Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the relationship between meta-cognitive beliefs, thought fusion beliefs and worry, in relation to obsessive-compulsive behaviours and symptoms within the general population

Previous research and theory has suggested that in clinical samples, meta-cognitive beliefs and thought fusion beliefs (also referred to as magical thinking) as well as worry, contribute to the development of OCD behaviours and symptoms. However, worry, meta-cognitive and thought fusion beliefs are a cognitive phenomena, which are also found in the general population. The aim of the present study was to examine relationships between these variables and OCD in a non-clinical sample, since both worry and thought fusion beliefs have been under-researched in the literature. A total of 301 participants, (144 males and 157 females, age range: 18-72 years, Mage = 32.6 years, SD=14.7), who had not been diagnosed with OCD, completed the Generalised anxiety disorder scale (GADS) which measures levels of worry, the meta-cognitions questionnaire (MCQ-30) which measures meta-cognitive factors which are suggested to relate to OCD behaviours and symptoms, the Thought Fusion Inventory (TFI), which assesses the beliefs held by individuals regarding the power of their thoughts and experiences, and the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI) which measures OCD behaviours and symptoms. As predicted, a multiple regression analysis showed that meta-cognitive beliefs and thought fusion beliefs predicted OCD behaviours and symptoms after controlling for worry. However, contrary to predictions, a moderated regression analysis revealed that worry did not moderate the relationship between meta-cognitive beliefs and OCD behaviours and symptoms. As predicted, an analysis demonstrated that worry significantly predicted meta-cognitive beliefs. Additionally, as predicted, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that worry significantly predicted OCD behaviour and symptoms whilst controlling for meta-cognitive beliefs. Finally, thought fusion beliefs predicted OCD behaviours and symptoms whilst controlling for worry. These results are discussed in relation to previous research and theory and suggestions for future directions are made.
Computer Science Education in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany—A Case Study

In North-Rhine Westphalia, the most populated state in Germany, Computer Science (CS) has been taught in secondary schools since the early 1970s. This article provides an overview of the past and current situation of CS education in North-Rhine Westphalia, including lessons learned through efforts to introduce and to maintain CS in secondary education. In particular, we focus on the differential school system and the educational landscape of CS education, the different facets of CS teacher education, and CS education research programs and directions that are directly connected with these aspects. In addition, this report offers a rationale for including CS education in general education, which includes the educational value of CS for students in today’s information and knowledge society. Through this article, we ultimately provide an overview of the significant elements that are crucial for the successful integration of CS as a compulsory subject within secondary schools.
Performance analysis and design optimization of near ballistic carbon nanotube field-effect transistors

A near ballistic carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (CNTFET) that integrates an ultra-short channel, low-barrier metal contacts, and a thin high-K gate insulator is modeled and analyzed using self-consistent quantum simulations. Numerical simulations, which solve a quantum transport equation self-consistently with a 3D Poisson equation using the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism, are used to understand the transistor physics and to suggest design optimization. Important device issues of: (1) how close the transistor operates to its ballistic limit; (2) what are the roles of phonon scattering and higher subband conduction; (3) how to further optimize the CNTFET; and (4) how the CNTFET compares to a state-of-the-art Si MOSFET, are explored and discussed.
Varying involvement of peripheral granulocytes in the clonal abnormality - 7 in bone marrow cells in preleukemia secondary to treatment of other malignant tumors: cytogenetic results compared with results of flow cytometric DNA analysis and neutrophil chemotaxis.

DNA content of isolated peripheral granulocytes and mononuclear cells was determined by flow cytometry and the results correlated with neutrophil chemotaxis. in 10 patients with secondary preleukemia or overt acute leukemia and cytogenetic defects of chromosome no. 7 in bone marrow cells. Nine patients had a hypodiploid clone with a missing chromosome no. 7. one lacked the long arm of a chromosome no.7. The DNA content of granulocytes was normal in 5 of these cases and significantly reduced in 4 cases. In one patient. two populations of granulocytes were observed, one with a normal, the other with a reduced DNA content. In vitro chemotaxis of washed peripheral granulocytes was normal in 3 patients. reduced in 7 patients. A relationship was observed between the cytogenetic results from the bone marrow. the DNA content of peripheral granulocytes. and the chemotactic response. Thus. 4 patients with a high percentage of abnormal mitoses in the marrow had a decreased DNA content in granulocytes and a reduced chemotactic
Rewriting history: more power to creative people

Trying out different alternatives is a natural part of creative work, resulting in several versions that are hard to manage. With the tools available today, we often end up having to manually redo changes that worked in one version on other versions. We propose a new approach for supporting creative work: an artifact is described as the history of the operations that created it. We show that by allowing users to change this history, the common use cases of merging, generalizing and specializing can be supported efficiently. This rewriting history approach is based on a formal specification of the operations offered by a tool, leads to a new theory of operations, and enables exciting new ways to share and combine creative work. It is complementary to state-based version control, and offers the user a new understanding of merging. The approach was implemented for a collaborative drawing tool, and evaluated in a user study. The study shows that users understand the approach and would like to use it in their own creative work.
How Effectively Does Metamorphic Testing Alleviate the Oracle Problem?

In software testing, something which can verify the correctness of test case execution results is called an oracle. The oracle problem occurs when either an oracle does not exist, or exists but is too expensive to be used. Metamorphic testing is a testing approach which uses metamorphic relations, properties of the software under test represented in the form of relations among inputs and outputs of multiple executions, to help verify the correctness of a program. This paper presents new empirical evidence to support this approach, which has been used to alleviate the oracle problem in various applications and to enhance several software analysis and testing techniques. It has been observed that identification of a sufficient number of appropriate metamorphic relations for testing, even by inexperienced testers, was possible with a very small amount of training. Furthermore, the cost-effectiveness of the approach could be enhanced through the use of more diverse metamorphic relations. The empirical studies presented in this paper clearly show that a small number of diverse metamorphic relations, even those identified in an ad hoc manner, had a similar fault-detection capability to a test oracle, and could thus effectively help alleviate the oracle problem.
Automatic content based title extraction for Chinese documents using support vector machine

In this paper, a content-based and domain-independent method for automatically extracting titles from Chinese research papers is proposed. The information contained in the title itself and the similarity between the title and the body of the paper is exploited, under the condition that the experiment is carried out on plain texts in which no any format information such as font is used. A list of words only used in Chinese titles and a list of words never used in Chinese titles are further collected to facilitate the title extraction. We use the support vector machine classifier to perform a robust and more adaptable automatic title extraction. The method achieves good performance on a test set consisting of 2438 research papers which cover almost all of the academic disciplines.
GABAergic Synaptic Plasticity during a Developmentally Regulated Sleep-Like State in C. elegans

Approximately one-fourth of the neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans adults are born during larval development, indicating tremendous plasticity in larval nervous system structure. Larval development shows cyclical expression of sleep-like quiescent behavior during lethargus periods, which occur at larval stage transitions. We studied plasticity at the neuromuscular junction during lethargus using the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor aldicarb. The rate of animal contraction when exposed to aldicarb is controlled by the balance between excitatory cholinergic and inhibitory GABAergic input on the muscle. During lethargus, there is an accelerated rate of contraction on aldicarb. Mutant analysis and optogenetic studies reveal that GABAergic synaptic transmission is reduced during lethargus. Worms in lethargus show partial resistance to GABAA receptor agonists, indicating that postsynaptic mechanisms contribute to lethargus-dependent plasticity. Using genetic manipulations that separate the quiescent state from the developmental stage, we show that the synaptic plasticity is dependent on developmental time and not on the behavioral state of the animal. We propose that the synaptic plasticity regulated by a developmental clock in C. elegans is analogous to synaptic plasticity regulated by the circadian clock in other species.
Pursuit Controller Performance Guarantees for a Lifeline Pursuit-Evasion Game over a Wireless Sensor Network

Pursuit-evasion games have been studied as a generalization of many control problems, and have been also used to study the viability of running control algorithms over sensor networks. We provide a method for computing performance bounds on a sample pursuit-evasion game, the classic lifeline game described by Rufus Isaacs. Given a routing topology and pairwise link probabilities, we compute an n-hop disk model abstraction of a sensor network to model delay and lost packets. Using this model, we then compute a probabilistic barrier that splits the state space of the game into an escape zone and a capture zone. This barrier and the corresponding optimal control laws are the solution to the game. The position of the barrier in the state space provides a sense of how well such a control application can perform over a sensor network
Only another way station: status allocation in electronic networks of practice

The organizational literature concerning status has focused on its consequences more than its antecedents; moreover, the research that has addressed status origins has drawn its evidence from traditional face-to-face organizations, featuring task-focused and/or enduring groups. The present research addresses both of these literature gaps by examining how individuals in global, distributed, electronic networks of practice allocate status in a legitimate hierarchy. Taking as its context one of the first of these organizations – the SAP Community Network – this dissertation employed the DELPHI Method, AllOurIdeas.org, and panel data to leverage a research design that kept distinct status antecedents and outcomes, and yielded five distinct contributions to knowledge. First, it identified an unambiguous, unified structure of status – providing powerful clarification against its cognate constructs. Second, it challenged the attenuation principle of Status Characteristics Theory by suggesting that additional, similar status information does not contribute less to status allocation. Third, it indicated that the factors which effect status allocation differ depending on the level of status being determined; moreover, status establishment might function differently than either status maintenance or status enhancement. Fourth, the present research revealed that to the extent that status characteristics affect status allocation, they do so through the mechanism of performance; in other words, organizational culture can downgrade ascription and engage performance during status allocation. Fifth, the present findings challenge the argument for perpetual returns to initial high status – i.e., the Mertonian Matthew Effect – but do support Merton’s Phenomenon of the 41st Chair. Managerial practice must now recognize how organizational structure and culture can influence status allocation, which has implications for the strategic use of multiple routes to status in the achievement of organizational goals. Through focusing on a new, yet prevalent organizational form, the present research significantly advanced status theory in organizations.
A Quick and Easy Strategy to Reduce Test Anxiety and Enhance Test Performance

The negative thoughts that anxious children experience while sitting for an exam consume working memory resources at the cost of resources for performing on the exam. In a randomized field experiment (N=117) with primary school students, we investigated the hypothesis that stimulating students to look through the problems of a math test before they start solving them would reduce anxiety, release these anxiety-related working memory resources, and lead to higher test performance than not allowing students to look ahead in the test. The results confirmed the hypothesis, indicating that the positive effects of looking ahead applied to all students, regardless of their anxiety level (low, medium, or high). The results suggest that by looking ahead in a test, less working memory resources are consumed by intrusive thoughts, and consequently, more resources can be used for performing on the test. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
When Cooperation is the Norm of Appropriateness: How Does CEO Cooperative Behaviour Affect Organizational Performance?

The current study has tested the prediction that CEO cooperative behaviour has an impact upon organizational performance. This is a fundamental organizational issue that is in clear need of illumination through studies of practice. We pursued the issue through a study of leadership in organizations located in the Norwegian socio-cultural context in which cooperation has been, and still is, a norm of appropriateness. The study provided empirical evidence of a positive relationship between CEO cooperative behaviour and organizational performance. This relationship appeared to be stronger in organizational contexts in which CEOs are perceived to have legitimacy and managerial discretion, and it appeared to be weaker in organizations in which individual performance pay is the rule. Since some organizational characteristics have the potential to enhance the impact of CEO cooperative behaviour while other characteristics might inhibit this impact, leaders have to consider carefully how to develop and maintain individual and organizational capabilities that are needed to act appropriately.
The Effectiveness of Alternative 2D Projections of 3D Forms

Presentation styles of 2D projections of 3D forms on a computer display is explored. The two independent variables explored are: the rate in which a series of orthographic projections are displayed and whether they were depicted as line drawings or shaded. Subjects saw 40 objects in one of six possible display designs and asked to make a forced choice decision based on the display of each object. The error rate and reaction time were used as an indicator of effectiveness of the display design to form a mental image of the object. Scoring on the Vandenberg Mental Rotations test given at the beginning of the experiment was used as a covariate in the statistical analysis examining the
Can group work assist independent work?Psychology ‘ReGrouPs’

[First Paragraph] The rapidly developing interest in qualitative methods in psychology (defined as interpretative studies of specific issues or problems in which the researcher is central to the sense that is made – Elliott, Fischer, & Rennie, 1999) is currently being paralleled by students’ use of qualitative methods in final year research projects, which is itself a piece of independent research required for programme accreditation by the British Psychological Society. Whilst most students produce qualitative projects of a good standard, there is evidence that both students and supervisors of such research experience demands specific to this methodology.
Long term effects of video and computer game heavy use on health, mental health and education outcomes among adolescents in the U.S.

Video and computer gaming addiction, also called gaming disorder and pathological gaming, is an emerging behavioral problem for adolescents. Previous studies have investigated the associated negative outcomes of this putative mental health problem, such as academic failure, physical and mental health problems, but findings have been inconsistent and have methodological weaknesses. Most studies have been cross-sectional, which could not establish temporal order. Furthermore, the limited longitudinal studies found in this field failed to control for baseline health, mental health, academic achievement, gaming frequency and other confounding variables. Therefore, it is not known whether gaming addiction itself can cause long term negative consequences or whether gaming addiction is just associated with other problems. One of the main symptoms of gaming addiction is heavy gaming, defined by persistent and recurrent engagement in gaming for many hours. Even though some studies have investigated the association between heavy gaming and gaming addiction, there is no study focusing on how different cut-off points of heavy gaming predict long-term health, mental health and education outcomes differently. Therefore, it is unclear what cut points (i.e., number of hours of play) should be used to define heavy gaming. This study addresses the above gap by using a longitudinal design that tracked video and computer gaming from adolescence into young adulthood. Data analysis was performed using three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1994-1995, 1996, 20012002), a nationally representative panel study. Heavy video and computer gaming was defined as at least 21 hours/week usage on video or computer gaming, with additional usage cut-off points recorded at >35, 42 and 56 hours. A propensity score matching (PSM) method, adding school fixed effect and sampling weight components, was used to create two equivalent groups using
Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Publications Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Recommended Citation Subcellular Metabolite and Lipid Analysis of Xenopus Laevis Eggs by Laesi Mass Spectrometry

Subcellular metabolite and lipid analysis of Xenopus laevis eggs by LAESI mass spectrometry Abstract Xenopus laevis eggs are used as a biological model system for studying fertilization and early embryonic development in vertebrates. Most methods used for their molecular analysis require elaborate sample preparation including separate protocols for the water soluble and lipid components. In this study, laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI), an ambient ionization technique, was used for direct mass spectrometric analysis of X. laevis eggs and early stage embryos up to five cleavage cycles. Single unfertilized and fertilized eggs, their animal and vegetal poles, and embryos through the 32-cell stage were analyzed. Fifty two small metabolite ions, including glutathione, GABA and amino acids, as well as numerous lipids including 14 fatty acids, 13 lysophosphatidylcholines, 36 phosphatidylcholines and 29 triacylglycerols were putatively identified. Additionally, some proteins, for example thymosin b4 (Xen), were also detected. On the subcellular level, the lipid profiles were found to differ between the animal and vegetal poles of the eggs. Radial profiling revealed profound compositional differences between the jelly coat vitelline/plasma membrane and egg cytoplasm. Changes in the metabolic profile of the egg following fertilization, e.g., the decline of polyamine content with the development of the embryo were observed using LAESI-MS. This approach enables the exploration of metabolic and lipid changes during the early stages of embryogenesis. Copyright: ß 2014 Shrestha et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All relevant data are within the paper. development of single cell and subcellular analysis methods, and through Grant Nos. IOS-0817902 and MCB-1121711 to S.A.M. for studying molecular changes in embryonic development. The George Washington University Selective Excellence Fund also provided financial contribution to this project. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Protea Biosciences provided support in the form of salaries for authors BRR, HDH and MJP, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. are employed by a commercial company, Protea Biosciences. The corresponding author, Akos Vertes, is a co-inventor of the LAESI technique, …
A Community Resource Benchmarking Predictions of Peptide Binding to MHC-I Molecules

Recognition of peptides bound to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules by T lymphocytes is an essential part of immune surveillance. Each MHC allele has a characteristic peptide binding preference, which can be captured in prediction algorithms, allowing for the rapid scan of entire pathogen proteomes for peptide likely to bind MHC. Here we make public a large set of 48,828 quantitative peptide-binding affinity measurements relating to 48 different mouse, human, macaque, and chimpanzee MHC class I alleles. We use this data to establish a set of benchmark predictions with one neural network method and two matrix-based prediction methods extensively utilized in our groups. In general, the neural network outperforms the matrix-based predictions mainly due to its ability to generalize even on a small amount of data. We also retrieved predictions from tools publicly available on the internet. While differences in the data used to generate these predictions hamper direct comparisons, we do conclude that tools based on combinatorial peptide libraries perform remarkably well. The transparent prediction evaluation on this dataset provides tool developers with a benchmark for comparison of newly developed prediction methods. In addition, to generate and evaluate our own prediction methods, we have established an easily extensible web-based prediction framework that allows automated side-by-side comparisons of prediction methods implemented by experts. This is an advance over the current practice of tool developers having to generate reference predictions themselves, which can lead to underestimating the performance of prediction methods they are not as familiar with as their own. The overall goal of this effort is to provide a transparent prediction evaluation allowing bioinformaticians to identify promising features of prediction methods and providing guidance to immunologists regarding the reliability of prediction tools.