MOTIVATING THE IS PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE

What is the most critical personnel issue of the rest of this decade? To keep programmers, analysts, and developers motivated in their work so they will continue to be productive members of the IS staff. Managers can achieve this by giving proper feedback and by creating a clear career path for IS staff members to grow and contribute their talents to the organization.     

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Efficacy Beliefs of South Asian Immigrant and Anglo Canadian Nonimmigrant Early Adolescents.

The author explored the mathematics efficacy beliefs of 270 South Asian (Indo Canadian) immigrant and Anglo Canadian nonimmigrant Grade 7 students. Self-efficacy beliefs strongly predicted mathematics performance for both cultural groups, but there were differences between the 2 groups in the sources of self-efficacy, the predictiveness of the secondary motivation variables, and the vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism. It is argued that the Indo Canadian students are more vertical or hierarchical than the Anglo Canadian students and that comparison with others strongly influences their motivation beliefs and the formation of their efficacy beliefs. Self-efficacy in some cultures may be more other-oriented than is typically seen in Western cultures. A caution against generalizing about Asian populations is given, and implications for school settings are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of modelling in identifying drug targets for diseases of the cell cycle.

The cell cycle is implicated in diseases that are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the developed world. Until recently, the search for drug targets has focused on relatively small parts of the regulatory network under the assumption that key events can be controlled by targeting single pathways. This is valid provided the impact of couplings to the wider scale context of the network can be ignored. The resulting depth of study has revealed many new insights; however, these have been won at the expense of breadth and a proper understanding of the consequences of links between the different parts of the network. Since it is now becoming clear that these early assumptions may not hold and successful treatments are likely to employ drugs that simultaneously target a number of different sites in the regulatory network, it is timely to redress this imbalance. However, the substantial increase in complexity presents new challenges and necessitates parallel theoretical and experimental approaches. We review the current status of theoretical models for the cell cycle in light of these new challenges. Many of the existing approaches are not sufficiently comprehensive to simultaneously incorporate the required extent of couplings. Where more appropriate levels of complexity are incorporated, the models are difficult to link directly to currently available data. Further progress requires a better integration of experiment and theory. New kinds of data are required that are quantitative, have a higher temporal resolution and that allow simultaneous quantitative comparison of the concentration of larger numbers of different proteins. More comprehensive models are required and must accommodate not only substantial uncertainties in the structure and kinetic parameters of the networks, but also high levels of ignorance. The most recent results relating network complexity to robustness of the dynamics provide clues that suggest progress is possible.     

The seismic kernel system — a large-scale exercise in fortran 77 portability

The portability of software has become a major commercial issue in recent times. Such portability does not come easily, as few if any computer languages are really portable in practice. An additional complicating factor, especially in the commercial environment, is that the resulting software must be efficient. This paper describes the design and successful implementation of a 500,000+ line portable FORTRAN 77 package for the processing of seismic data. The package exhibits demonstrably high efficiency on a wide variety of machines from minicomputers to the largest supercomputers. Experiences gained during this exercise throw much light on the integration of the various thought processes which occur during the software engineering cycle, especially the notion of locality.     

Depressed mood does not explain neuropsychological deficits in HIV-infected persons.

The relationship of depressed mood to cognitive disturbance in HIV infection was examined in a sample of 139 homosexual men. Ss were grouped according to the classification of the Centers for Disease Control: 39 were in Group IV, 62 were in Group II or Group III, and 38 were HIV-negative. Ss completed the Profile of Mood States and 10 neuropsychological tests. Analysis employing a classification approach indicated that, although symptoms of depression and neuropsychological impairment were more common in Ss who were HIV-positive, particularly those classified as Group IV, there were no systematic relationships between depression and neuropsychological impairment. Depressed mood and cognitive disturbance each seem to have unique associations to HIV illness status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religious Participation, Interleukin-6, and Mortality in Older Adults.

This study prospectively examined the relationship between religious attendance, interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels, and mortality rates in a community-based sample of 557 older adults. Attending religious services more than once weekly was a significant predictor of lower subsequent 12-year mortality and elevated IL-6 levels (> 3.19 pg/mL), with a mortality ratio of .32 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.15,0.72; p     

Nickel and chromium cycles: Stocks and flows project part IV

Nickel and chromium are essential ingredients in alloys increasingly important for energy-efficient, environmentally friendly modern technology. Quantitative assessment of the flows of these metals through the world economy from resource extraction to final disposal informs resource policy, energy planning, environmental science, and waste management. This article summarizes the worldwide technological cycles of nickel and chromium in 2000. Stainless steel is the major use of these metals, but they serve numerous other special needs, as in superalloys for high-temperature service, as plating materials, and in coinage. Because they are used primarily in alloys, novel recycling issues arise as their use becomes more widespread. “... the great New York and St. Louis double track, nickel plated railroad...” — Norwalk, Ohio, Chronicle 10 March 1881 announces arrival of surveyors for the future Nickel Plate Railway “Later [1911] I formed an alloy of Iron and Chromium, which showed remarkable resistance to rust and tarnish ... [It was] rediscovered by an Englishman named Brearley, in 1914.” —Elwood Haynes to Stephen F. Roberts, 17 January 1925     

Are Samples in Randomized Controlled Trials of Psychotherapy Representative of Community Outpatients? A New Methodology and Initial Findings.

To determine the extent to which published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychotherapy can be generalized to a sample of community outpatients, the authors used a method of matching information obtained from outpatient charts to inclusion and exclusion criteria from published RCT studies. They found that 80% of the patients in their sample who had diagnoses represented in the RCT literature were judged eligible for at least 1 published RCT; however, 58% of the patients had primary diagnoses such as adjustment disorder or dysthymia, which were not represented in the existing psychotherapy outcome literature. The most common reasons that patients in their sample did not match with published RCTs for psychotherapy are listed, and the implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rotational Restraint of Pile Caps during Lateral Loading

A pure fixed-head (zero-rotation) condition at the top of a group of laterally loaded piles is seldom achievable in the field, even when piles are installed in a group that is “rigidly” constrained by a stiff concrete pile cap. Assuming complete fixity during design (zero rotation at the pile head) can result in underestimated values of pile-head deflection, and incorrect estimates of the magnitude and the location of maximum bending moments. A simple and practical approach is presented for estimating the moment restraint that is provided by the pile cap at the top of a pile group. The moment restraint, represented by the rotational restraint coefficient (KMθ), serves as a boundary condition for analyzing groups of laterally loaded piles. Full-scale field tests performed on two pile groups with concrete pile caps show that the proposed method for estimating rotational restraint provides results that are in good agreement with measured field performance.     

Extended Hyperbolic Model for Sand-to-Concrete Interfaces

A relatively simple, four-parameter extended hyperbolic model for interfaces was developed for use in soil-structure interaction analyses. The model accommodates arbitrary stress path directions and includes three important elements: (1) development of a yield surface during interface shear; (2) a formulation for yield-inducing shear stiffness that is applicable to any stress path orientation; and (3) a formulation for unloading-reloading shear stiffness. The model was evaluated against the results of shear tests performed at the interface between three different types of sand and a concrete surface under a variety of stress paths. Comparisons between measured and calculated interface response indicate that the model provides accurate estimates of the response of sand-to-concrete interfaces.