Interaction between cells in dielectrophoresis and electrorotation experiments

Progress in microelectrode-based technologies has facilitated the development of sophisticated methods for manipulating and separating cells, bacteria, and other bioparticles. For many of these various applications, the theoretical modeling of the electrical response of compartmentalized particles to an external field is important. In this paper we address the analysis of the interaction between cells immersed in rf fields. We use an integral formulation of the problem derived from a consideration of the charge densities induced at the interfaces of the particle compartments. The numerical solution by a boundary element technique allows characterization of their dielectric properties. Experimental validation of this theoretical model is obtained by investigating two effects: (1) The influence that dipolar “pearl chaining” has on the dielectrophoretic behavior of human T lymphocytes and (2) the frequency variation of the spin and orbital torques of approaching insulinoma β-cells in a rotating field.     

Differences between web sessions according to the origin of their visits

The aim of this paper is to characterize the distribution of number of hits and spent time by web session. It also expects to find if there are significant differences between the length and the duration of a session with regard to the point of access–search engine, link or root. Web usage mining was used to analyse 17,174 web sessions that were identified from the webometrics.info web site. Results show that both distribution of length and duration follow an exponential decay. Significant differences between the different origins of the visits were also found, being the search engines’ users those who spent most time and did more clicks in their sessions. We conclude that a good SEO policy would be justified, because search engines are the principal intermediaries to this web site.     

Evaluation and publication delay in Ibero-American scientific journals

This article analyses the review, acceptance and publication dates of a sample of 21,890 articles from 326 Ibero-American scientific journals from all subject areas and countries included in the Latindex Catalogue 2.0 and published between 2018 and 2020 (freely available as an open access dataset). The aim is to discover evaluation and publication times. The evaluation process takes a median of 110 days, the publication process, a median of 82 days, and the whole process, a median of 224 days. Statistical differences are found according to periodicity, subject areas, countries, existence of a printed version and article type (Call for Papers or General articles). From the data we find that the delay in publication is longer than publishers themselves report to the DOAJ. STEM areas present the most similarity in publication patterns, having a higher number of evaluation days (Ed) than publication days (Pd); Arts and Humanities present the opposite pattern, with a higher Pd than Ed. In the case of Social Sciences, the times are similar. General articles and Call for Papers articles differ in terms of Ed, but not Pd, indicating that Call for Papers revisions are faster.     

Performance-based university funding and the drive towards ‘institutional meritocracy’ in Italy

Many countries, including Italy, are increasingly managing their public higher education systems in accordance with the New Public Management principle that private-sector management practices improve efficiency and quality. A key mechanism has been the introduction of performance-based funding systems designed to reward ‘high-performing’ institutions and incentivise ‘lesser-performing’ institutions to improve. Instead of improving efficiency and quality across the board, however, we argue that performance-based funding systems naturalise longstanding structurally determined inequalities between institutions by recasting national higher education systems as competitive institutional meritocracies in which institutional inequalities are redefined as objective indicators of intrinsic ‘merit’ or worth. We illustrate how performance-based university funding systems naturalise pre-existing inequalities between universities drawing on the case of Italy, a country characterised by longstanding inequalities between its northern and southern regions which demonstrably impact on the apparent ‘performance’ of universities. The concept of institutional meritocracy captures the illusory nature of this performance game.     

Endurance of Undergraduate Attitudes Toward Older Adults

This cross-sectional study assessed undergraduate attitudes toward older adults and attitude endurance 3 to 18 months after aging coursework. Survey respondents included 349 students who took an aging elective and 430 comparison students. Aging-elective students indicated more positive attitudes than comparison students. Attitudes did not vary across 3 groups staggered by time elapsed from completing the course until testing (3 to 18 months). 4 variables accounted for the variance in attitudes toward elders at a statistically significant level: majoring in biology, having frequent or occasional contact with unrelated older adults, taking an aging course, and post-course knowledge of aging.     

Career coping styles: differences in career attitudes among secondary school students

The types of difficulties associated with career attitudes were studied using Super’s model of career maturity (1990) in a group of 620 Portuguese students from grades 9 and 12. A cluster analysis identified four styles with different patterns of association between time perspective, attributional beliefs, self-esteem and career attitudes. The adaptive style showed more committed career attitudes, and the other three styles—superficial, insecure and pessimistic—showed lower levels of career maturity. Implications for career counselling are further discussed.     

La expresión facial en los ciegos congénitos

Resumen

El presente informe analiza la expresión emocional de los ciegos congénitos mediante una codificación muscular de los movimientos faciales. Esta expresión, de carácter más involuntario, es semejante a la de los videntes. En cambio, los sujetos invidentes tienen una expresividad menor y menos diferenciada en las poses voluntarias. Los resultados, que confirman los hallazgos de autores anteriores, apoyan la existencia de dos fuentes de información en el desarrollo emocional: una de naturaleza genética, que explicaría las semejanzas en la expresión emocional o involuntaria, y otra ambiental, que daría cuenta de las diferencias en la expresión voluntaria. Por último, se plantean las consecuencias de este trabajo para las distintas disciplinas psicológicas.