Typical Goal Research Articles

Computational Thinking and Notional Machines: The Missing Link

In learning to program and understanding how a programming language controls a computer, learners develop both insights and misconceptions whilst their mental models are gradually refined. It is important that the learner is able to distinguish the different elements and roles of a computer (compiler, interpreter, memory, etc.), which novice programmers may find difficult to comprehend. Forming accurate mental models is one of the potential sources of difficulty inextricably linked to mastering computing concepts and processes, and for learning computer programming. It is common to use some form of representation (e.g., an abstract machine or a Computational Agent (CA)) to support technical or pedagogic explanations. The Notional Machine (NM) is a pedagogical device that entails one or more computational concepts, originally described as an idealised computer operating with the constructs of a particular programming language. It can be used to support specific or general learning goals and will typically have some concrete representation that can be referred to. Computational Thinking (CT), which is defined as a way of thinking that is used for [computational] problem solving, is often presented as using a CA to carry out information processing presented by a solution. In CT, where the typical goal is to produce an algorithm or a computer program, the CA seemingly serves a purpose very similar to an NM. Although it changes through the different stages of development (of the learner and of the curriculum), the roles of CAs and NMs can be seen as versatile tools that connect a learner’s mental model with the conceptual model of a program. In this article, we look at this relationship between CAs and NMs, and indicate how they would look at different stages of learning. We traverse the range of definitions and usages of these concepts, and articulate models that clarify how these are viewed in the literature. This includes exploring the nature of machines and agents, and how historical views of these relate to modern pedagogy for computation. We argue that the CA can be seen as an abstract, simplified variant of an NM that provides a useful perspective to the learner to support them to form robust mental models of NMs more efficiently and effectively. We propose that teaching programming should make use of the idea of a CA at different stages of learning, as a link that connects a learner’s mental model to a full NM.

Thermodynamic Characterization of the Interaction of Biofunctionalized Gold Nanoclusters with Serum Albumin Using Two- and Three-Dimensional Methods

Fluorescent gold nanoclusters have been successfully used as fluorescent markers for imaging of cells and tissues, and their potential role in drug delivery monitoring is coming to the fore. In addition, the development of biosensors using structure-tunable fluorescent nanoclusters is also a prominent research field. In the case of these sensor applications, the typical goal is the selective identification of, e.g., metal ions, small molecules having neuroactive or antioxidant effects, or proteins. During these application-oriented developments, in general, there is not enough time to systematically examine the interaction between nanoclusters and relevant biomolecules/proteins from a thermodynamic viewpoint. In this way, the primary motivation of this article is to carry out a series of tests to partially fill this scientific gap. Besides the well-known fluorescent probes, the mentioned interactions were investigated using such unique measurement methods as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). These two-dimensional (at the solid/liquid interface) and three-dimensional (in the bulk phase) measuring techniques provide a unique opportunity for the thermodynamic characterization of the interaction between different gold nanoclusters containing various surface functionalizing ligands and bovine serum albumin (BSA).

Chinese Dietary Indices and Glioma: New Insights of a Case-Control Study in the Chinese Population.

Identifying modifiable factors in primary prevention strategies is a typical goal of glioma epidemiology. Among many glioma risk factors, diet was always considered as one. Most of the relevant studies thus far were concentrated on the West. It was crucial to investigate the connection between the Chinese diet and gliomas given the stark variations between western and eastern diets. A food frequency questionnaire including 114 items was used to investigate the food intake of the study subjects. The Chinese Dietary Quality Index (CDQI), the Chinese Dietary Balance Index (CDBI), the Dietary Antioxidant Index (DAI), the Dietary Inflammation Index (DII), and the Chinese Healthy Eating Index (CHEI) were calculated based on the data provided by the food frequency questionnaire to evaluate dietary quality, dietary balance, dietary antioxidants, dietary inflammation and adherence to the Chinese dietary guidelines in 506 glioma patients and 506 controls, respectively. After adjusting covariates, CHEI (OR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.88-0.93) and DAI (OR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.54-0.70) were correlated to a reduced glioma risk, and CDBI-based undernutrition (OR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.06-1.12) and overnutrition (OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.09-1.20) and DII (OR = 2.20, 95% CI: 1.81-2.68) were correlated to an elevated glioma risk. Moreover, restrictive cubic spline analysis showed that there were significant nonlinear dose-response relationships between CHEI, CDBI, DAI, DII, and glioma. Therefore, adhering to the Chinese dietary guidelines was connected with a lower glioma risk, and undernutrition and overnutrition in the Chinese diet were associated with an increased risk of glioma.

The Relevance of Targets’ Sexual Knowledge in the Progression of Online Sexual Grooming Events: Findings from an Online Field Experiment

Although the typical end goal of an online grooming event is to lure a minor into performing sexual activity (either online or offline), no previous study has examined the relevance of targets’ sexual knowledge on the progression of these events. To address this gap, we deployed two honeypot chatbots which simulated young female users in a sample of twenty-three online chatrooms, over a period of three months. The first chatbot simulated a sexually knowledgeable target while the second chatbot simulated a sexually naïve target. Findings from 319 online grooming events indicate that an online grooming event is more likely to progress in the presence of a sexually knowledgeable target. Moreover, we find that online grooming events with sexually knowledgeable targets lasted longer than online grooming events with sexually naïve targets. Finally, we found that sexually knowledgeable targets were more likely to be solicited for offline encounters than sexually naïve targets.

Semi-analytical solution for thermo-poro-elastic stresses in a wellbore cement plug and implications for cement properties that minimize risk of failure

In high temperature and high pressure environments, inducing pore pressure changes in low permeability cement can be problematic. Despite the typical design goal of achieving very low permeability in cement plugs for better isolation, this work reveals through a new semi-analytical TPE stress solution that lower permeability is not always ideal. In fact, such materials are unable to rapidly drain excess pore pressure compared to the rate at which it builds due to thermal changes may lead to the generation of internal tensile stress and increased risk of damage. This work identifies the parameter groups linked to the “permeability penalty” by utilizing dimensional and pairwise bivariate analysis through Monte Carlo sampling. It proposes two dimensionless parameter groups that divide into three distinct regions based on the likelihood of producing tensile effective stresses in a plug. This work provides a new wellbore cement design concept focuses on achieving the lowest permeability without risking failure from pore pressure buildup, rather than simply achieving the lowest possible permeability. Furthermore, this work for the first time highlights the important role of cement's specific heat in mitigating pore pressure buildup, paving a new path for enhancing this property in future cement design.

NFSP-PLT: Solving Games with a Weighted NFSP-PER-Based Method

Nash equilibrium strategy is a typical goal when solving two-player imperfect-information games (IIGs). Neural fictitious self-play (NFSP) is a popular method to find the Nash equilibrium in IIGs, which is the first end-to-end method used to compute the Nash equilibrium strategy. However, the training of NFSP requires a large number of sample data and the interactive cost of obtaining such data is often very high. Realizing the efficient training of network under limited samples is an urgent problem. In this paper, we first proposed a new NFSP-based method, NFSP with prioritized experience replay (NFSP-PER), to improve the sample training efficiency. Then, a weighted NFSP-PER with learning time (NFSP-PLT) was proposed to control the utilization degree of priority-weighted samples. Furthermore, based on the NFSP-PLT, an adaptive upper-confidence-bound applied to tree (UCT) is used to solve the optimal response strategy, which makes the solving strategy more accurate. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed NFSP-PLT effectively improves the sample learning efficiency compared with the existing works.

Determining Reliable Solutions for the Team Orienteering Problem with Probabilistic Delays

In the team orienteering problem, a fixed fleet of vehicles departs from an origin depot towards a destination, and each vehicle has to visit nodes along its route in order to collect rewards. Typically, the maximum distance that each vehicle can cover is limited. Alternatively, there is a threshold for the maximum time a vehicle can employ before reaching its destination. Due to this driving range constraint, not all potential nodes offering rewards can be visited. Hence, the typical goal is to maximize the total reward collected without exceeding the vehicle’s capacity. The TOP can be used to model operations related to fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles, road electric vehicles with limited driving range, or ride-sharing operations in which the vehicle has to reach its destination on or before a certain deadline. However, in some realistic scenarios, travel times are better modeled as random variables, which introduce additional challenges into the problem. This paper analyzes a stochastic version of the team orienteering problem in which random delays are considered. Being a stochastic environment, we are interested in generating solutions with a high expected reward that, at the same time, are highly reliable (i.e., offer a high probability of not suffering any route delay larger than a user-defined threshold). In order to tackle this stochastic optimization problem, which contains a probabilistic constraint on the random delays, we propose an extended simheuristic algorithm that also employs concepts from reliability analysis.

Numerical simulation of viscoelastic fluid–structure interaction benchmarks and their application to the human eye

We present a numerical solution method for time-dependent viscoelastic fluid–structure interaction employing the arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian framework. The derived monolithic variational formulation is discretized in time using the shifted Crank–Nicolson scheme and in space using the finite element method. For the linearisation we employ Newton’s method with exact Jacobians. The viscoelastic fluid is modelled either using the Oldroyd-B or a Burgers-type model. The elastic structures are non-linear hyperelastic materials. We validate the implementation on benchmark problems and numerically analyse the convergence for global mesh refinement and adaptive mesh refinement using the dual-weighted residual method. Furthermore we numerically analyse the influence of the viscoelasticity of the fluid on typical goal functionals like the drag, the lift and the displacement. The derived numerical solution method is applied to ophthalmology where we analyse the interaction of the viscoelastic vitreous with its surrounding elastic structures.

The Stochastic Team Orienteering Problem with Position-Dependent Rewards

In this paper, we analyze both the deterministic and stochastic versions of a team orienteering problem (TOP) in which rewards from customers are dynamic. The typical goal of the TOP is to select a set of customers to visit in order to maximize the total reward gathered by a fixed fleet of vehicles. To better reflect some real-life scenarios, we consider a version in which rewards associated with each customer might depend upon the order in which the customer is visited within a route, bonusing the first clients and penalizing the last ones. In addition, travel times are modeled as random variables. Two mixed-integer programming models are proposed for the deterministic version, which is then solved using a well-known commercial solver. Furthermore, a biased-randomized iterated local search algorithm is employed to solve this deterministic version. Overall, the proposed metaheuristic algorithm shows an outstanding performance when compared with the optimal or near-optimal solutions provided by the commercial solver, both in terms of solution quality as well as in computational times. Then, the metaheuristic algorithm is extended into a full simheuristic in order to solve the stochastic version of the problem. A series of numerical experiments allows us to show that the solutions provided by the simheuristic outperform the near-optimal solutions obtained for the deterministic version of the problem when the latter are used in a scenario under conditions of uncertainty. In addition, the solutions provided by our simheuristic algorithm for the stochastic version of the problem offer a higher reliability level than the ones obtained with the commercial solver.

An automated high-throughput enterovirus D68 microneutralization assay platform

Virus neutralization assays, widely used to detect and quantify antibodies induced by virus infection, are considered the gold standard for enterovirus serology testing. Conventional microneutralization assays have been used to assess enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) seroprevalence. While manual or automated 96-well assays are valuable, higher-density assays that increase throughput provide the opportunity to more efficiently screen large, population-based serology collections, as well as to test sample sets against multiple virus strains on the same plate or within the same run. Here, automation was implemented for bulk reagent dispensing, serial dilutions, and luminescence measurement to develop a 384-well enterovirus microneutralization assay that increases overall testing throughput, maintains the reproducibility of the standard 96-well assay, and reduces sample volume usage. EV-D68 strains Fermon, 14–18953, and 18–23087 were used to evaluate the automated 384-well microneutralization assay and compare to the conventional 96-well assay. Sensitivity and specificity were evaluated using pooled human sera and positive and negative control antisera. The Lower Limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was the same as for the 96-well assay and coefficients of variations (CV) of 7.35 %, 5.97 %, and 2.85 % for the three EV-D68 strains respectively, were well below the typical goal of ≤ 20 % CV for accuracy. Z-factor analysis yielded results of 0.694, 0.638, and 0.852, for the three EV-D68 strains respectively, indicating a high level of precision, reliability, and robustness. Intra-assay (7.25 %) and inter-assay (7.12 %) variability were well below 20 % CV. Moreover, the 96-well and 384-well versions of the assay were highly concordant, with a 0.955 correlation coefficient in titers obtained for 50 sera tested. Validation of this automated 384-well microneutralization will support its use in large serology screens assessing the presence of EV-D68 neutralizing antibodies in human populations.

On Producing Accurate Rating Predictions in Sparse Collaborative Filtering Datasets

The typical goal of a collaborative filtering algorithm is the minimisation of the deviation between rating predictions and factual user ratings so that the recommender system offers suggestions for appropriate items, achieving a higher prediction value. The datasets on which collaborative filtering algorithms are applied vary in terms of sparsity, i.e., regarding the percentage of empty cells in the user–item rating matrices. Sparsity is an important factor affecting rating prediction accuracy, since research has proven that collaborative filtering over sparse datasets exhibits a lower accuracy. The present work aims to explore, in a broader context, the factors related to rating prediction accuracy in sparse collaborative filtering datasets, indicating that recommending the items that simply achieve higher prediction values than others, without considering other factors, in some cases, can reduce recommendation accuracy and negatively affect the recommender system’s success. An extensive evaluation is conducted using sparse collaborative filtering datasets. It is found that the number of near neighbours used for the prediction formulation, the rating average of the user for whom the prediction is generated and the rating average of the item concerning the prediction can indicate, in many cases, whether the rating prediction produced is reliable or not.

P179 A feasibility randomised controlled trial of a fibromyalgia self-management programme in a community setting with a nested qualitative study

Abstract Background/Aims Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex long-term condition affecting over 5% of the UK population. FM symptoms include widespread pain, fatigue, sleep problems, stiffness, cognitive dysfunction and psychological distress. The condition is associated with high levels of disability, frequent use of healthcare resources and loss of workdays. Current guidelines for the treatment of FM recommend non-pharmacological interventions, including cognitive behaviour therapy, aerobic exercise, warm water therapy, relaxation, and patient education. A typical patient goal is to develop the knowledge and skills needed to self-manage their condition independently. Our Fibromyalgia Self-Management Programme (FSMP) comprises six 2.5-hour sessions over six consecutive weeks and includes education about fibromyalgia, sleep hygiene, goal setting, pacing, and dietary advice. To date, the FSMP has been co-delivered by a multidisciplinary team within a secondary care service. However, delivery in the community may help improve the accessibility of the programme to people with FM. Therefore, this feasibility study aimed to determine the practicality and acceptability of conducting a future definitive randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the FSMP in a community setting. Methods An exploratory, parallel-arm, one-to-one, RCT design was used. Participants were recruited from general practices across South West England, and the FSMP was co-delivered by physiotherapists and occupational therapists across two community sites. To determine the outcome measures for a future definitive trial, several outcomes were tested. All clinical outcome measures were patient-reported and collected at baseline, six weeks and six months. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patient participants, occupational therapists and physiotherapists to explore the acceptability and feasibility of delivering the FSMP in a community setting. Results Between April and August 2019, 20 General Practices across two sites in SW England invited 1414 patients with an FM diagnosis to participate in the study. A total of 74 participants were randomised to the FSMP intervention (n = 38) or control arm (n = 36). Attrition from the trial was 42% (31/74) at six months. A large proportion of those randomised to the intervention arm (34%, 13/38) failed to attend any sessions, with six of the 13 formally withdrawing before the intervention commenced. The proportion of missing values was small for each of the outcome measures. For the nested qualitative study, 13 patient participants and four therapists were interviewed. Three overarching themes emerged: (1) barriers and facilitators to attending the FSMP; (2) FSMP content, delivery and supporting documentation; and (3) trial processes. Conclusion It is feasible to recruit people with FM from primary care to participate in an RCT testing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the FSMP delivered in a community setting. However, improvement in attrition and engagement with the intervention is needed. Disclosure J. Pearson: None. J. Coggins: None. S. Derham: None. J. Russell: None. N. Walsh: None. E. Lenguerrand: Other; Erik Lenguerrand and his institution are receiving funding from Ceramtec to conduct an orthopaedic research project that has no relationship to the study presented here. S. Palmer: None. F. Cramp: None.

High molecular weight DNA extraction strategies for long-read sequencing of complex metagenomes.

By offering extremely long contiguous characterization of individual DNA molecules, rapidly emerging long‐read sequencing strategies offer comprehensive insights into the organization of genetic information in genomes and metagenomes. However, successful long‐read sequencing experiments demand high concentrations of highly purified DNA of high molecular weight (HMW), which limits the utility of established DNA extraction kits designed for short‐read sequencing. The challenges associated with input DNA quality intensify further when working with complex environmental samples of low microbial biomass, which requires new protocols that are tailored to study metagenomes with long‐read sequencing. Here, we use human tongue scrapings to benchmark six HMW DNA extraction strategies that are based on commercially available kits, phenol–chloroform (PC) extraction and agarose encasement followed by agarase digestion. A typical end goal of HMW DNA extractions is to obtain the longest possible reads during sequencing, which is often achieved by PC extractions, as demonstrated in sequencing of cultured cells. Yet our analyses that consider overall read‐size distribution, assembly performance and the number of circularized elements found in sequencing results suggest that column‐based kits with enzyme supplementation, rather than PC methods, may be more appropriate for long‐read sequencing of metagenomes.

Mutual Implicit Question Answering for Shared Authorship: A Pilot Study on Player Expectations

The typical goal of an experience manager in an interactive narrative is to create a sense of shared authorship that lends the player freedom to personalize the experience while still meeting the author's constraints on structure. This can be difficult when the player and author only communicate with one another through their actions. Each new action causes new questions to arise, assumptions to be made, and old questions to be answered. In this paper, I propose a technique called Mutual Implicit Question Answering, or MIQA, designed to allow an experience manager to both perceive and influence the momentum of an interactive story. It combines a generative model of narrative planning with analytical models of question answering and salience. I also present the results of a small, qualitative study of how people construct interactive narratives that lends insight for the eventual evaluation of a MIQA experience manager.

Optimizing deep brain stimulation based on isostable amplitude in essential tremor patient models

Objective. Deep brain stimulation is a treatment for medically refractory essential tremor. To improve the therapy, closed-loop approaches are designed to deliver stimulation according to the system’s state, which is constantly monitored by recording a pathological signal associated with symptoms (e.g. brain signal or limb tremor). Since the space of possible closed-loop stimulation strategies is vast and cannot be fully explored experimentally, how to stimulate according to the state should be informed by modeling. A typical modeling goal is to design a stimulation strategy that aims to maximally reduce the Hilbert amplitude of the pathological signal in order to minimize symptoms. Isostables provide a notion of amplitude related to convergence time to the attractor, which can be beneficial in model-based control problems. However, how isostable and Hilbert amplitudes compare when optimizing the amplitude response to stimulation in models constrained by data is unknown. Approach. We formulate a simple closed-loop stimulation strategy based on models previously fitted to phase-locked deep brain stimulation data from essential tremor patients. We compare the performance of this strategy in suppressing oscillatory power when based on Hilbert amplitude and when based on isostable amplitude. We also compare performance to phase-locked stimulation and open-loop high-frequency stimulation. Main results. For our closed-loop phase space stimulation strategy, stimulation based on isostable amplitude is significantly more effective than stimulation based on Hilbert amplitude when amplitude field computation time is limited to minutes. Performance is similar when there are no constraints, however constraints on computation time are expected in clinical applications. Even when computation time is limited to minutes, closed-loop phase space stimulation based on isostable amplitude is advantageous compared to phase-locked stimulation, and is more efficient than high-frequency stimulation. Significance. Our results suggest a potential benefit to using isostable amplitude more broadly for model-based optimization of stimulation in neurological disorders.

Interfejsy intymności. Tendencje intymistyczne we współczesnych grach wideo

The article concentrates on a specific tendency that can be observed in some video games created in recent years. This trend is that more and more video games present an intimate perspective and focus on the individual experience of the protagonist. The author of the article approaches the phenomenon in question mainly from the interpretative and genological perspective, since video games are not a media form commonly identified with the expression of intimate, formative or identitycreating experiences. The author starts with an analysis of the reasons why video games and intimistic texts are commonly perceived as very distant genre forms. Then he analyzes those video games that represent the intimistic tendency: Bury me, my Love (The Pixel Hunt, 2017), A Normal Lost Phone (Accidental Queens, 2017) and Wanderlust: Travel Stories (Different Tales, 2019). The analysis leads to the following conclusions: what is common for all the three discussed games is i.a. a particularly important role of the text as the basic semiotic material in which the game is realized. Even though Interfejsy intymności this concentration on the word is not a necessary condition of intimistic poetics – it definitely helps introducing such a dimension into the work. What is more, two of the three discussed games use the strategy of remediating a smartphone. In both cases, the creators designed new interfaces modeled on the real ones and turned navigating on the phone screen into basic game mechanics. This, in turns, means that intimistic tendencies in video games stimulate reaching for new genre forms. This process of remediation is possible mainly because modern intimacy has shifted very clearly towards the digital, and smartphones have become its basic tool. This phenomenon, which the author of the article calls ‘intimacy 2.0’, is a result of the fact that: (a) contemporary culture is deeply anchored in the digital and its interfaces, and (b) the importance of smartphones in everyday communication and media consumption has been growing enormously in recent years. The final conclusion of the paper is as follows: all the discussed games use an intimate perspective to evoke empathy, which was not a typical video game design goal. This is especially interesting, given the fact, that all the analyzed games remain primarily commercial products that are driven by the laws of the market.

Time-resolved tomography of a driven adiabatic quantum simulation

A typical goal of a quantum simulation is to find the energy levels and eigenstates of a given Hamiltonian. This can be realized by adiabatically varying the system control parameters to steer an initial eigenstate into the eigenstate of the target Hamiltonian. Such an adiabatic quantum simulation is demonstrated by directly implementing a controllable and smoothly varying Hamiltonian in the rotating frame of two superconducting qubits, including longitudinal and transverse fields and iSWAP-type two-qubit interactions. The evolution of each eigenstate is tracked using time-resolved state tomography. The energy gaps between instantaneous eigenstates are chosen such that depending on the energy transition rate either diabatic or adiabatic passages are observed in the measured energies and correlators. Errors in the obtained energy values induced by finite $T_1$ and $T_2$ times of the qubits are mitigated by extrapolation to short protocol times.

CaM Kinase II-δ Is Required for Diabetic Hyperglycemia and Retinopathy but Not Nephropathy.

Type 2 diabetes has become a pandemic and leads to late diabetic complications of organs, including kidney and eye. Lowering hyperglycemia is the typical therapeutic goal in clinical medicine. However, hyperglycemia may only be a symptom of diabetes but not the sole cause of late diabetic complications; instead, other diabetes-related alterations could be causative. Here, we studied the role of CaM kinase II-δ (CaMKIIδ), which is known to be activated through diabetic metabolism. CaMKIIδ is expressed ubiquitously and might therefore affect several different organ systems. We crossed diabetic leptin receptor-mutant mice to mice lacking CaMKIIδ globally. Remarkably, CaMKIIδ-deficient diabetic mice did not develop hyperglycemia. As potential underlying mechanisms, we provide evidence for improved insulin sensing with increased glucose transport into skeletal muscle and also reduced hepatic glucose production. Despite normoglycemia, CaMKIIδ-deficient diabetic mice developed the full picture of diabetic nephropathy, but diabetic retinopathy was prevented. We also unmasked a retina-specific gene expression signature that might contribute to CaMKII-dependent retinal diabetic complications. These data challenge the clinical concept of normalizing hyperglycemia in diabetes as a causative treatment strategy for late diabetic complications and call for a more detailed analysis of intracellular metabolic signals in different diabetic organs.

Computational paradigms for direct triangular surface remeshing

Direct triangular surface remeshing algorithms work directly on the surface meshes without involving any complex parameterization techniques. The typical goal of surface remeshing is to find a mesh that is a faithful approximation of the input mesh that maintains the geometric fidelity between input and output meshes, achieve a lower bound on the minimal angles to enhance high element quality while maintaining vertex regularity and sharp feature preservation of the input mesh. The goal of each surface remeshing algorithm varies as per the requirement of the end application and thus achieving a balance between all common goals is a challenging task in remeshing. In this paper, a survey of numerous direct surface remeshing algorithms that have been developed over the past decade is presented. A framework of direct surface remeshing is defined and various phases of the framework are discussed in detail to give new insights into both existing methods and issues. A detailed analysis of how significant challenges have already been overcome and promising perspectives of various methods are presented.

Моббинг как важная проблема занятости молодежи в современных условиях

The paper presents the problems associated with youth employment under the current conditions of the formation of the labor market. This topic is relevant, since young people are a huge resource of any country and their problems must be solved first, and sometimes they do not pay due attention. In the course of the work, several definitions are presented and the necessary definition is derived for understanding youth as a social group in the labor market. Data are also presented that prove the existence of these problems. A special form of mobbing is considered - “office bullying” - the humiliation of young new employees. Reasons for mobbing are revealed. The typical goal of the mobbing initiators is defined - to increase their informal status by humiliating others. A typical reason for the humiliation of young new workers can also be due to established traditions based on stereotypes and an involuntary attempt by employees to maintain their status by humiliating new workers.