Effects of Incentives on College Student\u27s Performance

Pay for performance embodies a theory that the more an employee is paid for their work, the more productive they will be. Using an online survey, this paper studies the effect of incentives on college students, specifically, if college students react differently to incentives than employees and to what degree college students can be motivated to increase their performance on assignments. Participants in the bonus contract were awarded one extra piece of candy for each correct answer. Those in the penalty contract are given the maximum ten pieces of candy before the quiz begins, and with every incorrect answer, one piece of candy is removed from the pile. The results of this study show that participants in the bonus and penalty structure did not differ in performance levels or effort exerted. However, students with a higher preference for compensation in candy also had higher performance levels, but did not spend more time on the task. Participants also showed a preference to be compensated with candy

The Narrative of Black Athletes in the National Hockey League

Major league sports have existed in the United States since the 1920s; today we have four major league sports - the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer. All of these sports have changed drastically, especially their demographics. All throughout the 20th century, Black people had fought for rights, both in and out of sports. This paper explores the narrative of Black players in the National Hockey League. Factors such as, socioeconomic status, interest level, and racism look to explain why so few players in the NHL are Black

Neuropeptide FF and Neuropeptide VF and their control in the regulation of energy homeostasis and glucose metabolism

Despite the growing obesity epidemic and its adverse health effects, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, effective treatments are still missing. This is partly due to our insufficient understanding of the regulatory mechanisms underlying energy homeostasis. This work used transgenic and knockout mouse models combined with neuronal manipulation and pathway tracing to investigate the role of the Neuropeptide FF (NPFF) and Neuropeptide VF (NPVF) in the regulation of energy balance and glucose homeostasis. This study reveals that NPFF signalling plays important roles in fluid and glucose homeostasis, since Npff-/- mice exhibit an increased water intake and improved glucose tolerance, the latter being due to higher insulin responsiveness. Coherently, chemogenetic activation of brainstem NPFF neurons via DREADD technology impaired glucose tolerance, whereas inhibition improved it. In addition, the lack of NPFF signalling leads to a rise in energy expenditure and brown adipose tissue thermogenesis, however, shows impaired high fat diet-induced thermogenesis at thermoneutrality. Together this indicates a critical role of NPFF signalling in the thermos-sensory and dietary regulation of thermogenesis. Consistent with a role of NPFF in the control of energy metabolism, targeted stimulation of NPFF neurons induces a torpor-like state, characterized by strong hypothermia and hypometabolic reactions. Lack of NPVF shows strong gender-specific effects on glucose homeostasis and energy metabolism, such as providing protection against HFD-induced glucose intolerance in male mice. An exacerbated diet-induced obesity in Npvf-/- mice, attributable to reduced energy expenditure observed in females only, and/or higher food intake observed in both genders, suggests a role of NPVF signalling in the regulation of feeding and energy metabolism under positive energy balance. Furthermore, this work reveals important roles of both NPFF and NPVF signalling in the regulation of anxiety-related behaviours, since both Npff-/- and Npvf-/- mice exhibit reduced anxiety and more explorative behaviours in the open field and elevated plus maze test. Together, these findings reveal the NPFF and NPVF systems as potential targets for treating metabolic disorders and anxiety, with NPFF being particularly important for a possible induction of hypometablic and hypothermic states during surgical (brain) recovery or space engineerin

Cooperation in workplace-oriented literacy and basic education. Network and collective forms of action as a prerequisite for implementing "something new"

Um gering Literalisierte in der Arbeitswelt besser zu erreichen, bedarf es oft neuer Angebote und Formate wie auch neuer Formen der Zusammenarbeit mit unterschiedlichen Akteur*innen. Der vorliegende Beitrag nimmt netzwerkliche und gemeinschaftliche Formen des Handelns als Bedingung für die Realisierung des "Neuen" in den Blick, indem er an den Ansatz der Educational Governance anschließt. Empirische Grundlage ist eine qualitative Fallstudie im Feld der arbeitsorientierten Grundbildung in Deutschland, die die Zusammenarbeit der Akteur*innen zur Entwicklung neuer Angebote untersuchte. Aufgrund kurzfristiger Projektförderungen unter Druck stehend, suchen die Akteur*innen, so eines der Ergebnisse, nach vielfältigen Lösungen und vernetzen sich dabei aktiv. Sie sind überaus flexibel in der Sicherung ihres Angebots und netzwerken sowohl horizontal (mit konkurrierenden Anbieter*innen) als auch vertikal (z.B. mit Schulen, Vereinen außerhalb des Bildungsbereichs oder Betrieben). Sie entwickeln verschiedene Formate, um kollaborativ mit Akteur*innen aus der direkten Lebenswelt der gering Literalisierten (z.B. Schuldner*innenberatung, Sozialarbeit) das Feld weiterzuentwickeln. (DIPF/Orig.)To better reach functionally illiterate individuals in the workplace, new offerings and formats are required as well as new forms of cooperation with different stakeholders. This article examines network and collective forms of action as the prerequisite for implementing "something new" by following the approach of educational governance. The empirical basis is provided by a qualitative case study in the field of work-oriented basic education in Germany that investigated how stakeholders cooperated to develop new learning formats. One of the findings was that given the pressure they are under from short-term project funding, they look for sustainable solutions and actively network. They are extremely flexible in securing support for their offerings and network both horizontally (with competing providers) and vertically (e.g. with schools, organizations outside the field of education or businesses). They develop different formats to advance the field collaboratively with stakeholders directly associated with functionally illiterate individuals (e.g. debt advice services, social work). (DIPF/Orig.

Generating Instructions at Different Levels of Abstraction

When generating technical instructions, it is often convenient to describe complex objects in the world at different levels of abstraction. A novice user might need an object explained piece by piece, while for an expert, talking about the complex object (e.g. a wall or railing) directly may be more succinct and efficient. We show how to generate building instructions at different levels of abstraction in Minecraft. We introduce the use of hierarchical planning to this end, a method from AI planning which can capture the structure of complex objects neatly. A crowdsourcing evaluation shows that the choice of abstraction level matters to users, and that an abstraction strategy which balances low-level and high-level object descriptions compares favorably to ones which don't.Comment: Accepted COLING 2020 long pape

Human Folliculin Delays Cell Cycle Progression through Late S and G2/M-Phases: Effect of Phosphorylation and Tumor Associated Mutations

The Birt-Hogg-Dube disease occurs as a result of germline mutations in the human Folliculin gene (FLCN), and is characterized by clinical features including fibrofolliculomas, lung cysts and multifocal renal neoplasia. Clinical and genetic evidence suggest that FLCN acts as a tumor suppressor gene. The human cell line UOK257, derived from the renal cell carcinoma of a patient with a germline mutation in the FLCN gene, harbors a truncated version of the FLCN protein. Reconstitution of the wild type FLCN protein into UOK257 cells delays cell cycle progression, due to a slower progression through the late S and G2/M-phases. Similarly, Flcn–/– mouse embryonic fibroblasts progress more rapidly through the cell cycle than wild type controls (Flcnflox/flox). The reintroduction of tumor-associated FLCN mutants (FLCN ΔF157, FLCN 1–469 or FLCN K508R) fails to delay cell cycle progression in UOK257 cells. Additionally, FLCN phosphorylation (on Serines 62 and 73) fluctuates throughout the cell cycle and peaks during the G2/M phase in cells treated with nocodazole. In keeping with this observation, the reintroduction of a FLCN phosphomimetic mutant into the UOK257 cell line results in faster progression through the cell cycle compared to those expressing the wild type FLCN protein. These findings suggest that the tumor suppression function of FLCN may be linked to its impact on the cell cycle and that FLCN phosphorylation is important for this activity. Additionally, these observations describe a novel in vitro assay for testing the functional significance of FLCN mutations and/or genetic polymorphisms

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection in a young man - Case report

A 31 year old man with a 17-year-history of drug abuse (heroine and cannabis) was admitted with recurrent chest pain over a period of about three weeks. Chest discomfort severely worsened during the 5 hours before hospital admission. Electrocardiography revealed poor R-wave progression and non specific repolarization abnormalities. Echocardiography showed extensive left ventricular anterior and apical wall motion abnormalities and a ventricular thrombus located at the apex of the left ventricle was present. Subsequently, a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome was made. Coronary angiography revealed spontaneous coronary artery dissection of the left anterior descending (LAD) artery with Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow 2 to 3. We managed the patient conservatively. The clinical course was uneventful and repeated angiography on day 4 demonstrated spontaneous healing of large parts of the dissection with TIMI 3 flow in the LAD