There has been a lot of interest among marketing practitioners and researchers in the concept of marketing communications as related to computer-mediated marketing environments as a result of the commercialization of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a marketing and communication medium. Despite growing interest, there is a dearth of research on the processual nature of communication between marketers and consumers. The overall aim of this study, therefore, is to expand our understanding of marketing communication within the computer-mediated marketing environments. This understanding is achieved in the thesis by incorporating ideas from traditional marketing communication models those based on a one-way, general outbound, linear model in which marketers deliver communication to customers and pr...

Networks of communication evolve in terms of reflexive exchanges. The codification of these reflections in language, that is, at the social level, can be considered as the operating system of society. Under sociologically specifiable conditions, the discursive reconstructions can be expected to make the systems under reflection increasingly knowledge-intensive. This sociological theory of communication is founded in a tradition that includes Giddens' (1979) structuration theory, Habermas' (1981) theory of communicative action, and Luhmann's (1984) proposal to consider social systems as self-organizing. The study also elaborates on Shannon's (1948) mathematical theory of communication for the formalization and operationalization of the non-linear dynamics. The development of scientif...

This book is the second in a series of two about developing proficiency in English business and technical communication. University students and teachers in courses such as Technical Communication, Advanced Business Communication, and Practical English Writing will find this book instrumental to improving their understanding of or instruction in written English communication skills. The book comprises six units: (1) Employment-Related Communication; (2) Summaries, (3) Definitions, Descriptions, Instructions, Guides, and Manuals; (4) Proposals; (5) Reports; (6) Tenders/ Advertisements, Brochures, Questionnaires, and Web Pages. Each unit is organized with three components: (A) Introduction (of text type), (B) Exemplars (with notes), and (C) Practice Tasks. The Practice Tasks are designe...

Communication is frequently identified in the literature as a major factor impacting Information Technology (IT) project failure. The importance of communication is amplified in buyer - seller relationships through the long-term impact of project failures on the future business of IT vendors with their customers.The formal communication between IT project sponsors from buyer firms and project managers from IT vendor firms within business to business markets is investigated through this study. Typical communication patterns between project sponsor and manager in high and low performing projects are identified. The antecedents of these patterns are assessed and the effectiveness of project sponsor - manager communication investigated. A multi-method approach is used with a quantitative analy...

The purpose of this study was to identify what were Taiwanese University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ perceptions about learning communication strategies. This study collected qualitative data about students’ beliefs and attitudes as they learned communication strategies. The research question guiding the study was: What are Taiwanese University EFL learners’ perceptions about learning communication strategies? Twenty-four university students were trained for 10 weeks to use strategies in Faerch and Kasper’s (1983a) taxonomy, and seven volunteers were interviewed. None of the students majored in English but were enrolled in a required Basic English course in a Freshman English Non-Majors’ (FENM) program in Agriculture College at Tunghai University. In the middle...

Deliberative democracy can be defined as a political system based on citizens' voluntary and free discussions on public issues. Most scholars have discussed deliberative democracy within normative boundaries. However, based primarily on Katz's interpretation of Tarde, this study finds the concept of public sphere a useful framework for operationalizing the normative concept of deliberative democracy, since the four components of the public sphere-news media use, interpersonal communication, opinion formation, and political participation-provide us with empirically testable categories. This study tests the validity of theories of deliberative democracy through examining the inter-relationships among the four components of the public sphere. Methodologically, it includes a set of 63 items to...

The aim of this research was to investigate the perceived impact of ICT on Zimbabwean A-level science and mathematics teachers' self-directed professional development. The study was based on a questionnaire survey of 254 teachers throughout the country. Supplementary data came from 54 interviews. Some observations of teachers using ICT in teacher-centres, e-mail correspondence, and field reports also contributed to the database of the study. An analysis framework was developed through the use of grounded theory on the interview transcripts. The framework yielded 9 themes relating to the teachers' use of ICT for their professional development. These were: (1) perceived professional identity; (2) career development; (3) Managing the ICT environment; (4) theoretical and content knowledge; (5...

The Mumbo Jumbo Fix: A Survival Guide for Effective Doctor-Patient-Nurse Communication tackles the vital subject of healthcare miscommunication which is a leading cause of patient harm. It is the first book of its kind geared to all three essential participants--doctors, nurses, AND patients. Written by a medical malpractice trial attorney, hospital risk manager, and healthcare educator, its unique holistic approach provides real-world practical solutions in a concise, easy-to-read, and entertaining format. No other book in the field has been written by someone with equivalent "boots on the ground" experience. And the author's original cartoons are sure to bring a smile to every reader's face. The Mumbo Jumbo Fix contains up-to-date content including telemedicine during the national emerg...

This book presents ten essays about environmental communication. Chapter one introduces the concept of environmental communication and the ways in which it was conceived, imagined, and developed as a form of interdisciplinary enquiry. Chapter two explores the concept of green communication and education for the sustainable development movement. Chapter three is concerned with one of the major underlying socio-cultural influences of the human/nature divide: that of anthropomorphic or anthropogenic reasoning. Chapter four takes an ecological view of economics and develops an argument for the place of economic intangibles in the modern political economy. Chapters five and six explore specialist aspects of environmental communication practices: Chapter five is concerned with the contexts of ps...

The complexity requirements of future wireless communication systems now indeed demand a more general theoretically robust design methodology for nonlinear circuits, such as the power amplifiers. The present design methodology for nonlinear Radio Frequency components and circuits has become a key hindrance in the evaluation, development and testing of modern communication systems. The fundamental nature of this engineering challenge makes it highly unlikely to be addressed within the competitive Radio Frequency industry with short-term profitability, time to market and risk aversion considerations.The book, therefore, includes developing advanced waveform measurement setups, multi-tone measurement techniques, characterization and modelling of nonlinear distortion in microwave power transis...

This book introduces the concept of the "unconscious entity" and reveals it as the most important concept in psychology. The book begins by presenting that the basic emotional need of humans is the need to be emotionally comfortable. Anything, that makes us emotionally uncomfortable, is a frustration of our basic emotional need, that then produces anger. The bigger the frustration, the more anger is produced. If that anger is not immediately expressed, it becomes repressed, and then stored in our mind as "unconscious entity," making any unwanted feeling we have, more unwanted. Unconscious entity arises from our unexpressed anger. It manifests itself as unwanted feelings. The feeling we least want is the very feeling most likely to be produced by our unexpressed anger. To reduce the intensi...

Other investigators have surmised that different types of relationships use diverse maintenance strategies in order to keep the relationship in existence. This study examines relational maintenance strategies that people use specifically in the relationship known as friendship. Five adult friendship couples were interviewed for maintenance strategies they use to sustain their friendship. The discussions were recorded and transcribed. The Constant Comparison method was used to compare and contrast the data in order to discover strategies unique to friendships. Results revealed seven strategies including Openness; Approach to Conflict; Identification; Admiration; Togetherness; and Sense of Continuance. These friendship strategies are uniquely utilized, and therefore distinctive, to the re...

This dissertation reports the results of a sociological analysis of the narrative form and functions of revolutionary discourse. Chapter I poses two questions: How do representations of death function in political processes? How do signifiers of violent death function in the structure of revolutionary statements? Chapter II reviews relevant sociological concepts and articulates a dramatistic political-sociology of death, concepts mainly derived from Emile Durkheim, Robert Hertz, and Arnold van Gennep on death and the sacred, Max Weber on violence and politics, and Burke, Duncan, and Edelman's view of politics as symbolic action. Chapter III presents the results of a formal, narrative, and semiotic analysis of a large sample of revolutionary statements ( Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Foucault...

Language choice has become a common phenomenon in interracial encounters in which speakers are always faced with the challenge of choosing an appropriate language in various domains of communication. In multilingual and multiracial societies, language choice can sometimes be crucial because of its social, political, and economic impact on the speakers. Even in the smallest unit of a society which is the family, language choice plays an important role particularly in interactions between husbands and wives who come from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It is therefore the objective of this research to examine the language choice in interracial couples' communication. More specifically, this research examines the language choice, accommodation strategies, and code switching pat...

This thesis focuses on the development of an artificial intelligence system for a heterogeneous ensemble of mobile robots. Many robots in the ensemble may have limited processing, communication, sensing, and/or actuation capabilities. This means that each robot may not be able to execute all tasks that are input to the system. A hierarchical system is proposed to permit robots with superior processing and communication abilities to assign tasks and coordinate the less computationally able robots. The limited processing robots may also utilise the resources of superior robots during task execution. Effective task allocation and coordination should result in efficient execution of a global task. Many existing approaches to robot task allocation assume expert knowledge for task specification....

This second edition of Fundamental College Composition: A Grammar and Style Guide (FCC: AGSG), contains nine new chapters designed to further assist college students in their journey to become clear and precise writers of English. College classrooms--even college level English courses themselves--often overlook the teaching of fundamental writing. Consequently, students may acquire content knowledge, but often lack the language skills necessary to either demonstrate or apply that knowledge. College-level study exposes students to ideas that are complex. A cursory study of grammar and the rules of basic language arts give students the tools they need to express complex ideas clearly and persuasively. FCC: AGSG provides systematic lessons that progressively build the students' underst...

Scientometrics--the quantitative study of scientific communication--challenges science and technology studies by demonstrating that organized knowledge production and control is amenable to measurement. First, the various dimensions of the empirical study of the sciences are clarified in a methodological analysis of theoretical traditions, including the sociology of scientific knowledge and neo-conventionalism in the philosophy of science. Second, the author argues why the mathematical theory of communication enables us to address crucial problems in science and technology studies, both on the qualitative side (e.g., the significance of a reconstruction) and on the quantitative side (e.g., the prediction of indicators). A comprehensive set of probabilistic entropy measures for stu...

A formal training program with theoretical and practical components is essential for all emergency medical personnel involved in providing care for critically injured patients. Communication, effective first aid, and on time transportation to a health center play a major role in improving quality of care for critically injured patients. Using life experience examples, participants in the study emphasized the importance of each factor on the delivery of quality care for critically injured patients. Recommendations based on the study findings included two main categories. The first category illustrated recommendations to stakeholders, and the second category reflected recommendations for further study. Stakeholders in this study included healthcare leaders in Afghanistan, healthcare profess...

Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) are a new type of computer interface which have human-like bodies and conversational skills. Users interacting with agents will be more engaged and participative if the agents exhibit behaviors which look coherent across different situations and emotional states. In the present work, we aim at increasing agents' believability by looking at two main aspects of the problem: - an agent must be able to show its emotional state and communicative intentions not only through specific facial expressions, gestures, etc., but also by varying the quality of its movements (e.g., their speed, amplitude, etc.) and the choice of the modalities that are used to communicate; - the agent must maintain a distinctive behavior, that is, its global behavior tendency has ...

This sixth in a series continues this non-academic author’s ground-breaking word by word analysis of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. This volume covers all of the long chapter 2.3 with the intent to explore its 80 pages as an art object. Coming off the last chapter about children, the role performed in the case of children by over-bearing parents is taken over by imperialistic forces in the case of adults. The imperialists consume weak adult spirits by telling them what to do. Anal-retentive children become passive/aggressive adults under the direction of imperialists. They are the “head liners” in this chapter. The spirit imperialists in this chapter range from the church allowing you to experience the joy of sexual intercourse only in the harness of the properly married sta...

This is an intermediate level textbook directed toward students who are interested in learning the necessary medical terminology and cultural sensitivity to successfully care for the U.S. Spanish-speaking community in medical contexts. This textbook is divided into 13 chapters that include medical vocabulary, dialogues between medical professionals and patients, case studies, readings on health issues that affect the Latino community, readings to deepen students’ cultural competence while working with Latino patients, and interactive and realistic activities to provide students the tools they need to effectively care for this population. This textbook is unique in the market in its cultural perspective focused on the diversity and complexity of the Latino community living in the Unite...

How a nation or region develops is infallibly linked to how well it can deliver ideas, information and data throughout its population. The greater the freedom to send, receive and synthesize information, the more likely a given country is to have a higher standard of living as measured by per capita income and other economic indicators. This study demonstrates that the economic development of a nation or region is connected to its ability to transport said intelligence in a highly expeditious and economic manner. Without this ability, technological development and the exchange / flow of ideas are intrinsically hampered and directly impacts economic development. In order to demonstrate this thesis, nations were classified via their respective technology IQ’s or information quotie...

This book provides a description of the current theory and methodology of LEGO-based therapy (LBT) for social development. It is intended for all readers who have an interest in LBT and both how and why it works to improve the development of social communication and interpersonal collaboration. This work provides an update from previous publications on LBT methods and offers the first in-depth discussion of the theoretical basis for the LBT model. Educators, therapists, parents, and administrators will gain a clearer understanding of how LBT can be used to improve social adjustment and initiate participation in social learning, creativity, and interpersonal synergy. Regardless of the context in which LEGO materials are used to facilitate improvement in interpersonal communication and colla...

The theory of the commodity is used by critical theorists to explain the general organization and development of capitalist society. It was originally proposed by Marx, and subsequently developed by Lukacs and later Adorno and the Frankfurt School. Media scholars such as Dallas Smythe, Judith Williamson, Robert Goldman and Eileen Meehan have identified the commodity structure in several forms throughout the process of mass communication. Although commodity theory is not always articulated as a part of critical studies, it is useful for understanding the process of mass communication under capitalism. By investigating the dynamics of market processes and cultural innovation, this paper shows where the theory of the commodity fits into Critical Media Studies and suggests where some productiv...

This study examined the institutional advancement programs of successful American private/Catholic universities, two private universities in the United Sates, and two institutions in the Congo. Funding strategies constitute the backbone of advancement programs for successful American private universities/colleges. This study also investigated the funding mechanisms that successful private universities in the United States utilized to obtain philanthropic dollars. Further, the research assessed the roles of the successful private university presidents and trustees, and determined how public relations impacted the institutional advancement results of those institutions. Finally, the results of this investigation suggested practical applications for the Congolese/African universities. Grun...

The International Conference on Signals, Systems and Automation (ICSSA 2011) aims to spread awareness in the research and academic community regarding cutting-edge technological advancements revolutionizing the world. The main emphasis of this conference is on dissemination of information, experience, and research results on the current topics of interest through in-depth discussions and participation of researchers from all over the world. The objective is to provide a platform to scientists, research scholars, and industrialists for interacting and exchanging ideas in a number of research areas. This will facilitate communication among researchers in different fields of Electronics and Communication Engineering. The International Conference on Intelligent System and Data Processing (I...

The focus of this study was to gain an understanding of six military wives experiences while their husbands were deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. There were three themes that were derived from the literature and they were explored with the six wives: communication, reintegration, and self-esteem. The analysis of the research was qualitative, utilizing a phenomenological approach, consisting of structured interviews for the participants whose husbands were deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. To analyze the data Giorgio’s (1985) phenomenological approach was used. The structured interviews were used to explore and gain an understanding of how the three themes impacted the wives while their husbands were deployed. The results showed that all three themes impacted the wives...

Recovering Argument is a textbook or handbook that sounds a revolutionary call to teachers and students of rhetoric, asking, as it implicitly does, for a return to reason as the basis of all argument. The implied purpose of the book is to recover argument from its current status among teachers, who often view composition as a merely personal exercise, with an emphasis upon "invention" (now the most important part of so-called "process" writing). It attempts to provide a framework for understanding discourse and its position and function in a democratic society. In addition to calling for a return to reason, Recovering Argument suggests new models and approaches to the teaching of writing. A model of communication (a "humanistic" model) is offered as a replacement for the widely-accept...

Principals of middle-grade schools in port of entry communities along the Texas-Mexico border were surveyed to learn about the education and preparational experiences these principals believed novice teachers should have before coming to teach in their schools. Demographic data about themselves, teachers, students and middle-grade schools, along with suggestions for improving Texas teacher education programs were also obtained. Mexican Americans were the dominant ethnic group and culture in these schools for principals, teachers and students. Principals were mostly male, well educated, and certified for the position they held. Student populations ranged from 437--1,603 in rural, urban and suburban settings. Eighty-two percent of the student population participated in the Federal Free ...

You are not what you think you are. New research is transforming how we understand ourselves—from a singular 'self' to a vast cooperative, co-dependent and collaborative network of cellular environments and ecologies—a microcosm within. From this unique perspective, a startling revision of evolutionary theory unfurls. Sharply reasoned and certain to be controversial, The Microcosm Within takes its readers on a sweeping scientific journey that reorganizes our thinking about our biological selves, evolution, and extinction. Darwin has dominated evolution for over a century. But many issues remain puzzling—What is the origin of self-sacrifice? Does natural selection really account for evolution? Why is homosexuality commonplace in the animal kingdom? Why were the arms of Tyrannosau...