This paper describes how scientists utilize specific journal article components, the tables, figures, maps, photographs, and graphs contained in journal articles, to support both their teaching and research. These findings are taken from a comprehensive investigation into scientistsâ satisfaction with and use of a prototype retrieval system that indexes tables and figures culled from scientific journal articles. Rather than focusing on seeking and searching, this paper summarizes four ways in which scientists utilize the information they find in tables and figures obtained from journal articles. While the first type of use described here, creating new fixed documents, confirms the findings of previous research, the other three types of use reveal emerging practices with journal article components: creating documents to support performative activities; making comparisons between a scientistâ s own work and the work of other researchers; and creating other information forms and objects.

This is a presentation at the ASIS&T 2005 Annual Meeting session on Progress in the Design and Evaluation of Digital Libraries: Implications for Research and Education (moderator: Kyung-Sun Kim). The presentation discusses the creation, design, and management of dLIST, an open access archive for the Information Sciences, and the affiliated DL-Harvest, an open access aggregator and federated search engine. As an Eprints-based open access archive, dLIST is a digital repository but it is a cross-institutional and interdisciplinary repository built on the concept of "sustainable information behaviors." Elements such as openness, transparency, information quality and interoperability are critical components along with a focus on connected communities of practice. Sustainable information behaviors can take us beyond the information-seeking-in-context agenda and enable a transformation of scholarly and research commmunity information sharing and communication that is more in tune with the values of a digitally flat (connected) world. Editor's Note: Some of the screenshots of the dlist web pages in the slides appear to have degenerated.

Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of MIS, University of Arizona / In this era of the Internet and distributed multimedia computing, new and emerging classes of information systems applications have swept into the lives of office workers and everyday people. New applications ranging from digital libraries, multimedia systems, geographic information systems, collaborative computing to electronic commerce, virtual reality, and electronic video arts and games have created tremendous opportunities for information and computer science researchers and practitioners. As the applications become more overwhelming, pressing, and diverse, several well-known information retrieval (IR) problems have become even more urgent in this â networkcentricâ information age. Information overload, a result of the ease of information creation and rendering via the Internet and the World Wide Web, has become more evident in peopleâ s lives. Significant variations of database formats and structures, the richness of information media, and an abundance of multilingual information content also have created severe information interoperability problems-structural interoperability, media interoperability, and multilingual interoperability. The conventional approaches to addressing information overload and information interoperability problems are manual in nature, requiring human experts as information intermediaries to create knowledge structures and/or ontologies. As information content and collections become even larger and more dynamic, we believe a system-aided bottom-up artificial intelligence (AI) approach is needed. By applying scalable techniques developed in various AI subareas such as image segmentation and indexing, voice recognition, natural language processing, neural networks, machine learning, clustering and categorization, and intelligent agents, we can provide an alternative system-aided approach to addressing both information overload and information interoperability.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between psychological wellbeing and uniqueness seeking behaviour. Early research in psychology has primarily followed a pathogenic approach, focusing on the way in which stressful life events predispose an individual to negative health outcomes. More recently a number of theorists and researchers have adopted a salutogenic approach, which refers to the origins of physical and mental health and explores the factors that assist individuals to maintain psychological and physical well-being in the face of stressful situations (Antonovsky. 1979 & 1987; Pallant & Lae, 2002). Uniqueness seeking is a relatively new construct that seems to be part of the repertoire of strengths an individual uses to improve psychological well-being. Theorists postulate that moderate needs for uniqueness are experienced more positively than extremely high or extremely low needs for uniqueness. (Lynn & Snyder, 2002 and Snyder & Fromkin, 1980). The study aims to determine the difference in psychological well-being in individuals with varying needs for uniqueness; to explore the perceptions and subjective experience of uniqueness seeking; and to explore the role uniqueness seeking plays in consumer behaviour. The psychometric properties of two scales measuring uniqueness will also be investigated, as they have not previously been used in a South African sample. To achieve these aims an availability sample of 187 students completed self-report measures of psychological well-being and uniqueness seeking behaviour namely, the Orientation to Life Scale (Antonovsky. 1987), the Self Attributed Need for Uniqueness Scale (Lynn and Harris, 1997b) and the Desire for Unique Consumer Products Scale (Lynn and Harris, 1997a). Sixteen of these students participated in focus groups in order to explore the participants' subjective experience of being unique. A further 13 participants took part in focus groups in order to explore the role uniqueness seeking plays in consumer behaviour. The measures were found to be reliable in this particular group and the means and standard deviations calculated were comparable with those mentioned in literature. No direct relationship between psychological well-being and uniqueness seeking was found, nor was it found that differences in psychological well-being exist between individuals with a moderate sense of uniqueness and individuals with a high or low sense of uniqueness. Individuals perceive uniqueness to be a quality that emerges naturally through the expression of the self and that actively seeking to be unique or not is rather due to a poor self-image. It was further found that individuals would go to some length to protect their sense of uniqueness, that most individuals preferred a sense of moderate uniqueness to either extremely high or extremely low sense of uniqueness, and that most individuals are satisfied with their level of uniqueness. Individuals described feeling happy and more confident when they perceived themselves to be unique. These individuals believe that the stage of life they are in and significant others play a role in determining the way in which uniqueness will have meaningful expression for them. Uniqueness seeking does not play as big a role in consumer behaviour as was expected, however, it does influence the consumption of consumer goods to a certain extent. It is therefore concluded that uniqueness seeking influences psychological well-being indirectly by the relationship it has with self-image. self-identity, self-confidence, group identifications, and subjective happiness. These findings have implications for future research in that the need for a valid and reliable instrument measuring uniqueness for use in South African samples is highlighted. The findings further clarify the uniqueness seeking construct thus contributing to the literary database of constructs that play a role in psychological well-being. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

The purpose of this study was to explore how level of cultural identity was related to help-seeking attitudes among Asian students and to compare between Asian and Caucasian students. A total of 367 undergraduate university students participated in this study, of whom 184 (127 female and 57 male) were Asians and 183 (137 female, 44 male and 2 unspecified gender) were Caucasians. A weak positive correlation was found between Asian cultural identity and positive help-seeking attitudes (r = .158, p = .034, n = 181) (2-tailed); no significant correlation existed between cultural identity and negative help-seeking attitudes (r = .077, p = .305, n = 178) (2-tailed); no significant differences were found among: (a) high Caucasian cultural identity, (b) low Caucasian cultural identity Asian groups, and (c) Caucasian group for both positive help-seeking attitudes (F(2, 186) - .612), p = .544). Mixed results were found indicating that there was no easily identifiable trend between cultural identity and positive and negative help-seeking attitudes. Theoretical, clinical, and research implications are discussed.

Previous research has shown a large genetic influence over personality traits, especially sensation seeking. One gene thought to influence this behavioural trait is the dopamine-4-receptor gene (DRD4), in which variants have been associated with sensation seeking and novelty seeking in some, but not all studies. The inconsistencies between studies may be due to heterogeneity in both the behaviours and the populations being assessed. Some studies included only males and few studies have a priori analyzed males and females separately. SS has been associated with high-risk sports, including skiing; however, this is the first study to address the possibility that genetics may play a role in individuals’ inclination towards SS in sport. Using the Contextual Sensation Seeking Questionnaire for Skiing (CSSQ-S), developed and validated for this study, and the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), levels of SS in males and females were analyzed in association with the alleles of a polymorphism in the dopamine-4-receptor, -521 C/T (a C or a T at position -521). Behavioural analysis of skiers (N = 200) revealed a significant correlation (r²= .506, p < .001) between skier behaviour (CSSQ-S) and skier personality score (ZKPQ) for sensation seeking. Genotype analysis (N = 74) revealed allele frequencies of .58 C and .42 T and an over-representation of the C allele was found in the population of skiers compared with a general Caucasian population (p < .01). In females, a significant association was found between the homozygous C/C genotype and high levels of contextual skiing SS behaviour (N = 36, p = .006, η² = .2), along with a non-significant trend between ZKPQ impulsive SS scores and the alleles of -521 C/T (p = .086). No association, however, was found in males (N=38, p ZKPQ = .473, p CSSQ-S = .345). This study supports the hypothesis that alleles of the DRD4 -521 C/T polymorphism are associated with context-specific SS behaviours, however only in females. Social pressures may differentially influence male and female sensation-seeking behaviour which may explain the lack of association in males, though this hypothesis requires further investigation.

Postpartum depression is recognized as an important maternal and child health issue. Postpartum depression is the most common perinatal psychiatric disorder and one of the most common complications of childbirth. Studies show prevalence rates in women ranging from 10% to 25%. Postpartum depression affects the emotional wellbeing of mothers, infant behavior, mother-infant bonding, and marital relationships. However, the majority of women who experience postpartum depression do not seek care. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the demographic differences between women in Georgia who report symptoms of postpartum depression but do not seek care, versus women who report postpartum depression symptoms and seek care. Approximately 15% of respondents in this study reported postpartum depression. Of these women, approximately 80% did not seek care for their symptoms. This analysis found that women with the following characteristics were more likely to not seek care for depression: non-White and Hispanic women; women that were uninsured before their pregnancy; women that had their prenatal care paid for by Medicaid or the Military; and women who did not seek care for depression during their pregnancy. The results of this study may help to guide the implementation of public health interventions among postpartum women in Georgia.

The present research explored cross-cultural differences in postdecisional confirmation bias. I hypothesized that, following a personal decision—one that entails consequences for the decision maker only, Euro-Canadians would be more likely to seek out confirmatory information than would Japanese, whereas following an interpersonal decision—one that entails consequences for those closest to the decision maker, Japanese would be more likely to do so than Euro-Canadians. In Study 1, Euro-Canadians and Japanese university students were randomly assigned to either the self or friend condition. Participants in the self and friend condition selected a movie for which they or their friend would ostensibly receive a free pass to see in theatres, respectively. After selecting a movie, participants were presented with a list of 12 movie reviews that either confirmed or disconfirmed their choice. Participants then indicated which of the reviews they wanted to read further. Study 2 employed the same paradigm as did Study 1 and also included a measure of participants’ information processing goals. For Study 1, the results of a series of one-sample t tests revealed that Euro-Canadians in the self condition exhibited confirmation bias as well as did those in the friend condition, albeit this latter trend was not significant. In contrast, Japanese in both conditions showed no preference for confirmatory or disconfirmatory information. For Study 2, Japanese continued to exhibit a balanced search. However, Euro-Canadians in the friend condition preferred confirmatory information, whereas Euro-Canadians in the self condition exhibited a slight, non-significant preference for disconfirmatory information. Regarding participants’ information processing goals, those in the friend condition were more concerned with affirming and convincing others of the correctness of their choice than were those in the self condition. Also, Euro-Canadians indicated that they were motivated to be accurate more than did Japanese. The present research indicates that Euro-Canadians and Japanese differ in terms of the decisions that they seek to confirm (albeit not in the predicted direction). Reasons for such discrepant findings and limits of the present research are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-02 12:51:18.396

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to identify a relationship between sensation seeking and underachievement. Archival data of seventy seven students of the Indiana Academy were collected. It was hypothesized that scores on the Sensation Seeking Scale would negatively correlate with grade point average. It was also hypothesized that Sensation Seeking Scale scores would be associated with incidents of academic probation, behavioral problems, and withdrawal from the Indiana Academy. A weak yet significant negative correlation was found between Total Sensation Seeking scores and grade point average. A slightly stronger negative correlation was found between the Disinhibition subscale of the Sensation Seeking Scale and grade point average. Total Sensation Seeking scores were associated with incidents of behavioral problems, but were not associated with incidents of academic probation or withdrawal from the Indiana Academy. Disinhibition subscale scores were associated with incidents of behavioral problems and withdrawal from the Indiana Academy. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services