On an Inverse Problem for the Stationary Equation with a Boundary Condition of the Third Type

The identification of an unknown coefficient in the lower term of elliptic second-order differential equation Mu + ku = f with the boundary condition of the third type is considered. The identification of the coefficient is based on integral boundary data. The local existence and uniqueness of the strong solution for the inverse problem is proved

The Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms-62 (CCAPS-62) and College Academic Outcomes

College students experiencing psychological distress are at risk for negative academic outcomes. The Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms-62 (CCAPS-62) is a symptom inventory designed for and widely used in college counseling centers. However, the relationships between the CCAPS-62 and functional outcomes in the college environment have not been examined. This study examined the validity of the CCAPS-62 in predicting term grade point average (GPA) and dropout. Data from 297 first-year students at a university’s counseling center were analyzed using multiple regression to determine associations between CCAPS-62 subscales, term GPA, and dropout within the subsequent three academic years. Results show that academic distress was predictive of all academic outcomes in the expected directions, social anxiety was associated with higher term GPA and retention, and hostility was associated with lower term GPA and dropout. Results demonstrated support for the instrument’s predictive validity in the identification of students at academic risk.

Old dogs, new tricks? A Norwegian study on whether previous collaboration exercise experience impacted participant’s perceived exercise effect

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceived effects of a maritime cross-sector collaboration exercise. More specifically, this study aims to examine whether past exercise experience had an impact on the operative exercise participant’s perceived levels of collaboration, learning and usefulness. Design/methodology/approach This was a non-experimental quantitative survey-based study. A quantitative methodology was chosen over qualitative or mixed-methods methodologies as it was considered more suitable for data extraction from larger population groups, and allowed for the measurement and testing of variables using statistical methods and procedures (McCusker and Gunaydin, 2015). Data were collected from a two-day 2017 Norwegian full-scale maritime chemical oil-spill pollution exercise with partners from Norway, Germany, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden. The exercise included international public emergency response organizations and Norwegian non-governmental organizations. The study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (ref. 44815) and the exercise planning organization. Data were collected using the collaboration, learning and utility (CLU) scale, which is a validated instrument designed to measure exercise participant’s perceived levels of collaboration, learning and usefulness (Berlin and Carlström, 2015). Findings The perceived focus on collaboration, learning and usefulness changed with the number of previous exercises attended. All CLU dimensions experienced decreases and increases, but while perceived levels of collaboration and utility reached their somewhat modest peaks among those with the most exercise experience, perceived learning was at its highest among those with none or little exercise experience, and at its lowest among those with most. These findings indicated that collaboration exercises in their current form have too little focus on collaborative learning. Research limitations/implications Several limitations of the current study deserve to be mentioned. First, this study was limited in scope as data were collected from a limited number of participants belonging to only one organization and during one exercise. Second, demographical variables such as age and gender were not taken into consideration. Third, limitation in performing a face-to-face data collection may have resulted in missing capturing of cues, verbal and non-verbal signs, which could have resulted in a more accurate screening. Moreover, the measurements were based on the predefined CLU-items, which left room for individual interpretation and, in turn, may cause somewhat lower term validity. As the number of international and national studies on exercise effects is scarce, it is important to increase further knowledge and to learn more about the causes as to why the perceived effects of collaboration exercises are considered somewhat limited. Practical implications Exercise designers may be stimulated to have a stronger emphasis on collaborative learning during exercise planning, hence continuously work to develop scripts and scenarios in a way that leads to continuous participant perceived learning and utility. Social implications Collaboration is established as a Norwegian national emergency preparedness principle. These findings may stimulate politicians and top crisis managers to develop national collaboration exercise script guidelines that emphasize collaborative learning and development. Originality/value This study shows how exercise experience impacted participant’s perceived levels of collaboration, learning and usefulness. Findings indicated that collaboration exercises in their current form have too little focus on collaborative learning.

Infinitely many solutions for critical quasilinear equations involving Hardy potential

In this paper, we consider the following quasilinear elliptic equation with critical growth and a Hardy term: [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] is a constant, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text] is the Sobolev critical exponent. And [Formula: see text] is an open bounded domain which contains the origin. We will study the existence of infinitely many solutions for (P). To achieve this goal, we first perform various kinds of change of variables to overcome the difficulties caused by the unboundedness of [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] for large [Formula: see text]) and the lack of a global monotone condition [Formula: see text] (see below) on [Formula: see text], then combining the idea of regularization approach and subcritical approximation we prove the existence of infinitely many solutions for (P). Our results show that under some suitable assumptions on [Formula: see text], without the perturbation of the lower term [Formula: see text] we can still obtain the existence of infinitely many solutions for (P).

TERM PREMIA IMPLICATIONS OF MACROECONOMIC REGIME CHANGES

Term premia are shown to provide crucial information for discriminating among alternative sources of change in the economy, namely shifts in the variance of structural shocks and in monetary policy. These sources have been identified as competing explanations for time-varying features of major industrial economies during the 1980s and 1990s. Although hardly distinguishable through the lens of standard dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models, lower nonpolicy shock variances and “tighter” monetary policy regimes imply higher and lower term premia, respectively. As a result, moving to tighter monetary policy alone cannot explain the improved U.S. macroeconomic stability in the 1980s and 1990s: term premia would have shifted downward, a fact inconsistent with the evidence of higher premia from early 80s onward. Conversely, favorable shifts in nonpolicy innovation variance imply movements in term premia that are at least qualitatively consistent with historical patterns.