Tangible Consequences Research Articles

An empirical investigation into the effects of web search characteristics on decisions associated with impression formation

It is now common knowledge that information on the World Wide Web is used by people to acquire facts before making decisions--a key activity being forming impressions about other people. Given this, an interesting question arises as to whether and how such impressions may be biased by the characteristics of the information source itself. For instance, in the case of search results about a person, do the quantity and order of results affect the impression formed about the person in question? The question takes on significance considering that these factors may affect decisions of considerable importance and tangible consequence such as those regarding employment, for example, and at the same time, such factors are largely outside the control of the individuals affected. In this paper we refer to searchable digital information about a person on the Web as ePersona, and the impression formed about the person based on the perception as ePerception. Using Web search results, we studied the impacts of order and quantity of results on ePerception using an experiment. Our findings suggest that the order or ranking of results about a search target impacts the impression formed about that target. We also found that the quantity of search results alone does not seem to impact the impression formed.

Pianificazione strategica e prospettiva repubblicana

- In order for it to be complete, a planning system cannot be limited to local considerations. A higher level of conceptualisation is required, though very often this is lacking or else is present only formally, hence without any tangible consequences. In the debate of the last few decades, commentators have reached consensus over the fact that strategic planning should be seen not only as being on a higher level than local planning, but above all as a different way of planning. The present article explores the discontent that for several years has been a constant companion of this type of planning and traces the reasons for this in three main issues, all of which boil down to excessive expectations in strategic plans. The piece concludes by arguing that it is possible to design and implement a complete planning system only in a republican perspective, by which is meant using a spirit of ‘constitutional patriotism' as the foundation on which to rebuild an authoritative role for the state in the context of legality accompanied by a renewed sense of responsibility vis-à-vis planning.

Decision-making in long-term cocaine users: Effects of a cash monetary contingency on Gambling task performance

Background The Iowa Gambling task, which typically incorporates hypothetical monetary earnings and losses for performance, has been widely used to measure decision-making in substance abusers. We examined the effects of a cash monetary contingency on Gambling task performance in cocaine abusers and control participants. Methods Twenty-two long-term cocaine smokers who met DSM-IV criteria for cocaine dependence and 24 non-cocaine-using control participants completed this study. Both groups were similar in terms of age, executive function, and self-reported alcohol and marijuana use. All participants performed the Gambling task under two counterbalanced conditions: under one condition, earnings and losses were hypothetical, and under the other condition, earnings and losses were in cash. Results Condition × group interactions on card selection and task completion time were noted ( p < 0.05). Under the hypothetical payment condition, cocaine abusers selected a greater proportion of cards from disadvantageous decks than advantageous decks ( p < 0.05), but took a similar amount of time to complete the task, relative to control participants. However, under the cash payment condition, no group differences were seen for card selection and cocaine abusers took more time than controls to complete the task ( p < 0.05). Conclusions The application of tangible consequences improved the decision-making and effort of cocaine abusers on the Gambling task, relative to control participants. These findings underscore the importance of considering population-specific factors (e.g., sensitivity to instructional vs. consequential control) when conducting neuropsychological research in substance abusers.

La mobilitŕ spaziale di entitŕ tangibili nella societŕ globale

- The spatial mobility of tangible entities in a global society, The paper handles some tangible consequences of the mobiletic revolution, as a necessary but not exhaustive catalyst of the evolutionary process of globalization whose effects have deep repercussions on the social, economic and territorial organization of the social system both at a national and an international level. For the social scientists coining the formula "mobiletic revolution" by the middle of the Sixties, the overall results seem to be expressed by a new global society benefiting a sharp drop of space friction. Today, the related consequences of it find their evidence in the people, goods and information mobility, respectively through public and private networks, through the transport system and finally through the communication structure development. In turn, such changes produce a number of interactions and synergies caused by the growth of each of the three mobility carriers, which gradually brought the human beings to an ambiguous cultural adjustment as regards the new shaped space-time dimensions. Key words: mobiletic revolution, social change, social relations, mobility carriers.

The Cost of Shame: International Organizations and Foreign Aid in the Punishing of Human Rights Violators

Are violators of international human rights norms punished with lower levels of foreign aid? Despite their abstract preferences, governments often lack the incentive to punish norm violators bilaterally. Multilateral lending institutions, such as the World Bank, could fill the void if they wanted to consider human rights abuses and could bypass restrictions on evaluating the political character of recipients. This article argues that `shaming' in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, through resolutions that explicitly criticized governments for their human rights records, provided substantive information about rights abuses and gave political cover for the World Bank and other liberal multilateral aid institutions seeking to sanction human rights violators. Statistical analyses support these theoretical claims. The adoption of a UNCHR resolution condemning a country's human rights record produced a sizeable reduction in multilateral, and especially World Bank, aid but had no effect on the country's aggregate bilateral aid receipts. The analyses also support predictions that `objective' measures of human rights have no independent effect on multilateral aid allocations. The findings, which are robust to different model techniques and specifications, suggest that punishment for violating international human rights norms is selective, that international organizations play an important role in the selection process and, thus, that seemingly symbolic resolutions of a politically motivated IO can carry tangible consequences.

The Indirect Perception of Distance: Interpretive Complexities in Berkeley's Theory of Vision

he problem of whether perception is direct or if it depends on additional, cognitive contributions made by the perceiving subject, is posed with particular force in an Essay towards a New Theory of Vision (NTV). It is evident from the recurrent treatment it receives therein that Berkeley considers it to be one of the central issues concerning perception. Fittingly, the NTV devotes the most attention to it. In this essay, I deal exclusively with Berkeley’s treatment of the problem of indirect distance perception, as it is presented in the context of that work. This task will consist of three parts. In Section One, I provide an outline of Berkeley’s answer to the question, “What are we immediately aware of in perceptual experience?” Here, I will pay particular attention to Berkeley’s use of the term “association” in describing the indirect or mediate procedure whereby vision acquires information about the spatial layout of the external world. Accordingly, it will be shown that while the visual perception of space is a derivative process, “seeing” distance is by no means a matter of performing geometrical inferences (as Descartes contends). Rather, through an ongoing encounter with stimuli in the environment, perceivers develop the habit of associating one order of sensory information with another. Since Berkeley thought that visual experience lacked inherent three-dimensionality, and that “distance” was registered only by the sense of touch, he hypothesized that retinal information acted as a cue for tangible consequences in the environment. The result is what Robert Schwartz calls “the pragmatic significance of vision,” which is “essentially a guide to movement and touch.”2 For Berkeley, distance

The Politics of Open-Access Publishing: &lt;i&gt;M/C Journal&lt;/i&gt;, Public Intellectualism, and Academic Discourses of Legitimacy

This article investigates the discourses of academic legitimacy that surround the production, consumption, and accreditation of online scholarship. Using the web-based media and cultural studies journal (http://journal.media-culture.org.au) as a case study, it examines how online scholarly journals often position themselves as occupying a space between the academic and the popular and as having a functional advantage over print-based media in promoting a spirit of public intellectualism. The current research agenda of both government and academe prioritises academic research that is efficient, self-promoting, and relevant to the public. Yet, although the cost-effectiveness and public-intellectual focus of online scholarship speak to these research priorities, online journals such as M/C Journal have occupied, and continue to occupy, an unstable position in relation to the perceived academic legitimacy of their content. Although some online scholarly journals have achieved a limited form of recognition within a system of accreditation that still privileges print-based scholarship, I argue that this, nevertheless, points to the fact that traditional textual notions of legitimate academic work continue to pervade the research agenda of an academe that increasingly promotes flexible delivery of teaching and online research initiatives.

CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT

Contingency management (CM), the systematic application of tangible behavioural consequences (reinforcing or punishing) to promote changes in drug use and other therapeutic attainments, contingent upon verified periods of abstinence, treatment attendance or medication compliance, has become one of the best documented interventions in substance abuse treatment.

Victim Reparations in the Peruvian Truth Commission and the Challenge of Historical Interpretation

The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Comision de la Verdad y Reconciliacion (CVR)) has been praised for challenging positivist approaches to truth by focusing on victims and narrative interpretation. In this article, I argue that such a focus is not as problem-free as widely assumed. In spite of its normative human rights base, the CVR underestimated the issue of historical and political recognition of particular actors during the Peruvian armed conflict - an issue that bears practical and tangible consequences for the actors involved. I use the case of peasant self-defense groups and their treatment regarding potential reparations benefits to explore the challenges involved in combining a human rights agenda with issues of historical interpretation.

Simple Mixed Reality Infrastructure for Experimental Analysis of Route Choice Behavior

Microscopic traffic simulation models offer virtual reproduction of full-scale traffic networks with individual vehicle and driver resolution. However, relevant behavioral aspects, such as route-choice behavior, are based on some theoretical assumptions. Alternatively, driving simulators allow for direct testing of real subjects. However, the virtual driving environment is typically a fairly rudimentary representation of the road network and traffic conditions, focusing on the immediate surroundings of the test vehicle. As such, both tools were integrated to create a mixed reality traffic analysis environment. The objective is to enhance the credibility of in-lab-simulated route-choice experiments under various intelligent transportation system applications. The mixed reality system allows a human subject to “drive” a vehicle in a microscopic traffic simulation model of an actual physical network. An externally controlled driving capability was integrated into the widely used Quadstone Paramics microscopic traffic simulator. The developed mixed reality platform was used at the Toronto (Canada) Intelligent Transportation System Centre to test subjects while driving in a simulated model of a main downtown Toronto corridor. Drivers were given descriptive and prescriptive traffic information while their reactions were monitored. For comparative purposes, they were also tested using a more classical map-based point-and-click route-choice procedure. Results of the analysis highlight the potential of the developed mixed reality platform to enhance the realism of in-lab-simulated route-choice experiments and hence improve the credibility of collected data. Both the virtual reproduction of the choice environment and the tangible consequences of choice decisions contribute to an enhanced experimental environment.

Auto‐ethnographic consumer research and creative non‐fiction

PurposeNarrative accounts of subjective consumer experience are, in one form or another, a staple of qualitative market research. They have an obvious connection with the literary form of creative non‐fiction (CNF), yet this connection has rarely been explored. Based on the assumption that writing craft is a neglected yet fundamental part of qualitative research practice, this paper seeks to contribute a new, literary‐based perspective to the interpretive turn in qualitative market research.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on a range of extant literature to draw out the distinguishing features of CNF, placing these in juxtaposition to biographical and narrative auto‐ethnographic consumer research. The overall aim is to begin to detail the particular qualities of writing that might contribute to better qualitative research. To assist in this quest the attempts at scholarly discussion in the paper are interpolated with a series of digressive interludes written in an auto‐biographical CNF style. These interludes are intended to exemplify aspects of the interpretive research mentality.FindingsThis is a conceptual paper seeking to draw attention to and develop a relatively neglected research agenda. The concluding reflections suggest some tangible consequences of this research. The paper suggests that a stronger focus on research writing craft through CNF can liberate the imagination of research respondents and enrich the analysis of narrative forms of qualitative data.Originality/valueThis paper addresses the vast area of narrative‐based qualitative research from a perspective which will be entirely new to many researchers and practitioners. It suggests tangible benefits that this new perspective could bring to the work of each.

SUPERIMPOSITION AND WITHHOLDING OF EDIBLE CONSEQUENCES AS TREATMENT FOR AUTOMATICALLY REINFORCED STEREOTYPY

The delivery and subsequent withholding of tangible consequences has been previously investigated as an intervention for stereotypic behavior. The current investigation sought to extend previous research by evaluating its effectiveness and durability as treatment for stereotypy of 2 children who had been diagnosed with autism. Nonsocial functions for stereotypic behavior were identified via functional analysis. Edible items were then delivered contingent on stereotypy and were withheld in a subsequent condition. When the superimposition procedure failed to reduce stereotypy, environmental enrichment was implemented and was found to reduce the stereotypy of both participants.

Implementing Electronic Commerce in SMEs

Partwell Limited is a small to medium sized (SME) manufacturing and supply company based in the United Kingdom. This case study discusses the circumstances that led the company to consider the implementation of two Internet Web sites for the purpose of conducting Electronic Commerce (e-commerce). The history and culture of Partwell are described, as are the histories and characteristics of key personnel involved in this e-commerce project. Furthermore, the company’s previous experience with information and communication technology (ICT) is described. Following on from this the process by which e-commerce was introduced into the company is explained. This information provides the background for analyzing the case study. Finally, the case study goes on to show the importance of SMEs to the economy of the UK and identifies the main factors that inhibit SMEs from adopting e-commerce. The tangible benefits and consequences of this e-commerce project are identified.

Modeling pandemic preparedness scenarios: health economic implications of enhanced pandemic vaccine supply

Influenza pandemic planning is a complex, multifactorial process, which involves public health authorities, regulatory authorities, academia and industry. It is further complicated by the unpredictability of the time of emergence and severity of the next pandemic and the effectiveness of influenza epidemic interventions. The complexity and uncertainties surrounding pandemic preparedness have so far kept the various stakeholders from joining forces and tackling the problem from its roots. We developed a mathematical model, which shows the tangible consequences of conceptual plans by linking possible pandemic scenarios to health economic outcomes of possible intervention strategies. This model helps to structure the discussion on pandemic preparedness and facilitates the translation of pandemic planning concepts to concrete plans. The case study for which the model has been used shows the current level of global pandemic preparedness in an assumed pandemic scenario, the health economic implications of enhanced pandemic vaccine supply and the importance of cell culture-based influenza vaccine manufacturing technologies as a tool for pandemic control.

Modeling pandemic preparedness scenarios: health economic implications of enhanced pandemic vaccine supply

Influenza pandemic planning is a complex, multifactorial process, which involves public health authorities, regulatory authorities, academia and industry. It is further complicated by the unpredictability of the time of emergence and severity of the next pandemic and the effectiveness of influenza epidemic interventions. The complexity and uncertainties surrounding pandemic preparedness have so far kept the various stakeholders from joining forces and tackling the problem from its roots. We developed a mathematical model, which shows the tangible consequences of conceptual plans by linking possible pandemic scenarios to health economic outcomes of possible intervention strategies. This model helps to structure the discussion on pandemic preparedness and facilitates the translation of pandemic planning concepts to concrete plans. The case study for which the model has been used shows the current level of global pandemic preparedness in an assumed pandemic scenario, the health economic implications of enhanced pandemic vaccine supply and the importance of cell culture-based influenza vaccine manufacturing technologies as a tool for pandemic control.

Commentary

The Holy Grail for abdominal surgery has long been the prevention of peritoneal adhesions and their very tangible consequences. In the universe of spinal surgery, where patient outcomes are clearly not always as we would have them be, the search continues for an explanation as to why some patients do better than others while all factors appear otherwise equivalent. From this search for a culprit arises the allegation that epidural fibrosis, the natural consequence of the processes that heal our wounds, must somehow be a contributing factor to adverse results in spinal surgery.

Editorial

Editorial

A new decline in preventive behaviours among homosexual men : the role of highly active antiretroviral therapy?

The articles published in this issue of Eurosurveillance on recent trends of preventive behaviours in homosexual men in Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, all conclude that the practice of safer sex is declining. They emphasise increases in anal penetration (regardless of the nature of the relationship), non-protected anal intercourse, and ejaculation in the mouth, in particular among casual partners. The increase of diagnoses of acute sexually transmitted diseases (such as gonorrhoea and syphilis) in different European countries - illustrated in this issue by the data from the Netherlands - is the first tangible consequence of this decline.

Role of alloy spacer layers in non top-on-top vertical correlation in multistacked systems

We focus on the role of spacer alloy decomposition in the vertical correlation for a bilayer of strained InAs quantum wires, where the spacer layer is an immiscible alloy. We show how the surface morphology combined with the strongly inhomogeneous strain distribution favors a V-shaped partial demixing of the spacer layer. We also demonstrate that this decomposition has tangible consequences on the vertical organization when depositing a second wire layer. Different configurations can be obtained from perfect top-on-top, to perfect vertical anticorrelation, via all kinds of oblique correlation.

The Drug Court as a Sentencing Model

The sentencing model of the drug court puts a single judge into repeated contact with defendants under supervision. The drug court sentencing model, first, provides court monitoring and immediate, tangible punitive consequences for noncompliance with program requirements and, second, offers a strongly supportive group that provides a range of treatment options with which the defendant must be involved. Data in this article are from (a) a database developed on cases accepted or rejected by the drug court, (b) interviews with treatment providers, and (c) interviews with judges and administrators and attendance at court hearings and drug court graduation ceremonies. The article presents data on the conduct of the drug court judge and completion and attrition rates in the program, and it concludes that the activist judge role is the pivotal feature of the drug court.