Development of a Cyber/Information Technology Knowledge Test for Military Enlisted Technical Training Qualification

An Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Review Panel, with expertise in personnel selection, job classification, psychometrics, and cognitive psychology developed recommendations for changes to the military enlistment test battery. One recommendation was to develop and evaluate a test of cyber/information and communications technology literacy to supplement current ASVAB content. This article summarizes a multiphased Cyber Test development process: (a) a review of information/computer technology literacy definitions and measures, (b) development and pilot testing of a cyber knowledge measure, (c) validation of test scores against final school grades (FSGs) for selected technical training courses, (d) development of an operational reporting metric and subgroup norms, and (e) examination of construct validity. Results indicate the Cyber Test has predictive validity versus technical training school grades and incremental validity comparable to the ASVAB technical knowledge tests when used with the ASVAB Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) verbal/math composite as a baseline.     

湿疹？还是特应性皮炎？

特应性皮炎（AD）是一种慢性复发性、瘙痒性、炎症性皮肤疾病,常自幼时发病,可持续终生,严重影响患者的生活质量。目前尚无单一特异性的,洛床表现或实验室检查指标可以鉴别诊断AD与湿疹。然而,与湿疹相比较,AD患者常伴有血清免疫球蛋白IgE增高,个人及家族遗传性AD、过敏性哮喘和／或过敏性鼻炎的病史,且皮疹及瘙痒更为严重,还可合并皮肤感染及皮肤屏障功能的损害。因此,区分湿疹还是AD,对于正确诊断及采取合适的治疗方案具有重要意义。     

大承气汤对危重症患者胃肠功能影响的研究进展

危重症患者胃肠功能障碍的发生率及多器官功能障碍的病死率居高不下,但现阶段仍没有防治多器官功能障碍的特效药。随着对胃肠功能在多脏器功能障碍发病过程中重要性认识的逐步深入,危重症患者的胃肠功能障碍问题亦更加受到重视。因此,如何防治危重症患者的胃肠功能障碍就成为防治多器官功能障碍的焦点问题。近年来,应用中药方剂大承气汤防治危重症患者胃肠及多脏器功能障碍已获得了一定的疗效,本文就大承气汤对危重症患者胃肠功能影响的研究进展做一综述。     

The association of physical activity to occipito-temporal processing during face recognition

ObjectivesThis study examined the association between physical activity level and primitive cognitive processing during a face recognition task in young adults, a topic that has received little attention.DesignCross-sectional.MethodsThe face recognition task required participants to respond to famous faces but not respond to unfamiliar faces. Task performance and several occipito-temporal event-related brain potentials reflecting the various stages of face processing, from perceptual encoding (N170) to recognition (N250 and face-N400), were assessed during the face recognition task.ResultsAlthough analyses revealed no significant group differences in behavioral performance measures, neuroelectric data showed different time courses of face recognition processes between groups. Active individuals exhibited larger N250 amplitude, reflecting an early stage of facial recognition, for famous relative to unfamiliar faces, whereas inactive individuals did not exhibit such a difference.ConclusionsThese findings are suggestive of a possible association between physical activity and relatively early, primitive cognitive processes.     

The Effect of Propensity Scores on DIF Analysis: Inference on the Potential Cause of DIF

Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis is important in terms of test fairness. While DIF analyses have mainly been conducted with manifest grouping variables, such as gender or race/ethnicity, it has been recently claimed that not only the grouping variables but also contextual variables pertaining to examinees should be considered in DIF analyses. This study adopted propensity scores to incorporate the contextual variables into the gender DIF analysis. In this study, propensity scores were used to control for the contextual variables that potentially affect the gender DIF. Subsequent DIF analyses with the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure and the Logistic Regression (LR) model were run with the propensity score applied reference (males) and focal groups (females) through propensity score matching. The propensity score embedded MH model and LR model detected fewer number of gender DIF than the conventional MH and LR models. The propensity score embedded models, as a confirmatory approach in DIF analysis, could contribute to hypothesizing an inference on the potential cause of DIF. Also, salient advantages of propensity score embedded DIF analysis models are discussed.     

Uncovering Substantive Patterns in Student Responses in International Large-Scale Assessments—Comparing a Latent Class to a Manifest DIF Approach

In this study, we contrast results from two differential item functioning (DIF) approaches (manifest and latent class) by the number of items and sources of items identified as DIF using data from an international reading assessment. The latter approach yielded three latent classes, presenting evidence of heterogeneity in examinee response patterns. It also yielded more DIF items with larger effect sizes and more consistent item response patterns by substantive aspects (e.g., reading comprehension processes and cognitive complexity of items). Based on our findings, we suggest empirically evaluating the homogeneity assumption in international assessments because international populations cannot be assumed to have homogeneous item response patterns. Otherwise, differences in response patterns within these populations may be under-detected when conducting manifest DIF analyses. Detecting differences in item responses across international examinee populations has implications on the generalizability and meaningfulness of DIF findings as they apply to heterogeneous examinee subgroups.     

表情信息特征变化对自闭症儿童面孔视觉扫描的影响

实验以眼动追踪技术为手段,考察自闭症儿童对不同信息特征表情图片的视觉扫描特征,探讨自闭症表情加工的机制。结果发现：1、看真人表情时,自闭症儿童对高兴、悲伤的整脸扫描时间无显著差异,均高于愤怒和恐惧,对愤怒的整脸扫描时间高于恐惧;2、看真人表情时自闭症儿童对高兴、悲伤表情的眼睛区域和嘴巴区域扫描时间无差异,对恐惧和愤怒的嘴巴区域扫描时间显著多于眼睛区域;3、信息特征削弱对自闭症儿童面孔表情视觉扫描产生了影响,随着削弱程度的增加,自闭症儿童对表情图片的嘴巴区域扫描时间增加,对眼睛区域的扫描时间减少。根据实验结果,认为自闭症儿童对表情的加工主要受到表情信息特征的影响,随着信息特征的变化,会对视觉注意进行调整,以获得对表情的充分加工。     

An Interactive Approach for Multicriteria Decision Making Using a Tchebycheff Utility Function Approximation

Multicriteria decision making (MCDM) can provide an efficient mean for considering various and conflicting objectives to reveal the alternative that maximizes the decision maker's (DM) utility. In this paper, we propose a new interactive MCDM method for implicit alternatives to help a DM obtain a most preferred solution. We employ a Tchebycheff function to generate weights for objectives consistent with the DM's responses to pairwise comparisons between alternatives and present a mixed integer linear programming formulation to generate these weights. Thus, we approximate the DM's utility function by a Tchebycheff function and generate weights consistent with the DM's responses. We test our approach with different true utility functions on various sized multiple criteria linear programming problems. The computational results show that even with non‐Tchebycheff true utility functions, our method can generate alternatives very close to the optimal solution with few questions. The comparison of our results with other methods reveals its advantages. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Drinking motives in alcohol use disorder patients with and without social anxiety disorder

The high comorbidity of alcohol use disorders (AUD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) is often explained by excessive drinking in social situations to self-medicate social anxiety. Indeed, the motive to drink alcohol to lower social fears was found to be elevated in socially anxious persons. However, this social anxiety specific motive has not been directly investigated in primarily alcohol dependent individuals. We explored social anxiety, the motivation to drink alcohol in order to cope with social fears, and social anxiety as a consequence of drinking in AUD with and without comorbid SAD. Male AUD inpatients with (AUD+SAD group, N=23) and without comorbid SAD (N=37) completed a clinical interview and a questionnaire assessment. AUD+SAD patients reported higher levels of depression and an elevated motive to drink due to social anxiety but did not experience more social fears as a consequence of drinking. Previous results concerning alcohol drinking motives in order to relieve social fears could be replicated in a clinical AUD sample. Additionally, our findings suggest comorbid AUD+SAD patients to be more burdened regarding broader psychopathological symptoms. Thus, accessibility to SAD-specific screening and treatment procedures may be beneficial for primary AUD patients.     

题组反应理论及其在中学英语考试中的应用研究

题组作为众多测验中的一种常见题型,由于项目间存在一定程度的依赖性而违背了局部独立性假设,若用项目反应模型进行参数估计将会出现较大的偏差.题组反应理论将被试与题组的交互作用纳入到模型中,解决了项目间相依性的问题.笔者对题组反应理论的发展、基本原理及其相关研究进行了综述,并将其应用在中学英语考试中.与项目反应理论相对比,结果发现：（1）题组反应模型与项目反应模型在各参数估计值的相关系数较强,尤其是能力参数和难度参数;（2）在置信区间宽度的比较上,题组反应模型在各个参数上均窄于项目反应模型,即题组反应模型的估计精度优于项目反应模型.