125,080 research outputs found

    Motivation in Extreme Environments: A Case Study of Polar Explorer Pen

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    This study documents the motives of a polar explorer, Pen Hadow, during the period of a 64-day solo expedition in which he skied, without resupply by aircraft, from Canada to the North Geographic Pole. The framework of reversal theory (Apter, 1982) was used to provide a systematic and comprehensive structure for studying such motivation in an extreme environment. Quantitative data were obtained by using the Apter Record of Motivational States. Qualitative data came from interviews structured in terms of reversal theory. The main result was that the explorer needed at different times to call upon all the eight motivational states identified by reversal theory rather than being subject to only the one or two most obvious ones. The telic and autic states were the two that occurred most frequently. Implications for would-be explorers, and for extreme athletes and their coaches, are indicated

    A review of recent large-scale systematic UK classroom observations, method and findings, utility and impact

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    Recent systematic observations of UK classrooms are reviewed. Findings about how verbal teacher-feedback and students’ on-task behaviour are associated are discussed. The method, utility and impact of this type of quantitative research are discussed using a large-scale (mass) secondary school study. Findings include: the use of positive feedback by secondary teachers was not associated with students staying on-task more; teachers who talked more when teaching was not associated with students staying on-task more; secondary teachers use positive or critical verbal feedback in relation to academic work and/or behaviour proportionately in similar ratios to primary teachers; students are more on-task with more experienced teachers; more experienced teachers use more verbal behaviour including verbal feedback; teachers use less verbal feedback in inverse proportion to year-group seniority; older secondary students (by year group) are less on-task–irrespective of teacher feedback; secondary students are less on-task (78.15%) than primary students (85.23%)

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Long-Range Fluorescence Propagation in Amyloidogenic β-Sheet Films and Fibers

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    Newly developed PEGylated phenylalanine peptide derivatives (PEG-F6) can self-assemble to form hybrid multifunctional nanostructures of homogeneous thin polymer films and amyloid-like fibers. Both adopt a β-sheet architecture and acquire the unique properties of visible fluorescence (FL) found in β-sheet amyloid fibrils also associated with neurodegenerative diseases. A new paradigm observed in PEG-F6 amyloid-like fibers is reported, which demonstrates unique FL and optical absorption (OA) covering the entire visible region. Despite the full overlap of the FL and OA spectra, the FL propagates for an unexpectedly large distance of hundreds of micrometers in these fibers. A new non-waveguiding mechanism of FL light energy transfer in amyloidogenic fibers is proposed based on photon reabsorption theory. The discovered quasi-white FL of PEG-F6 β-sheet amyloidogenic fibers and films consists of the newly observed green FL band along the known blue FL band. The proof-of-concept of long sub-millimeter range FL propagation in specially grown amyloidogenic PEG-F6 fiber-photonic probes is reported. The results indicate that FL can propagate in nanoscale fibers and suggest biomedical applications for FL monitoring of disease-related ultrathin amyloid fibrils and in integrated photonics for optogenetics

    Pragmatic Case Studies as a Source of Unity in Applied Psychology

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    To unify or not to unify applied psychology: that is the question. In this article we review pendulum swings in the historical efforts to answer this question—from a comprehensive, positivist, “top-down,” deductive yes between the 1930s and the early 60s, to a postmodern no since then. A rationale and proposal for a limited, “bottom-up,” inductive yes in applied psychology is then presented, employing a case-based paradigm that integrates both positivist and postmodern themes and components. This paradigm is labeled “pragmatic psychology” and, its specific use of case studies, the “Pragmatic Case Study Method” (“PCS Method”). We call for the creation of peer-reviewed journal-databases of pragmatic case studies as a foundational source of unifying applied knowledge in our discipline. As one example, the potential of the PCS Method for unifying different angles of theoretical regard is illustrated in an area of applied psychology, psychotherapy, via the case of Mrs. B. The article then turns to the broader historical and epistemological arguments for the unifying nature of the PCS Method in both applied and basic psychology.Peer reviewe

    Dr. Edwin Wright Collection: Author Unknown

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    Notes - The author relates several short stories about his neighbours including Alex McDonell, homesteading and life around Meanook and Athabasca (1 page

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Fluorescence phenomena in amyloid and amyloidogenic bionanostructures

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    Nanoscale optical labeling is an advanced bioimaging tool. It is mostly based on fluorescence (FL) phenomena and enables the visualization of single biocells, bacteria, viruses, and biological tissues, providing monitoring of functional biosystems in vitro and in vivo, and the imaging-guided transportation of drug molecules. There is a variety of FL biolabels such as organic molecular dyes, genetically encoded fluorescent proteins (green fluorescent protein and homologs), semiconductor quantum dots, carbon dots, plasmonic metal gold-based nanostructures and more. In this review, a new generation of FL biolabels based on the recently found biophotonic effects of visible FL are described. This intrinsic FL phenomenon is observed in any peptide/protein materials folded into β-sheet secondary structures, irrespective of their composition, complexity, and origin. The FL effect has been observed both in natural amyloid fibrils, associated with neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and more), and diverse synthetic peptide/protein structures subjected to thermally induced biological refolding helix-like→β-sheet. This approach allowed us to develop a new generation of FL peptide/protein bionanodots radiating multicolor, tunable, visible FL, covering the entire visible spectrum in the range of 400–700 nm. Newly developed biocompatible nanoscale biomarkers are considered as a promising tool for emerging precise biomedicine and advanced medical nanotechnologies (high-resolution bioimaging, light diagnostics, therapy, optogenetics, and health monitoring)

    Measurement of the ratio of branching fractions B(B0→K∗0γ )/B(B0s→φγ ) and the directCP asymmetry inB 0→K∗0γ

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    The ratio of branching fractions of the radiative B decays B0→K⁎0γ and B0s→ϕγ has been measured using an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 of pp collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=7TeV. The value obtained is B(B0→K⁎0γ)B(B0s→ϕγ)=1.23±0.06(stat.)±0.04(syst.)±0.10(fs/fd), where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is the experimental systematic uncertainty and the third is associated with the ratio of fragmentation fractions fs/fd. Using the world average value for B(B0→K⁎0γ), the branching fraction B(B0s→ϕγ) is measured to be (3.5±0.4)×10−5. The direct CP asymmetry in B0→K⁎0γ decays has also been measured with the same data and found to be ACP(B0→K⁎0γ)=(0.8±1.7(stat.)±0.9(syst.))%. Both measurements are the most precise to date and are in agreement with the previous experimental results and theoretical expectations
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