Psychological Distress and Behavioral Vigilance in Response to Minority Stress and Threat among Members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Stigmatization, hostility, and violence towards the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community have increased sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to conduct research to promote understanding of the effects of such stigmatization on the AAPI community. Accordingly, the present study used a combined minority stress and integrated threat framework to examine whether factors related to AAPI identity would moderate the relationship between stigmatization/threat associated with AAPI identity and increased psychological distress and behavioral vigilance. AAPI individuals were recruited online from both Turk Prime and Reddit and completed measures of perceived stigmatization; integrated threat; depression, anxiety, and stress; and behavioral vigilance. Perceptions of stigmatization and threat predicted relevant outcomes both as individual predictors and in multivariate analyses. However, factors relating to the strength of AAPI identification did not moderate the effects of stigmatization and threat on psychological distress and behavioral vigilance, which is a result that failed to support this aspect of the broader conceptual model on which this project was based. Instead, these proposed moderators were themselves predicted by stigmatization and threat variables. The implications of these findings for effective interventions to alleviate the negative consequences of anti-Asian stigmatization are discussed

Research on Automatic Program Generation

Automatic Program Generation Research has been conducted under Contract N00014-67-A-0216-0014, since 1971. The objective of the research has been to provide software generation directly from user specifications. Initially, the research concentrated on a specific application, of generating file conversion programs. A first report on this subject was authored by Diane Pirog Smith, in December 1971, titled, An Approach to Data Description and Conversion . Subsequently, a software system for automating this function was implemented by Jesus A. Ramirez and described by him in a report titled, Automatic Generation of data conversion-programs Using A Data Description Language (DIL) . Currently, the objective of the research has been broadened to develop a user language and a software system for automatic generation of business oriented programs. This technical report contains a collection of three papers intended to summarize the results of past research and the direction of current research. The first paper, by Ramirez, Rin and Prywes is a summmary of Dr. Ramirez\u27s report and dissertation cited above. The second paper, titled, An Overview of a System for Automatic Generation of File Conversion Programs by. N. Adam Rin and Maxine Brown is intended to provide a more user oriented view based on their experience in utilization of the system developed by Ramirez. There have been many research activities and a large number of papers in this area. The third paper, Automatic Generation of Software Systems: A Survey, by N. Prywes serves to relate the research underway at the University of Pennsylvania, to the many recent and current activities in this field. It also aims to clearly define short and long term objectives and methodologies

College students’ motivational beliefs and use of goal-oriented control strategies : Integrating two theories of motivated behavior

In college, students often encounter situations in which they struggle to meet their academic goals in difficult courses. We integrate the Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development and Situated Expectancy-Value Theory to investigate how motivational beliefs and experiences in a difficult course predict the use of goal engagement oriented and goal adjustment oriented control strategies that can help students stay engaged in challenging courses. We used survey data collected in two academic quarters at a public university in the U.S. (N = 231). Students who perceived their midterm exam as more difficult than expected and students with higher course-specific subjective task values reported using more goal engagement oriented and goal adjustment oriented control strategies. Students with higher course-specific ability beliefs were less likely to use goal adjustment strategies. Results further showed that students planned to use control strategies depending on their experienced setbacks or success in exams. Findings provide important insights into how motivational orientations and course experiences relate to adaptive and goal-oriented behavior in college courses

College Students’ motivational beliefs and use of goal-oriented control strategies: Integrating two theories of motivated behavior

In college, students often encounter situations in which they struggle to meet their academic goals in difficult courses. We integrate the Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development and Situated Expectancy-Value Theory to investigate how motivational beliefs and experiences in a difficult course predict the use of goal engagement oriented and goal adjustment oriented control strategies that can help students stay engaged in challenging courses. We used survey data collected in two academic quarters at a public university in the U.S. (N = 231). Students who perceived their midterm exam as more difficult than expected and students with higher course-specific subjective task values reported using more goal engagement oriented and goal adjustment oriented control strategies. Students with higher course-specific ability beliefs were less likely to use goal adjustment strategies. Results further showed that students planned to use control strategies depending on their experienced setbacks or success in exams. Findings provide important insights into how motivational orientations and course experiences relate to adaptive and goal-oriented behavior in college courses

A deficit of spatial remapping in constructional apraxia after right-hemisphere stroke

This Article is provided by the Brunel Open Access Publising Fund - Copyright @ 2010 Oxford University PressConstructional apraxia refers to the inability of patients to copy accurately drawings or three-dimensional constructions. It is a common disorder after right parietal stroke, often persisting after initial problems such as visuospatial neglect have resolved. However, there has been very little experimental investigation regarding mechanisms that might contribute to the syndrome. Here, we examined whether a key deficit might be failure to integrate visual information correctly from one fixation to the next. Specifically, we tested whether this deficit might concern remapping of spatial locations across saccades. Right-hemisphere stroke patients with constructional apraxia were compared to patients without constructional problems and neurologically healthy controls. Participants judged whether a pattern shifted position (spatial task) or changed in pattern (non-spatial task) across two saccades, compared to a control condition with an equivalent delay but without intervening eye movements. Patients with constructional apraxia were found to be significantly impaired in position judgements with intervening saccades, particularly when the first saccade of the sequence was to the right. The importance of these remapping deficits in constructional apraxia was confirmed through a highly significant correlation between saccade task performance and constructional impairment on standard neuropsychological tasks. A second study revealed that even single saccades to the right can impair constructional apraxia patients’ perception of location shifts. These data are consistent with the view that rightward eye movements result in loss of remembered spatial information from previous fixations, presumably due to constructional apraxia patients’ damage to the right-hemisphere regions involved in remapping locations across saccades. These findings provide the first evidence for a deficit in remapping visual information across saccades underlying right-hemisphere constructional apraxia.European Commission Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (011457 to C.R.) and a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship (to M.H.)

Modernisasi UMKM Berbasis Digital Marketing Pada Kelurahan Sukaramai, Pekanbaru

Perkembangan Teknologi mengubah cara hidup masyarakat. Termasuk cara berdagang yang harus mengikuti kebutuhan konsumen. Konsumen cenderung memanfaatkan teknologi informasi dalam berbelanja. Warga Kelurahan Sukaramai rata-rata merupakan pedagang kelas mikro sampai menengah terkhususnya di bidang pangan. Namun, usaha yang dijalani oleh para pedagang ini masih berbasis berdagang di tempat dan belum terbuka di dalam jaringan. Pengabdian ini bertujuan untuk membantu modernisasi usaha mikro kecil menengah pedagang di Kelurahan Sukaramai dari bentuk tradisional ke dalam bentuk Digital Marketing. Metode penelitian yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah metode pelatihan langsung dengan dua tahap yaitu tahapan persiapan dan tahap pelaksanaan. Pelaksanaan kegiatan ini memberikan dampak yang positif bagi masyarakat Kelurahan Sukaramai khususnya bagi para pedagang

Comparative diagnostic performance of rapid antigen detection tests for COVID-19 in a hospital setting

Background: The availability of accurate and rapid diagnostic tools for COVID-19 is essential for tackling the ongoing pandemic. Our study aimed to quantify the performance of available antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) in a real-world hospital setting. Methods: In this retrospective analysis, the diagnostic performance of 7 Ag-RDTs was compared with real-time reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay in terms of sensitivity, specificity and expected predictive values. Results: A total of 321 matched Ag-RDTreal-time reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction samples were analyzed retrospectively. The overall sensitivity and specificity of the Ag-RDTs was 78.7% and 100%, respectively. However, a wide range of sensitivity estimates by brand (66.0%–93.8%) and cycle threshold (Ct) cut-off values (Ct <25: 96.2%; Ct 30–35: 31.1%) was observed. The optimal Ct cut-off value that maximized sensitivity was 29. Conclusions: The routine use of Ag-RDTs may be convenient in moderate-to-high intensity settings when high volumes of specimens are tested every day. However, the diagnostic performance of the commercially available tests may differ substantially

Business experience and start-up size: buying more lottery tickets next time around?

This paper explores the determinants of start-up size by focusing on a cohort of 6247 businesses that started trading in 2004, using a unique dataset on customer records at Barclays Bank. Quantile regressions show that prior business experience is significantly related with start-up size, as are a number of other variables such as age, education and bank account activity. Quantile treatment effects (QTE) estimates show similar results, with the effect of business experience on (log) start-up size being roughly constant across the quantiles. Prior personal business experience leads to an increase in expected start-up size of about 50%. Instrumental variable QTE estimates are even higher, although there are concerns about the validity of the instrument