Open and Branching Behavioral Synthesis with Scenario Clauses

The Software Engineering community has identified behavioral specification as one of the main challenges to be addressed for the transference of formal verification techniques such as model checking. In particular, expressivity of the specification language is a key factor, especially when dealing with Open Systems and controllability of events and branching time behavior reasoning. In this work, we propose the Feather Weight Visual Scenarios (FVS) language as an appealing declarative and formal verification tool to specify and synthesize the expected behavior of systems. FVS can express linear and branching properties in closed and Open systems. The validity of our approach is proved by employing FVS in complex, complete, and industrial relevant case studies, showing the flexibility and expressive power of FVS, which constitute the crucial features that distinguish our approach.

The impact of world assumptions on the association between discrimination and internalizing and substance use outcomes

This study investigated whether core beliefs about the world being safe and predictable (i.e. world assumptions) mediated the association between discrimination and internalizing and substance use problems among individuals from marginalized groups. Path analyses tested mediating effects of four types of world assumptions on the association between discrimination (race-, gender-, and sexual orientation-based) and anxiety, depression, alcohol and cannabis problems in college students ( N = 1,181, agemean = 19.50, SD = 1.67). Limited support for mediation by world assumptions was found: among Asian students, race-based discrimination indirectly impacted anxiety symptoms through low perceived controllability of events. Direct effects across groups and discrimination types were also found.

Locus of Control in Obsessive-Compulsive (OC) and Depression Symptoms: The Moderating Effect of Externality on Obsessive-Related Control Beliefs in OC Symptoms

Although the role of excessive efforts to exert mental control over one's unwanted intrusive thoughts has been successfully explained and documented in the cognitive-behavioural models of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), individual's beliefs regarding the controllability of events, that is, locus of control (LOC), have been largely ignored in recent cognitive formulations of OCD. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between these two control-related cognitions by comparing their roles in obsessive–compulsive (OC) and depression symptoms. Measures of LOC, obsessive-related beliefs, depression, anxiety and OCD symptoms were administered to a sample of 530 Turkish university students. Results showed that while external LOC was positively associated with depression symptoms, the relation was different for OC symptoms. The interaction of LOC with a high desire for thought control was significantly associated with general OC symptoms, particularly with checking symptoms. The findings suggest that beliefs regarding the controllability of events are critical factors in OC symptomatology, but only when there is also a high desire of thought control.