PURPOSE Exercises are described that were designed to provide practice in phonetic transcription for students taking an introductory phonetics course. The goal was to allow instructors to offload much of the drill that would otherwise need to be covered in class or handled with paper-and-pencil tasks using text rather than speech as input. METHOD The exercises were developed using Alvin, a ge...

The widespread use of rating scales in applied research fields implies need of statistical methods applicable to various types of studies involving ordinal response data. The aim of this paper is to present a teaching model of joining research courses in rating scale data analysis for statisticians and applied scientists together in order to stimulate inter-disciplinary communication. The parti...

This paper presents a methodology for using hydrodynamic modeling to estimate inundation areas and water depths during a hurricane event. The Environmental Fluid Dynamic Code (EFDC) is used in this research. EFDC is one of the most commonly applied models to Gulf of Mexico estuaries. The event with which the hydrodynamic model was tested was hurricane Ivan. This hurricane made landfall at the A...

Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are an increasingly common intervention for optimizing antimicrobial therapy in healthcare settings. These programs aim to improve patient care and limit the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant organisms by supporting prudent antimicrobial use. However, pressure from the current reimbursement climate necessitates that ASPs operate as cost-cuttin...

This paper presents a case study of experimenting an interactive collaborative environment for distance teaching and learning activities. It begins with reviewing the existing multiple-users collaborative environment including the Open Wonderland platform, and then outlines the requirements of using a collaborative environment to assist distance teaching and learning, and how these requirements...

OBJECTIVES Local government services and policies affect health determinants across many sectors such as planning, transportation, housing and leisure. Researchers and policymakers have argued that decisions affecting wider determinants of health, well-being and inequalities should be informed by evidence. This study explores how information and evidence are defined, assessed and utilised by lo...

Much of the research currently undertaken in the area of intelligent tutoring systems hails from Western countries. To counteract any bias that this situation produces, to gain greater representation from the rest of the world, and to produce systems and publications that take cultural factors into account, experts recognize the need for more intercultural evaluations and collaborations. For th...

Despite decades of research on domestic violence, considerable challenges must be addressed to develop sound, theoretically and empirically based interventions for reducing domestic violence revictimization. Many basic and applied research issues remain unaddressed by existing studies, and evaluations frequently do not sufficiently highlight their limitations or program or policy implications. ...

BACKGROUND An estimated one- to-two-thirds of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections among US men who have sex with men (MSM) occur within the context of primary partnerships. Despite this fact, there remains a lack of prevention interventions that focus on male sero-discordant dyads. Interventions that provide male couples with skills to manage HIV risk, and to support each other to...