Hidden connections: Network effects on editorial decisions in four computer science journals

This paper aims to examine the influence of authors’ reputation on editorial bias in scholarly journals. By looking at eight years of editorial decisions in four computer science journals, including 7179 observations on 2913 submissions, we reconstructed author/referee-submission networks. For each submission, we looked at reviewer scores and estimated the reputation of submission authors by means of their network degree. By training a Bayesian network, we estimated the potential effect of scientist reputation on editorial decisions. Results showed that more reputed authors were less likely to be rejected by editors when they submitted papers receiving negative reviews. Although these four journals were comparable for scope and areas, we found certain journal specificities in their editorial process. Our findings suggest ways to examine the editorial process in relatively similar journals without recurring to in-depth individual data, which are rarely available from scholarly journals.     

Methodological-conceptual problems in the study of chimpanzees’ folk physics: How studies with adult humans can help

In three experiments, we examined humans’ folk physics (i.e., a naturally occurring and spontaneous understanding of the physical world), using variations of problems used to study chimpanzees’ folk physics. Presented with trap-tube problems in two experiments, adult humans showed an unnecessary bias to insert a stick into the end of the tube farthest from the reward to push it out the other end. When presented with trap-table problems with ineffective trapping holes, people unnecessarily avoided the side with the hole. The similarity of humans’ and chimpanzees’ behavior on these tasks highlights methodological and conceptual problems in studies of chimpanzees’ folk physics and suggests alternative explanations for their behavior.     

高水平乒乓球运动员有力臂最大等长收缩力的评估

乒乓球是使用单侧上肢的一项运动,其特征是要进行重复多次高速且具爆发力的动作,无氧乳酸酵解代谢能力占有重要作用.研究对象与方法男女高水平乒乓球运动员(n=31).采用Takei5101握力计测量单侧上肢有力型和非单侧上肢有力型运动员的上肢最大等长收缩力.18名男运动员(平均年龄23.5±5.4岁)和13名女运动员(平均年龄21.3±3.3岁)均为西班牙乒乓球协会的国家联盟成员.采用SPSS v12.0 for windows和Excel v10.2软件包进行数据统计分析.研究结果发现无论男女运动员单侧上肢有力型的最大等长收缩力均高于非单侧上肢有力型,而左势手女运动员与右势手女运动员相比、右势手男运动员与左势手男运动员相比,单侧上肢有力型的最大等长收缩力均高于非单侧上肢有力型.研究还发现进攻型运动员与防守型运动员相比,单侧上肢有力型的最大等长收缩力高于非单侧上肢有力型.分析与讨论无论男女,单侧上肢有力型运动员手握力高于非单侧上肢有力型运动员.男性运动员比女性运动员的等长收缩力高,一个可以解释的事实是男性有更高的睾酮水平.肌肉力量不平衡可能发展成为脊柱侧弯姿态,这应该通过适当的力量和柔韧性训练来避免,以防止将来的运动损伤和运动成绩的下降.     

Career adaptability and associations with personality traits and pathological traits utilizing network analysis

This study investigated relationships between career adaptability and personality and pathological traits using the network analysis approach. We administered CAAS, BFI-2-S, and IDCP-2 to 630 working adults. We observed positive associations between personality and career adaptability and negative associations between pathological traits and career adaptability. This paper contributes to the understanding of the associations between career adaptability and Big Five personality traits and pathological traits. We found stronger associations between career adaptability and personality traits as compared to pathological traits. Our findings suggest that Neuroticism and Conscientiousness contribute more to adaptation to professional development tasks than do pathological traits.

     

STUDENTS’ WAYS OF REASONING ABOUT NONLINEAR FUNCTIONS IN GUESS-MY-RULE GAMES

There is a growing movement toward the introduction of algebra in early grades. This is supported by an increasing number of research studies that have reported success in getting young students to “do” mathematics considered beyond their reach. Yet, the consensus is that more research is needed to provide insights into the processes by which students make sense of algebraic ideas. In particular, more studies are needed on how nonlinear functions can be introduced in early grades. This article reports an algebra research strand that introduced seventh grade students to quadratic functions using Guess-My-Rule games. The article describes several instances of the students engaging successfully with ideas and forms of reasoning involving quadratic functions. The purpose is to contribute to the debate on the introduction of algebra in early grades by providing further evidence of young students’ ability to engage with algebraic ideas usually considered to be beyond their reach.     

Social interaction learning strategies,motivation, first-year students’ experiences and permanence in university studies*

Applying a structural equations modelling methodology, the study analyses the relationships and effects of self-regulated learning (social interaction learning strategies and motivation) and first-year university experiences on permanence in the sophomore year. The participants are 239 first-year students in different Engineering degrees at a public university in south-eastern Spain. Two alternative structural models are evaluated, showing the superiority of the model where first-year university experiences completely mediate the effects of self-regulated learning on permanence. Motivation and social interaction learning strategies show direct effects on first-year university experiences, and first-year university experiences, in turn, show direct effects on permanence; additionally, both motivation and social interaction learning strategies have indirect effects on permanence via first-year university experiences. The noteworthy theoretical implications of the results are discussed, as well as the teaching methodology and support services provided to first-year university students.     

Disruption of latent inhibition by interpolation of task-irrelevant stimulation between preexposure and conditioning

Latent inhibition refers to attenuated responding to a conditioned stimulus (CS) that was repeatedly presented without reinforcement prior to the CS-unconditioned stimulus (US) pairings. Using water-deprived rats as subjects, we observed that interpolating task-irrelevant stimulation between the preexposure and conditioning phases of a latent inhibition procedure attenuated latent inhibition (Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2). Apparently, interpolated stimulation segments the preexposure and conditioning treatments into two separate experiences, much in the same way that a change of context would. Consistent with this view, the interpolated stimulation did not disrupt latent inhibition if it was also presented during both preexposure and conditioning (Experiment 3). We view these results as analogous to those of Escobar, Arcediano, and Miller (2003), who suggested that the difficulty in observing latent inhibition in human adults is related to the segmentation between preexposure and conditioning caused by the usual interpolation of instructions in preparations with humans.     

Collaborative professional development for distributed teacher leadership towards school change

Professional development that aims to build school change capacity requires spaces for collaborative action and reflection. These spaces should promote learning and foster skills for distributed leadership in managing school change. The present study analyses the case of the Seminar for Critical Citizenship (SCC) established by teachers of infant, primary, secondary and higher education to experiment with and share innovative practices. A focus group was formed first to identify which factors SCC participants perceived as influencing the development of this leadership for change, and second, to verify whether the SCC offers a space where the development of distributed leadership is promoted. We find that while it enables a network for collaboration, egalitarian dialogue and empowerment, certain tensions persist between theory and practice, and in attitudes towards innovation and school culture.