Getting Involved, Doing Well, Feeling Connected: How Participation in Community Activities Relates to Positive Developmental Outcomes in a Culturally Diverse Sample of Young New Zealanders

<p>Extracurricular activities are important in many young people’s lives, and have been associated with positive academic, psychological, and social outcomes. However, most previous studies have focused only on correlations between participation and outcomes, and few have explored ethno-cultural differences. Using multivariate and propensity score matching techniques to control for selection effects, this study analysed longitudinal data collected from over 1700 young New Zealanders. Results suggest that youth who participated in community-based activities reported higher levels of adjustment (had higher general wellbeing, social support, and life satisfaction) and felt more connected (to communities and schools) than those who did not. Sports participants, young men participating in arts or community activities, and Māori youth participating in a combination of arts or community and sports activities appeared to benefit the most. These findings form an important extension to previous research, and provide a better understanding of the positive impacts of extracurricular activities for youth in Aotearoa / New Zealand.</p>

Getting Involved, Doing Well, Feeling Connected: How Participation in Community Activities Relates to Positive Developmental Outcomes in a Culturally Diverse Sample of Young New Zealanders

<p>Extracurricular activities are important in many young people’s lives, and have been associated with positive academic, psychological, and social outcomes. However, most previous studies have focused only on correlations between participation and outcomes, and few have explored ethno-cultural differences. Using multivariate and propensity score matching techniques to control for selection effects, this study analysed longitudinal data collected from over 1700 young New Zealanders. Results suggest that youth who participated in community-based activities reported higher levels of adjustment (had higher general wellbeing, social support, and life satisfaction) and felt more connected (to communities and schools) than those who did not. Sports participants, young men participating in arts or community activities, and Māori youth participating in a combination of arts or community and sports activities appeared to benefit the most. These findings form an important extension to previous research, and provide a better understanding of the positive impacts of extracurricular activities for youth in Aotearoa / New Zealand.</p>

Optimization Modulo the Theories of Signed Bit-Vectors and Floating-Point Numbers

Optimization modulo theories (OMT) is an important extension of SMT which allows for finding models that optimize given objective functions, typically consisting in linear-arithmetic or Pseudo-Boolean terms. However, many SMT and OMT applications, in particular from SW and HW verification, require handling bit-precise representations of numbers, which in SMT are handled by means of the theory of bit-vectors ($${{\mathcal {B}}}{{\mathcal {V}}}$$ B V ) for the integers and that of floating-point numbers ($$\mathcal {FP}$$ FP ) for the reals respectively. Whereas an approach for OMT with (unsigned) $${{\mathcal {B}}}{{\mathcal {V}}}$$ B V objectives has been proposed by Nadel & Ryvchin, unfortunately we are not aware of any existing approach for OMT with $$\mathcal {FP}$$ FP objectives. In this paper we fill this gap, and we address for the first time $$\text {OMT}$$ OMT with $$\mathcal {FP}$$ FP objectives. We present a novel OMT approach, based on the novel concept of attractor and dynamic attractor, which extends the work of Nadel and Ryvchin to work with signed-$${{\mathcal {B}}}{{\mathcal {V}}}$$ B V objectives and, most importantly, with $$\mathcal {FP}$$ FP objectives. We have implemented some novel $$\text {OMT}$$ OMT procedures on top of OptiMathSAT and tested them on modified problems from the SMT-LIB repository. The empirical results support the validity and feasibility of our novel approach.

Enriched category as a model of qualia structure based on similarity judgements

Qualitative relationships between two instances of conscious experiences can be quantified through the perceived similarity. Previously, we proposed that by defining similarity relationships as arrows and conscious experiences as objects, we can define a category of qualia in the context of category theory. However, the example qualia categories we proposed were highly idealized and limited to cases where perceived similarity is binary: either present or absent without any gradation. Here, we introduce enriched category theory to address the graded levels of similarity that arises in many instances of qualia. Enriched categories generalize the concept of a relation between objects as a directed arrow (or morphism) in ordinary category theory to a more flexible notion, such as a measure of distance. As an alternative relation, here we propose a graded measure of perceived dissimilarity between the two objects. We claim that enriched categories accommodate various types of conscious experiences. An important extension of this claim is the application of the Yoneda lemma in enriched category; we can characterize a quale through a collection of relationships between the quale and the other qualia up to an (enriched) isomorphism.

Enriched category as a model of qualia structure based on similarity judgements

Qualitative relationships between two instances of conscious experiences can be quantified through the perceived similarity. Previously, we proposed that by defining similarity relationships as arrows and conscious experiences as objects, we can define a category of qualia in the context of category theory. However, the example qualia categories we proposed were highly idealized and limited to cases where perceived similarity is binary: either present or absent without any gradation. When similarity is graded, a situation can arise where A0 is similar to A1, A1 is similar to A2, and so on, yet A0 is not similar to An, which is called the Sorites paradox. Here, we introduce enriched category theory to address this situation. Enriched categories generalize the concept of a relation between objects as a directed arrow (or morphism) in ordinary category theory to a more flexible notion, such as a measure of distance. As an alternative relation, here we propose a graded measure of perceived dissimilarity between the two objects. These measures combine in a way that addresses the Sorites paradox; even if the dissimilarity between Ai and Ai+1 is small for i = 0 … n, hence perceived as similar, the dissimilarity between A0 and An can be large, hence perceived as different. In this way, we show how dissimilarity-enriched categories of qualia resolve the Sorites paradox. We claim that enriched categories accommodate various types of conscious experiences. An important extension of this claim is the application of the Yoneda lemma in enriched category; we can characterize a quale through a collection of relationships between the quale and the other qualia up to an (enriched) isomorphism.

Relationship between generic and occupation-specific job demands and resources, negative work−home interference and burnout among GPs

Scholars often examine the effect of generic job demands and resources on burnout, yet to increase ecological validity, it is important to examine the effects of occupation-specific characteristics. An extended version of the job demands-resources model with work−home interference as a mediator is examined among a cross-sectional sample of 178 general practitioners (GPs). Interviews with GPs were used to develop questions on occupation-specific work characteristics. Hypotheses were tested in MEDIATE. Both generic and occupation-specific job demands positively affected emotional exhaustion, while only occupation-specific job demands affected depersonalization. Only strain-based work−family interference mediated the relationship between generic and occupation-specific job demands, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. This study offers an important extension of the job demands-resources model by including occupation-specific job characteristics. This broader perspective can aid in more targeted job design to reduce burnout among GPs.

Efficient Local Search based on Dynamic Connectivity Maintenance for Minimum Connected Dominating Set

The minimum connected dominating set (MCDS) problem is an important extension of the minimum dominating set problem, with wide applications, especially in wireless networks. Most previous works focused on solving MCDS problem in graphs with relatively small size, mainly due to the complexity of maintaining connectivity. This paper explores techniques for solving MCDS problem in massive real-world graphs with wide practical importance. Firstly, we propose a local greedy construction method with reasoning rule called 1hopReason. Secondly and most importantly, a hybrid dynamic connectivity maintenance method (HDC+) is designed to switch alternately between a novel fast connectivity maintenance method based on spanning tree and its previous counterpart. Thirdly, we adopt a two-level vertex selection heuristic with a newly proposed scoring function called chronosafety to make the algorithm more considerate when selecting vertices. We design a new local search algorithm called FastCDS based on the three ideas. Experiments show that FastCDS significantly outperforms five state-of-the-art MCDS algorithms on both massive graphs and classic benchmarks.

Creating Loyal Prosocial Transformative Service Consumers: A Proposed Model With Direct and Indirect Effects

Understanding transformative services, where the consumer is not the primary well-being beneficiary, is fundamental to furthering the transformative service research (TSR) paradigm. Furthermore, it is imperative to understand the co-creation behaviors consumers can partake in during prosocial transformative services to improve their service experience and, ultimately, their repeat usage of the service. This study is one of the first to develop a model drawing together three key service frameworks (co-creation behavior, service quality, and consumer value), which is empirically validated using real consumers of a prosocial transformative service, namely blood donation. In addition, a key strength of the study is the objective measurement of behavioral loyalty using organizational records, which is an important extension to prior TSR studies that often measure attitudinal loyalty (behavioral intentions) as a proxy. The findings have important implications for furthering transformative scholars’ and practitioners’ understanding of how services can improve individual and societal well-being.

On preservation of binomial operators

Binomial operators are the most important extension to Bernstein operators, defined by $$ \bigl(L^{Q}_{n} f\bigr) (x)=\frac{1}{b_{n}(1)} \sum ^{n}_{k=0}\binom { n}{k } b_{k}(x)b_{n-k}(1-x)f\biggl( \frac{k}{n}\biggr),\quad f\in C[0, 1], $$ ( L n Q f ) ( x ) = 1 b n ( 1 ) ∑ k = 0 n ( n k ) b k ( x ) b n − k ( 1 − x ) f ( k n ) , f ∈ C [ 0 , 1 ] , where $\{b_{n}\}$ { b n } is a sequence of binomial polynomials associated to a delta operator Q. In this paper, we discuss the binomial operators $\{L^{Q}_{n} f\}$ { L n Q f } preservation such as smoothness and semi-additivity by the aid of binary representation of the operators, and present several illustrative examples. The results obtained in this paper generalize what are known as the corresponding Bernstein operators.