Kent State University

About: Kent State University is a education organization based out in Kent, Ohio, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Liquid crystal & Population. The organization has 10897 authors who have published 24607 publications receiving 720309 citations. The organization is also known as: Kent State & KSU.

Test of the multifactorial aging method using skeletons with known ages-at-death from the Grant Collection.

Abstract: The multifactorial aging method has been shown to be a highly reliable method of skeletal aging because it incorporates age information from as many age indicators as are available for each skeleton (Lovejoy et al.; Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 68:1–14, 1985). The present study was a blind test to assess its accuracy on a skeletal sample composed of 55 individuals with verified death certificates (Grant Collection, University of Toronto). Three authors (C. O. L., M. E. B., and K. F. R.), with no access to the death certificate ages, independently seriated and aged the sample using three to four criteria: auricular surface, pubic symphysis, and radiographs of the proximal femur and clavicle. Summary ages were then calculated for each individual in the sample. The authors' independent summary age estimates showed strong correlations with one another (r = 0.84–0.89). Multifactorial age estimates correlated better with real age than did those from any single indicator used. The mean error (averaging 8.7 years) for summary age was at least 1 year less than that for any single indicator. Average bias ranged from −0.7 (underage) to 1.4 (overage) years. These results indicate that utilization of several age indicators, weighted according to their reliability, helps control for variation in the changes that occur with age in any single morphological indicator. This method may therefore be considered one of the most accurate available for the determination of skeletal age-at-death, particularly for paleodemographic analysis. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Impairment and quality of life in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder.

Abstract: Once considered to be a disorder associated with minimal impairment, the link between generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and impairment across a broad constellation of domains is now well established. However, less is known about how comorbidity affects these relationships or how GAD impacts one's perceived life satisfaction or quality of life. To investigate these questions, data from 52 treatment-seeking individuals with GAD (33 with comorbid Axis I diagnoses) were compared to data from 55 nonanxious controls. Individuals with GAD reported more impairment at work and in their social functioning than they did with home and family responsibilities. They also reported lower quality of life than nonanxious controls, particularly in regard to self-esteem, goals and values, money, work, play, learning, creativity, friends, and relatives. Trait worry was positively correlated with impairment and inversely related to life satisfaction within the clinical sample. Individuals with GAD, with and without comorbid Axis I diagnoses, showed few differences on measures of impairment (differing only on impairment in social functioning). However, individuals with GAD and comorbid disorders perceived their lives as less satisfying than did individuals with GAD without comorbid diagnoses.

Centrality of women's multiple roles: beneficial and detrimental consequences for psychological well-being.

Abstract: Theorists have proposed that greater centrality (personal importance) of a social role is associated with better psychological well-being but that role centrality exacerbates the negative effects of stress in that same social role on well-being. The present study found evidence to support both hypotheses in a sample of 296 women who simultaneously occupied the roles of parent care provider, mother, wife, and employee. Greater centrality of all four roles was related to better psychological well-being. As predicted, wife centrality exacerbated the effects of wife stress on life satisfaction, and employee centrality exacerbated the effects of employee stress on depressive symptoms. Contrary to prediction, centrality of the mother role buffered women from the negative effects of mother stress on depressive symptoms. These findings point to an aspect of role identity that can benefit well-being but that has complex effects in the context of role stress.

What's a Typical Commit? A Characterization of Open Source Software Repositories

Abstract: The research examines the version histories of nine open source software systems to uncover trends and characteristics of how developers commit source code to version control systems (e.g., subversion). The goal is to characterize what a typical or normal commit looks like with respect to the number of files, number of lines, and number of hunks committed together. The results of these three characteristics are presented and the commits are categorized from extra small to extra large. The findings show that approximately 75% of commits are quite small for the systems examined along all three characteristics. Additionally, the commit messages are examined along with the characteristics. The most common words are extracted from the commit messages and correlated with the size categories of the commits. It is observed that sized categories can be indicative of the types of maintenance activities being performed.