Relationships among perceived stress, trait anger, modes of anger expression and health status of college men and women

Relationships among perceived stress, trait anger (general propensity to become angry), modes of anger expression, and health status were examined in a sample of 720 college students, using Caplan\u27s conceptualization of stress as the study\u27s framework. Propensity toward anger was assessed by the 10-item form of the Trait Anger Scale (Spielberger et al.), modes of anger expression were assessed by the Framingham Anger Scales, perceived stress was operationalized by the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, and Mermelstein), and current health status was assessed by Ware\u27s 9-item Current Health Scale. As hypothesized, stress was a positive correlate of trait anger and all four modes of anger expression. To clarify the relative contributions of anger and stress to the variance in current health status, stepwise regression analyses were used. Trait anger, anger-in and anger-out failed to meet inclusion criteria. The final model explained 14% of the variance in health status with three variables: perceived stress, anger-discuss, and anger symptoms. Thus, trait anger was not as important to health as were the modes chosen to express anger after its arousal by stressful events. Discussion of anger appeared to be a health-promoting expression mode, while expressing anger through somatic symptoms was inversely related to health

The Development of a Naturalistic Self-Management Inventory

The most common approach to self-management research has been to apply it to a specific target behavior, without attending to the generalizability of changes to other facets of one\u27s life. A procedure for measuring self-management effectiveness under real world conditions was developed which emphasized the successful application of self-change procedures. The Self-Description Form (SDF) was field-tested on a sample of four groups of college students (N=214). Results indicated that normative self-management scores increased as level of education increased. Females had higher self-management scores than males except on the leisure scale. The reliability of the self-description scale was confirmed although validity efforts are still in the preliminary stages of analysis. When fully developed, the form may be useful in evaluating counseling and educational programs and in predicting an individual\u27s future effectiveness in leisure, health, social and work activities. Several tables and figures are provided to illustrate SDF reliability and validity

A framework for understanding the factors influencing pair programming success

Pair programming is one of the more controversial aspects of several Agile system development methods, in particular eXtreme Programming (XP). Various studies have assessed factors that either drive the success or suggest advantages (and disadvantages) of pair programming. In this exploratory study the literature on pair programming is examined and factors distilled. These factors are then compared and contrasted with those discovered in our recent Delphi study of pair programming. Gallis et al. (2003) have proposed an initial framework aimed at providing a comprehensive identification of the major factors impacting team programming situations including pair programming. However, this study demonstrates that the framework should be extended to include an additional category of factors that relate to organizational matters. These factors will be further refined, and used to develop and empirically evaluate a conceptual model of pair programming (success)

Reliability of functional outcome measures in adults with neurofibromatosis 1

Objectives: To determine intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of functional outcome measures in adults with neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) and to ascertain how closely objective and subjective measures align. Methods: Forty-nine ambulant adults with NF1 aged 16 years and over were included in this observational study. Median age 31 years (range 16-66), 29 females, 20 males. Participants were video-recorded or photographed performing four functional outcome measures. Four raters from the Neurofibromatosis centre multi-disciplinary team independently scored the measures to determine inter-rater reliability. One rater scored the measures a second time on a separate occasion to determine intra-rater reliability. The measures evaluated were the functional reach, timed up and go, ten metre walk and a modified nine-hole peg tests. Participants also completed a disease specific quality of life questionnaire (INF1-QOL). Results: Inter-rater reliability and intra-rater reliability scores (intra-class coefficient, ICC) were similar for each outcome measure. Excellent rater agreement (ICC r ≥ 0.9) was found for the functional reach, timed up and go and the 10 metre walk tests. Rater agreement was good for the modified 9-hole peg test; ICC r= 0.75 for intra-rater reliability and 0.76 for inter-rater reliability. The timed up and go and the 10 metre walk tests correlated highly with perceived mobility challenges in the quality of life questionnaire (INF1-QOL). Conclusions: The functional reach, timed up and go and 10 metre walk tests are potentially useful outcome measures for monitoring NF1 treatment and will be assessed for validity and reliability in future multi-centre studies

Evaluation of African-bred maize germplasm lines for resistance to aflatoxin accumulation

Aflatoxins, produced by the fungus Aspergillus flavus, contaminate maize grain and threaten human food and feed safety. Plant resistance is considered the best strategy for reducing aflatoxin accumulation. Six maize germplasm lines, TZAR101–TZAR106, were released by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture-Southern Regional Research Center (IITA-SRRC) maize breeding collaboration for use in African National Programs and U.S. maize breeding programs. The present investigation was conducted to evaluate aflatoxin reduction by these lines in a U.S. environment. As germplasm lines, resistance was demonstrated by the lines tested in 2010 and 2014 trials. In 2010, TZAR106 was among the lines with the lowest toxin accumulation, and in 2014, along with TZAR102, supported low aflatoxin. When evaluated as single cross hybrids in 2012, 2013 and 2014, several crosses involving IITA-SRRC lines accumulated low toxin. In 2012, TZAR103 × HBA1 was one of 4 lines with the lowest concentration of aflatoxin. In 2014, five IITA-SRRC hybrids were among the lowest with TZAR102 × Va35 and TZAR102 × LH132 being the two lowest. Results demonstrate significant aflatoxin reduction by IITA-SRRC lines in a U.S. aflatoxin-conducive environment (at Mississippi State University). Further testing in different locations and environments is needed to further evaluate the potential usefulness of these germplasm lines

Universal Behaviour of Metal-Insulator Transitions in the p-SiGe System

Magnetoresistance measurements are presented for a strained p-SiGe quantum well sample where the density is varied through the B=0 metal-insulator transition. The close relationship between this transition, the high field Hall insulator transition and the filling factor $\nu$=3/2 insulating state is demonstrated.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to EP2DS XIII conference 199

Identifying the mechanisms underpinning recognition of structured sequences of action

© 2012 The Experimental Psychology SocietyWe present three experiments to identify the specific information sources that skilled participants use to make recognition judgements when presented with dynamic, structured stimuli. A group of less skilled participants acted as controls. In all experiments, participants were presented with filmed stimuli containing structured action sequences. In a subsequent recognition phase, participants were presented with new and previously seen stimuli and were required to make judgements as to whether or not each sequence had been presented earlier (or were edited versions of earlier sequences). In Experiment 1, skilled participants demonstrated superior sensitivity in recognition when viewing dynamic clips compared with static images and clips where the frames were presented in a nonsequential, randomized manner, implicating the importance of motion information when identifying familiar or unfamiliar sequences. In Experiment 2, we presented normal and mirror-reversed sequences in order to distort access to absolute motion information. Skilled participants demonstrated superior recognition sensitivity, but no significant differences were observed across viewing conditions, leading to the suggestion that skilled participants are more likely to extract relative rather than absolute motion when making such judgements. In Experiment 3, we manipulated relative motion information by occluding several display features for the duration of each film sequence. A significant decrement in performance was reported when centrally located features were occluded compared to those located in more peripheral positions. Findings indicate that skilled participants are particularly sensitive to relative motion information when attempting to identify familiarity in dynamic, visual displays involving interaction between numerous features

The PCMDI visualization and computation system (VCS): A workbench for climate data display and analysis

This software was developed by the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. It was designed to provide some of the basic capabilities needed for validating, comparing, and diagnosing climate model behavior. It can be controlled either interactively, or from a script file, or control can alternate between these modes during a session. A script can be saved during an interactive session and merely replayed, or it can be edited and replayed. The state-of-the-system can be dumped, as a script, at any instant, and that script can be used later to restore that instant of the session. Attributes for data can describe variables existing in a file or variables to be computed as a function of previously selected variables. The dimensions of variables can be subset, reversed, transposed, wrapped-around, and thinned by selecting either a stride of nodes or by randomly selecting individual nodes. Grid transformations are supported by allowing a different set of dimension vectors to be specified in the dimension descriptors. A display page can be output as either Adobe PostScript for hardcopy, or as a raster image for hardcopy or animation

Electron transport in gated InGaAs and InAsP quantum well wires in selectively-grown InP ridge structures

The purpose of this work is to fabricate ribbon-like InGaAs and InAsP wires embedded in InP ridge structures and investigate their transport properties. The InP ridge structures that contain the wires are selectively grown by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) on pre-patterned InP substrates. To optimize the growth and micro-fabrication processes for electronic transport, we explore the Ohmic contact resistance, the electron density, and the mobility as a function of the wire width using standard transport and Shubnikov-de Haas measurements. At low temperatures the ridge structures reveal reproducible mesoscopic conductance fluctuations. We also fabricate ridge structures with submicron gate electrodes that exhibit non-leaky gating and good pinch-off characteristics acceptable for device operation. Using such wrap gate electrodes, we demonstrate that the wires can be split to form quantum dots evidenced by Coulomb blockade oscillations in transport measurements.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, additional references and improved Fig. 4c, MSS-14 conference, submitted to Physica

A comparative assessment of the economics of plutonium disposition

The US Department of Energy office of Fissile Materials Disposition (DOE/MD) has been evaluating three technologies for the disposition of approximately 50 metric tons of surplus plutonium from defense-related programs: reactors, immobilization, and deep boreholes. As part of the process supporting an early CY 1997 Record of Decision (ROD), a comprehensive assessment of technical viability, cost, and schedule has been conducted by DOE/MD and its national laboratory contractors. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has managed and coordinated the life-cycle cost (LCC) assessment effort for this program. This paper discusses the economic analysis methodology and the results prior to ROD. A secondary intent of the paper is to discuss major technical and economic issues that impact cost and schedule. To evaluate the economics of these technologies on an equitable basis, a set of cost-estimating guidelines and a common cost-estimating format were utilized by all three technology teams. This paper also includes the major economic analysis assumptions and the comparative constant-dollar and discounted-dollar LCCs