DePaul University

About: DePaul University is a education organization based out in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5658 authors who have published 11562 publications receiving 295257 citations.

Visualization by Demonstration: An Interaction Paradigm for Visual Data Exploration

Abstract: Although data visualization tools continue to improve, during the data exploration process many of them require users to manually specify visualization techniques, mappings, and parameters. In response, we present the Visualization by Demonstration paradigm, a novel interaction method for visual data exploration. A system which adopts this paradigm allows users to provide visual demonstrations of incremental changes to the visual representation. The system then recommends potential transformations ( Visual Representation, Data Mapping, Axes, and View Specification transformations ) from the given demonstrations. The user and the system continue to collaborate, incrementally producing more demonstrations and refining the transformations, until the most effective possible visualization is created. As a proof of concept, we present VisExemplar, a mixed-initiative prototype that allows users to explore their data by recommending appropriate transformations in response to the given demonstrations.

Adolescents’ Social Status Goals: Relationships to Social Status Insecurity, Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior

Abstract: Peer status is an important aspect of adolescents’ social lives and is pursued actively by them. Although extensive research has examined how social behaviors are related to peer status (e.g., social preference, popularity), little attention has been given to adolescents’ social goals to obtain a desired peer status. Thus, this study examined two types of social status goals, popularity goal and social preference goal, and their relationships to social status insecurity and social behaviors among 405 ethnically diverse early adolescents (267 girls; M age = 12.92 years; age range = 11–15 years). After accounting for adolescents’ attained peer statuses (popularity and social preference), both social status goals were related distinctly to aggressive and prosocial behaviors as measured by self reports and peer nominations. Specifically, higher endorsement of the popularity goal was related to more self-reported relational aggression, but less peer-nominated prosocial behavior. In contrast, higher endorsement of the social preference goal was linked to less self-reported overt and relational aggression, but more self-reported and peer-nominated prosocial behavior. In addition, this study reveals that adolescents’ social status insecurity was related positively to both social status goals and had an indirect effect on adolescents’ social behaviors through the mediation of popularity goal endorsement. There were variations in goal endorsement as shown by groups of adolescents endorsing different levels of each goal. The group comparison results on social behaviors were largely consistent with the correlational findings. This study provides new insights into adolescents’ social cognitive processes about peer status and the implications of the two social status goals on adolescents’ behavioral development.

Phylogeny of extant genera in the family Characeae (Charales, Charophyceae) based on rbcL, sequences and morphology

Abstract: Extant genera of Characeae have been assigned to two tribes: Chareae (Chara, Lamprothamnium, Nitellopsis, and Lychnothamnus) and Nitelleae (Nitella and Tolypella), based on morphology of the thallus and reprod4ctive structures. Character analysis of fossil and extant oogonia suggest that Tolypella is polyphyletic, the genus comprising two sections, one in each of the two tribes. Eleven morphological characters and sequence data for the Rubisco large subunit (rbcL) were used to reconstruct the phylogeny of genera, including the two sections of Tolypella. Parsimony analysis of the rbcL data, with all positions and changes weighted equally, strongly supports the monophyly of the Characeae. The two Tolypella sections form a robust monophyletic group basal to the family. Transversion weighting yielded the same tree but with a paraphyletic Tolypella. The rbcL data strongly support monophyly of tribe Chareae but tribe Nitelleae is paraphyletjc. Parsimony analysis of morphological data produced one unrooted tree consistent with monophyly of the two tribes; on this tree the Tolypella sections were paraphyletic. Combining morphological with rbcL data did not change the results derived from rbcL sequenc9s alone. The rbcL data support the monophyly of the Characeae and Coleochaete, which together form a monophyletic sister group to embryophytes.

Patent Claims and Patent Scope

Abstract: Patent scope is one of the important aspects in the debates over “patent quality.” The purported decrease in patent quality over the past decade or two has supposedly led to granting patents of increased breadth (or “overly broad” patents), decreased clarity, and questionable validity. Such patents allegedly diminish the incentives for innovation due to increased licensing and litigation costs. However, these debates often occur without well-defined measurements of patent scope. This paper explores two very simple metrics for measuring patent scope based on claim language: independent claim length and independent claim count. We validate these measures by showing that they have explanatory power for several correlates of patent scope used in the literature: patent maintenance payments, forward citations, the breadth of patent classes, and novelty. Using these data, we provide the first large-scale analysis of patent scope changes during the examination process. Our results show that narrower claims at publication are associated with a higher probability of grant and a shorter examination process than broader claims. Further, we find that the examination process tends to narrow the scope of patent claims in terms of both claim length and claim count, and that the changes are more significant when the duration of examination is longer.

Psychosocial Correlates of Male Sexual Aggression in a Chronic Delinquent Sample

Abstract: Theory and previous studies have suggested that sexual aggression in juveniles is associated with past sexual victimization, deficits in social competence, and high levels of neurotic symptoms. Thi...