The Israeli Planning and Grants Committee at the crossroads: From shock absorber to steering wheel

The Israeli Planning and Grants Committee (PGC) was established in 1974. It was modelled on the British system of the UGC. Since then, it has the most powerful and dominant organization in the governance of higher education.Both Government and universities will have to provide the essential framework of cooperation with the PGC in order to help maintain the present position of the PGC.     

The Influence of Stigma on College Students' Attitudes Toward Online Video Counseling and Face‐to‐Face Counseling

The difference in attitudes toward online video counseling and face‐to‐face counseling and the relationship between stigma and these attitudes were investigated among a sample of 588 college students. Attitudes toward face‐to‐face counseling are more favorable compared with those toward online video counseling. However, self‐stigma does not influence attitudes toward online video counseling to the same extent as face‐to‐face counseling. Services delivered through online video counseling may be beneficial for those experiencing higher levels of stigma.     

Adapting the Knuth–Morris–Pratt algorithm for pattern matching in Huffman encoded texts

In the present work we perform compressed pattern matching in binary Huffman encoded texts [Huffman, D. (1952). A method for the construction of minimum redundancy codes, Proc. of the IRE, 40, 1098–1101]. A modified Knuth–Morris–Pratt algorithm is used in order to overcome the problem of false matches, i.e., an occurrence of the encoded pattern in the encoded text that does not correspond to an occurrence of the pattern itself in the original text. We propose a bitwise KMP algorithm that can move one extra bit in the case of a mismatch since the alphabet is binary. To avoid processing any bit of the encoded text more than once, a preprocessed table is used to determine how far to back up when a mismatch is detected, and is defined so that we are always able to align the start of the encoded pattern with the start of a codeword in the encoded text. We combine our KMP algorithm with two practical Huffman decoding schemes which handle more than a single bit per machine operation; skeleton trees defined by Klein [Klein, S. T. (2000). Skeleton trees for efficient decoding of huffman encoded texts. Information Retrieval, 3, 7–23], and numerical comparisons between special canonical values and portions of a sliding window presented in Moffat and Turpin [Moffat, A., & Turpin, A. (1997). On the implementation of minimum redundancy prefix codes. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 45, 1200–1207]. Experiments show rapid search times of our algorithms compared to the “decompress then search” method, therefore, files can be kept in their compressed form, saving memory space. When compression gain is important, these algorithms are better than cgrep [Ferragina, P., Tommasi, A., & Manzini, G. (2004). C Library to search over compressed texts, http://roquefort.di.unipi.it/~ferrax/CompressedSearch], which is only slightly faster than ours.     

Knowledge economy measurement: Methods, results and insights from the Malaysian Knowledge Content Study

Building on a conceptual model of knowledge content, we discuss the methodology and results of a project to develop sectoral knowledge content measures in Malaysia. Through a survey of over 1800 Malaysian firms in 18 manufacturing and services industries, levels of knowledge content are assessed by sector. Industries vary in their emphasis on specific knowledge content components. Positive associations between technological innovation and at least one knowledge content variable are evident across all but four industries, although generally the results suggest that knowledge-based innovation is modest in Malaysia. Further insights and opportunities for policy from tracking knowledge content are considered.     

Implicit dimension identification in user-generated text with LSTM networks

In the process of online storytelling, individual users create and consume highly diverse content that contains a great deal of implicit beliefs and not plainly expressed narrative. It is hard to manually detect these implicit beliefs, intentions and moral foundations of the writers.We study and investigate two different tasks, each of which reflect the difficulty of detecting an implicit user’s knowledge, intent or belief that may be based on writer’s moral foundation: (1) political perspective detection in news articles (2) identification of informational vs. conversational questions in community question answering (CQA) archives. In both tasks we first describe new interesting annotated datasets and make the datasets publicly available. Second, we compare various classification algorithms, and show the differences in their performance on both tasks. Third, in political perspective detection task we utilize a narrative representation language of local press to identify perspective differences between presumably neutral American and British press.     

Are the Measurements of Attention Allocation and Perceived Exertion Trustworthy?

Two studies examined the trustworthiness of commonly used measurement scales for ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and state attentional focus (SAF) during exercise. In Study 1, participants (N = 24, 14 female) performed a treadmill graded-exercise test. The order of scale presentation during the task was manipulated (i.e., RPE followed by SAF or vice versa). In Study 2 the same order manipulation was used while participants (N = 70, 36 female) performed a stepping task for three consecutive trials. Additionally, time intervals between scale presentations were manipulated (i.e., 30 sec, 60 sec, or 90 sec) and counterbalanced between trials. Non-significant order effects of RPE and SAF emerged in both studies; however, a more frequent presentation of the two scales (30 sec and 60 sec) yielded higher RPE scores and increased associative attentional focus than a less frequent presentation (90 sec). The authors recommend minimizing measurement interruptions during the measurement process.     

Short lesson plan associated with increased acceptance of evolutionary theory and potential change in three alternate conceptions of macroevolution in undergraduate students

Undergraduates commonly harbor alternate conceptions about evolutionary biology; these alternate conceptions often persist, even after intensive instruction, and may influence acceptance of evolution. We interviewed undergraduates to explore their alternate conceptions about macroevolutionary patterns and designed a 2-h lesson plan to present evidence that life has evolved. We identified three alternate conceptions during our interviews: that newly derived traits would be more widespread in extant species than would be ancestral traits, that evolution proceeds solely by anagenesis, and that lineages must become more complex over time. We also attempted to measure changes in the alternate conceptions and levels of acceptance of evolutionary theory in biology majors and nonmajors after exposure to the lesson plan. The instrument used to assess understanding had flaws, but our results are suggestive of mixed effects: we found a reduction in the first alternate conception, no change in the second, and reinforcement of the third. We found a small, but significant, increase in undergraduate acceptance of evolutionary theory in two trials of the lesson plan (Cohen's d effect sizes of 0.51 and 0.19). These mixed results offer guidance on how to improve the lesson and show the potential of instructional approaches for influencing acceptance of evolution.     

Gender differences in school achievement: a within-class perspective

Relying on the results of the achievement tests in mathematics, science, native language (Hebrew/Arabic) and English, administered to 1430 5th-grade co-educational classes in Israel, this study examines the between-class variability of the within-class mean score gender differences and its class and school correlates. The four main results of the study are: (1) remarkable between-test stability of the within-class gender gap; (2) considerable variability of the within-class gender gap, in terms of both sign and magnitude, found for each of the four tests: children studying in different classes are exposed to different, sometimes quite opposite, gender differences and this variability is effectively masked by the aggregate-level analyses typically reported in the literature; (3) the lion’s share of the variability of the within-class gender gap lies within, rather than between schools; and (4) the relative frequency of within-class gender gaps favouring boys is positively related to school-level characteristics, which qualify as positive indicators of the school’s quality and negatively to class size. The within- and between-sector (Arab vs. Jewish) components of this relation are discussed.     

Career-based influences on scientific recognition in the United States and Europe: Longitudinal evidence from curriculum vitae data

This paper examines how funding patterns, career pathways and collaboration networks influence scientific recognition. We analyze these institutional factors in the early and middle phases of academic careers through comparison of a group of researchers recognized as creative by their peers with a matched group of researchers. Measurement of scientific recognition is based on survey nominations and research prizes in two growing, laboratory-intensive research domains: nanotechnology and human genetics. Curriculum vitae data is used to compare researchers based in the United States and Europe. In the early career model for the United States, we find that scientific recognition is associated with broad academic education, fast completion of PhD, and a record of independent postdoctoral research, while in Europe these factors are much less prominent. The mid-career model suggests that both in the United States and Europe fast job promotion within academia is a strong predictor of future recognition. However, there is a clear divide across the Atlantic regarding other mid-career factors: work experience inside and outside academia, research leadership, external grant income, and prizes from professional associations are connected to scientific recognition in the United States, but are less influential in Europe.