Extraneous Factor Research Articles

Virtual Environment, Real Impacts: A Self-determination Perspective on the use of Virtual Reality for Pro-environmental Behavior Interventions

ABSTRACT Plastic waste is a serious environmental problem worldwide. Effective environmental communication is key to mobilizing the public to adopt pro-environmental behaviors for reducing plastic waste. While virtual reality (VR) is proposed as a viable tool that could overcome several challenges facing environmental communication, certain limitations exist in the extant literature, making it unclear whether it is the modality of VR itself, rather than some extraneous factor, that accounts for pro-environmental outcomes. Hence, adopting a between-subjects experimental design, this study improves on past research by comparing the efficacy of a VR game with an equivalent computerized quiz in increasing participants’ pro-environmental behavioral intention. Our results indicate that VR (vs. computerized quiz) has a comparative advantage for increasing participants’ behavioral intention to learn about plastic waste (BIL). Furthermore, guided by the self-determination theory, we find that perceived autonomy and autonomous motivation serve as serial mediators in the relationship between modality and BIL. Key Policy Highlights Policymakers could adopt VR technologies to increase public members’ interest in learning about environmental issues. In designing pro-environmental behavioral interventions, policymakers should focus on facilitating individuals’ autonomous motivation by giving them a sense of control.

Ncrna-a3 Epigenetically Regulates TAL1 and Its Target Genes to Drive Erythroid Differentiation

Erythropoiesis is the development of enucleated red blood cells from multipotent hematopoietic stem cells. This complex process is tightly regulated by the dynamic changes in occupancy of tissue specific transcription factors (TFs) that activate and repress genes appropriately. TAL1, a critical regulator is expressed throughout the development of mature erythroblasts from multi-progenitors. Loss of TAL1 leads to defective erythropoiesis. As opposed to TAL1's role in erythropoiesis, itis an extraneous factor in developing lymphoid cells and aberrant expression of TAL1 in T-cells is associated with T-ALL. The differential regulation during normal and malignant hematopoiesis remains largely unclear. We found that a distil RNA - ncRNA-a3, is transcribed from erythroid specific enhancer, 50kbp downstream of the TAL1 TSS. We hypothesized that ncRNA-a3 plays an important role in regulating TAL1 and its target gene transcription in an erythroid specific manner. To test this hypothesis, we examine the regulatory potential of ncRNA-a3 towards the activation of TAL1 expression in the context of hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis. We used RNA interference to deplete ncRNA-a3 expression across several hematopoietic and leukemic cells. The decrease in ncRNA-a3 resulted in significant reduction of TAL1 transcript and protein levels in hematopoietic cells while TAL1 transcripts showed little or no reduction in leukemic cells. Subsequently, transcriptomic profile changes in erythroleukemic K562 cells showed downregulation of erythroid specific targets of TAL1. To ascertain the role of ncRNA-a3 in erythropoiesis, we used siRNA against ncRNA-a3 in primary CD34+ cells and subjected cells to differentiation. Quantification of early and late erythroblasts by colony forming assay and flow cytometry indicated impaired erythroid differentiation and maturation in orthochromatic and polychromatic stages. Further, RNA-seq analysis of ncRNA-a3 knockdown cells revealed defects in globin gene function, heme biosynthesis and nucleosome condensation compared to control CD34+ cells during time course EPO induced erythroid differentiation. Mechanistically, we observed ncRNA-a3s occupancy at TAL1 regulatory regions from ChIRP-qPCR across TAL1 locus. NG Capture-C data depicting changes in interaction frequencies indicated that ncRNA-a3 maintains canonical interactions at the TAL1 locus. Knockdown of ncRNA-a3 negatively impacted the chromatin accessibility in TAL1 and TAL1 target loci. Perturbation of chromatin landscape affected TAL1 and TAL1 binding partner - P300 and BRG1 occupancy at TAL1 target sites. To distinguish reduced TAL1 binding as a consequence of lower levels of TAL1, from RNA dependent binding of TAL1, we examined TAL1, P300 and BRG1 chromatin occupancy through Cut&Run in conjunction with RNase treatment. Effective depletion of global RNAs resulted in reduced enrichment of TAL1, P300 and BRG1 bound fragments indicating possible RNA dependent binding of TAL1 and its cofactors. TAL1 coimmunoprecipitation using RNase treatment (1) and ncRNA-a3 KD (2), demonstrated that TAL1s interaction with P300 and BRG1 is RNA dependent, but ncRNA-a3 independent. RNA-IP results further confirmed that ncRNA-a3 is associated with TAL1 through its interacting epigenetic cofactors P300 and BRG1. Together, our data indicate that although RNA dependent binding of TAL1 and its epigenetic cofactors is cell type or target locus specific, ncRNA-a3 modulates the occupancy of TAL1, P300 and BRG1 at the TAL1 locus during erythroid specific TAL1 transcription.

Preschoolers’ comprehension of exhaustive focus: The role of contextualization

Previous research has uncovered that, despite the omnipresence of focus in utterances, children typically do not compute the exhaustivity inference associated with cleft(-like) syntactic focus constructions at adult-like levels before 7 years of age. Children’s comparable limitations with lexically triggered scalar implicatures, inferences with an essentially identical logical structure, have been argued to stem not from the lack of their competence to compute the implicature itself, but from their immature contextualization abilities to identify relevant scalar alternatives. We address the question whether the same extraneous factor may underlie preschooler’s difficulties with focus exhaustification in a comprehension study of 5- to 6-year-old Hungarian children which investigated the effect of contextual cues on their focus interpretation. It was found that while the presence of an explicit Question Under Discussion significantly raises children’s accuracy in identifying the focus and its alternatives (sub-experiment 1), it fails to induce a similar increase in the proportion of exhaustive interpretations (sub-experiment 2). These results indicate that, in contrast to the case of scalar implicatures, children’s low rate of exhaustification of focus reflects a deeper, less context-dependent difference from adult-like comprehension, possibly rooted in the linguistic representation of focus exhaustivity.

Emergent Relations between Discriminative Stimuli, Responses, and Consequences in Intraverbals

We explored the emergence of relations between stimuli learned as discriminative, responses, and consequences with intraverbals. In Experiment 1, five 9- and 10-year-old children learned intraverbals that related a country (A) with a city (B)—e.g., “Name a city of Switzerland”; “Davos”—and that country with a predator animal (C). Correct responses were followed by saying the name of a feature of the city (T) or saying an animal preyed by the predator (U), respectively. The emergence of BC and CB intraverbals that relate the cities and the predators and that of intraverbals that relate the specific consequences to the cities (T-B and U-B) and to the prey animals (T-C and U-C) was probed with no differential consequences. All five children demonstrated the emergence of BC, CB, U-B, and U-C and four children also demonstrated the emergence of T-B and T-C. In Experiment 2, a simpler procedure that controlled a possible extraneous factor, was used with seven 7- and 8-year old children and they also demonstrated emergence. Thus, the emergence of verbal relations with elements taught as discriminative stimuli, responses, and consequences was demonstrated.

The Prescription for Wellness Is Fun!

Understanding individual behavioral choices and the role individual motivation plays for initial and sustained engagement in physical activity and sport is important to increasing participation rates (Bernard et al., 2005). Using Self-Determination Theory and Achievement Goal Theory framework, this research explored the role of motivation related to participation in sport and physical activity. Specifically, this study focused on the CrossFit® Games Open, a non-traditional virtual mass participation sporting event (MPSE). Prior research has established that non-elite MPSEs are effective events for beginning, but not sustaining, participation in sport and physical activity (Coleman & Sebire, 2016). A large sample (n = 4,325) of participants from the 2018 CrossFit Games Open was surveyed about tenure as a participant and the motivational extraneous factor of participation. The primary finding is that fun is a very important driver of wellness. Additionally, competency factors, as well as commitment to training, support previous outcomes of sport participation research and provide direction to practitioners.

An exploration of the relationships of experiential avoidance (as measured by the aaq-ii and meaq) with negative affect, perceived stress, and avoidant coping styles.

BackgroundCurrent psychotherapies seek to reduce experiential avoidance (EA) which has also been put forth as a risk factor for anxiety disorders, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. EA is a potentially maladaptive self-regulatory tendency to avoid negative thoughts, feelings, memories, physical sensations, and other internal experiences. One unresolved issue with the most commonly used measures of EA, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) which measures EA as a single factor and the Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (MEAQ) which measures EA as six subdimensions, is what exactly is being measured. The AAQ-II appears to measure negative affect (NA), some aspects of avoidant coping, and psychological distress. In addition, the relationships of all the MEAQ subscales have not been thoroughly examined with these other constructs. In the current study, the relationships of AAQ-II and MEAQ scores with NA, avoidant coping styles, and perceived stress were examined.MethodsTwo-hundred undergraduates (154 females and 46 males) completed the AAQ-II and MEAQ, the Distressed Type D Personality Scale (DS-14) which includes a measure of NA, the Brief COPE which measures coping styles, and the Perceived Stress Scale.ResultsScores on the AAQ-II had moderate positive relationships with the MEAQ total score and all MEAQ subscales with the exception of distress endurance which had a moderate negative relationship. The AAQ-II had a stronger relationship with NA, avoidant coping, and perceived stress than did the MEAQ. All MEAQ subscales had a positive relationship to NA, avoidant coping, and perceived stress with the exception of distress endurance which had a negative relationship with these constructs. While the AAQ-II is limited as a unitary measure of EA the multiple dimensions of the MEAQ may involve an extraneous factor of distress endurance. Future work should examine the relationships of the MEAQ with NA, avoidant coping and perceived stress with clinical populations.

Empirically Investigating Extraneous Influences on the “APCO” Model—Childhood Brand Nostalgia and the Positivity Bias

Pokémon Go is one of the most successful mobile games of all time. Millions played and still play this mobile augmented reality (AR) application, although severe privacy issues are pervasive in the app due to its use of several sensors such as location data and camera. In general, individuals regularly use online services and mobile apps although they might know that the use is associated with high privacy risks. This seemingly contradictory behavior of users is analyzed from a variety of different perspectives in the information systems domain. One of these perspectives evaluates privacy-related decision making processes based on concepts from behavioral economics. We follow this line of work by empirically testing one exemplary extraneous factor within the “enhanced APCO model” (antecedents–privacy concerns–outcome). Specific empirical tests on such biases are rare in the literature which is why we propose and empirically analyze the extraneous influence of a positivity bias. In our case, we hypothesize that the bias is induced by childhood brand nostalgia towards the Pokémon franchise. We analyze our proposition in the context of an online survey with 418 active players of the game. Our results indicate that childhood brand nostalgia influences the privacy calculus by exerting a large effect on the benefits within the trade-off and, therefore, causing a higher use frequency. Our work shows two important implications. First, the behavioral economics perspective on privacy provides additional insights relative to previous research. However, the effects of several other biases and heuristics have to be tested in future work. Second, relying on nostalgia represents an important, but also double-edged, instrument for practitioners to market new services and applications.

Factors affecting the academic performance of real estate students in a specialized Federal University of Technology in Nigeria

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the factors affecting the academic outcome of real estate students in a specialized Federal University in Nigeria. Furthermore, this paper investigates the phenomenon of publication bias in the extant literature as such evidence poses severe threats to the validity of empirical findings on factors affecting the degree outcome of undergraduate students.Design/methodology/approachThe standard statistical approach adopted was to examine whether the reported coefficient estimates from ten empirical studies (105 observations) are independent of their standard errors by employing both ordinary least squares (OLS) and weighted least squares (WLS). In this paper, this approach enabled evidence of publication bias in the cited literature to be refuted. In addition, data were also collected on the academic measure and demographic information of 449 students who graduated between 2005 and 2011. For the purpose of analysis, the study utilized a stepwise logistic regression technique to examine the factors impacting on the degree outcome of real estate students.FindingsThe results of the OLS and WLS regression indicate that there is no significant evidence of any empirical effect of publication bias in the extant literature. The results of the logistic regression also revealed that grade point average, gender differences, prior knowledge of real estate discipline and potential difference in year of enrollment impact on students’ academic performance in terms of their ability to graduate at first attempt. In addition, factors such as age, marital status, high school grade and geopolitical/ethnic background of undergraduate real estate students do not influence their opportunities to graduate at first attempt from the university.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper focuses only on one specialized university of technology offering a bachelor’s program in real estate in Nigeria, so as to remove any extraneous factor(s) that could be present in the other institutional settings where students have completed such program. Extending similar study to tertiary institutions in Nigeria that share similar geographical characteristics and institutional settings can produce far-reaching generalization.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the scanty literature on factors affecting the academic performance of students in an undergraduate real estate program in Nigeria. A scientific element of novelty in this paper is the evidence of the absence of the underlying effect of publication bias in the extant literature on students’ academic outcome in tertiary institutions. Findings from this study serve as the basis for university officers to monitor significant transitions in real estate students’ academic progress, so as to identify those who are unlikely to graduate at first attempt early at the entrant level. Generally, the outcome of this research could provide faculty and admission officers in tertiary institutions with complementary information in arriving at an informed decision in a non-discriminatory admission process.

Frequency of Different Types of Artifacts among Oral and Maxillofacial Histopathological Slides in Zanjan Dental School from 2015 to 2017

Background: Artifact refers to an artificial or replaced structure in histopathological slides as a result of an extraneous factor. Given the influence of identification and awareness of the types of artifacts on the correct diagnosis, the frequency of artifacts in oral and maxillofacial histopathological slides was assessed. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, census method was used to assess 119 oral and maxillofacial histopathological slides retrieved from the archive of Zanjan Dental School from 2015 to 2017. Artifacts were divided into three groups arising from the surgeon’s performance, technician’s performance, and specimen transfer to the laboratory. Statistical analysis of data was performed using an independent t test in SPSS software version 18.0. Results: The average numbers of artifacts arising from the surgeon’s performance, technician’s performance, and specimen transfer to the laboratory were 3.90±1.14, 3.08±1.10, and 0, respectively. The mean number of artifacts arising from the surgeon’s performance was significantly higher compared to the other two groups (P<0.01) and the most common ones included fragmentation, split, and tear. The most common artifacts arising from the technician’s performance were fold/wrinkle, chaffer, and floater. There was no artifact arising from specimen transfer to the laboratory. Conclusions: The results indicated a high frequency of various artifacts in the studied slides. Therefore, paying more attention to slide preparation protocols and proficient performance during the biopsy procedure as well as further cooperation between the surgeon, pathologist, and laboratory technician can be useful in reducing the frequency of artifacts and achieving a better diagnosis.

Correct Symmetry Treatment for X + X Reactions Prevents Large Errors in Predicted Isotope Enrichment.

Confusion over how to account for symmetry numbers when reactants are identical can cause significant errors in isotopic studies. An extraneous factor of 2 in the reaction symmetry number, as proposed in the literature, violates reaction equilibrium and causes huge enrichment errors in isotopic analysis. In actuality, no extra symmetry factor is needed with identical reactants.

μ-Bases for rational canal surfaces

We show an efficient approach to computing a μ-basis for a rational canal surface defined by two rational generating curves. By simple geometry we can directly write down three moving planes whose intersection contains the canal surface. The degrees of the three moving planes are much lower than the degree of the surface parametrization, and their outer product retrieves the exact parametrization of the surface, with only a univariate extraneous factor. A matrix factorization technique is applied to these three moving planes to derive a μ-basis for the canal surface, whose outer product is exactly the parametrization of the canal surface. An inversion formula of a given point is also provided by μ-basis representations.

Barriers to the evaluation of evidence-based public health policy.

Public health policy has the potential to produce great benefits for individuals and communities. There is growing demand that such efforts be rigorously evaluated to ensure that the expected benefits are, in fact, realised. Commonly, public health policy is evaluated by consumer acceptability, reach, or changes in knowledge and attitudes. Non-robust research designs are often used. But these approaches to evaluation do not answer three critical questions: Has a change in the desired outcome occurred? Was it a consequence of the policy and not some extraneous factor? Was the size of the change considered significant and cost-effective? We, a team of government and academic scholars working in research and evaluation, have examined some of the more common impediments to robust evaluation: political impediments, a lack of investment in evaluation capacity within bureaucracy, and the failure of academic researchers to understand the need for the evaluation of public health policy.

Analyzing the extraneous cognitive load of a 7th grader mathematics textbook

Based on a Cognitive Load Theory, there might be an extraneous factor should be considered when a learning material is presented such as in a textbook. Commonly, high school mathematics textbook contains abstract symbols, text, and pictures which might hinder learning if the presentation causes extraneous cognitive load. Unfortunately, textbook writers do not always consider this factor. Therefore investigation on textbooks used by students is required. This study purposely chosed the Year 7 high school mathematics compulsory textbook in Indonesia because the authors have had experience teaching year 7. The Cognitive Load Theory was used to analyze potential extraneous cognitive load presented in six units of the book. These are the introduction, observing, questioning, elaborating, associating, and communicating sections. The analysis framework was developed into four aspects: the split-attention, the redundancy of information, the lack of signaling, the incoherence, and the typing mistake. The analysis shows that about 18.43% of material presented in the textbook cause split-attention, 3.69% cause redundant information, 18,43% lack of signaling, and 3.69% is incoherence, and 11.6% is typing mistake. This finding reveals that the textbook contained some extraneous cognitive loads which may cause students’ difficulty to understand the content. Accordingly, the book might require some revisions in order to support learning processes.

Writing Anxiety, Self-efficacy, Effort, and Their Roles in Writing Achievement

Recurring observation has revealed language learners’ successful completion of writing tasks at an acceptable and sometimes even impressive level only to complete the same tasks afterwards on evaluated assignments in a manner which sometimes fails to meet minimum standards. This leads to the assumption that such learners may be influenced by an extraneous factor functioning as an impediment in applying, upon evaluation, already-learned and mastered skills and knowledge. This factor is believed to come in one or more of the forms of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), which may influence and be influenced by other factors. The current study examined the association between some of these factors among Algerian EFL learners (N=148). Writing anxiety was measured using the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI; Cheng 2004). Two other factors, efficacy and effort, were measured using questions retrieved from the Academic Writing Motivation Questionnaire (AWMQ; Payne 2012). To test for an association between the variables, Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used. Results from the analysis have revealed that a significant positive correlation exists between writing self-efficacy and effort put forth in writing, and between writing self-efficacy and writing achievement. A significant negative association was found between self-efficacy and anxiety. However, a non-significant negative association exists between anxiety and effort and between anxiety and writing achievement. These findings suggest that self-efficacy may mediate or may be mediated by writing anxiety and effort put forth into the writing task, which in turn may impact the overall achievement in writing courses. Implications for further research are discussed.

The effect of brain-derived neurotrophic factor on radiation-induced neuron architecture impairment is associated with the NFATc4/3 pathway

Irradiation to developing brains results in progressive cognitive dysfunction. Changes in the morphology of mature neurons are thought to be related to impairments of cognitive function. However, little is known about the effects of radiation on neurite outgrowth of immature neurons. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the structural alterations of immature neurons following X-ray irradiation and determine potential strategies to reverse it. Our data revealed damage to the neurite outgrowths of cultured neurons after 2 Gy and 8 Gy irradiation at 1 d and 3 d, respectively. De-phosphorylation of nuclear factor of activated T-cells c4/3 (NFATc4/3) was inhibited post-irradiation. Extraneous brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) ameliorated impairment of neurite growth and activated the NFATc4/3 signaling pathway. These data indicate that BDNF confers neuroprotective effects against irradiation by modulating the NFATc4/3 pathway.

Sequential order as an extraneous factor in editorial decision

Does the sequential order in which manuscripts are submitted to an academic journal have any effect on the editorial decision? As an extraneous factor, the order of submission has no relation to the manuscript’s content. However, an editor facing a list of new submissions could be subject to decision fatigue or order bias, which would in turn affect the editorial decision. Empirical analysis of nearly 10,000 (first) submissions to a leading academic journal shows that manuscripts which were submitted earlier on a given day were up to 7% more likely to be desk rejected, without any order effect on the likelihood of a rejection after peer review.

Differentiating Different Types of Cognitive Load: a Comparison of Different Measures

Recent studies about learning and instruction use cognitive load measurement to pay attention to the human cognitive resources and to the consumption of these resources during the learning process. In order to validate different measures of cognitive load for different cognitive load factors, the present study compares three different methods of objective cognitive load measurement and one subjective method. An experimental three-group design (N = 78) was used, with exposure to seductive details (extraneous cognitive load factor), mental animation tasks (germane cognitive load factor), or the basic learning instruction (control group). Cognitive load was measured by the rhythm method (Park and Brunken 2015), the index of cognitive activity (ICA) (Marshall 2007), and the subjective ratings of mental effort and task difficulty (Paas 1992). Eye-tracking data were used to analyze the attention allocation and as an indicator for cognitive activity. The results show a significantly higher cognitive load for the mental animation group in contrast to the control and the seductive detail group, indicated by rhythm method and subjective ratings, as well as a higher cognitive activity, indicated by eye tracking. Furthermore, the mental animation group shows significantly higher comprehension performance in contrast to the seductive detail group and significantly higher transfer performance in contrast to the control group. The ICA values showed no significant differences in cognitive load. The results provide evidence for the benefits of combining eye-tracking analysis and the results of cognitive load ratings or secondary task performance for a direct and continuous cognitive load assessment and for a differentiating access to the single cognitive load factors.

Two additional advantages of complex μ-bases for non-ruled real quadric surfaces

Real μ-bases for non-ruled real quadric surfaces have two potential drawbacks. First, the resultant of the three moving planes corresponding to a real μ-basis represents the implicit equation of the quadric surface, but in some cases contains a linear extraneous factor. Second, even when this resultant contains no extraneous factor, this resultant generates only the affine version of the implicit equation. In contrast, the resultant of the two moving planes corresponding to a complex μ-basis always generates the homogeneous version of the implicit equation for the quadric surface with no extraneous factors. We illustrate these phenomena here with three examples.

A modular cantilever fixture and test methodology for thermoplastics: An alternative bending load case for validation of CAE material models

Several conventional CAE material models account for only uniaxial tensile behavior of the material; however, the said models may be required to predict component-level response in a complex loading scenario. Therefore in developing input files for such models, it becomes critical to evaluate their performance in alternative validation loading scenarios such as 3-point bending (flexure). Simulating 3-point flexure requires optimization of contact parameters, thereby introducing an extraneous factor that adds uncertainty to the validation of the material model in bending scenarios.This paper targets to evaluate the opportunity to substitute the conventional 3-point flexure with a cantilever bending exercise as the method of choice for bending load case validation. The cantilever bending test is expected to alleviate several challenges associated with CAE validation using 3-point flexure. We describe a novel test fixture for carrying out cantilever bending at low velocities; the fixture can be conveniently mounted on commercial Universal Testing Machines (UTM), and is capable of generating precise load–displacement information. Cantilever and flexure simulations in LS-DYNA employing piecewise-linear-plasticity formulation (*MAT_024) highlight the relative simplicity of validation in bending using cantilever loading. Further, the equivalence of the bending kinematics during cantilever and 3-point flexure is assessed through investigation of stress–strain information.

Sparse bivariate polynomial factorization

Motivated by Sasaki’s work on the extended Hensel construction for solving multivariate algebraic equations, we present a generalized Hensel lifting, which takes advantage of sparsity, for factoring bivariate polynomial over the rational number field. Another feature of the factorization algorithm presented in this article is a new recombination method, which can solve the extraneous factor problem before lifting based on numerical linear algebra. Both theoretical analysis and experimental data show that the algorithm is efficient, especially for sparse bivariate polynomials.