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Within this special issue, we turn our attention to critical perspectives within the communication discipline and seek to illuminate the implementation of critical methods across its broader contexts. While the communication discipline has historically been grounded in the normativity and centering of whiteness, critical perspectives, which are characterized by attention to communicative practices that attend to systems of power and hierarchy across social spheres, have been broadly integrated into and meaningfully shaped the study of communication contexts such as rhetoric, intercultural communication, and performance studies. We argue, however, that the incorporation of critical perspectives within the larger discipline remains underdeveloped. Therefore, in this special issue, we present articles that employ critical methodological approaches to offer important new ways of studying and centering marginalized identities, positionalities, and epistemologies across a range of contexts. Ultimately, we argue for a more expansive approach to thinking and teaching about methodology in general, and critical methods specifically, that inspires further "play" among communication scholars who value the need for social justice imperatives and epistemic delinking across all facets of communication studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past sixty years, scientists have been warning about climate change and its impacts on human health, but evidence suggests that many may not be heeding these concerns. This raises the question of whether new communication approaches are needed to overcome the unique challenges of communicating what people can do to slow or reverse climate change. To better elucidate the challenges of communicating about the links between human activity, climate change and its effects, and identify potential solutions, we developed a systems map of the factors and processes involved based on systems mapping sessions with climate change and communication experts. The systems map revealed 27 communication challenges such as "Limited information on how individual actions contribute to collective human activity," "Limited information on how present activity leads to long-term effects," and "Difficult to represent and communicate complex relationships." The systems map also revealed several themes among the identified challenges that exist in communicating about climate change, including a lack of available data and integrated databases, climate change disciplines working in silos, a need for a lexicon that is easily understood by the public, and the need for new communication strategies to describe processes that take time to manifest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we set forth the theory of communicative (dis)enfranchisement (TCD). The TCD is useful for exploring the ramifications of the hegemonic ideologies which constrain and afford our everyday lives, and which are constructed and reflected in disenfranchising talk (DT). The TCD also asks what communication mechanisms work to reify and resist these hegemonic ideologies. We first introduce the warrant for this theorizing, then overview the assumptions of critical postmodernism and propositions of the TCD. We offer guidance for using the TCD via example research questions, suitable contexts, methodological tools, and conclusions researchers can potentially render. We offer criteria for evaluating the TCD regarding its consistency with critical postmodernism, utility as a heuristic framework, and capacity for claims-making. We respond to potential critiques of the TCD by distinguishing the TCD from six related bodies of communication theorizing, and by addressing the purported opaqueness of critical theorizing. Finally, we offer an example analysis to illustrate the TCD in research practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing, a prominent communication theory, is often lamented as a fractured paradigm, leading some to offer radical changes to its conceptualization, operationalization, and application. Using a meta-theoretical and computational approach, we analyze three decades of framing research to examine academic silos, specializations, the canon's formation, gender inequalities, authors' origins, countries studied, and methods used in framing research. Instead of silos, our analysis of 5,291 papers and over 170,000 citations identified specializations formed around a core of canonic texts. While framing research has become more diverse over the years, males affiliated with U.S. institutions still predominately author canonical works. Results reject the isolated-silos hypothesis in favor of a view of framing as a bridging networked paradigm, coalescing around core assumptions, definitions, and approaches. These findings contrast with the common fractured-paradigm narrative and challenge calls for radical solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undocumented college students face systemic oppression, which they challenge through advocacy. Often, research focuses on one type of advocacy, but Advocacy Communication Theory (ACT) conceptualizes advocacy as multidimensional – minoritized people can engage in communicative strategies at the interpersonal, mediated, community, organizational, and policy levels to challenge oppression. Here, we used three waves of longitudinal survey data from 366 undocumented students, primarily of Latine origin, and conducted latent profile analyses. We found four advocacy communication profiles: Infrequent, Interpersonal, Organizational, and Frequent Advocators. The more students observed their family engage in undocumented advocacy, and the more students saw negative media depictions of undocumented immigrants, the more likely students were to be frequent advocators than infrequent advocators. Our findings support ACT's propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A computer simulation of road traffic is a commonly used tool, which can help to manage constantly intensifying road traffic. It can help to analyze behavior of existing road traffic networks or to predict the behavior of new designed road traffic structures. There are several existing simulators designed or adapted to run in a distributed computing environment in order to achieve a faster execution. In this environment, the inter-process communication ensured by a high-level communication protocol is one of the main bottlenecks limiting the speed of the entire computation. Various high-level communication protocols can have various efficiency, applicability, and scalability. This paper describes an improved methodology for testing and assessment of high-level communication protocols for micro-scale (or microscopic) distributed road traffic simulations. The methodology investigates the dependencies of the communication protocols' performance on various features of the simulation and enables to easily calculate score for each of the tested protocols. Using the scores, the tested protocols can be directly compared. This can be useful when designing or improving a distributed road traffic simulation as the best protocol can be used in this simulation to improve its performance (e.g., its speedup or communication time). The improved version of the methodology is an evolution of its original version. It newly incorporates the assessment of the error introduced into the simulation by lossy communication protocols and reduces overall number of performed tests. The improved methodology was tested using a case study assessing several communication protocols of our own design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regarding joking as the central act, this article approaches humour from Speech Act Theory. The focus is on two interactive scenarios in the praxis of joking, expressed in ordinary language by means of such turns of phrase as 'not to accept jokes' and 'to take something as a joke'. The deontic aspects of joking reveal its connection with societal forms of life. This is followed by an examination of hostile humorous acts (teasing, ridiculing), which have distinctive interactive features. This general framework is then applied to the study of discursive injustice, meaning who has the right or permission to joke and/or to take something as a joke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts the idea of 'stance triangle' and 'double dialogicality' and examines the use of animal classifiers for human referents in the stance negotiation process in Cantonese. Drawing on the data from a Corpus of Mid-twentieth-century Hong Kong Cantonese, this study explores how participants deploy two animal classifiers (i.e., tiu4, a classifier for fish, and zek3, a classifier for animal) to express their negative stance towards another person. The present study specifically analyzes three examples where the relationships between the stance subjects (SS1-SSn) and stance objects (O) are different: O is present in the interaction in one instance, and absent in the other two instances. My analysis suggests that upon the display of negative stance towards O by the original stance subject, other stance subjects can deny the 'joint attention' to avoid establishing any alignment link with the original stance taker as a way of negotiating their stance. I propose an extended model of 'stance triangle' which better captures the fluidity and dialogicality in the stance negotiation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revealing one's evaluation towards a shared target of stance will likely set off a chain of reactions among all participants in an interaction. This interactive activity widely recognized as stancetaking has attracted the attention of researchers in a variety of fields of inquiry. This paper intends to enrich this line of research by revealing details of stancetaking as an evolving process. It proposes to do so by recognizing two separate layers relevant for stance progression. The first is the external layer where participants physically exchange utterances in order to negotiate their stances. The second is the internal layer where each participant interacts with his/her own internalized and internalizing knowledge. To demonstrate these points, I will analyze excerpts of English conversations between unacquainted speakers who experienced a common major incident in their daily lives (an earthquake and a false missile alarm incident). I will also use a conversation in Thai to demonstrate how a speaker indexes her changing evaluation toward a third person by alternating different third person pronouns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study explored associations between communication resilience processes, job-search self-efficacy, and well-being for a sample of US adults who involuntarily lost their jobs during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the communication theory of resilience (CTR), we tested four possible models regarding how the enactment of resilience processes would be associated with job-search self-efficacy and well-being over time. Participants (N  =   595) described their job loss story and completed measures of communication resilience processes, job-search self-efficacy, and well-being (perceived stress, mental health, and life satisfaction) in February 2021, then completed measures again 2 and 4 months later. Findings from random intercept cross-lagged panel analyses suggested that after accounting for between-person associations, resilience enactment shared significant within-person reciprocal relationships with job-search self-efficacy, perceived stress, and mental health over time. Theoretical implications for CTR, future directions for communication research, and practical implications for supporting diverse job seekers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital twins can improve the level of control over physical entities and help manage complex systems by integrating a range of technologies. The autonomous agricultural machine has shown revolutionary effects on labor reduction and utilization rate in field works. Autonomous vehicles in precision agriculture have the potential to improve competitiveness compared to current crop production methods and have become a research hotspot. However, the development time and resources required in experiments have limited the research in this area. Simulation tools in unmanned farming that are required to enable more efficient, reliable, and safe autonomy are increasingly demanding. Inspired by the recent development of an open-source virtual simulation platform, this study proposed an autoware-based simulator to evaluate the performance of agricultural machine guidance based on digital twins. Oblique photogrammetry using drones is used to construct threedimensional maps of fields at the same scale as reality. A communication format suitable for agricultural machines was developed for data input and output, along with an inter-node communication methodology. The conversion, publishing, and maintenance of multiple coordinate systems were completed based on ROS (Robot Operating System). Coverage path planning was performed using hybrid curves based on Bézier curves, and it was tested in both a simulation environment and actual fields with the aid of Pure Pursuit algorithms and PID controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promotion and tenure (P&T) remain the central tenets of academia. The criteria for P&T both create and reflect the mission of an institution. The discipline of biomedical engineering is built upon the invention and translation of tools to address unmet clinical needs. 'Broadening the bar' for P&T to include efforts in innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology-based transfer (I/E/T) will require establishing the criteria and communication of methodology for their evaluation. We surveyed the department chairs across the fields of biomedical and bioengineering to understand the state-of-the-art in incorporation, evaluation, and definition of I/E/T as applied to the P&T process. The survey results reflected a commitment to increasing and respecting I/E/T activities as part of the P&T criteria. This was balanced by an equally strong desire for improving the education and policy for evaluating I/E/T internally as well as externally. The potential for 'broadening the bar' for P&T to include I/E/T activities in biomedical engineering may serve as an example for other fields in engineering and applied sciences, and a template for potential inclusion of additional efforts such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into the pillars of scholarship, education, and service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First Nations are important regional development actors, and yet their development ambitions and goals have often been ignored or poorly understood by settler governments. Since 2004, the Canadian federal government has supported First Nations governments and Tribal Councils to develop Comprehensive Community Plans (CCPs)—community planning documents that are meant to set priorities and guide development in the medium to long term. This study employs a quantitative content analysis of all publicly available CCPs and related strategic planning documents in British Columbia in order to understand development priorities and in doing so, reveals a mismatch between the interests of First Nations and settler governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of multilevel thematic partnerships method in building a specific policy, namely, the Urban Agenda for the European Union (EU) adopted in 2016. This method, designed as a pilot experiment, formalizes cooperation among different levels of government as well as public and private actors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of the multilevel governance approach and to determine the extent to which the thematic partnerships method contributes to the politicization of a decision-making process at the European level. For this purpose, the methodological design is based on network analysis applied to four case studies, namely, the following four thematic partnerships: Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees, Urban Poverty, Climate Action and Security in Public Spaces. Firstly, the results show a higher mobilization of stakeholders representing local interests; secondly, it is also shown that the monetization of the problem determines the nature of stakeholders (stakeholders representing social or economic interests) that join the policy networks. In sum, this article makes an empirical contribution to multilevel governance and politicization studies on the one hand, and to urban and European studies on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article casts a retrospective glance at the technological continuum from which the art history slide lecture springs. The article focuses specifically on the copy apparatuses widely used to make transparencies for art-historical consumption, circa 1930 to the early 2000s. The ways in which these once prevalent technologies developed to frame and disseminate visual materials by means of light was instrumental in shaping the widespread illusion of epistemological transparency in the world's art history classrooms. In reference to the work of Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) on technological determinism, the author provides a chronology of slide reproduction technologies in which artworks ultimately appear as self-luminous technological 'images', or simulated entities that speak as if beyond history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most characteristic features of the construction of communication systems of groups of troops (forces) during the conduct of hostilities (operations) are a high level of a priori uncertainty regarding the operational situation and a small amount of initial data for communication planning. In such conditions, it is important to correctly choose the apparatus for evaluating the made management decisions, which will allow the officials of the points of the control system of the communication system of the groups of troops (forces) to be confident in the made decisions. That is why the issue of increasing the effectiveness of the management of forces and devices of communication of groups of troops (forces) during operations is an important and urgent issue. The object of the research is the communication system of the group of troops (forces). The subject of the research is the effectiveness of the communication system of the grouping of troops (forces) in accordance with the purpose of the operation. The research developed a method for managing forces and devices of communication using methods of resource optimization in the operations of troops (forces). The novelty of the proposed method consists in taking into account the type of uncertainty regarding the operational situation in the operational space. Also, taking into account the number of members of the grouping (consumers of communication services) of groups of troops (forces) in operations. The novelty of the developed method consists in taking into account the duration of the operation (fighting) and the calculation of the labor costs necessary to meet the needs of the communication services of groups of troops (forces) while planning measures for the distribution and use of forces and devices of communication. The specified method is proposed to be implemented: – in planning documents during planning the deployment and operation of forces and devices of communication; – in the software during operational management of the communication system of troop groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: News media play a critical role in communicating risks and shaping public perceptions of social issues. Covering a multilayered disaster that grew from a local story to a national one, the ways that news media at different levels construct the Flint water crisis have not been previously explored. Literature review: Despite the well-established role of journalism as a government watchdog, news media do not neutrally mirror every social event. Instead, news reporting, highly mediated by language, is filled with political interests, values, and attitudes. Research questions: 1. How did local/regional and national newspapers construct the Flint water crisis? 2. Are there any similarities and/or differences in local/regional and national news construction of the Flint water crisis? 3. What are the practical implications for media coverage of risks, emergencies, or crises? 4. What are the methodological implications of this study for professional communication research? Methodology: This study integrates corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to analyze 1858 news reports about the Flint water crisis published between 2014 and 2018. I use keywords as a core analytical technique to compare the local/regional and national news coverage. Results: The results show that both local and national news reports overemphasized government activities while downplaying the unofficial voices of Flint residents and community activists. In addition, national newspapers were more likely than local newspapers to use racial cues in describing the Flint community and to associate the crisis with other social problems. Conclusions: This study suggests that news media should provide wide coverage of the affected community's efforts in risk/crisis communication rather than reproducing official messages. News representations should be cautious of strengthening stereotypes or forming negative conceptual associations of traditionally disenfranchised communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most characteristic features of the construction of communication systems of groups of troops (forces) during the conduct of hostilities (operations) are a high degree of a priori uncertainty regarding the operational situation and a small amount of initial data for communication planning. In such conditions, it is important to correctly choose the apparatus for evaluating the made management decisions, which will allow the officials of the bodies (points) of the control system of the communication system of the groups of troops (forces) to be confident in the decisions being made. That’s why the issue of increasing the efficiency of the distribution of forces and devices of communication of groups of troops (forces) in the course of operations is an important issue. The object of the research is the communication system of the group of troops (forces). The subject of the study is the effectiveness of the communication system of the group of troops (forces) in accordance with the purpose of the operation. In the research, the method for the distribution of forces and devices of communication of groupings of troops (forces) in operations was developed. The novelty of the proposed method consists in taking into account the type of uncertainty regarding the operational situation in the operational space. As well as taking into account the number of members of the group (users of communication services) of troops (forces) in operations. Also, the novelty of the developed method consists in taking into account the duration of the operation (fighting) and the calculation of the labor costs necessary to meet the needs of the communication services of groups of troops (forces) while planning measures for the distribution and use of forces and radio communication devices. The specified method is proposed to be implemented: – in planning documents during planning of the deployment and operation of forces and radio communication devices; – in the software, during operational management of the communication system of troop groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current veterinary communication skills training often focuses on the strategies necessary to successfully transfer information and promote shared decision making rather than inspiring client motivation to engage in behaviour change(s). One evidence-based communication methodology with a specific focus on enhancing conversations about change is Motivational Interviewing (MI), which is perceived by veterinarians to be highly relevant to their profession. We examined whether veterinarians who experienced brief (4–5 hours) MI training (BMIT) were able to change their communication behaviours to be more MI consistent. Fourteen veterinarians recorded 31 veterinary herd health consultations before (n = 15) and after (n = 16) BMIT to allow pre-post intervention analysis of veterinarian and farmer verbal behaviour. Additionally, using a sequential linguistic analysis of 3885 veterinarian-farmer communication events within these consultations, the influence of veterinarians' verbal behaviours on farmers' response language was explored. Analysis of veterinary consultations undertaken before and after BMIT revealed that veterinarians changed their communication style to be more consistent with the MI methodology, including more use of reflection statements, a more empathic and partnership-oriented consultation style and greater emphasis on clients' own language in favour of change goals. In response, farmers contributed more to the conversation and discussed more herd health-related changes. Sequential linguistic analysis suggested that following a veterinarian emphasising something positive about the farmer (e.g. efforts, strengths), seeking collaboration or emphasising farmer choice, farmers were subsequently more likely to express arguments in favour of change ('Change Talk'), especially phrases indicative of commitment. This study offers the first evidence of the potential value of a BMIT experience to enhance veterinary communication skills, although conscious and disciplined use of MI principles, strategies and Spirit–an ethos of compassion, acceptance, partnership and evocation—requires longer and more complex training. Further studies examining the longevity and consistency of these verbal behaviour changes following BMIT are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents techniques that are expected to improve the bit error rate (BER) performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) communication systems. The decode-and-forward (DF)-based cooperative multi-hop Rician network using space shift keying (SSK) modulation is employed for this purpose. The SSK modulation and cooperative communication are merged and used together. This enhances the BER performance for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels, thus accentuating its significance as an important technique for consistently reliable communication methodology while, at the same time, eliminating wastage of energy. The new technique is named as high performance (HP) due to not only BER performance improvement but also increase of the diversity of the communication system. This new model is further used for multi-hop networks and the resulting BER characteristics are assessed for possible enhanced performance in Rician channels. The paper also showcases the generalized-n-hop BER equation for various multi-hop DF-based cooperative communication systems in diverse UAV models. The Monte Carlo simulations further confirm the theoretical results that already exist for transmit-receive antennas. This work also underlines the fact that the number of hops in a communication system has no bearing whatsoever on the BER performance diversity value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication is one of the most important abilities in human society, which makes clarification of brain functions that underlie communication of great importance to cognitive neuroscience. To investigate the rapidly changing cortical-level brain activity underlying communication, a hyperscanning system with both high temporal and spatial resolution is extremely desirable. The modality of magnetoencephalography (MEG) would be ideal, but MEG hyperscanning systems suitable for communication studies remain rare. Here, we report the establishment of an MEG hyperscanning system that is optimized for natural, real-time, face-to-face communication between two adults in sitting positions. Two MEG systems, which are installed 500m away from each other, were directly connected with fiber optic cables. The number of intermediate devices was minimized, enabling transmission of trigger and auditory signals with almost no delay (1.95–3.90 μs and 3 ms, respectively). Additionally, video signals were transmitted at the lowest latency ever reported (60–100 ms). We furthermore verified the function of an auditory delay line to synchronize the audio with the video signals. This system is thus optimized for natural face-to-face communication, and additionally, music-based communication which requires higher temporal accuracy is also possible via audio-only transmission. Owing to the high temporal and spatial resolution of MEG, our system offers a unique advantage over existing hyperscanning modalities of EEG, fNIRS, or fMRI. It provides novel neuroscientific methodology to investigate communication and other forms of social interaction, and could potentially aid in the development of novel medications or interventions for communication disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to investigate elements that characterize relationships with mathematics, pointed out by researchers of stricto sensu productions developed based on the theoretical contribution of the relation to knowledge. For that, it follows a qualitative approach guided by principles of content analysis. Data production involves the analysis of stricto sensu works identified through a mapping that composes a national panorama in three repositories: REPERES, BDTD and Capes Catalogue, in addition to three interviews and 13 questionnaires, answered by authors and/or supervisors of some of these dissertations and theses. The data systematization is done in five categories created a posteriori, namely: philosophical currents; scientific and school knowledge; interdisciplinary aspects; sociocultural aspects, and social practices. Among the results, we observed that all subjects consider mathematics as a human creation, highlighting, mainly, influences on the development of society resulting from knowledge built by different social groups. It is also possible to identify understandings referring mathematical knowledge as scientific and school-related, but such denomination has a more relevant potential in a didactic point of view, rather than a conceptual one. Regarding the philosophical currents logicism, formalism and intuitionism, it appears that logicism gained greater prominence, through the characterization of nature and mathematical structures; Understandings referring to school and scientific mathematical knowledge are also identified, but this denomination has a more relevant potential from a didactic than a conceptual point of view. As for the mathematical language, there are incidences linked to formalism, interdisciplinary, sociocultural aspects and in school and scientific mathematics. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the humanist perspective linked to social practices and sociocultural aspects are the most frequently established relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the law of megaproject social responsibility behavior (MSRB) among internal organizations under institutional pressure, this paper presents a theoretical and empirical study to investigate how institutional pressure affects MSRB through the mediating role of organizational social responsibility cognition and the mediating roles of the communication mechanism and relationship strength based on new institutional sociology. Based on a total of 147 responses from a broad questionnaire survey, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The research results show that institutional pressure has a promoting effect on MSRB, and organizational social responsibility cognition mediates the relationship between institutional pressure and MSRB. Additionally, the communication mechanism and relationship strength have no effect on the relationship between institutional pressures and MSRB. The research results provide a new theoretical foundation for the analysis of MSRB and practical suggestions for policymakers on the governance of MSRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether agenda-setting effects occur and how strong they are appear to be strongly context-dependent. The baseline public and media salience of an issue and the extent of abrupt changes in salience have been mentioned as potential contingent conditions, but without any empirical follow-ups. First, this study demonstrates how agenda-setting effects unfold on a day-to-day basis, finding that only one fourth of the results (p <.05) are in line with the original agenda-setting hypothesis. Second, it tests how (a) the baseline intensity of public and media salience and (b) strong temporary increases ("spikes") in public and media salience impact the likelihood and strength of agenda-setting effects. Higher baseline public salience and stronger spikes in media salience systematically influence the likelihood and strength of agenda-setting effects. Agenda-setting scholars should systematically check, report, and possibly control for baseline intensity and spike momentum of media and public salience, which is also easy to implement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article grounds contemporary contestations over the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the constitutive moment of the 1990s, when the Court was a global idea that took shape around a set of key concepts and related understandings of world order. It studies the positions communicated by 129 states during the negotiations of ICC establishment, applying Robert Cover's narrative law and its pluralist notion of legal meaning to a systematic content analysis. Contrary to the founding 'epic' of ICC creation, which centres on the Like-Minded Group and its Others, the analysis identifies two competing and fairly coherent visions for the ICC: A compulsory and a consensual vision. Both aim to build an effective and independent Court, but understand these terms differently and consequently envisage different ICC regimes. The consensual vision has rarely been analysed, but is typically portrayed as the scattered ideas of an undecided majority. Given the Court's profound lack of universality, however, it is useful to revisit the ideas that animated a large share of international society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper has been a convenience medium of communicating information, accessing information, as well as delivering and receiving lecture. However, as time changes, the mode of communication and instructional methodology takes a paradigm shift. This has resulted to the use of paperless classroom. Paperless classroom is the use of computing and communication technologies to replace the traditional method of teaching and learning in the classroom. It offers speed and ease of using electronic means in delivering lecture to a large number of students which is cost effective to students and lecturers. Consequently, schools are using computing technologies to ease the cost and stress of using paper-based classroom. Notwithstanding, despite the benefits of using computing technologies in facilitating paperless classroom, there is a poor usage of computing technologies towards promoting or achieving a paperless classroom in library schools in Rivers State, Nigeria. However, colleges, universities and schools have different approaches when putting in place the paperless classroom. Thus, the study investigated computing technologies and paperless classroom in library schools in Rivers State. Two objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational research survey design. The population of the study was 45 lecturers in library schools in Rivers State. Census sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Questionnaire was used to gather the data. 37 copies of the questionnaire were found valid for analysis. The data was analysed using mean scores and standard deviation for research questions and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) to test the hypotheses. The study revealed that there is a significant relationship between mobile computing, cloud computing and paperless classroom in library schools in Rivers State. The study recommended that library schools management should as a matter of policy implement the use of computing technologies in library schools in Rivers State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some people hold beliefs that are opposed to overwhelming scientific evidence. Such misperceptions can be harmful to both personal and societal well-being. Communicating scientific consensus has been found to be effective in eliciting scientifically accurate beliefs, but it is unclear whether it is also effective in correcting false beliefs. Here, we show that a strategy that boosts people's understanding of and ability to identify scientific consensus can help to correct misperceptions. In three experiments with more than 1,500 U.S. adults who held false beliefs, participants first learned the value of scientific consensus and how to identify it. Subsequently, they read a news article with information about a scientific consensus opposing their beliefs. We found strong evidence that in the domain of genetically engineered food, this two-step communication strategy was more successful in correcting misperceptions than merely communicating scientific consensus. The data suggest that the current approach may not work for misperceptions about climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies already examined various facets of the friendship construct. Building on this, the present study examines the questions of how the number of friendships and their quality differ between students with and without SEN and whether a homophily-effect can be identified. The sample consists of 455 fourth-graders from 28 inclusive classes in Austria. The results indicate that students with SEN have fewer friends than students without SEN. Furthermore, students without SEN preferred peers without SEN as a friend. This homophily-effect was shown for students with SEN, too. However, students with and without SEN rated the quality of their friendships similarly and no interactions between the SEN status of oneself or of the friend was found for the quality of the friendship. The results show that, in the context of inclusion, the issue of friendship needs to be increasingly addressed to improve the situation of students with SEN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countless scholars have debated--and lower courts have attempted to apply--the plausibility pleading regime that the Supreme Court introduced in Twombly and Iqbal. Iqbal took Twombly's requirement that a complaint plead plausibly and turned it into a two-step test. Under that test, the life or death of a lawsuit rests on the distinction between "well-pleaded" and "conclusory" allegations. Only the former are assumed true on a motion to dismiss. Seven decades of pleading precedent had taken a sensible, if unstable, approach to the truth assumption, making a single cut between factual contentions (assumed true) and legal conclusions (ignored). But Iqbal redrew those lines. It treats as legal conclusions an entire subset of factual allegations and does so whenever, in the Court's view, those facts are presented too generally or too rhetorically. To date, the contours of "conclusory" have not been pinned down by legal-theoretic approaches, while lower court reactions range from conflicting to confused to avoidant. It is clearer than ever that Iqbal left an analytical void in the wake of its novel pleading inquiry--a void that must be filled in a stable way while recognizing the FRCP's normative commitments. That way is through speech act theory. Speech act theory is a philosophy of language that employs a descriptive methodology for understanding what speakers mean with their words. A speech act-theoretic approach targets Iqbal's central flaws--failing to treat pleading as an act of communication and ignoring how the pleader intends her allegations to function in the pleading conversation. Indeed, Iqbal makes the judge's omniscient view of meaning the decisive factor. Furthermore, Iqbal conflates two types of speech acts whose difference was vital pre-Iqbal: allegations meant to report, which merit the truth assumption, and allegations meant to accuse, which do not. Speech act theory shores up pre-Iqbal instability and offers a consistent analytical approach for granting allegations the assumption of truth based on communicative meaning. Using speech act theory to set the parameters of "conclusory" also opens the doors of discovery to complaints that do their job as the FRCP intended: providing functional fair notice of the nature of the plaintiff's claims and the grounds on which they rest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: There is a growing evidence-base for the effectiveness of Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) in enhancing communication within relationships. Existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews include VIG within wider evaluations of similar interventions. This paper reviews the use of VIG within families, with a focus on its longer-term effectiveness. Method: A systematic literature review (SLR) was structured using PRISMA. It evaluated studies' methodological quality, appropriateness and relevance of focus, as well as reported outcomes. Findings: The SLR identified nine high- or medium-quality studies, of which six included follow-up measures. The review found that there is emerging evidence of positive outcomes being maintained beyond families' final shared reviews. Increased attunement and attachment in parent-child relationships were reported up to 20 months post-intervention. Limitations: Most studies used very small samples. Studies also varied in their descriptions of how VIG was carried out, potentially compromising intervention fidelity. Twenty-two outcome measures were used across nine studies, highlighting the need for more homogeneity in the conceptualisation and measurement of outcomes. Inconsistency in samples, outcomes measures and time points for data collection means that conclusions drawn from this review are done so tentatively. Conclusions: Increased attunement and attachment were reported consistently across a range of samples, indicating support for the proposed mechanisms for the effectiveness of VIG. However, long-term effectiveness studies are needed to demonstrate maintenance of these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses about the views of the scholars on the bio-racial rhetorics as the conflation of race and biology that inevitably forwards the idea that race is somehow biological during the program conducted by Northeastern University. The response is necessary for their understanding during the twin global pandemics of systemic racism and COVID-19.

Research investigating administrative corruption (ac) has changed significantly in the last twenty years, but the existing interests are still far from being met. From the cluster analysis for 253 published articles (double review) were shown opportunities and gaps in the work of science that investigates the ac in the world. From a content analysis and correspondence analysis, it was found that extreme violence, such as terrorism and drug trafficking, are not discussed in ac research agenda; "crime and punishment" form a historical link in ac theory, but they are often investigated at the level of human behaviour and Data Science; there is a significant incidence of publications related to ac combat practices. However, for this subject few studies have explored both positive and negative externalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent attempts to understand the origin of social fragmentation on the basis of spin models include terms accounting for two social phenomena: homophily—the tendency for people with similar opinions to establish positive relations—and social balance—the tendency for people to establish balanced triadic relations. Spins represent attribute vectors that encode G different opinions of individuals whose social interactions can be positive or negative. Here we present a co-evolutionary Hamiltonian model of societies where people minimise their individual social stresses. We show that societies always reach stationary, balanced, and fragmented states, if—in addition to homophily—individuals take into account a significant fraction, q, of their triadic relations. Above a critical value, q c , balanced and fragmented states exist for any number of opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the problem of formation‐containment control for general‐linear multi‐agent systems (MASs) with both communication delays and switching interaction topologies. On the one hand, the leaders can communicate with each other to form the desired formation and on the other, the followers need to enter the convex envelope spanned by the multiple leaders. Firstly, by using the neighbouring relative information, formation‐containment protocols are designed for each leader and follower, where an edge‐based state observer is incorporated into the formation‐containment controller to evaluate the whole leaders' state. Secondly, according to the linear matrix inequality technology, an algorithm is given to determine the unknown feedback matrixes in the protocol. Then, based on Lyapunov theory, the formation‐containment error is proved to be convergent and formation feasibility conditions are also presented for the MASs to achieve formation‐containment. Finally, a simulation on several MASs is provided to demonstrate the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pragmatic approaches can effectively address questions of cultural dynamics—how culture is renewed, contested, or changed in historical situations. The practice-oriented direction of much of contemporary cognitive science offers an emerging opportunity to more fully integrate thought and emotion into anthropological pragmatism. Here I urge attention to a realm of enacted culture that illustrates how certain interactive processes bring cultural conventions into a communicative environment where they are renewed, transformed, created. As an example, I discuss depictions, improvisational performances in which speakers use material resources such as their hands or voices to formulate and portray thoughts. In a close analysis of three short narratives, I show that depictions are used by speakers to help to create an affect-rich environment in which cultural conventions are introduced into interactional space, whence they become subject to negotiation. It is not only in these spontaneous and improvisational practices that cognition and culture unfold in time as a dialectical interplay of mind and environment; this also occurs in stylized formats such as public rituals and narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on climate change policies in Portugal. It seeks to understand institutional stances about climate change and to draw the links between organisations on policy influences, sources of scientific information, collaborations and advice. It is based on a questionnaire survey of the main institutional actors. This study concludes that there is a consensus among institutional actors on climate change and support for mitigation measures. The network analysis shows the centrality of governmental actors and some closure of the sectors, which tend to function in "silos", with weak institutional interactions in the period under analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The product pitch is a widespread genre within business communication and is used to introduce a product in the market. Product pitches are meant to convince an audience of the value of the product they introduce. Because they are subjected to strict time constraints, these presentations need to be particularly effective in their persuasive efforts, and speakers need to make the best use of all the semiotic resources they have at their disposal to efficiently convey their message. Researchers and practitioners with first-hand experience in this genre agree that it is inherently persuasive and multimodal. However, little is known about the complex interplay established between the different semiotic modes that are at stake in a product pitch, and about the potential effect that these multimodal ensembles have on persuasion. This study analyses a corpus of product pitches using a combination of computer assisted multimodal discourse analysis and ethnographic observations and interviews to probe into the use of multimodal persuasive strategies in these presentations. The findings show how speakers highlight the unique selling points of their products and present them as the best solution to a problem, resorting to a series of persuasive strategies (e.g. attention getting, evaluation) that are realised through carefully orchestrated multimodal ensembles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines text formulations in the interaction between peers in primary school during dialogic reading, in inquiry learning settings. In this context pupils collaboratively use information from texts to answer their research questions. The data analyzed include 25 excerpts of pupils demonstrating understanding of text. We used Conversation Analysis to analyze how pupils demonstrate their understanding by the use of text formulations, as a specific type of formulations, and how these formulations function as a bridge between the reading action and the discussion of text content. Parallel to the types of conversational formulations (gist and upshot), we found two practices of demonstrating understanding, namely (1) formulating the gist of relevant text to demonstrate literal understanding, and (2) formulating an upshot to demonstrate how the text contributes to the reading goal. Both types are used to establish shared understanding of text, but focus the discussion as well on what participants find relevant information in the text to further talk about. To reach shared understanding and to use it for next steps, both interactants need to have access to the text in some way. This study contributes to our understanding of how pupils collaboratively use text to build their knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emails have become the institutionalised communication medium for many discourse activities in work contexts. Sociolinguistic research in this area has mainly focused on the textual and communicative conventions of emails, as defined by disciplinary cultures and practices. This study is the first to analyse the intertextual nature of email communication for commercial contract negotiation purposes, with a particular focus on the communicative function of embedded emails. This concept relates to a genre of email discourse, which embeds the meaning of a series of messages generated by different participants in response to the original email, hence the name 'embedded emails'. This study uses discourse and genre analysis to examine how a geographically dispersed team of legal and business professionals in Europe exploited the dialogic nature of embedded emails to negotiate amendments to contracts pertaining to an international Merger & Acquisition (M&A) transaction in English. The findings of this study show that embedded emails facilitate transparent collaboration between the individual professionals, by enabling them to monitor the exchange of proposals and counter-proposals during the negotiation process. This documented ability to trace and participate in contract negotiation activities through intertextual chains of embedded email communication is a key feature of professional communicative competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception, the internet has been as much technological as social, practical as ideological in character. This article examines academic discourse and asks how research on the multifaceted internet has evolved over the past 25 years. In order to investigate the formation of this academic field, we collected articles published in major academic journals dedicated to new media and digital communication as well as mainstream periodicals in communication studies over the past quarter of a century. Relying on a combination of (semi)automated content analysis and citation analysis, we find that articles related to the internet and its manifold aspects are cited more often than research on other topics. The literature review suggests that as the socio-material infrastructure of the internet has become deeply enmeshed in society its study has evolved from a niche pursuit to the discipline's core area of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an analysis of the Spanish derivative morphology potential for graduating attitudinal meanings regarding the expression of political crisis and of contested meanings of human rights violations in the discourse of recent Chilean History. This study is framed in the typological principles of Systemic Functional Linguistics and in the appraisal system, particularly in the sub-system of graduation. The analysis demonstrates on one hand the productive role of the suffixes -ada and -azo when graduating attitudinal meanings regarding the expression of social and political crisis in the discourse of history. These suffixes can graduate at the rank of the morpheme, word and group and also be involved in an inter-stratal tension that is functioning as an experiential grammatical metaphor that works in combination with a lexical metaphor intensifying time and events in an incongruent manner. On the other hand, the analysis shows that when dealing with traumatic and argued meanings of state terror, extreme degree suffixes -ísimo/a/s play a critical role in the intensification of qualities and in the quantification as amount and extent in a congruent manner. Spanish suffixes can graduate by sub-modification in the lower rank of a word structure instead of at the group structure contributing to the building of constellation of patterns of evoked and inscribed interpersonal meanings in the discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the communication theory of resilience (CTR; P. M. Buzzanell, 2010), people reintegrate from disruptive events and construct a new normal through five interrelated processes: (a) crafting normalcy; (b) affirming identity anchors; (c) maintaining/using communication networks; (d) constructing alternative logics; and (e) foregrounding productive action while backgrounding negative emotions. Enacting these processes creates tensions between continuity and change. This article develops a Communication Resilience Processes Scale (CRPS) to assess CTR processes in response to a variety of disruptive events. Items were created and refined via a scale development study with feedback from expert raters. Studies 2 and 3 offer initial support for the 32-item CRPS' reliability and convergent, divergent, and predictive validity. Models in which the five CTR processes are subsumed by a single, higher-order resilience factor versus two higher-order interrelated factors (continuity and change) are compared. Future directions for exploring continuity/change tensions and identifying CTR boundary conditions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to act theories, propositions are structured cognitive act‐types. Act theories appear to make propositions inherently representational and truth‐evaluable, and to provide solutions to familiar problems with alternative theories, including Frege's and Russell's problems, and the third‐realm and unity problems. Act theories have critical problems of their own, though: acts as opposed to their objects are not truth evaluable, not structured in the right way, not expressed by sentences, and not the objects of propositional attitudes. I show how identifying propositions with other cognitive event‐types, namely thoughts, has the perceived virtues of act theories without the defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the rise of social media, many more scientists are becoming public communicators. In politicized fields such as climate science, these communications can attract disproportionate attention. The author argues that public statements in such a situation are inevitably advocacy for some position, view, or outcome. However, rather than suggesting that scientists avoid advocacy in a misplaced attempt to remain objective, he recommends that scientists be explicit about the combination of values and science that drives their views, and discusses the ways scientists can ensure that their advocacy remains responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ethnographers today find themselves experimenting with new approaches to digital ethnography amid pandemic-related restrictions on research. Yet such developments only accelerate a broader trend toward the dissolution of the traditional ethnographic 'field' due to new communications technologies and the emergence of a globalized 'knowledge economy'. Through six contributions from around the world, this forum explores how the emergence of a more diffuse, interconnected ethnographic field is impacting fieldwork's status as a rite of passage, creating new affective entanglements and shifting power relationships between researchers and participants. Despite the potential for influence and surveillance that new technologies cede to already powerful institutions, the discussions underline how ethnographic interlocutors are auteurs in their own right—and that ethnographers are also often bit characters in other people's stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents artistic research based on existing knowledge about interspecific communication and hypothesis about the spread of interplanetary civilizations. It is expressed as an imagined communication flow between a human earthling scientist and a Kquaanian–human hybrid who is an artist by earthly occupation. While these two species’ sensoria are too different to allow discussion, this consideration supports the poetic approach to interspecies understanding, through immersive interactive installations and a willingness to share thoughts and feelings, in answering questions about the world and our place in it. The organs, molecules and protein expression of tardigrades provide a point of departure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]