This is the accepted version prior to journal formatting. The official version can found at:https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1V8wS2f~UW0xXp-->FREE COPY the end of JULY 2017. Stimulating and sustaining interest in a language course: An experimental comparison of Chatbot and Human task partners AbstractNovel technology can be a powerful tool for enhancing students' interest in many learning domains. However, the sustainability and overall impact of such interest is unclear. This study tests the longer-term effects of technology on students' task and course interest. The experimental study was conducted with students in foreign language classes (n=122): a 12-week experimental trial that included pre-and post-course interest, and a sequence of task interest measures. Employing a counterbalanced design, at three week intervals students engaged in separate speaking tasks with each of a Human and "Chatbot" partner. Students' interest in successive tasks and in the course (pre-post), were used to assess differential partner effects and course interest development trajectories. Comparisons of task interest under different partner conditions over time indicated a significant drop in students' task interest with the Chatbot but not Human partner. After accounting for initial course interest, Structural Equation Modelling indicated that only task interest with the Human partner contributed to developing course interest. While Human partner task interest predicted future course interest, task interest under Chatbot partner conditions did not. Under Chatbot partner conditions there was a drop in task interest after the first task: a novelty effect. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

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We examined the acceptability and diagnostic accuracy of dynamic ultrasound images transmitted at 128 kbit/s and 384 kbit/s. The gold standard was the direct recording of 200 ultrasound examinations on video-tape. The taped images were later transmitted at both 128 kbit/s and 384 kbit/s and recorded, resulting in three tapes for each case. Four observers viewed each tape individually. Ninety per cent of images transmitted at 384 kbit/s were rated as diagnostically acceptable compared with 32% of images transmitted at 128 kbit/s. Diagnostic agreement between tapes transmitted at 384 kbit/s and the gold standard was 85%, compared with 78% for 128 kbit/s transmissions. Observers were not satisfied with low-bandwidth transmission of ultrasound images despite adequate diagnostic accuracy. Dynamic ultrasound images transmitted at 384 kbit/s were viewed as both diagnostically acceptable and accurate.