Empirical Research Plan: Effects of Sketching on Program Comprehension

Sketching is an important means of communication in software engineering practice. Yet, there is little research investigating the use of sketches. We want to contribute a better understanding of sketching, in particular its use during program comprehension. We propose a controlled experiment to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of program comprehension with the support of sketches as well as what sketches are used in what way.Comment: 5 pages, 0 figures, Proc. International Conference on Agile Software Development (XP'16). Volume 251 of the book series Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP). Springer, 201

Atomic data from the IRON project - LI. Electron impact excitation of FeIX

We calculate collision strengths and thermally averaged collision strengths for electron excitation between the one hundred and forty energetically lowest levels of Fe8+. The scattering target is more elaborate than in any earlier work and large increases are found in the excitation rates among the levels of the 3s(2)3p(5)3d electron configuration due to resonance series that have not been considered previously. The implications for solar and stellar spectroscopy have been discussed elsewhere (Storey & Zeippen 2001). We correct some errors that were made in generating the figures given in that paper and present corrected versions

Multiple locus linkage analysis of genomewide expression in yeast.

With the ability to measure thousands of related phenotypes from a single biological sample, it is now feasible to genetically dissect systems-level biological phenomena. The genetics of transcriptional regulation and protein abundance are likely to be complex, meaning that genetic variation at multiple loci will influence these phenotypes. Several recent studies have investigated the role of genetic variation in transcription by applying traditional linkage analysis methods to genomewide expression data, where each gene expression level was treated as a quantitative trait and analyzed separately from one another. Here, we develop a new, computationally efficient method for simultaneously mapping multiple gene expression quantitative trait loci that directly uses all of the available data. Information shared across gene expression traits is captured in a way that makes minimal assumptions about the statistical properties of the data. The method produces easy-to-interpret measures of statistical significance for both individual loci and the overall joint significance of multiple loci selected for a given expression trait. We apply the new method to a cross between two strains of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and estimate that at least 37% of all gene expression traits show two simultaneous linkages, where we have allowed for epistatic interactions. Pairs of jointly linking quantitative trait loci are identified with high confidence for 170 gene expression traits, where it is expected that both loci are true positives for at least 153 traits. In addition, we are able to show that epistatic interactions contribute to gene expression variation for at least 14% of all traits. We compare the proposed approach to an exhaustive two-dimensional scan over all pairs of loci. Surprisingly, we demonstrate that an exhaustive two-dimensional scan is less powerful than the sequential search used here. In addition, we show that a two-dimensional scan does not truly allow one to test for simultaneous linkage, and the statistical significance measured from this existing method cannot be interpreted among many traits

Tau-aggregation inhibitor therapy for Alzheimer's disease

Article Accepted Date: 9 December 2013 Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Electron pockets and pseudogap asymmetry observed in the thermopower of underdoped cuprates

We calculate the diffusion thermoelectric power of high-Tc cuprates using the resonating-valence-bond spin-liquid model developed by Yang, Rice and Zhang (YRZ). In this model, reconstruction of the energy-momentum dispersion results in a pseudogap in the density of states that is heavily asymmetric about the Fermi level. The subsequent asymmetry in the spectral conductivity is found to account for the large magnitude and temperature dependence of the thermopower observed in underdoped cuprates. In addition we find evidence in experimental data for electron pockets in the Fermi surface, arising from a YRZ-like reconstruction, near the onset of the pseudogap in the slightly overdoped regime.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in EP

Mocassin: A fully three-dimensional Monte Carlo photoionization code

The study of photoionized environments is fundamental to many astrophysical problems. Up to the present most photoionization codes have numerically solved the equations of radiative transfer by making the extreme simplifying assumption of spherical symmetry. Unfortunately very few real astronomical nebulae satisfy this requirement. To remedy these shortcomings, a self-consistent, three-dimensional radiative transfer code has been developed using Monte Carlo techniques. The code, Mocassin, is designed to build realistic models of photoionized nebulae having arbitraries geometry and density distributions with both the stellar and diffuse radiation fields treated self-consistently. In addition, the code is capable of tretating on or more exciting stars located at non-central locations. The gaseous region is approximated by a cuboidal Cartesian grid composed of numerous cells. The physical conditions within each grid cell are determined by solving the thermal equilibrium and ionization balance equations This requires a knowledge of the local primary and secondary radiation fields, which are calculated self-consistently by locally simulating the individual processes of ionization and recombination. The main structure and computational methods used in the Mocassin code are described in this paper. Mocassin has been benchmarked against established one-dimensional spherically symmetric codes for a number of standard cases, as defined by the Lexington/Meudon photoionization workshops (Pequignot et al., 1986; Ferland et al., 1995; Pequignot et al., 2001)\citep{pequignot86,ferland95, pequignot01}. The results obtained for the benchmark cases are satisfactory and are presented in this paper. A performance analysis has also been carried out and is discussed here.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 1 appendix Changes: appendix adde

Assessing hospitality industry employee perceptions of performance appraisals

Performance appraisals are prevalent in all credible hospitality organizations today (Capelli, 2016). After an extensive review of the literature, it is apparent that there is a considerable disconnect between the execution of the performance appraisal and the outcomes that a practitioner would expect. With the use of the implicit person theory (IPT) and the five-factor model (FFM), this study pursued a view of how the personality disposition of a manager may affect how a performance appraisal is perceived by subordinates suggesting that innately some managers are better suited to conduct performance appraisals. The aim of this research was to assess the relationship between the employee’s perceived fairness and effectiveness of a recently conducted performance appraisal and a manager’s IPT disposition and FFM personality attributes. Paired data were collected using four established instruments; two for the predictor variables and two for the dependent variables. IPT Disposition Survey (Dweck, 1999) and FFM Survey (Shafer, 1999) were used to collect predictor variable data. Justice Measures Survey (Colquit, 2001) and Effective Performance Evaluation Survey (Longenecker, Liverpool & Wilson, 1988) were used to collect dependent variable data. Additionally, demographic and descriptive data were obtained. A response rate of 77% (N=90) was received after hand-delivered survey packets were distributed to the manager and the employee samples. The participants were from 20 different hospitality organizations located in the northeast region of the United States; the sample was derived from hotels (7), restaurants (8) and private clubs (5). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Coefficient correlation analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and regression analyses to test 15 hypothesis and to answer five research questions. Statistical significance was found between IPT incrementalism and perceived fairness [r (90) = .400, p\u3c.000]. Regression analysis revealed IPT incrementalism was statistically significant in predicting perceived fairness (F (1, 89) = 16.722, p \u3c.000]. Statistical significance was also present between IPT incrementalism and perceived effectiveness [r (90) = .435, p \u3c.000]. Regression analysis revealed IPT incrementalism was statistically significant in predicting perceived fairness [F (1, 89) = 20.501, p\u3c.000]. Among the manager sample, statistical significance was found in agreeableness of FFM related to effectiveness [F (1, 89) = 4.508, p = .037]. Lastly, sex and age were examined for differences in means. Among the employee sample, a t – Test for equality of means revealed a statistically significant difference in means between sex and fairness [t (88) = -1.99, p = .049]. Practical and research implications are discussed; recommendations for further research and limitations regarding this present research are included. Keywords: performance evaluation, manager personality, employee perceptions, fairness, effectivenes