Conscientiousness as a Mediator of Caffeine Use and Academic Performance

Academic performance (AP) is of primary importance to undergraduate students because it is related to future economic and occupational success. Therefore, it is not surprising that students want to maximize their GPA, a common measure of AP. This study used a survey model to investigate the relationships among caffeine use (CU), conscientiousness (CN), and AP. Specifically, it was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between CU and GPA, CU and CN, and CN and GPA. In addition, CN was believed to be a mediating variable in the CU-GPA relationship. Analysis of the results revealed that the only significant relationship was the positive correlation between CN and GPA. Additional analyses were performed investigating CU and time-consuming activities. These variables were successfully entered into a model to predict AP. Upon entering CN into this relationship, many of the variables were reduced to nonsignificance. Therefore, students who are low on CN must pay attention to how they spend their time if they want to do well academically because time management may not come naturally to them. Future research should consider using more direct measures and a larger sample size in an attempt to investigate the relationships between the variables

On the gap structure of UPt3_3: phases A and B

We have used thermal conduction and transverse sound attenuation to probe the anisotropy of the gap structure in two superconducting phases of UPt$_3$. For the low-temperature phase B, transverse sound has in the past provided strong evidence for a line node in the basal plane. Now, from the anisotropy of the thermal conductivity we further establish the presence of a node along the c-axis and provide information on its k-dependence. For the largely unexplored high-temperature phase A, our study of the attenuation for two directions of the polarization yields directional information on the quasiparticle spectrum, and the first clear indication of a different gap structure in the two phases.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to appear in proceedings of SCES9

Nanodroplet Impact on Solid Platinum Surface: Spreading and Bouncing

Video of argon nanodroplet impacting onto wetting and non-wetting surface. This video was submitted as part of the Gallery of Fluid Motion 2009 which is showcase of fluid dynamics videos.Comment: 2 pages, 2 linked animations/video

Does the recent evolution of Canadian mortality agree with the epidemiologic transition theory?

After studying the epidemiologic transition’s situation in Canada, it is determined that the delimitation of temporal stages within the epidemiologic transition as put forward by Omran (1971, 1998), Olshansky and Ault (1986), Rogers and Hackenberg (1987) and Olshansky et al. (1998) does not suit the Canadian evolution. Many of the researchers’ postulates on the epidemiologic transition were not confirmed, which leads us to assert that, since 1958, the epidemiologic transition is best described as an evolution process rather than specific stages confined within time limits.Canada, causes of death, chronic diseases, epidemiologic transition, mortality, new variants of the theory