People presumably choose and create their daily environments according to their personality. Prior research shows that, for example, more extraverted people engage more often in social situations, ...and more conscientious people engage more often in work-related activities compared with less extraverted or less conscientious people, respectively. The current study examined such personality-situation transactions in people's daily life. Based on the assumption that older people know themselves and their personality better than younger people, we investigated whether momentary and proximate personality-situation associations (i.e., changing from 1 type of situation into another) increase with older age. Three-hundred and 78 people aged 14 to 82 years described their Big Five traits and took part in a 3-week experience-sampling phase. Using mobile-phone based assessments in daily life, participants reported on average 55 times on their momentary situation. Multilevel modeling results showed that personality-situation associations varied with the age of participants. Some of the "established" personality-situation associations, such as for extraversion and time spent with friends or conscientiousness and time spent with work activities, were only observed in adolescence and young adulthood. In contrast, other personality-situation associations appeared only in late adulthood, such as for openness and time spent with friends. Yet most personality-situation associations did not vary significantly with people's age. In addition, personality traits predicted maintaining or entering personality-congruent situations. The latter results point to the active role of personality in shaping one's environment. The findings imply that some personality-situation transactions may be largely similarly across the life span.
We investigate how often replication studies are published in empirical economics and what types of journal articles are replicated. We find that between 1974 and 2014 0.1% of publications in the top ...50 economics journals were replication studies. We consider the results of published formal replication studies (whether they are negating or reinforcing) and their extent: Narrow replication studies are typically devoted to mere replication of prior work, while scientific replication studies provide a broader analysis. We find evidence that higher-impact articles and articles by authors from leading institutions are more likely to be replicated, whereas the replication probability is lower for articles that appeared in top 5 economics journals. Our analysis also suggests that mandatory data disclosure policies may have a positive effect on the incidence of replication.
This paper studies risk attitudes using a large representative survey and a complementary experiment conducted with a representative subject pool in subjects' homes. Using a question asking people ...about their willingness to take risks "in general", we find that gender, age, height, and parental background have an economically significant impact on willingness to take risks. The experiment confirms the behavioral validity of this measure, using paid lottery choices. Turning to other questions about risk attitudes in specific contexts, we find similar results on the determinants of risk attitudes, and also shed light on the deeper question of stability of risk attitudes across contexts. We conduct a horse race of the ability of different measures to explain risky behaviors such as holdings stocks, occupational choice, and smoking. The question about risk taking in general generates the best all-round predictor of risky behavior.
Today, web applications are the most important type of software applications. This textbook shows how to design and implement them, using a model-based engineering approach that covers general ...information management concepts and techniques and the two most relevant technology platforms: JavaScript and Java. The book provides an in-depth tutorial for theory-underpinned and example-based learning by doing it yourself, supported by quiz questions and practice projects. Volume 1 provides an introduction to web technologies and model-based web application engineering, discussing the information management concepts of constraint-based data validation, enumerations and special datatypes. Volume 2 discusses the advanced information management concepts of associations and inheritance in class hierarchies. Web apps are designed using UML class diagrams and implemented with two technologies: JavaScript for front-end (and distributed NodeJS) apps, and Java (with JPA and JSF) for back-end apps. The six example apps discussed in the book can be run, and their source code downloaded, from the book's website. Gerd Wagner is Professor of Internet Technology at Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA. He works in the areas of web engineering and modeling and simulation. Mircea Diaconescu is a Software Architect and Technical Team Leader at Entri GmbH, Berlin. He enjoys to work with the newest web technologies and to build Web of Things projects. Java, JavaScript/NodeJS and C# are his favorite programming languages.
Cardiac fibroblasts constitute a major cell population in the heart. They secrete extracellular matrix components and various other factors shaping the microenvironment of the heart. In silico ...analysis of intercellular communication based on single‐cell RNA sequencing revealed that fibroblasts are the source of the majority of outgoing signals to other cell types. This observation suggests that fibroblasts play key roles in orchestrating cellular interactions that maintain organ homeostasis but that can also contribute to disease states. Here, we will review the current knowledge of fibroblast interactions in the healthy, diseased, and aging heart. We focus on the interactions that fibroblasts establish with other cells of the heart, specifically cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells and immune cells, and particularly those relying on paracrine, electrical, and exosomal communication modes.
Scheme depicting the interaction between fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and immune cells in the heart. The interaction crosstalk between fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes is based mainly on electric coupling, growth factors, matrix proteins, and exosomes, while endothelial cells and immune cells rely on cytokines, growth factors, proteases, matrix proteins, and reactive oxygen species (ROS).
Nonaligning self-propelled particles with purely repulsive excluded volume interactions undergo athermal motility-induced phase separation into a dilute gas and a dense cluster phase. Here, we use ...enhanced sampling computational methods and analytic theory to examine the kinetics of formation of the dense phase. Despite the intrinsically nonequilibrium nature of the phase transition, we show that the kinetics can be described using an approach analogous to equilibrium classical nucleation theory, governed by an effective free energy of cluster formation with identifiable bulk and surface terms. The theory captures the location of the binodal, nucleation rates as a function of supersaturation, and the cluster size distributions below the binodal, while discrepancies in the metastable region reveal additional physics about the early stages of active crystal formation. The success of the theory shows that a framework similar to equilibrium thermodynamics can be obtained directly from the microdynamics of an active system, and can be used to describe the kinetics of evolution toward nonequilibrium steady states.
Abstract
Background:
South African universities face a challenge of low throughput rates, with most students failing to complete their studies within the minimum regulatory time. Literature has begun ...to investigate the contribution of well-being, including mental health, with depression among students being one of the most common mental disorders explored. However, locally relevant research exploring associations between depression and academic performance has been limited. This research hypothesizes that the presence of depression symptoms, when controlling for key socio-demographic factors, has an adverse impact on student academic outcomes and contributes to the delay in the academic progression of students.
Methods:
The study used a cross-sectional design. Data were collected in 2019 from first-time, first-year undergraduate students using a self-administered online questionnaire. In total, 1,642 students completed the survey. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to screen for depression symptoms. Data on students’ academic performance were obtained from institutional records. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to examine associations between depression symptoms and academic performance.
Results:
Most participants (76%) successfully progressed (meeting the requirements to proceed to the second year of university study). Of the participants, 10% displayed symptoms of severe depression. The likelihood of progression delay (not meeting the academic requirements to proceed to the second year of university study) increased with the severity of depression symptoms. Moderate depression symptoms nearly doubled the adjusted odds of progression delay (aOR = 1.98, 95% CI: 1.30-3.00,
p
= 0.001). The likelihood of progression delay was nearly tripled by moderate severe depression symptoms (aOR = 2.70, 95% CI:1.70–4.36,
p
< 0.001) and severe depression symptoms (aOR = 2.59, 95% CI:1.54–4.36,
p
< 0.001). The model controlled for field of study, financial aid support as well as sex and race.
Conclusion:
Higher levels of depression symptoms among first-year university students are associated with a greater likelihood of progression delay and may contribute to the low throughput rates currently seen in South African universities. It is important for students, universities and government departments to recognize student mental wellness needs and how these can be met.
Amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) have been proven to increase the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs. It is desirable that the ASD provide a rapid dissolution rate and a sufficient ...stabilization of the generated supersaturation. In many cases, one polymer alone is not able to provide both features, which raises a need for reasonable polymer combinations. In this study we aimed to generate a rapidly dissolving ASD using the hydrophilic polymer polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) combined with a suitable precipitation inhibitor. Initially, PVA and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose acetate succinate (HPMCAS) were screened for their precipitation inhibitory potential for celecoxib in solution. The generated supersaturation in presence of PVA or HPMCAS was further characterized using dynamic light scattering. Binary ASDs of either PVA or HPMCAS (at 10% and 20% drug load) were prepared by hot-melt extrusion and solid-state analytics were conducted using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The non-sink dissolution studies of the binary ASDs revealed a high dissolution rate for the PVA ASDs with subsequent precipitation and for the HPMCAS ASDs a suppressed dissolution. In order to utilize the unexploited potential of the binary ASDs, the PVA ASDs were combined with HPMCAS either predissolved or added as powder and also formulated as ternary ASD. We successfully generated a solid formulation consisting of the powdered PVA ASD and HPMCAS powder, which was superior in monophasic non-sink dissolution and biorelevant biphasic dissolution studies compared to the binary and ternary ASDs.
We examine the effects of Covid-19 and related restrictions on individuals with dependent children in Germany. We specifically focus on the role of day care center and school closures, which may be ...regarded as a “disruptive exogenous shock” to family life. We make use of a novel representative survey of parental well-being collected in May and June 2020 in Germany, when schools and day care centers were closed but while other measures had been relaxed and new infections were low. In our descriptive analysis, we compare well-being during this period with a pre-crisis period for different groups. In a difference-in-differences design, we compare the change for individuals with children to the change for individuals without children, accounting for unrelated trends as well as potential survey mode and context effects. We find that the crisis lowered the relative well-being of individuals with children, especially for individuals with young children, for women, and for persons with lower secondary schooling qualifications. Our results suggest that public policy measures taken to contain Covid-19 can have large effects on family well-being, with implications for child development and parental labor market outcomes.
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