“This is not a test”:How do human resource development professionals use personality tests as tools of their professional practice?

Although human resource development (HRD) professionals enjoy the use of personality tests in their practice, the appeal of these tests to some is harshly criticized by others. Personality tests attract through optimistic descriptions and ease of use for individual and team development while often lacking predictive and discriminant validities. Despite those concerns, the personality‐testing market can be characterized as a dynamic industry, with many professionals using assessments in developmental settings such as management training and executive coaching. The aim of this article is to explore how individual meaning‐making and organizational sensemaking theories help to explain the widespread and sustained use of personality tests in developmental contexts among HRD professionals. Using grounded theory and inductive analysis, we distill meaning from semistructured interviews with 18 HRD professionals. Through pattern analysis, we establish six strategies that describe practical approaches in personality testing: 1. Ethical‐protective, 2. Scientific‐selective, 3. Cautious‐avoiding, 4. Cautious‐embracing, 5. User friendly‐pragmatic, and 6. Knowledgeable‐accommodating. We find that HRD professionals deal with cognitive dissonances and paradoxical situations in their professional personality test use practice on a regular basis. Research limitations and implications for practice and future research are discussed

EEG microstate complexity for aiding early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease

This is the final version. Available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record. The dynamics of the resting brain exhibit transitions between a small number of discrete networks, each remaining stable for tens to hundreds of milliseconds. These functional microstates are thought to be the building blocks of spontaneous consciousness. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a useful tool for imaging microstates, and EEG microstate analysis can potentially give insight into altered brain dynamics underpinning cognitive impairment in disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Since EEG is non-invasive and relatively inexpensive, EEG microstates have the potential to be useful clinical tools for aiding early diagnosis of AD. In this study, EEG was collected from two independent cohorts of probable AD and cognitively healthy control participants, and a cohort of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients with four-year clinical follow-up. The microstate associated with the frontoparietal working-memory/attention network was altered in AD due to parietal inactivation. Using a novel measure of complexity, we found microstate transitioning was slower and less complex in AD. When combined with a spectral EEG measure, microstate complexity could classify AD with sensitivity and specificity > 80%, which was tested on an independent cohort, and could predict progression from MCI to AD in a small preliminary test cohort of 11 participants. EEG microstates therefore have potential to be a non-invasive functional biomarker of AD.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Wellcome TrustAlzheimer’s SocietyGarfield Weston FoundationUniversity of BristolUniversity of San Marino and IS

Density Contrast Sedimentation Velocity for the Determination of Protein Partial-Specific Volumes

The partial-specific volume of proteins is an important thermodynamic parameter required for the interpretation of data in several biophysical disciplines. Building on recent advances in the use of density variation sedimentation velocity analytical ultracentrifugation for the determination of macromolecular partial-specific volumes, we have explored a direct global modeling approach describing the sedimentation boundaries in different solvents with a joint differential sedimentation coefficient distribution. This takes full advantage of the influence of different macromolecular buoyancy on both the spread and the velocity of the sedimentation boundary. It should lend itself well to the study of interacting macromolecules and/or heterogeneous samples in microgram quantities. Model applications to three protein samples studied in either H2O, or isotopically enriched H218O mixtures, indicate that partial-specific volumes can be determined with a statistical precision of better than 0.5%, provided signal/noise ratios of 50–100 can be achieved in the measurement of the macromolecular sedimentation velocity profiles. The approach is implemented in the global modeling software SEDPHAT

Double peaked P1 visual evoked potentials in healthy ageing

Objectives To robustly examine the prevalence of the double peaked P1 visual evoked potential in healthy younger and older adult populations. Methods The evoked potentials and spectral power changes to simple visual stimuli of 26 healthy younger (M = 20.0 y) and 26 healthy older adults (M = 76.0 y) were examined. Results Group and individual analyses showed a clear effect of age on P1 morphology and amplitude. Older adults showed significantly lower P1 amplitude and 44% of older adults showed a double peaked P1 compared to 12% of younger adults. Double peaked P1 responses were associated with an increase in spectral power in the gamma range. Conclusions The double peaked P1 may be more prevalent in older adults than previously demonstrated and may represent a de-synchronisation of the cortical sources of the visual P1 in healthy ageing. Increased power in post stimulus gamma in the double peak group may be indicative of compensatory neural processing. Significance Clinically the prevalence of the double peaked P1 may have been underestimated, and its reflectance of demyelinating disease overestimated. Experimentally the results suggest that any investigation of visual processing in older adults must control for early changes in P1 morphology

A mobile application for improving the delivery process of notifications

At present, there are systems in charge of classifying and sending notifications to smart devices at different times. However, there are not many studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of these systems in real world settings. We propose a method that classifies and prioritizes notifications by analyzing only the content of the notification and the sender of the message. We also developed a system implementing this method. User diaries were used to analyze the behavior of the system in real world situations, and the results showed that the implemented system significantly reduces interruptions to users. Additionally, the user experience of the system was evaluated through the standardized questionnaire UEQ (User Experience Questionnaire). The results obtained were positive in most of the scales of this instrument, above the average according to UEQ benchmarks. However, aspects such as stimulation and creativity can be improved in the future to motivate users to use the system.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ingeniería::Facultad de Ingeniería::Escuela de Ciencias de la Computación e InformáticaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Sistema de Estudios de Posgrado::Ingenierí