Transient analysis using conical shell elements

The use of the NASTRAN conical shell element in static, eigenvalue, and direct transient analyses is demonstrated. The results of a NASTRAN static solution of an externally pressurized ring-stiffened cylinder agree well with a theoretical discontinuity analysis. Good agreement is also obtained between the NASTRAN direct transient response of a uniform cylinder to a dynamic end load and one-dimensional solutions obtained using a method of characteristics stress wave code and a standing wave solution. Finally, a NASTRAN eigenvalue analysis is performed on a hydroballistic model idealized with conical shell elements

Linear Response Calculations of Lattice Dynamics in Strongly Correlated Systems

We introduce a new linear response method to study the lattice dynamics of materials with strong correlations. It is based on a combination of dynamical mean field theory of strongly correlated electrons and the local density functional theory of electronic structure of solids. We apply the method to study the phonon dispersions of a prototype Mott insulator NiO. Our results show overall much better agreement with experiment than the corresponding local density predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Researcher Degrees of Freedom in the Psychology of Religion

There is a push in psychology toward more transparent practices, stemming partially as a response to the replication crisis. We argue that the psychology of religion should help lead the way toward these new, more transparent practices to ensure a robust and dynamic subfield. One of the major issues that proponents of Open Science practices hope to address is researcher degrees of freedom (RDF). We pre-registered and conducted a systematic review of the 2017 issues from three psychology of religion journals. We aimed to identify the extent to which the psychology of religion has embraced Open Science practices and the role of RDF within the subfield. We found that many of the methodologies that help to increase transparency, such as pre-registration, have yet to be adopted by those in the subfield. In light of these findings, we present recommendations for addressing the issue of transparency in the psychology of religion and outline how to move toward these new Open Science practices

Can we continue research in splenectomized dogs? Mycoplasma haemocanis: Old problem - New insight

We report the appearance of a Mycoplasma haemocanis infection in laboratory dogs, which has been reported previously, yet, never before in Europe. Outbreak of the disease was triggered by a splenectomy intended to prepare the dogs for a hemorrhagic shock study. The clinical course of the dogs was dramatic including anorexia and hemolytic anemia. Treatment included allogeneic transfusion, prednisone, and oxytetracycline. Systematic follow-up (n=12, blood smears, antibody testing and specific polymerase chain reaction) gives clear evidence that persistent eradication of M. haemocanis is unlikely. We, therefore, had to abandon the intended shock study. In the absence of effective surveillance and screening for M. haemocanis, the question arises whether it is prudent to continue shock research in splenectomized dogs. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Initial evidence for the criterion-related and structural validity of the long versions of the direct and meta-perspectives of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 Taylor & Francis.The aim of the present study was to develop and initially validate a longer version of the direct (Jowett & Ntoumanis, 2004) and meta-perspectives (Jowett, 2009a, 2009b) of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (CART-Q). In Study 1, instruments (e.g. questionnaires, scales, and inventories) that have been used to assess relationship quality in the broader psychological literature were examined and items potentially relevant to the coach-athlete relationship were identified. The content validity of the identified items was then assessed using expert panels. A final questionnaire was subsequently prepared and administered to 693 participants (310 coaches and 383 athletes). Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to assess the multidimensional nature of the questionnaire based on the 3Cs (i.e. closeness, commitment, and complementarity) model of the coach-athlete relationship. The findings indicated that the direct and meta-perspective items of the long versions of the CART-Q approached an adequate data fit. Moreover, evidence for the internal consistency and criterion validity of the new instruments was also obtained. In Study 2, the newly developed measure was administered to an independent sample of 251 individuals (145 athletes and 106 coaches). Further statistical support was gained for the factorial validity and reliability of the longer version of the CART-Q

Experts' Judgments of Management Journal Quality:An Identity Concerns Model

Many lists that purport to gauge the quality of journals in management and organization studies (MOS) are based on the judgments of experts in the field. This article develops an identity concerns model (ICM) that suggests that such judgments are likely to be shaped by the personal and social identities of evaluators. The model was tested in a study in which 168 editorial board members rated 44 MOS journals. In line with the ICM, respondents rated journal quality more highly to the extent that a given journal reflected their personal concerns (associated with having published more articles in that journal) and the concerns of a relevant ingroup (associated with membership of the journal’s editorial board or a particular disciplinary or geographical background). However, judges’ ratings of journals in which they had published were more favorable when those journals had a low-quality reputation, and their ratings of journals that reflected their geographical and disciplinary affiliations were more favorable when those journals had a high-quality reputation. The findings are thus consistent with the view that identity concerns come to the fore in journal ratings when there is either a need to protect against personal identity threat or a meaningful opportunity to promote social identity

Nudging Cooperation in a Crowd Experiment

We examine the hypothesis that driven by a competition heuristic, people don't even reflect or consider whether a cooperation strategy may be better. As a paradigmatic example of this behavior we propose the zero-sum game fallacy, according to which people believe that resources are fixed even when they are not. We demonstrate that people only cooperate if the competitive heuristic is explicitly overridden in an experiment in which participants play two rounds of a game in which competition is suboptimal. The observed spontaneous behavior for most players was to compete. Then participants were explicitly reminded that the competing strategy may not be optimal. This minor intervention boosted cooperation, implying that competition does not result from lack of trust or willingness to cooperate but instead from the inability to inhibit the competition bias. This activity was performed in a controlled laboratory setting and also as a crowd experiment. Understanding the psychological underpinnings of these behaviors may help us improve cooperation and thus may have vast practical consequences to our society.Fil: Niella, Tamara. Universidad Torcuato di Tella; ArgentinaFil: Stier, Nicolas. Universidad Torcuato di Tella; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Sigman, Mariano. Universidad Torcuato di Tella; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

The power of PISA – limitations and possibilities for educational research

On 6th December 2016, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) releases its report on the achievements of 15-year-olds from 72 countries and economies around the world. This triennial international survey aims to evaluate education systems across 72 contexts by testing skills in Mathematics, Science and Reading Literacy. This is the sixth cycle of PISA and the OECD suggests countries and economies now have the capability to compare the results over time to ‘assess the impact of education policy decisions’ . Compared to other education studies, the media coverage of PISA must be described as massive (Meyer and Benavot, 2013, Baird et al., 2016) and, as with previous years, it is expected that PISA will attract considerable discussion among policy makers, educators and researchers (Wiseman, 2014). It is therefore timely to present a thematic issue of Assessment in Education, where we publish four articles that have analysed previous datasets from the PISA studies each commenting upon the challenges, limitations and potential future assessment research on the PISA data. The articles touch upon issues regarding sampling, language, item difficulty and demands, as well as the secondary analyses of students’ reported experiences of formative assessment in the classroom. One important message from the authors in this thematic Special Issue is the need for a more complex discussion around the use and misuse of PISA data, and the importance of pointing to the limitations of how the results are presented to policy makers and the public. In an area where the media produces narratives on schools and education systems based upon rankings in PISA, researchers in the field of large-scale assessment studies have a particularly important role in stepping up and advising on how to interpret and understand these studies, while warning against potential misuse. </p

Implementation of the Projector Augmented Wave LDA+U Method: Application to the Electronic Structure of NiO

The so-called local density approximation plus the multi-orbital mean-field Hubbard model (LDA+U) has been implemented within the all-electron projector augmented-wave method (PAW), and then used to compute the insulating antiferromagnetic ground state of NiO and its optical properties. The electronic and optical properties have been investigated as a function of the Coulomb repulsion parameter U. We find that the value obtained from constrained LDA (U=8 eV) is not the best possible choice, whereas an intermediate value (U=5 eV) reproduces the experimental magnetic moment and optical properties satisfactorily. At intermediate U, the nature of the band gap is a mixture of charge transfer and Mott-Hubbard type, and becomes almost purely of the charge-transfer type at higher values of U. This is due to the enhancement of the oxygen 2p states near the top of the valence states with increasing U value.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The antimicrobial polymer PHMB enters cells and selectively condenses bacterial chromosomes

To combat infection and antimicrobial resistance, it is helpful to elucidate drug mechanism(s) of action. Here we examined how the widely used antimicrobial polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) kills bacteria selectively over host cells. Contrary to the accepted model of microbial membrane disruption by PHMB, we observed cell entry into a range of bacterial species, and treated bacteria displayed cell division arrest and chromosome condensation, suggesting DNA binding as an alternative antimicrobial mechanism. A DNA-level mechanism was confirmed by observations that PHMB formed nanoparticles when mixed with isolated bacterial chromosomal DNA and its effects on growth were suppressed by pairwise combination with the DNA binding ligand Hoechst 33258. PHMB also entered mammalian cells, but was trapped within endosomes and excluded from nuclei. Therefore, PHMB displays differential access to bacterial and mammalian cellular DNA and selectively binds and condenses bacterial chromosomes. Because acquired resistance to PHMB has not been reported, selective chromosome condensation provides an unanticipated paradigm for antimicrobial action that may not succumb to resistance