American International College

About: American International College is a education organization based out in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Dyslexia & Population. The organization has 89 authors who have published 121 publications receiving 2715 citations. The organization is also known as: AIC.

Implementing lean production systems: barriers to change

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is help understand why implementing continuous improvement (CI) strategies can be difficult at times. It also addresses the problem of resistance to change within even those firms whose CEO is most fully committed to implementation of CI programs.Design/methodology/approach – The study focuses on a Fortune 500 manufacturing plant located in the Eastern USA. A survey was distributed to both salaried and unionized hourly employees.Findings – Results from the survey show that the problem lies primarily with an aging and high seniority hourly workforce and a lack of committed leadership at this research site. For example, salaried employees consistently provided higher positive ratings of CI initiatives. In addition, higher seniority was directly correlated with negative ratings. Finally, the study found that employees do not feel valued when they contribute to the improvement processes and that 100 per cent of the hourly male employees disagreed that “The Company considers...

Changing Interracial Evaluations and Behavior: The Effects of a Common Group Identity:

Abstract: Two studies examined whether developing a common ingroup identity among Blacks and Whites can improve Whites’ interracial evaluations. In Study 1, White participants interacted with a Black or White confederate under conditions designed to produce cognitive representations as fellow group members or as separate individuals. Consistent with the Common Ingroup Identity Model, Whites evaluated Blacks more favorably when they interacted with them as members of the same group than as separate individuals. Study 2, conducted as fans entered a football stadium, revealed that Whites complied more frequently with a Black interviewer’s request to interview them when they shared common university affiliation, relative to when the Black interviewer was affiliated with the opposing team.

Reliability of inclinometer and goniometric measurements of hip extension flexibility using the modified Thomas test.

Abstract: Our objectives were to examine interrater reliability for inclinometer and goniometric measurements of hip extension flexibility and the intra- and interrater reliability between instruments when measuring hip extension flexibility with the modified Thomas test. The modified Thomas test is frequently used by clinicians to assess hip extension flexibility. Studies examining the reliability of measures of the modified Thomas test are limited. This study included 42 healthy subjects. The modified Thomas test was performed on each subject to quantify hip extension flexibility by using an inclinometer and a goniometer. High interrater reliability was determined for each instrument (r = 0.91-0.93; ICC = 0.89-0.92). High intrarater parallel-forms reliability was found for each examiner between the instruments (r = 0.089-0.92; ICC = 0.91-0.93). High interrater parallel-forms reliability also was found between instruments (r = 0.86-0.93; ICC = 0.86-0.92). The high correlations obtained in this study suggest that the inclinometer and the goniometer are reliable instruments for measuring hip extension flexibility. The results also indicate that the two instruments can be used interchangeably for measuring hip extension flexibility.

Selective attentional dyslexia

Abstract: A case study is presented of a university professor (SJ) who was classified as a developmental dyslexic when he was a teenager. His reading comprehension was found to be markedly inferior to his listening comprehension; in addition, his reading rate was quite slow. Standardised tests were administered to SJ to provide estimates of his reading ability (and overall intelligence) and a test battery was administered to examine his word retrieval and word recognition skills. While these tests revealed that SJ has some type of word retrieval problem, subsequent testing revealed that a major contributor to his reading problem was a selective attentional deficit in which letters from words in parafoveal vision interfere with his processing of the currently fixated word. When parafoveal vision was restricted, by using the McConkie and Rayner (1975) moving window paradigm in which letters outside of a small, centrally fixated window region were replaced with Xs, SJ's reading performance was actually better...