Showing papers by "DePaul University published in 1998"

An analysis of the supplier selection process

Abstract: Customers select suppliers based on the relative importance of different attributes such as quality, price, flexibility, and delivery performance. This study examines the difference between managers' rating of the perceived importance of different supplier attributes and their actual choice of suppliers in an experimental setting. We use two methods: a Likert scale set of questions, to determine the importance of supplier attributes; and a discrete choice analysis (DCA) experiment, to examine the choice of suppliers. The results indicate that although managers say that quality is the most important attribute for a supplier, they actually choose suppliers based largely on cost and delivery performance.

New media interactive advertising vs. traditional advertising

Abstract: rrrmrrxvivt This research explores the effectiveness of interactive advertising on a new medium platform. Like the presence in industry and the media themselves, the academic research stream is fairly new. Our research seeks to isolate the key feature of interactivity from confounding factors and to begin to tease apart those situations for which interactivity might be highly desirable from those situations for which traditional advertising vehicles may be sufficient or superior. We find that the traditional linear advertising format of conventional ads is actually better than interactive advertising for certain kinds of consumers and for certain kinds of ads. In particular, we find that a cognitive “matching” of the system properties (being predominately visual or verbal) and the consumer segment needs (preferring their information to be presented in a visual or verbal manner) appears to be critical. More research should be conducted before substantial expenditures are devoted to advertising on these interactive media. These new means of communicating with customers are indeed exciting, but they must be demonstrated to be effective on consumer engagement and persuasion. INTERACTIVE MARKETING SYSTEMS are enjoying explosive growth, giving firms a plethora of ways of contacting consumers (e.g., kiosks, Web pages, home computers). In these interactive systems, a customer controls the content of the interaction, requesting or giving information, at the attributelevel (e.g., a PC’s RAM and MHz) or in terms of benefits (e.g., a PC’s capability and speed). A customer can control the presentation order of the information, and unwanted options may be deleted. The consumer may request that the information sought be presented in comparative table format, in video, audio, pictorial format, or in standard text. Increasingly, customers can also order products using the interactive system. These new media are no fad, and while they are only in the infancy of their development, they are already changing the marketplace (cf. Hoffman and Novak, 1996). The hallmark of all of these new media is their irlteuactivity-the consumer and the manufacturer enter into dialogue in a way not previously possible. Interactive marketing, as defined in this paper, is: “the immediately iterative process by which customer needs and desires are uncovered, met, modified, and satisfied by the providing firm.” Interactivity iterates between the firm and the customer, eliciting information from both parties, and attempting to align interests and possibilities. The iterations occur over some duration, allowing the firm to build databases that provide subsequent purchase opportunities tailored to the consumer (Blattberg and Deighton, 1991). The consumer’s input allows subsequent information to be customized to pertinent interests and bars irrelevant communications, thereby enhancing both the consumer experience and the efficiency of the firm’s advertising and marketing dollar. As exciting as these new interactive media appear to be, little is actually known about their effect on consumers’ consideration of the advertised products. As Berthon, Pitt, and Watson (1996) state, “advertising and marketing practitioners, and academics are by now aware that more systematic research is required to reveal the true nature of commerce on the Web” or for interactive systems more generally. Our research is intended to address this need, and more specifically to focus on the effects of interactivity. We investigate interactive marketing in terms of its performance in persuading consumers to buy the advertised products. We wish to begin to understand whether interactive methods are truly superior to standard advertising formats as the excitement about the new media would suggest. Alternatively, perhaps there are some circumstances for which traditional advertising is more effective. Certainly it would not be desirable to channel the majority of one’s advertising resources toward interactive media until they are demonstrated to be superior persuasion vehicles. To this end we present an experimental study comparing consumer reactions to products advertised through an interactive medium with re-

Coming out for lesbian women: its relation to anxiety, positive affectivity, self-esteem, and social support.

Abstract: The present study investigated relations between lesbians' disclosure of their sexual orientation and psychological adjustment. The 499 participants responded to a questionnaire assessing level of self-disclosure, sources of social support, forms of socializing, self-description of sexual orientation, and length of self-identification as a lesbian. The more widely a woman disclosed her sexual orientation the less anxiety, more positive affectivity, and greater self-esteem she reported. Degree of disclosure to family, gay and lesbian friends, straight friends, and co-workers was related to overall level of social support, with those who more widely disclosed reporting greater levels of support. Participants who more widely disclosed their sexual orientation were less likely to engage in anonymous socializing, had a larger percentage of lesbian friends, and were more involved in the gay and lesbian community. Path analyses revealed a mediating effect of social reactions (both initial and current) o...

Oscillation in ergodic theory

Abstract: In this paper we establish a variety of square function inequalities and study other operators which measure the oscillation of a sequence of ergodic averages. These results imply the pointwise ergodic theorem and give additional information such as control of the number of upcrossings of the ergodic averages. Related results for differentiation and for the connection between differentiation operators and the dyadic martingale are also established.

A technology transition model derived from field investigation of GSS use aboard the U.S.S. CORONADO

Abstract: There are several thousand group support systems (GSS) installations worldwide, and, while that number is growing, GSS has not yet achieved critical mass. One reason may be that it can take one to three years for an organization to complete a transition to GSS. Studying GSS transition in the field could yield insights that would allow for faster, lower-risk transitions elsewhere. This article presents a thirty-two-month qualitative field investigation of an effort to introduce GSS into the daily work of the staff of the U.S. Navy's Commander, Third Fleet. Using the principles of action research, the project began with interventions based on the precepts of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The goal of the interventions was to engender sufficient acceptance for GSS to create a self-sustaining, growing community of GSS users.Throughout the study, building on a base of experience developed in other private-and public-sector transition projects, we revised and extended TAM based on insights that emerged in the field. The resulting model, the Technology Transition Model (TTM), frames acceptance as a multiplicative function of the magnitude and frequency of the perceived net value of a proposed change, moderated by the perceived net value associated with the transition period itself. TTM frames net value as having a number of dimensions, including cognitive, economic, political, social, affective, and physical. It posits that cognitive net value derives from at least three sources: changes in access, technical, and conceptual attention loads.GSS transition proceeded at different speeds in different segments of the Third Fleet; the intelligence and battle staffs became self-sustaining within weeks, while others are still not self-sustaining. TTM appears to explain the differences that emerged in the Navy community.The article presents TAM, then argues the propositions of TTM. It then presents background information about Third Fleet, and describes critical incidents in the transition effort that gave rise to the model. It summarizes the lessons learned in the field by comparing the differing transition trajectories among Fleet staff segments in light of the model.

Internet packet loss: measurement and implications for end-to-end QoS

Abstract: We analyze a month of Internet packet loss statistics for speech transmission using three different sets of transmitter/receiver host pairs. Our results indicate that packet loss is highly bursty, with the majority of individual losses occurring in a relatively small number of bursts. We find that loss exhibits dependence in most cases, but is not always well modeled as dependent. We introduce an analytical technique for measuring loss dependency. We also consider the asymmetry of round trip packet loss, and find that most loss on a round trip path occurs in either one direction or the other. We introduce a normalized metric for measuring loss asymmetry and apply it to our measurements. Finally we discuss the implications of our study for the next generation of real time voice services in the Internet.

Visual Input to the Efferent Control System of a Fly's "Gyroscope"

Abstract: Dipterous insects (the true flies) have a sophisticated pair of equilibrium organs called halteres that evolved from hind wings. The halteres are sensitive to Coriolis forces that result from angular rotations of the body and mediate corrective reflexes during flight. Like the aerodynamically functional fore wings, the halteres beat during flight and are equipped with their own set of control muscles. It is shown that motoneurons innervating muscles of the haltere receive strong excitatory input from directionally sensitive visual interneurons. Visually guided flight maneuvers of flies may be mediated in part by efferent modulation of hard-wired equilibrium reflexes.

Circumscription of the Malvales and relationships to other Rosidae: evidence from rbcL sequence data.

Abstract: The order Malvales remains poorly circumscribed, despite its seemingly indisputable core constituents: Bombacaceae, Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Tiliaceae. We conducted a two-step parsimony analysis on 125 rbcL sequences to clarify the composition of Malvales, to determine the relationships of some controversial families, and to identify the placement of the Malvales within Rosidae. We sampled taxa that have been previously suggested to be within, or close to, Malvales (83 sequences), plus additional rosids (26 sequences) and nonrosid eudicots (16 sequences) to provide a broader framework for the analysis. The resulting trees strongly support the monophyly of the core malvalean families, listed above. In addition, these data serve to identify a broader group of taxa that are closely associated with the core families. This expanded malvalean clade is composed of four major subclades: (1) the core families (Bombacaceae, Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae, Tiliaceae); (2) Bixaceae, Cochlospermaceae, and Sphaerosepalaceae (Rhopalocarpaceae); (3) Thymelaeaceae sensu lato (s.l.); and (4) Cistaceae, Dipterocarpaceae s.l., Sarcolaenaceae (Chlaenaceae), and Muntingia. In addition, Neurada (Neuradaceae or Rosaceae) falls in the expanded malvalean clade but not clearly within any of the four major subclades. This expanded malvalean clade is sister to either the expanded capparalean clade of Rodman et al. or the sapindalean clade of Gadek et al. Members of Elaeocarpaceae, hypothesized by most authors as a sister group to the four core malvalean families, are shown to not fall close to these taxa. Also excluded as members of, or sister groups to, the expanded malvalean clade were the families Aextoxicaceae, Barbeyaceae, Cannabinaceae, Cecropiaceae, Dichapetalaceae, Elaeagnaceae, Euphorbiaceae s.l., Huaceae, Lecythidaceae, Moraceae s.l., Pandaceae, Plagiopteraceae, Rhamnaceae, Scytopetalaceae, Ulmaceae, and Urticaceae. The order Malvales, as traditionally circumscribed, includes four core families, Bombacaceae (;250 spp.), Malvaceae (1500 spp.), Sterculiaceae (1000 spp.), and Tiliaceae (400 spp.), plus from one to eight other families depending upon author (Takhtajan, 1987, 1997; Cronquist, 1988; Dahlgren, 1989; Thorne, 1992). Considering only the core four families, the order comprises predominantly woody and tropical trees, including several economically important genera such as cotton (Gossypium

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Achievement Orientation and Personality

Abstract: The current study investigated the effects of personality variables as antecedents in predicting Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs), with the covenantal relationship as a mediating variable. 284 retail sales employees were administered 4 personality tests, a composite measure of the covenantal relationship, and a measure of citizenship behavior. Value for achievement, agreeableness, and conscientiousness predicted five types of organizational citizenship. Extraversion was not predictive across all citizenship behaviors. Implications for the relationship between personality and citizenship are discussed.

Longitudinal linkages between intended and realized operations strategies

Abstract: Compares the intended operations strategy of 112 manufacturing plants in the metal‐working industries with the realized strategy, as measured by investments designed to improve both the manfucturing structure and infrastructure. Data were collected via a mail survey administered to 202 plants in 1994, and re‐administered to 112 of the same plants in 1996. Examines how the emphasis placed on four key competitive priorities (cost, flexibility, delivery and quality) is associated with investment a company makes to support these objectives. The data indicate that companies support their key competitive priorities both through investments in structural improvement and through investments in infrastructural improvement. Two findings contradict the established literature. First, investments in design‐based advanced manufacturing technologies are not associated with a strategic emphasis on any of the four competitive priorities. Second, plants which emphasized flexibiltiy as a key component of their operations strategy did not invest in either structural or infrastructural improvements to support this objective.

Sorting out tigers (Panthera tigris): mitochondrial sequences, nuclear inserts, systematics, and conservation genetics

Abstract: Sequences from complete mitochondrial cytochrome b genes of 34 tigers support the hypothesis that Sumatran tigers are diagnostically distinct from mainland populations. None of the latter, including Bengals, Siberians, or Indochinese tigers, were found to have fixed diagnostic characters. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences confirms these results. Within the framework of a phylogenetic species concept, current evidence thus supports the recognition of two distinct taxa, and within the context of this definition they could be ranked at the species level. This paper also documents a previously unrecognized nuclear insert of mitochondrial DNA that includes, minimally, mitochondrial homologues of a control region that lacks the feline mitochondrial repeat sequences, a complete cytochrome b gene, and complete tRNAThr and tRNAsurPro genes. In a phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear cytochrome b-like sequences and various feline mitochondrial sequences, the nuclear insert clusters with lion mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences, which suggests the insert is at least as old as the split between lions and tigers. The results of this study emphasize the importance of doing more to conserve Sumatran tigers. Because they are underrepresented in zoos relative to Bengals and Siberians, an effort should be made to increase captive breeding stocks of Sumatrans. That Sumatrans are a distinct taxonomic entity relative to mainland populations can be used in educational programs to increase conservation efforts within Indonesia.

International mutual fund selectivity and market timing during up and down market conditions

Abstract: This study examines the selectivity and market-timing ability of international mutual fund managers. Ninety-seven international mutual funds with a minimum of five-year return history selected from the Morningstar OnDisc database are analyzed. Our findings suggest that managers of international mutual funds possess good selectivity and overall performance. We also find weak evidence of poor market-timing ability. Consistent with prior findings from domestic mutual funds, there is a negative correlation between the international fund managers' selection ability and market-timing ability. Finally, managers for Europea funds show poorer performance than those managing the other three international fund groups.

The impact of time pressure in negotiation: a meta‐analysis

Abstract: In negotiation, pressures to reach an agreement are assumed to influence both the processes and the outcomes of the discussions. This paper metaanalytically combined different forms of time pressure to examine its effects on negotiator strategy and impasse rate. High time pressure was more likely to increase negotiator concessions and cooperation than low pressure as well as make agreements more likely. The effect on negotiator strategy, however, was stronger when the deadline was near or when negotiations were simple rather than complex. The effects were weaker when the opponent was inflexible and using a tough negotiation strategy. The effects on cooperative strategies were weaker when incentives for good performance were available than when they were not. Although time pressure in negotiation has significant effects, situational factors play a major role on its impact.

Environmental factors and the effectiveness of workforce diversity training

Abstract: This study examined the effects of a diversity training workshop on self-perceptions of behaviour and importance of related management practices among ninety-nine middle managers in a large corporation. It also examined relationships between environmental variables and training criterion variables. It was hypothesised that the workshop would positively affect perceptions of behaviour and ratings of importance and that the work and social environments would influence the training outcomes. Analyses were conducted to determine if the environmental variables had direct or indirect effects on the training criterion variables. The study found that those who attended the workshop did rate management practices related to diversity as more important and did perceive themselves as engaging in such practices more than did a control group. The social environment variable indirectly affected post-test importance ratings of diversity-related management practices and self-perceptions of behaviour through its effect on initial levels of those variables, but the work environment measure was not related to the criterion variables. [This article is followed by an invited reaction by Ruby L. Beale (p. 125-127)].

Language minority students in high school: The role of language in learning biology concepts

Abstract: The importance of language to constituting meaning in science learning has been recognized. However, how language processes in learning are affected by the limited English proficiency of language minority students has not been addressed. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first goal was to describe how Mexican American language minority students construct biology concept meanings based on extant linguistic skills. Second, Vygotsky's semiotic approach to learning was used to design instructional activity to engage students in constructing meanings through mediational means such as science language, signs and symbols, and technology. Participants were 14 sophomores from an urban immigrant community who were enrolled in a Saturday enrichment program at a private university that maintained a “partnership” with the public high school. This interpretive study is based on extensive observational data, individual and group interviews, and students' written products. Findings indicated that students were overly reliant on the teacher's oral text as a source of science meaning and deferred to him for scientific interpretations of real life experience. Designed instructional activities showed students how to use semiotic tools to construct and express conceptual meanings. Diagrams were particularly important to instructional activity because these were modified to create visual parsimonious texts that were used as templates to support student appropriation of science language. An instructional sequence that moved students through three phases of learning was identified. Receptive understanding and expression used diagrams to identify content and enable students to “ventriloquate” teacher talk. Conceptual understanding and expression engaged students in constructing conceptual expressions and advanced students from “ventriloquating” teacher talk to expressing concepts for their own purpose. Interpretative understanding and expression was achieved by students using their conceptual understanding to analyze real life experience and their expanded discursive resources to write an interpretation. As students became proficient with semiotic tools, the teacher withdrew as science authority, and students assumed responsibility for constructing meaning using their own discursive resources. The findings demonstrate the importance of confronting the mystique of science through instructional activity that provides students the opportunity to acquire the cultural authority of language and other semiotic tools. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed82:311–341, 1998.

A congruence theorem for structured operational semantics of higher-order languages

Abstract: In this paper we describe the promoted tyft/tyxt rule format for defining higher-order languages. The rule format is a generalization of Groote and Vaandrager's tyft/tyxt format in which terms are allowed as labels on transitions in rules. We prove that bisimulation is a congruence for any language defined in promoted tyft/tyxt format and demonstrate the usefulness of the rule format by presenting promoted tyft/tyxt definitions for the lazy /spl lambda/-calculus, CHOCS and the /spl pi/-calculus.

"Applied Constructivism" for User Documentation: Alternatives to Conventional Task Orientation.

Abstract: This inquiry explores the practical implications of constructivist theory for documentation that is targeted to complex tasks and experienced users (users who are less than experts but more than novices). It argues that current task-oriented documentation falls short in addressing these tasks and users and examines the contributions that constructivism can make, contributions that will lead to documentation that differs in kind not just degree from conventional task-oriented manuals and help systems. This inquiry synthesizes the following four themes from constructivist theory and analyzes their relevance to documentation development: (1) changing the object of instruction to “activity in context,” (2) shaping instruction around problems experienced by users in work contexts, (3) highlighting users' social stock of knowledge, and (4) adopting a rhetoric of problem-based instruction expressed through cases. Examples are given from current efforts in interface and instructional design that writers may adapt...

A survival analysis of communal-living, self-help, addiction recovery participants.

Abstract: We examined individual and group characteristics associated with the duration of community involvement (i.e., length of residence) in 11 Illinois Oxford Houses for 129 male recovering addicts. Survival analyses indicated that the best predictor of duration of community involvement from demographic items was age (i.e., older age and older age of fellow residents were associated with being more likely to continue residence). Among psychological measures, the best survival predictor was lack of pessimism of the future. Although the relationship between longer length of residence and treatment outcomes are complex, because it is often difficult to keep people involved in treatment programs, knowledge that we can gain about those factors that might lead to greater lengths of stay are of importance.

“This Time I Think I'll Try a Filipina”: Global and Local Influences on Relations Between Foreign Household Workers and Their Employers in Doha, Qatar

Abstract: AN EXAMINATION OF the practice of employing foreign household workers reveals how global and local relations shape social life in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The paper addresses the factors influencing changing patterns of labor recruitment, and then focuses on the reproduction of local social relations through the everyday practices of household labor. Both global and local inequalities are imprinted onto everyday practice through the asymmetrical relations of household labor. The convergence of global and local influences in domestic relations is further shown to shape the spatial distribution of social relations throughout Doha. [Globalization, labor migration, household workers, Middle East, Qatar]

Designing interfaces for an overlooked user group: considering the visual profiles of partially sighted users

Abstract: In this position paper we argue the importance of research focusing on the issues involved in designing computer systems for partially sighted computer users. Currently, there is a lack of data that explores how combinations of impaired visual processes affect preferences for, and performance with, graphical user interfaces. This lack of fundamental information about how an individual's visual profile determines the strategies and behaviors exhibited while using computers limits our ability to design effective user interfaces for partially sighted computer users. The objective of this position paper is to motivate research that addresses this deficiency in our knowledge base so that researchers can design enabling technologies in a systematic fashion for this unique user group as has been done for fully sighted users and blind users.

Complexity limitations on quantum computation

Abstract: We use the powerful tools of counting complexity and generic oracles to help understand the limitations of the complexity of quantum computation. We show several results for the probabilistic quantum class BQP. BQP is low for PP, i.e., PP/sup BQP/=PP. There exists a relativized world where P=BQP and the polynomial-time hierarchy is infinite. There exists a relativized world where BQP does not have complete sets. There exists a relativized world where P=BQP but P/spl ne/UP/spl cap/coUP and one-way functions exist. This gives a relativized answer to an open question of Simon.

Reliability of the Wraparound Observation Form: An Instrument to Measure the Wraparound Process

Abstract: Within the past decade, the wraparound approach has gained significant popularity in providing services to children with challenging social and family needs. While a plethora of wraparound programs have been developed and studies have been conducted to assess their effectiveness, the need to develop instruments that measure the implementation of wraparound services is clear. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the reliability of a scale that measures wraparound services. In this study, the Wraparound Observation Form (WOF), was developed to evaluate the implementation of the wraparound process in treatment planning meetings. The WOF includes 34 closed-ended items that requires the respondent to note the occurrence or non-occurrence of specific events or behaviors at treatment planning meetings. In the present study, two data collectors attended planning meetings and independently completed the WOF. The inter-rater reliability was 95%. The WOF appears to be a reliable instrument and be appropriate in evaluating wraparound services.

Soil microarthropod contribution to forest ecosystem processes: the importance of observational scale

Abstract: Investigations of the role of microarthropods (Acari and Collembola) in organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling have shown that they may contribute to primary productivity in nutrient poor conditions. The potential of microarthropods to affect other ecosystem properties, such as above ground plant diversity or succession, lags somewhat. In this contribution we demonstrate: (1) that the effect on the mobilization of nutrients promoted by microarthropods must be measured at the microhabitat scale appropriate to the scale of the faunal activity, and (2) that small changes in the structure of microarthropod assemblages can have significant effects on the local mobilization of nutrients. In the first of two experiments we measured the nutrients leaching from field mesocosms containing litter and mineral soil, with and without fauna. After eight months, the C:N ratios of the litter differed significantly indicating that the fauna were effective in altering the decomposition rate. However, the patterns of release over time and the concentration of the measured nutrients differed little between the two sets of mesocosms. In a second experiment microarthropod assemblages, which differed only slightly, were introduced into laboratory microcosms and the nutrient fluxes were measured over a ten week period. Significant differences were detected in the concentration of nitrogen, K and Mg leached and in CO2 evolved. We suggest that when the potential influence of microarthropods on ecosystem properties is being assessed, specific knowledge of the relevant details of interactions at the smallest scale must be considered. These details can be incorporated or dismissed when interactions on the next level of the ecological hierarchy are examined. Using such analysis we suggest that the creation of soil nutrient hot-spots by microarthropods may have implications for maintaining plant species of lowered competitive ability in a given system.

Codimensions of products and of intersections of verbally primeT-ideals

Abstract: By Kemer’s theory [9],T idealsJ 1 ∪…∪J r andJ 1 …J r, where eachJ i is verbally prime, are of fundamental importance in the theory of P.I. algebras. We calculate, approximately and asymptotically, the codimensions of suchT-ideals, thereby extending the corresponding results about matrix algebras. In all such cases, the exponential growth of the codimensions is calculated; in particular, it is always an integer.

Decision problems in the space of Dehn fillings

Abstract: In this paper, we use normal surface theory to study Dehn filling on a knot-manifold. First, it is shown that there is a finite computable set of slopes on the boundary of a knot-manifold that bound normal and almost normal surfaces in a one-vertex triangulation of that knot-manifold. This is combined with existence theorems for normal and almost normal surfaces to construct algorithms to determine precisely which manifolds obtained by Dehn filling: 1) are reducible, 2) contain two--sided incompressible surfaces, 3) are Haken, 4) fiber over the circle, 5) are the 3--sphere, and 6) are a lens space. Each of these algorithms is a finite computation. Moreover, in the case of essential surfaces, we show that the topology of the filled manifolds is strongly reflected in the triangulation of the knot-manifold. If a filled manifold contains an essential surface then the knot-manifold contains an essential vertex solution that caps off to an essential surface of the same type in the filled manifold. (Vertex solutions are the premier class of normal surface and are computable.)