Married Life Questionnaire was administered to 92 adults to study the convergence between past and present evaluations of satisfaction for different spheres of married life and to assess the relation of convergence to current marital satisfaction. Greater convergence was associated with greater current satisfaction on the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale.

Block iterative methods for the nine-point approximation to the convection-diffusion equation

We study the numerical solution of a steady convection-diffusion equation in which the convection term is dominant. A nine-point fourth order difference scheme is examined and the block successive overrelaxation (BSOR) and the block alternating group explicit (BLAGE) iterative methods are considered for solving the sparse unsymmetric linear system. When the diffusion coefficient is small, the eigenvalues of the block Jacobi iteration matrix almost lie on the imaginary axis and using bounds for their eigenspectrum, we show that the line|ar system can be effectively solved by the block Gauss-Seidel method. The size of the linear system is reduced by the Strides of 3 algorithm and the BSOR and BLAGE methods are applied to the reduced system of linear equations. This leads to greater convergence for both methods. In addition, a great deal of parallelism can be achieved by using BLAGE.

Informatics and medical libraries: changing needs and changing roles.

Medical librarians play a crucial role in the evolution of institutional information policy. As information professionals, they share many similarities with their medical informatics counterparts. Both groups emphasize information delivery to the point of decision making; both groups serve as curators of institutional knowledge bases. If the term "publication" encompasses the delivery of clinical information relevant to individuals or populations, both librarians and medical informaticians have an immediate interest in the nature of biomedical publishing, particularly in areas of intellectual ownership, confidentiality, distribution, and access. Both groups also have been early leaders in applying information technology to solve pressing knowledge-management problems, and both groups have a strong commitment to educating colleagues in the effective use of information. Although the challenges faced by librarians and medical informaticians are sometimes different, the evolution of information technology and new forms of biomedical communication suggest that there is now a greater convergence between the two disciplines.

Effect of vergence on the gain of the linear vestibulo-ocular reflex.

We measured the linear vestibulo-ocular reflex (LVOR) and vergence, using binocular search coils, in 3 humans. The subjects were accelerated sinusoidally at 0.5 Hz and 0.2 g peak acceleration, in complete darkness, while performing three different tasks: i) mental arithmetic; ii) tracking a remembered target at either 0.34 m or 0.14 m distance; and iii) maintaining vergence at either of these distances by means of audio biofeedback based on vergence. Subjects could control vergence using the audio feedback; there was greater convergence with the near audio target. However, there was no significant difference in vergence between the near and far remembered target conditions. With audio feedback, the amplitude of smooth tracking was not consistently different for the near and the far conditions. However, the amplitude of tracking (saccades and smooth component) in the remembered target conditions was greater for near than for far targets. These results suggest that linear VOR amplitude is not determined by vergence alone.

Variation of orbital features in adapine skulls

Abstract Variations of orbital features (orbital diameter, frontation, convergence, and interorbital breadth) in Adapis and Leptadapis are compared to those of living primate species. Adapis shows more variation in orbital diameter and orbital frontation than do living primate species, whereas Leptadapis shows greater variation in convergence, and particularly much greater variation in interorbital breadth than do living primates. Variation in orbital features does prove that the samples are heterogeneous, but does not allow separation into specific groups. However, interorbital breadth is the only feature which allows the Leptadapis sample to be separated into two groups which probably represent two distinct Leptadapis lineages. When allometric effects are taken into account, Leptadapis has relatively larger orbits, weaker frontation and weaker orbital convergence than Adapis . Since these features distinguish different genera, and even different families in living species, these marked differences support the retention of two separate genera for Adapis and Leptadapis. Adapis has an unusually small orbit size for a primate. Since all living primate species have relatively much larger orbits, Adapis is likely to have reduced its orbits from an adapine ancestor. Adapines have less frontation than living lemuriform species (their eyes were oriented more upwardly), but have greater convergence than living lemuroids (lemurids and indriids). This high convergence, an advanced feature, shows that they were very visually oriented animals. Skulls of Adapis (and some Leptadapis ) also have smaller interorbital breadths than living lemuroid species.

Prototypicality, conformity and depersonalized attraction: A self‐categorization analysis of group cohesiveness

The affective component of group cohesiveness is reconceptualized in terms of a distinct group‐based form of attraction: social attraction. It is hypothesized, from self‐categorization theory, that under conditions of self‐conception based on social as opposed to personal identity the basis and structure of attraction within a group becomes depersonalized in terms of the group prototype. Four‐person single‐sex groups made autokinetic judgements under conditions designed to accentuate individuality (low salience) or group membership (high salience). Females behaved as predicted. They manifested depersonalized attraction associated with self‐categorization in group terms, indicated by greater convergence on the group norm in the high salience condition. For males depersonalized attraction occurred in the low salience condition and was linked to convergence on some, not all, measures. The results are discussed in terms of subjective uncertainty, which was abnormally and inexplicably high among low salience male groups, and differences between this and an earlier naturalistic study by Hogg & Hardie (1991). In the light of this discussion it is concluded that the data for both sexes conform to a self‐categorization analysis of social attraction.

Large firms as political actors: A comparative analysis of the chemical industry in Britain, Italy and West Germany

Large firms as political actors are compared in the chemical industry in three countries. In West Germany, co‐ordinated action through the industry associations is important, but firms are developing their own political capabilities. In Italy links with political parties are important, but the operating environment of firms has become less politicised. Britain conforms more to a ‘company state’ model, with the government relations divisions of firms playing a key role. The greatest divergence between the three countries is in terms of relationships with political parties. In general, there is a trend towards greater convergence in government‐business relations in the industry in the three countries, internationalisation being a key factor.

Application of Quality of Life and Weli-Being Measurement as Input into Cost-Effectiveness Analyses

For the most part, cost-effectiveness analysis has attempted to incorporate the effects of medical treatments on patients’quality of life by adjusting years of survival with an index of the quality of fife in the surviving years. The construction of such a quality-adjusted year index is typically based on implicitly value-laden assumptions regarding tradeoffs of hypothetical situations, ie, survival periods with or without a disabling condition. The construction of the index relies on judgments and other procedures that have been shown to generate figures that are widely discrepant from those suggested by empirical studies. Indeed, only empirical studies based on individuals’ direct assessments of their quality of life, and those which focus on the persons subjected to the treatments at issue, can provide the necessary valid input to cost-effectiveness analysis. It is therefore suggested that cost-effectiveness analysis should rely on quality-oflife data generated by empiricalstudies of persons subjected to the treatments; and it should report separately the cost of treatment per year of life and per quality of life expressed in effect size units. The latter effect size units in quality of life should be specified separately for global measures of physical, mental, and social functioning and well being, as well as for specific measures of the presenting symptoms and disabilities that are produced in these areas of life by the disease. The degree of relationship among these various aspects of quality of life can provide yet another itnportant indication of the overall effect of the treatment. The advantages of focusing on quality-of-life data in terms of effect size units stem from: (a) the greater convergence in the conceptualization of quality of life than in the use of specific measures, and (b) the availability of meta-analytic technigues for synthesizing effect size units from different studies and comparing them across different treatments.

On a possible varying G cosmology

Starting from the scale covariant form of the field equations, a new gauge factor is derived as a certain power of the scale factor. It is argued that the gauge factor relating the atomic and gravitational time scales should for greater convergence depend on time via a function of the scale factor rather than have a direct dependence on time. The power of the scale factor to give the appropriate gauge is determined. The resulting dependence between the gravitational constant and the mass in a comoving volume gives the Mach relation. The blackbody spectrum of the microwave background radiation is preserved. A horizon-free cosmology in atomic units results where the time dependence of the scale factor is quasi-linear and agrees with the large number hypothesis for most times except near the origin, where a sudden growth of the scale factor occurs. The Einstein static solution counterpart in gravitational units is discussed. 13 references.

The high cost of ‘efficiency and effectiveness’ in Australia

In its recent review, the Australian Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission made a series of recommendations regarding the rationalisation of the provision of external studies. Here, Mavis Kelly, of the School of External Studies and Continuing Education at the University of Queensland, argues that these recommendations will serve to maintain the distinctions between distance and face‐to‐face education, while greater convergence in practice and further development of integrated modes of provision are what is really needed.

Properties of monosynaptic connections between callosal neurons and specific thalamic nuclei

A comparative analysis of monosynaptic afferent and efferent connections of callosal neurons and target neurons of transcallosal fibers with neurons of the specific ipsilateral thalamic nuclei (ventral posterolateral, ventral posteromedial, ventral lateral, and anteroventral) was undertaken on the sensomotor cortex of unanesthetized rabbits, using an electrophysiological method. Differences were demonstrated between callosal neurons and target neurons of transcallosal fibers with respect to monosynaptic inputs from the thalamic nuclei and pathways proceeding toward these structures and (or) entering the pyramidal tract. Among target neurons, compared with callosal neurons, more cells had descending projections (54 and 14%, respectively). Monosynaptic action potentials arose in 22% of target neurons in response to stimulation of specific thalamic nuclei, whereas no such responses occurred in callosal neurons. Projections of target neurons into thalamic nuclei were shown to be formed both by independent fibers and by axon collaterals of the pyramidal tract. It is postulated that the distinctive properties thus discovered indicate significantly greater convergence of influence of thalamic relay neurons on the target neurons; this determines differences known to exist in characteristics of receptive fields and spontaneous and evoked activity of callosal neurons, on the one hand, and of neurons excited synaptically by transcallosal stimulation, on the other hand.

Pluralistic Rigor: A Comment on Bueno de Mesquita

As Bueno de Mesquita notes previously in this symposium, it is not clear whether we can make progress toward a scientific understanding of international politics. Indeed, it is not clear, at least not to me, whether we can make much progress in our discussions of this subject. Interest in it seems to go through cycles. The subject occupied much of our journals-and our PhD examinations-at the end of the 1960s and, after a period in which we tired of examining our epistemological and methodological assumptions, seems to be receiving more attention again. Whether we will do better this time around remains to be seen, but if Bueno de Mesquita's paper and the responses are typical, it does seem that there is now a bit greater convergence of views and a bit more civility in the debate. Thus readers who are anticipating a discussion whose entertainment value will rival that of the (1969) exchange between Levy and Kaplan (1969: 106-109) will be disappointed. Before discussing areas of convergence, let me note a few disagreements. First, the question of the utility of case studies is a large and complex one and I do not think Bueno de Mesquita has done it justice. I briefly refer the reader to the detailed arguments of Campbell (1975), Eckstein (1975), and George and McKeown (1985). First, although this may fall outside of the scope of Lakatos's (1978) criteria, case studies are particularly important in international politics because most of us are keenly interested not only in generalizations, but also in the explanation of particular events. Since large wars kill many people and strongly influence the future, we are concerned about conflicts like World War I or World War II whether or not they are typical of wars in general. (For further discussion, see Jervis, forthcoming.) Second, by dealing with many different aspects of the situation, case studies can meet Lakatos's criterion of accounting for previously unexplained facts and subsuming facts we already have explained. Thus, a study that looks at domestic politics in 1914 might explain both the origins of World War I, the foreign economics policies of European powers, and the domestic policies which were pursued. Alternatively, a study of 1914 in terms of the significance of the prevailing beliefs that the offense would dominate the defense could explain facts relating to preemptive war, alliance structures, crises that were particularly liable to lead to war, and the interplay of bureaucratic and domestic politics (see, for example, Snyder, 1984a, 1984b; Van Evera, 1984). The other side of this coin is that I must admit to being a bit confused by some of Bueno de Mesquita's arguments about the utility of using large ifs. Without passing on the validity of the claim that the Altfeld and Bueno de Mesquita theory (1979) can encompass and extend the Organski and Kugler formulation (1980), I do not think