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Testing a German version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)
No full textThe present study assesses the psychometric properties of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) in a German sample of N = 160 individuals. The five subscales (PastNegative, Present-Hedonistic, Future, Past-Positive, and Present-Fatalistic) measure different dimensions of the Time Perspective. The German version of the ZTPI proves to be internally consistent and reliable in retests, except for the Future Scale. Retest reliability for a subsample (N = 25) indicates a stable measurement of the scales. The Zimbardo and Boyd’s (1999) factor structure could not be replicated satisfactory. Correlations with conceptually related tests (IPC, HAKEMP, and HEIPI) indicate a fair degree of construct validity within the framework of classical test theory. The fit according to a Rasch model was not successful
Word Free Recall Search Scales Linearly With Number of Items Recalled
No full textI find that the total search time in word free recall, averaged over item position, increases linearly with the number of items recalled. Thus the word free recall search algorithm scales the same as the low-error recognition of integers (Sternberg, 1966). The result suggests that both simple integer recognition and the more complex word free recall use the same search algorithm. The proportionality constant of 2-4 seconds per item (a hundred times larger than for integer recognition) is a power function of the proportion not remembered and seems to be the same function for word free recall in young and old subjects, high and low presentation rates and delayed and immediate free recall. The linear scaling of the search algorithm is different from what is commonly assumed to be the word free recall search algorithm, search by random sampling. The linearity of the word free recall extends down to 3 items which presents a challenge to the prevalent working memory theory in which 3-5 items are proposed to be stored in a separate high-availability store
The Minimal Levels of Abstraction in the History of Modern Computing
No full textFrom the advent of general-purpose, Turing-complete machines, the relation between operators, programmers, and users with computers can be seen in terms of interconnected informational organisms (inforgs) henceforth analysed with the method of levels of abstraction (LoAs), risen within the Philosophy of Informa- tion (PI). In this paper, the epistemological levellism proposed by L. Floridi in the PI to deal with LoAs will be formalised in constructive terms using category the- ory, so that information itself is treated as structure-preserving functions instead of Cartesian products. The milestones in the history of modern computing are then analysed via constructive levellism to show how the growth of system complexity lead to more and more information hiding
Dynamics of the Corruption Eradication in Indonesia
No full textThe paper discusses an important aspect of the complexity of corruption eradication in Indonesia. Corruption eradication is practically not merely about law enforcement, but also related to social, economic, and political aspects of the nation. By extracting the data from national news media and implement models describing the sentiment relations among political actors, the connection between balance of the sentiment among political elites and the critical levels of the investigation and law enforcement is apparently demonstrated. The focus group discussions among experts, practitioners, and social activists confirm the model
Factors Related to Life satisfaction, Meaning of life, Religiosity and Death Anxiety in Health Care Staff and Students: A Cross Sectional Study from India
No full textDeath is beyond one's personal control, generates great concern and anxiety, among human beings. Studies exploring the association between religious attitudes and death attitudes in adolescents and young adults in postmodern society are scarce. This study examines the relationship between five dimensions of attitude toward death (fear of death, death avoidance, neutral acceptance, approach acceptance, and escape acceptance), death anxiety, life satisfaction and meaning, religiosity and selected personal factors among health care staff and students in three teaching hospitals. A total of 230 adolescents and adults both sexes who were willing participated. Diener et al Satisfaction with Life, Steger et al Meaning of Life Questionnaire; Templer's Death Anxiety Scale, Wong's Death Attitude Profile-R and a religious attitude scale were administered. Findings showed students' search for meaning was higher than faculty. An unusual finding of higher Approach acceptance death attitude in students emerged. Correlation analysis revealed that presence of meaning was related to greater life satisfaction in both groups. It was further related to higher religiosity in both groups and higher neutral acceptance of death and lesser death anxiety in students alone. In both groups search for meaning was positively associated with death anxiety. Faculty's search for meaning was positively associated with negative death attitudes and surprisingly one positive death attitude. Death anxiety was more with faculty's advancing age, and was also more when both groups held negative death attitudes. Religiosity was positively associated with death anxiety in students. Further, religiosity was not only positively associated with positive death attitudes of approach acceptance (both groups) and neutral acceptance (faculty) but also with negative attitude of death avoidance (faculty). Death anxiety was more despite both groups embracing approach acceptance death attitude indicating ambivalent death views
Meningeal Hemangiopericytoma of Brain: Role of Radiation Therapy
No full textHemangiopericytoma is an uncommon vascular tumour. Complete surgical resection is treatment of choice. However, late local recurrences and distant extraneural metastases ranging from 12% to 57% are reported in literature after complete removal. Post operative radiotherapy is indicated in unresectable or incompletely excised tumour. We present a case of meningeal hemangiopericytoma in a 60 years old female patient treated with surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy. There is no evidence of disease at primary site and no sign or symptoms of metastatic disease in the patient after three years
Does it Matter Which Citation Tool is Used to Compare the h-index of a Group of Highly Cited Researchers?
No full texth-index retrieved by citation indexes (Scopus, Google scholar, and Web of Science) is used to measure the scientific performance and the research impact studies based on the number of publications and citations of a scientist. It also is easily available and may be used for performance measures of scientists, and for recruitment decisions. The aim of this study is to investigate the difference between the outputs and results from these three citation databases namely Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science based upon the h-index of a group of highly cited researchers (Nobel Prize winner scientist). The purposive sampling method was adopted to collect the required data. The results showed that there is a significant difference in the h-index between three citation indexes of Scopus, Google scholar, and Web of Science; the Google scholar h-index was more than the h-index in two other databases. It was also concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between h-indices based on Google scholar and Scopus. The citation indexes of Scopus, Google scholar, and Web of Science may be useful for evaluating h-index of scientists but they have some limitations as well
Development of a Hindi Lemmatizer
No full textWe live in a translingual society, in order to communicate with people from different parts of the world we need to have an expertise in their respective languages. Learning all these languages is not at all possible; therefore we need a mechanism which can do this task for us. Machine translators have emerged as a tool which can perform this task. In order to develop a machine translator we need to develop several different rules. The very first module that comes in machine translation pipeline is morphological analysis. Stemming and lemmatization comes under morphological analysis. In this paper we have created a lemmatizer which generates rules for removing the affixes along with the addition of rules for creating a proper root word
The Association of Antidepressant Medication and Body Weight Gain
No full textObjective: To review the literature and discover which antidepressants are responsible for weight gain and then to discuss the areas with lack of adequate knowledge. Method: An electronic search was conducted through Medline, Pubmed, Cochrane library, and ScienceDirect. Forty nine empirical researches were identified and reviewed. Results: Amitriptyline, clomipramine, and mirtazapine have been associated with more weight gain induction in clinical studies, but not in animal-based studies. All TCAs have been reported to cause weight gain except protriptyline. MAOIs have been associated with weight gain. In SSRI group, citalopram and ecitalopram induce weight, yet mixed results exist for paroxetine and fluoxetine. Researches unanimously reported weight loss effect for bupropion. Some studies suggest contributing factors in the relationship of antidepressants with body weight changes including age, gender, base-line weights and treatment duration. Various results of different treatment durations have been reported in some cases but there are not continuous time-dependent studies for the influences of antidepressants on body weight changes. Conclusion: More studies are required to discover underlying mechanisms and the time-dependent effects of antidepressants on body weight changes
Is Electroconvulsive Therapy Fading into Oblivion? - A Study of Ten Year Trends
No full textBackground: Despite proven efficacy, modified ECT has been variably used in the recent past, with data on the usage trend being scarce, worldwide. Aim: We aimed to do a time – series analysis to examine annual trends in modified ECT use in our tertiary teaching hospital in the last decade. Methods: A chart review was carried out on all patients who received m-ECT in our teaching hospital in the last ten years (2002 to 2011), and percentage of total inpatients receiving M-ECT each year was deduced. Along with number of ECT sessions given per year, details of demographic data, and indications for ECT were recorded. Results: In our study ECT was undersized as a treatment option, with only 1:13% of total inpatients having received ECT. Also it was noted that use began increasing from 2002, reaching a peak in 2006 (84% increase) followed by a downward trend, with a sharp decline since 2008 (61%decrease) and finally reaching a nadir in 2011 (69% decrease). Mean age of patients ranged from 31.28 to 40.1 years with a slightly high female preponderance in most year groups. The most common indication for ECT use was schizophrenia (47.8%) followed by, depression (38.9%). Conclusion: Although, our study finding is in line with the downward trend of ECT utilization rates reported worldwide, the nature and magnitude of decline cannot be explained nor compared globally due to variations, inaccuracies and heterogeneity of ECT data currently available. Further, factors responsible for such trends should become focus of future research