Programmers, Professors, and Parasites: Credit and Co-Authorship in Computer Science

This article presents an in-depth analysis of past and present publishing practices in academic computer science to suggest the establishment of a more consistent publishing standard. Historical precedent for academic publishing in computer science is established through the study of anecdotes as well as statistics collected from databases of published computer science papers. After examining these facts alongside information about analogous publishing situations and standards in other scientific fields, the article concludes with a list of basic principles that should be adopted in any computer science publishing standard. These principles would contribute to the reliability and scientific nature of academic publications in computer science and would allow for more straightforward discourse in future publications.     

A six-district study of educational change: direct and mediated effects of the child development project

A comprehensive elementary school program, the Child Development Project, was conducted in two schools in each of six school districts over a three-year period. Two additional schools in each district served as a comparison group. The program attempts to create a 'caring community of learners' in school and classroom through classroom, schoolwide, and parent involvement components. The classroom component includes student collaboration, a literature-based approach to reading, and a student-centered approach to classroom management. Classroom observation, student questionnaire, teacher questionnaire, and test data were collected in a baseline year and in each of the three years of program implementation. Results showed positive student results in the five program schools that made significant progress in implementation. Schools that progressed in implementation showed gains – relative to their comparison schools – in students' personal, social, and ethical attitudes, values, and motives. Significant effects on academic achievement were found only in two schools with a performance-based assessment and a highly consistent local reform mandate. Modeling analyses indicated that student sense of community was an important mediating variable for almost all dependent variables – indicating that the program produced positive effects to the degree that it was successful in establishing a caring community in the school.     

A terror management analysis of self-awareness and anxiety: The hierarchy of terror

Abstract

In this article, we apply terror management theory to the operation of self-awareness processes. According to the theory, self-esteem consists of accepting a cultural conception of reality and believing that one is living up to the standards of value inherent in that conception. The function of self-esteem is to buffer the anxiety that results from the awareness of human vulnerability and mortality that results from our capacity for self-awareness. We argue that self-awareness leads to comparisons with standards, and to behavior aimed at reducing any discrepancies that are detected, because of the potential for existential terror that self-awareness creates. Existential terror is seen as the emotional manifestation of the instinct for self-preservation. Management of this terror is conceptualized as the superordinate goal in a hierarchy of standards through which behavior is regulated. A hierarchical terror management model is proposed. This structure provides a unique analysis of the self-system and its relationship to other attitudes, values, and beliefs. The theory posits several dynamic principles that specify how self-awareness and disruptions determine the movement of conscious attention through various levels of the hierarchy. The implications of this analysis for unresolved theoretical questions about self-awareness processes, unconscius sources of motivation, and clinical problems are discussed.     

Aggressive behavior: A comprehensive review of its neurochemical mechanisms and management

Aggression is a deliberate series of actions that lead to harm, injury, or destruction of another organism, and is the most common factor promoting violent crimes. Beyond being the immediate cause of physical injury, aggressive behavior also produces profound long term emotional disabilities in its victims. When outburst of aggression is comorbid with DSM-IV-defined neuropsychiatric disorders, the offenders are usually given psychiatric care; however, when they appear normal or healthy, their most likely fate is punishment by the law. This punitive approach often increases aggression, thereby promoting the propensity for violent crimes. Antipsychotics are the drugs commonly used for treatment of aggression and violent outbursts. However, the uses of these drugs have serious side effects of catalepsy or impairment of sensorimotor performance. They also affect the defense or flight capabilities of organisms, which further limit their usefulness in aggression. Thus, there is a critical need to search for agents that can selectively reduce aggression without affecting other behaviors or causing any serious unwanted side effects. This review focuses on the types, neurochemical bases, and animal models of aggression, with a comprehensive appraisal of the pharmacological approach to the treatment of the disorder.     

Mothering Children with Schizophrenia in a Village Setting: A Multiple Case Study

This study reports on the experiences of mothers (n=8) raising children with schizophrenia in a rural South African village. The mothers were individually interviewed at their homes, using in-depth, phenomenological methods. Data were thematically analysed. Mothers of children with schizophrenia indicated that they are facing the following challenges on their process of caregiving: mothers' emotional reactions, blaming witchcraft, dealing with the children's violence and destructiveness, poverty and unemployment, financial support, isolation and social support, effects of schizophrenia on the mother-child relationship, and the loss that mothers go through.     

Responsible Teenage Fatherhood in a South African Historically Disadvantaged Community

The study analysed the relationships between teacher ratings and standardised test scores in Reading and Mathematics for students receiving learning support for learning difficulties (n = 60, mean age= 16.3). Teacher ratings were found to significantly predict pupils' performance in Reading. Students with extended learning support had significantly higher teacher attainment ratings in both Reading and Mathematics. Teacher judgment ratings combined with standardized test scores were reliable for assessing instructional effectiveness. Standardised tests were more reliable than teacher ratings in assessing academic attainment.     

Information Seeking Beyond Initial Interaction.

This essay extends previous work on uncertainty and information seeking within close relationships by considering how relationship parameters correspond with the directness of people's information‐seeking strategies. Because we believe that assumptions of uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975) have been translated into the context of close relationships without attention to the unique features of that domain, we begin by reframing questions about uncertainty to reflect issues relevant to intimate associations. In particular, we reconsider the focus of uncertainty, the function of uncertainty reduction, and the nature of information seeking. We then discuss how relationship intimacy, power dynamics, and information expectancies correspond with information‐seeking behavior within close relationships. In doing so, we highlight how the negotiation of relational uncertainty may function to sustain intimate associations.     

Episode Type,Attachment Orientation,and Frame Salience: Evidence for a Theory of Relational Framing

Relational framing theory asserts that dominance‐submission and affiliation‐disaffiliation tend to displace each other as frames for processing social interaction; involvement is argued to be a content‐free intensifier variable that contributes to judgments of dominance or affiliation as a function of the salient relational frame. The present study seeks to replicate and extend previous tests of these claims by evaluating three hypotheses: (a) The differential salience of dominance‐submission and affiliation‐disaffiliation frames as a function of the type of social episode is robust across same‐sex and cross‐sex friendship dyads; (b) the magnitude of the association between involvement and dominance and affiliation varies as a function of frame salience instantiated by the type of episode; and (c) attachment anxiety is positively correlated with the perceived relevance of both dominance‐submission and affiliation‐disaffiliation to social episodes. Results are consistent with all three of the hypotheses, but relational framing is unrelated to subscales operationalizing the comfort with closeness dimension of attachment orientation.