Initial algebra for a system of right-linear functors

In 2003 we showed that right-linear systems of equations over regular expressions, when interpreted in a category of trees, have a solution when ever they enjoy a specific property that we called hierarchicity and that is instrumental to avoid critical mutual recursive definitions. In this note, we prove that a right-linear system of polynomial endofunctors on a cocartesian monoidal closed category which enjoys parameterized left list arithmeticity, has an initial algebra, provided it satisfies a property similar to hierarchicity

THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL LIFE EXPERIENCES ON THE EXPECTATIONS, ASPIRATIONS, AND DEFINITION OF SUCCESS OF HISPANIC IMMIGRANT PARENTS FOR THEIR CHILDREN

The Hispanic population has become the fastest growing minority population in the United States. Hispanics have the highest high school dropout rate of all demographic groups accounted for in the United States in the most recent census. Reflecting on the import of those two factors and the changing demographics of our school populations across the United States it is imperative to consider the expectations and aspirations held by Hispanic immigrant parents for their children. This qualitative study explored through case studies the development of parent expectations and aspirations, and the influence of the parents’ own personal life experiences, particularly in their own education, on those expectations and aspirations. This study further explored the meaning of “success” through the lens of Hispanic immigrants and how that definition transferred to the children of the parents within this study. The purpose of this study was to give opportunity for the personal experiences of Hispanic immigrant parents to be heard as they shared their personal perspectives of the wishes and dreams that they hold for their US born or next generation children and the influence that their own personal experiences have had on their perspectives. Data indicated that personal life experiences of participants had a significant effect on the way in which expectations and aspirations are developed and communicated to their children in schools in the United States as well as the ways in which success was identified. Cultural environment and conditions of chronic poverty played an important role in the development of participants’ identities. The development of personal identity and self-concept in turn influenced the ways in which participants identified expectations and aspirations for their children. Personal identity and self-concept additionally influenced the manner in which participants defined success. The findings of this research show that participants identified academic attainment as an expectation and aspiration for their children. Participants viewed academic attainment as a path to a better quality of life but defined academic attainment in multiple ways such as, attend college, earn degrees, and have careers. In contrast, some participants described academic attainment as “study.” This may be explained by the significant differences in educational systems in Latin American and Caribbean countries and the United States. This may also be reflective of the conditions of chronic poverty participants reported living in. Participants also expressed having limited opportunities in their countries of origin. Theories of identity discuss the importance of the availability of opportunities throughout the stage of adolescence and the ability to successfully negotiate crisis during this time as critical in the development of identity and ego development. Participants who have not had these experiences in their home countries may face challenges when supporting their children through exploration of opportunities particularly in adolescence. These challenges may be present because parents have not had the personal experience of navigating through adolescent exploration or because this may be in contrast to cultural beliefs. This research indicates that it is imperative for community agencies, particularly schools, to understand the influence of personal life experiences of Hispanic immigrant parents. Environments of respect for and understanding of culture must be in place to encourage the involvement of Hispanic immigrant parents. Through this research it becomes evident that parents who have had lower levels of academic attainment and/or academic success and may or may not have successfully negotiated resolutions to crisis in developmental stages may need opportunities to gain success through school or community-based activities of their choosing. It is crucial that immigrant parents are given a voice in the type of opportunities offered to them to provide support in the highest degrees. Opportunities cannot be offered based on what the dominant culture or structures deem to be the need. Bringing immigrant adults together to learn, particularly skills related to the success of their children, supports the building of community, personal pride, and leadership, further fostering the development of self-esteem and self-efficacy

Telling It Like It Is: Oral Presentations and Peer Assessment for Business Law Students

As academics, we are constantly encouraged to devise assessment tasks that engage students. Much research has been conducted into devising assessment that is for learning, rather than of learning. In three business law units over the past three years, one assessment task that has been utilised is that of an oral presentation which is assessed by the presenter’s peers, and in some cases, by the tutor as well. One of the reasons this method of assessment was chosen was that having to assess your peers and be assessed by them is a realistic mode of assessment since in working environments, many of us have to present in a group and may be assessed, formally or informally, by our peers. Assessing someone else can also be one of the best ways of learning about ourselves. This paper reflects on the research with regard to peer assessment as both a formative and a summative assessment tool. It observes how the peer assessment tasks in Curtin Law School have been informed by research, and concludes that overall, peer assessment is positive for student learning, provided that it is utilised within certain well-defined parameters. It is hoped that this paper will lead to further investigation into developing a peer assessment approach that can be applied to engage students across many disciplines

Mixture of Topic Modeling and Network Analysis. The case-study of climate change on Twitter

The paper proposes a semi-automatic labeling of topics extracted with a Topic Model using the tools of Social Network Analysis. The aim is to attach a label to every topic studying the terms-topics network structure. This method performs a semi-automatic topics labelling by using Latent Dirichlet Allocation model, integrating the network approach with topic generative model. LDA allows to extract latent topics and Social Network Analysis' tools permit to delineate the neighborhood of each topic, fostering a stronger interpretation of the meanings of the topics through the analysis of the extracted topics and documents' terms. To better show the joint use of Topic Model and Network Analysis, we present a case-study of how young people feel the climate change through the messages of user @Fridays4future extracted by International Fridays For Future Twitter account

3-Way Doherty Power Amplifiers: Design Guidelines and MMIC Implementation at 28 GHz

This article presents the design strategy and the implementation of a three-way Doherty power amplifier (DPA3W) to enhance the efficiency at deep power back-off. Theoretical design equations are derived, based on which design charts are drawn to explore the available design space, accounting for practical constraints related to the available technology and selected application. The proposed design strategy is demonstrated by the design, fabrication and experimental characterization of a three-way multistage Doherty amplifier optimized for efficiency peaks at 6 and 12 dB back-off. The amplifier is realized on the WIN Semiconductors 150 nm GaN-SiC high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) monolithic process at 28 GHz, targeting 5G applications. The prototype achieves saturated output power in excess of 34 dBm and power added efficiency of the order of 15% from 6 to 12 dB back-off, demonstrating competitive performance and a good agreement between simulations and measurements, thus validating the approach

Knowledge Transfer in Doctoral Education During the Pandemic Time: An Exploratory Study of the PhD Students’ Experiences

The research aims to explore how PhD students interacted with professors and peers and transferred knowledge during pandemic time. We firstly aim to provide an overview of communication media used by students, as well as to classify them for different kinds, social presence, and media richness. Furthermore, our research also aims to explore how doctoral students took their courses by interacting with professors and with peers, in terms of learning (KT) and social exchange relations (LMX, TMX, POS), through online learning platforms and communication media. We conducted exploratory research on 25 PhD students from 5 Italian PhD Programs in ‘economic and statistical sciences’ area. Data was collected through (a) the focus group interview with PhD students for collecting their opinions and experiences on the usage of media for communicating with professors and peers and (b) an online questionnaire aimed to measure their experiences or perceptions on technology usage and social relations. Results shown that PhD students used e-learning platform for communicating with peers and professors, so developing good social relations -even at a distance- which have encouraged knowledge transfer among them

Disentangling capabilities for industry 4.0 - an information systems capability perspective

Digital technologies revolutionise the manufacturing industry by connecting the physical and digital worlds. The resulting paradigm shift, referred to as Industry 4.0, impacts manufacturing processes and business models. While the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of Industry 4.0 have been extensively researched, the ‘how’ remains poorly understood. Manufacturers struggle with exploiting Industry 4.0’s full potential as a holistic understanding of required Information Systems (IS) capabilities is missing. To foster such understanding, we present a holistic IS capability framework for Industry 4.0, including primary and support capabilities. After developing the framework based on a structured literature review, we refined and evaluated it with ten Industry 4.0 experts from research and practice. We demonstrated its use with a German machinery manufacturer. In sum, we contribute to understanding and analysing IS capabilities for Industry 4.0. Our work serves as a foundation for further theorising on Industry 4.0 and for deriving theory-led design recommendations for manufacturers

Spider surgical system versus multiport laparoscopic surgery. Performance comparison on a surgical simulator

BACKGROUND: The rising interest towards minimally invasive surgery has led to the introduction of laparo-endoscopic single site (LESS) surgery as the natural evolution of conventional multiport laparoscopy. However, this new surgical approach is hampered with peculiar technical difficulties. The SPIDER surgical system has been developed in the attempt to overcome some of these challenges. Our study aimed to compare standard laparoscopy and SPIDER technical performance on a surgical simulator, using standardized tasks from the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS). METHODS: Twenty participants were divided into two groups based on their surgical laparoscopic experience: 10 PGY1 residents were included in the inexperienced group and 10 laparoscopists in the experienced group. Participants performed the FLS pegboard transfers task and pattern cutting task on a laparoscopic box trainer. Objective task scores and subjective questionnaire rating scales were used to compare conventional laparoscopy and SPIDER surgical system. RESULTS: Both groups performed significantly better in the FLS scores on the standard laparoscopic simulator compared to the SPIDER. Inexperienced group: Task 1 scores (median 252.5 vs. 228.5; p = 0.007); Task 2 scores (median 270.5 vs. 219.0; p = 0.005). Experienced group: Task 1 scores (median 411.5 vs. 309.5; p = 0.005); Task 2 scores (median 418.0 vs. 331.5; p = 0.007). Same aspects were highlighted for the subjective evaluations, except for the inexperienced surgeons who found both devices equivalent in terms of ease of use only in the peg transfer task. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the SPIDER is an innovative and promising device, our study proved that it is more challenging than conventional laparoscopy in a population with different degrees of surgical experience. We presume that a possible way to overcome such challenges could be the development of tailored training programs through simulation methods. This may represent an effective way to deliver training, achieve mastery and skills and prepare surgeons for their future clinical experience

Fear of COVID-19, depression, anxiety, and their association with Internet addiction disorder in a sample of Italian students

Abstract Background The 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a worldwide lockdown which has obliged people to stay confined at home, often resulting in social distancing measures and isolation, which can lead to mental health problems as well as to specific Internet-use disorders. This study aims to investigate fear of COVID-19, anxiety, and depression symptoms, and their impact on Internet addiction disorder, modeled as intrapersonal conflicts and interpersonal conflicts, during the COVID-19 epidemic. Method An online questionnaire was administered to 454 Italian students during the first national lockdown. All the recruited participants completed measures including the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (DASS-21 ), Fear of COVID-19, and Internet addiction . Results The results of the present study demonstrated that fear of COVID-19 was associated with Internet addiction disorder, and fear of COVID-19 mediated the relationship between anxiety and Internet addiction disorder. Finally, controlling for covariates (age and gender), fear of COVID-19 was linked to Internet addiction disorder. Limitations Limitations include the cross-sectional research design and reliance on data exclusively from Italy. Conclusions Results are discussed in the framework of the Interaction-Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) conceptualization of affective and cognitive responses as strategies for explicating the psycho-pathology of excessive Internet use

Digital (Re)Evolution In An Italian Public Administration: Some Implications In Pandemic Era

Nowadays, the COVID-19 pandemic condition has generated an acceleration of change in public administration. The challenges around the COVID‐19 pandemic have further spurred public organizations into action by increasing their awareness of the need to accelerate digital transformation. The digital revolution in public administration is defined as e-government . The context of public administration appears to be increasingly complex and requires skills able to better manage the digital transformation under-way. The role of the Human Resources Manager, in this particular historical phase, in which the work is digitalized, is transformed. The figure of the Human Resources Manager (HR Manager) overlaps with that of the Chief Digital Officier (CDO). In recent years, the role of the Chief Digital Officer has emerged and attracted scholars’ attention. However, the role of the CDO is still in its nascent and not well-defined stages, the role means different things for different organizations. On this basis, the main objective of the research is understanding if the HR manager is also a CDO in this historical phase in public organizations; trying to understand if the CDO is going to play the role of change agent in these organizations. This study is based on qualitative analysis