Written by two world-leading academics in the field of attitudes research, is a brand new textbook that gets to the very heart of this fascinating and far-reaching field. Greg Maio and Geoffrey Haddock describe how scientific methods have been used to better understand attitudes and how they change. With the aid of a few helpful metaphors, the text provides readers with a grasp of the fundamental concepts for understanding attitudes and an appreciation of the scientific challenges that lay ahead.

The research into how students’ attitudes affect their learning of science related subjects has been one of the core areas of interest by science educators. The development in science education records various attempts in measuring attitudes and determining the correlations between behavior, achievements, career aspirations, gender identity and cultural inclination. Some researchers noted that attitudes can be learned and teachers can encourage students to like science subjects through persuasion. But some view that attitude is situated in context and has much to do with upbringing and environment. The critical role of attitude is well recognized in advancing science education, in particular designing curriculum and choosing powerful pedagogies and nurturing students. Since Noll’s (1935) seminal work on measuring the scientific attitudes, a steady stream of research papers describing the development and validation of scales have appeared in scholarly publications. Despite these efforts, the progress in this area has been stagnated by limited understanding of the conception of attitude, dimensionality and inability to determine the multitude of variables that made up such concept. This book makes an attempt to take stock and critically examine classical views on science attitudes and explore contemporary attempts in measuring science-related attitudes. The chapters in this book are a reflection of researchers who work tirelessly in promoting science education and highlight the current trends and future scenarios in attitude measurement.

The "Encyclopedia of Mobile Computing and Commerce" presents current trends in mobile computing and their commercial applications. Hundreds of internationally renowned scholars and practitioners have written comprehensive articles exploring such topics as location and context awareness, mobile networks, mobile services, the socio impact of mobile technology, and mobile software engineering.

There have been many inevitable transformations in society due to digitization - the introduction of digital technology, including communication technology, through the Internet and its use via the Web. This book is the first Yearbook of the Digital Enlightenment Forum. Whilst it cannot cover all the many aspects which the forum encompasses, the book gives an impression of the broad spectrum of the forum and a clear picture of the multi-disciplinary nature of the issues at stake. The first paper in the book is a contribution from the father of the Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and Harry Halpin. They pose the question of whether the opportunity to participate in the empowered connected society should be protected, and conclude that urgent action is needed to promote and defend the Internet and the Web. Other papers explore topics such as legal issues and the rights of the citizen, privacy protection and international cooperation in the fight against cyber crime. The book ends with a number of scientific and technical papers as well as descriptions of practical problems and their possible solutions. Although the book addresses only the tip of a very large iceberg of problems, issues and possible technologies, it provides an excellent picture of the many challenges which must be faced in the years to come, and will be of interest to all those working towards the development of society in the spirit of enlightenment.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction, held in College Park, MD, USA, in April 2012. The 43 revised papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 76 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics including economics, public health, and terrorist activities, as well as utilize a broad variety of methodologies, e.g., machine learning, cultural modeling and cognitive modeling.

Quality foods, such as traditional, EU certified, organic and health claimed are part of a growing trend towards added value in the agri-food sector. In these foods, elements of production, processing, marketing, agro-tourism and speciality stores are combined. Paramount above all is the link to the consumer, which requires a personal approach. At this point, one enters the field of food consumer science. This can be seen as a hybrid of two distinct sciences. On one hand, there is the 'hardware' component, i.e. the science of food. On the other hand, the 'software' component, related to the science of consumers' preferences and behaviour. In animal science, nearly all attention is given to the 'hardware' aspect. However, to build a successful business in quality food products, the 'software' aspect is essential. This publication devotes special attention to the consumer and gives insight into an area of knowledge still very much in development. It is intended to enhance understanding of the complex relationships in the route from products to consumers and offers practical solutions in this field. This publication includes review articles covering basic aspects of food consumer science and research trends in the field, and a series of country reports and articles on relevant studies related to the topic, with emphasis on Southern Europe.