Bridgewater State University

About: Bridgewater State University is a education organization based out in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 625 authors who have published 1223 publications receiving 21820 citations. The organization is also known as: BSU & Bridgewater State.

The Debate Confessional: Newt Gingrich, John King and Atoning for Past Sins

Abstract: Religious affiliation has always played a prominent role in the vetting of US presidential candidates, especially for those seeking the nomination of the Republican Party. Candidates within that party must appeal to fiscal, foreign policy and social conservatives, the last of which contain significant numbers of selfdescribed evangelical Christians. During the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary appeals to these social conservatives became as significant a factor as any other with a Mormon candidate, a Catholic candidate who made his faith a centerpiece of his campaign, and a divorced former Speaker who recently converted to Catholicism. With the race still very much in the air, this former Speaker, Newt Gingrich, came under fire for his prior marriage and just a few days before a pivotal primary in South Carolina his ex-wife taped an interview about his marriage to her which was set to air immediately after the last debate before the election in South Carolina. At the beginning of the debate the moderator, John King of CNN, provided Gingrich an opportunity to discuss the pending interview. His response changed the scope of that primary election, helping vault Gingrich to a significant victory in South Carolina with significant support from formerly hesitant social conservatives. In this essay we examine his response to King’s opening question at the debate through the lens of image restoration theory and argue Gingrich used specific strategies to appeal for support from the social conservatives in that state.

The impact of extralegal characteristics on recognizance release among misdemeanants

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to direct attention to pretrial release decisions on low-level offenders and to assess whether certain characteristics influence the pretrial release outcome. Bivariate correlations and stepwise logistic regression were used to analyze a 2004 primary data set of misdemeanants considered for release on recognizance in a California court (N = 539). The results showed that Hispanic defendants were more likely to be granted this condition of release. This finding is particularly noteworthy because it is in contrast with prior studies that found that defendants of color were less likely to be granted less restrictive release conditions. Furthermore, such a result may lead to imply that Hispanic Americans may be less stigmatized and more integrated in society.

Web information retrieval and filtering course to undergraduates using open source programming

Abstract: This paper describes how to engage actively students in web information retrieval and filtering course using open source programming. To teach this course, I utilized hands-on lab projects from various open source projects including the Galago search engine. Projects included, but were not limited to, implementing information retrieval (IR) algorithms, collaborative filtering (CF) algorithms, web-based interfaces, and adding features into an open-source search engine. By practicing with real-world open source programming, students found that they better understood how to connect background knowledge to real-world applications in preparation for industry jobs.

Enhancing Teaching Effectiveness in Mobile Application Development with Structured Practice

Abstract: Mobile application development is gaining increasing attention due to the rapid growth of the mobile technologies and mobile application market. Many universities are putting effort on integrating mobile application development into curriculum. The complexity and consistent changing in mobile development environment brings barriers and difficulties in course development. This paper describes how to enhance teaching effectiveness and engage students actively in mobile application development class through structured practice. The proposed structured practice features two levels of hands-on practice: first, prepare students with foundational knowledge and skills by having them follow the instructor on developing base applications; second, the philosophy of challenge-based learning is adopted in practice, where students are encouraged to independently work on developing implementations for applications with gradually increased complexity. Student feedbacks and performance have indicated the structured practice is an effective way of teaching mobile development which not only enhances the teaching effectiveness but also provides students a positive learning experience. Details of course design and project samples are provided to assist audiences in understanding the usage of structured practice and help with the developing of mobile application development courses.