Elucidating the associations between achievement goals and academic dishonesty: a meta-analysis

Academic dishonesty is a pervasive problem undermining the effectiveness of educational institutions. From a motivational perspective, researchers have proposed achievement goals as antecedents of academic dishonesty. Empirical findings corroborate the notion that mastery goals (focus on learning and competence development) are negatively linked to academic dishonesty. However, even though theoretical considerations suggest positive links between performance goals (focus on competence demonstration) and academic dishonesty, empirical findings are mixed. To provide a better understanding of how goals matter for academic dishonesty, we conducted three-level meta-analyses encompassing 163 effect sizes from 33 studies and a total of 19,787 participants. We found a disproportional use of correlational designs (using self-report measures of academic dishonesty) and personal goal measures (opposed to surrounding goal structures). Evidence of publication bias was not found. Our results confirmed the expected negative associations between mastery goals and academic dishonesty and revealed heterogenous findings for performance goals, with indications of positive associations within behavioral and intentional dishonesty measures, but not within self-reports. To further clarify the associations between achievement goals and academic dishonesty, we call for more methodological rigor in the measurement of goals and dishonesty as well as multi-methods approaches when investigating their interplay

Matrix Metalloproteinase 13 Is Induced in Fibroblasts in Polyomavirus Middle T Antigen-Driven Mammary Carcinoma without Influencing Tumor Progression

Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 13 (collagenase 3) is an extracellular matrix remodeling enzyme that is induced in myofibroblasts during the earliest invasive stages of human breast carcinoma, suggesting that it is involved in tumor progression. During progression of mammary carcinomas in the polyoma virus middle T oncogene mouse model (MMTV-PyMT), Mmp13 mRNA was strongly upregulated concurrently with the transition to invasive and metastatic carcinomas. As in human tumors, Mmp13 mRNA was found in myofibroblasts of invasive grade II and III carcinomas, but not in benign grade I and II mammary intraepithelial neoplasias. To determine if MMP13 plays a role in tumor progression, we crossed MMTV-PyMT mice with Mmp13 deficient mice. The absence of MMP13 did not influence tumor growth, vascularization, progression to more advanced tumor stages, or metastasis to the lungs, and the absence of MMP13 was not compensated for by expression of other MMPs or tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases. However, an increased fraction of thin collagen fibrils was identified in MMTV-PyMT;Mmp13−/− compared to MMTV-PyMT;Mmp13+/+ tumors, showing that collagen metabolism was altered in the absence of MMP13. We conclude that the expression pattern of Mmp13 mRNA in myofibroblasts of invasive carcinomas in the MMTV-PyMT breast cancer model recapitulates the expression pattern observed in human breast cancer. Our results suggest that MMP13 is a marker of carcinoma-associated myofibroblasts of invasive carcinoma, even though it does not make a major contribution to tumor progression in the MMTV-PyMT breast cancer model

Entwicklung und Überprüfung einer Kurzskala zur Messung akademischen Betrugsverhaltens im Selbstbericht

Akademisches Betrugsverhalten ist ein bedeutsames Phänomen, zu dessen Prävalenz und Randbedingungen im Hochschulsektor deutliche Forschungslücken bestehen, insbesondere aufgrund Ermangelung valider und ökonomischer Selbstberichtsmaße. Die vorliegende Kurzskala zur Erfassung akademischen Betrugsverhaltens soll unter Bedingung hoher Testökonomie eine verhaltensbezogene Erfassung von akademischen Betrugsverhalten im Selbstbericht ermöglichen. Die Itemgenese orientierte sich an umfassenden englischsprachigen Verhaltensinventaren. Insgesamt werden mit jeweils einem Item die zentralen Komponenten „Nutzung unerlaubter Hilfsmittel und Hilfestellungen“, „Plagiarismus“ und „Täuschung zur eigenen Vorteilnahme“ erfasst. Analysen zur Testgüte des 3-Item-Maßes in einer Stichprobe von N = 1 994 Studierenden zeigen eine akzeptable interne Konsistenz und ein deutliches Muster konvergenter Validität (Assoziationen mit umfassenderen Verhaltensinventaren und der Persönlichkeitseigenschaft Ehrlichkeit / Bescheidenheit). Konfirmatorische Faktoranalysen verdeutlichen, dass sich die Skala für die latente Modellierung des Konstruktes eignet und sie messinvariant für verschiedene Fachgruppen sowie Geschlechter ist. In der Summe bietet die vorgestellte Kurzskala eine verhaltensbezogene, ökonomische und reliable Messung akademischen Betrugsverhaltens

Interrelations of resilience factors and their incremental impact for mental health: insights from network modeling using a prospective study across seven timepoints

Resilience can be viewed as trajectory of stable good mental health or the quick recovery of mental health during or after stressor exposure. Resilience factors (RFs) are psychological resources that buffer the potentially negative effects of stress on mental health. A problem of resilience research is the large number of conceptually overlapping RFs complicating their understanding. The current study sheds light on the interrelations of RFs in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic as a use case for major disruptions. The non-preregistered prospective study assessed a sample of 1275 German-speaking people from February 2020 to March 2021 at seven timepoints. We measured coping, hardiness, control beliefs, optimism, self-efficacy, sense of coherence (SOC), sense of mastery, social support and dispositional resilience as RFs in February 2020, and mental health (i.e., psychopathological symptoms, COVID-19-related rumination, stress-related growth) at all timepoints. Analyses used partial correlation network models and latent growth mixture modeling (LGMM). Pre-pandemic RFs were strongly interrelated, with SOC being the most central node. The strongest associations emerged between coping using emotional support and social support, SOC and sense of mastery, and dispositional resilience and self-efficacy. SOC and active coping were negatively linked. When we examined RFs as predictors of mental health trajectories, SOC was the strongest predictor of psychopathological symptoms and rumination, while trajectories of stress-related growth were predicted by optimism. Subsequent network analyses, including individual intercepts and slopes from LGMM, showed that RFs had small to moderate associations with intercepts but were unrelated to slopes. Our findings provide evidence for SOC playing an important role in mental distress and suggest further examining SOC’s incremental validity. However, our results also propose that RFs might be more important for stable levels of mental health than for adaptation processes over time. The differential associations for negative and positive outcomes support the use of multidimensional outcomes in resilience research

Instances and connectors : issues for a second generation process language

This work is supported by UK EPSRC grants GR/L34433 and GR/L32699Over the past decade a variety of process languages have been defined, used and evaluated. It is now possible to consider second generation languages based on this experience. Rather than develop a second generation wish list this position paper explores two issues: instances and connectors. Instances relate to the relationship between a process model as a description and the, possibly multiple, enacting instances which are created from it. Connectors refers to the issue of concurrency control and achieving a higher level of abstraction in how parts of a model interact. We believe that these issues are key to developing systems which can effectively support business processes, and that they have not received sufficient attention within the process modelling community. Through exploring these issues we also illustrate our approach to designing a second generation process language.Postprin

Metabolically (un)healthy obesity and risk of obesity-related cancers: a pooled study

Background Studies of obesity with or without metabolic aberrations, commonly termed metabolically unhealthy or healthy obesity, in relation to cancer risk are scarce. Methods We investigated body mass index (normal weight, overweight, obesity) jointly and in interaction with metabolic health status in relation to obesity-related cancer risk (n = 23 630) among 797 193 European individuals. A metabolic score comprising mid-blood pressure, plasma glucose, and triglycerides was used to define metabolically healthy and unhealthy status. Hazard ratios (HRs) and multiplicative interactions were assessed using Cox regression, and additive interactions were assessed using the relative excess risk for interaction. All statistical tests were 2-sided. Results Metabolically unhealthy obesity, with a baseline prevalence of 7%, was, compared with metabolically healthy normal weight, associated with an increased relative risk of any obesity-related cancer and of colon, rectal, pancreas, endometrial, liver, gallbladder, and renal cell cancer (P < .05), with the highest risk estimates for endometrial, liver, and renal cell cancer (HR = 2.55-3.00). Metabolically healthy obesity showed a higher relative risk for any obesity-related cancer and colon (in men), endometrial, renal cell, liver, and gallbladder cancer, though the risk relationships were weaker. There were no multiplicative interactions, but there were additive, positive interactions between body mass index and metabolic health status on obesity-related and rectal cancer among men and on endometrial cancer (P < .05). Conclusions This study highlights that the type of metabolic obesity phenotype is important when assessing obesity-related cancer risk. In general, metabolic aberrations further increased the obesity-induced cancer risk, suggesting that obesity and metabolic aberrations are useful targets for prevention.publishedVersio