Into the (Textual) West

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gannon, Susanne

2009-01-01

A critical/creative paradigm in contemporary English carries with it an imperative that students should be given opportunities for deep engagement with texts relevant to what matters in their everyday lives. In this paper, I argue that the materiality of everyday life includes the physical and geographic places where we live. When students live in…

Distance Learning and Assistance Using Smart Glasses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spitzer, Michael; Nanic, Ibrahim; Ebner, Martin

2018-01-01

With the everyday growth of technology, new possibilities arise to support activities of everyday life. In education and training, more and more digital learning materials are emerging, but there is still room for improvement. This research study describes the implementation of a smart glasses app and infrastructure to support distance learning…

Social and health care needs of elderly people living in the countryside in Poland.

PubMed

Dziechciaż, Małgorzata; Guty, Edyta; Wojtowicz, Agata; Filip, Rafał

2012-01-01

The needs of elderly people living in the countryside constitute serious health, social, financial and organizational problems. To define the needs of elderly people living in the countryside regarding complex living actions. DATA COLLECTED AND METHODOLOGY: The study was carried out among 89 village citizens from the Podkarpackie Voivodeship (N=55; 61.8% women; N=34; 38.2% men) aged 61-2. Average age in the group was 76.3 (+/ -7.9 years). Research methods were 3 different questionnaires, applied to evaluate: socio-demographic data, occurrence of diseases and rehabilitation usage, mental and intellectual status, as well as the Lawton scale (IADL) assessing complex life activities. 18 subjects (20.2%) were fully functional in the scope of complex everyday activities. The highest number were independent in their financial affairs (N=52; 58.4%), preparation and taking of medicine (N=45; 50.6%), and using the telephone (N=39; 43.8%). Lack of self-reliance was most commonly observed with difficult housework (N=62; 69.7%), shopping (N=55; 61.8%), and walking distances exceeding regular walks (N=46; 51.7%). No relation was observed between gender, usage of social welfare, and self-reliance in complex everyday activities. Deterioration in efficiency in the scope of complex everyday activities was observed which progressed with age, and was worse among the unmarried subjects. A relation between material situation and independence, based on the IADL scale, was confirmed, with the exception of using the telephone. 1). People of old age living in the countryside most often need help with complex everyday housework, shopping, and walking distances exceeding regular walks. 2). With the advancement of age, the subjects need help with all IADL activities increased.

Doing Qualitative Research Using Your Computer: A Practical Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hahn, Chris

2008-01-01

This book is a practical, hands-on guide to using commonly available everyday technology, including Microsoft software, to manage and streamline research projects. It uses straight-forward, everyday language to walk readers through this process, drawing on a wide range of examples to demonstrate how easy it is to use such software. This guide is…

How Do Adults Perceive, Analyse and Measure Slope?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duncan, Bruce; Chick, Helen

2013-01-01

Slope is a mathematical concept that is both fundamental to the study of advanced calculus and commonly perceived in everyday life. The measurement of steepness of terrain as a ratio is an example of an everyday application the concept of slope. In this study, a group of pre-service teachers were tested for their capacity to mathematize the…

Kindergarten and Primary School Children's Everyday, Synthetic, and Scientific Concepts of Clouds and Rainfall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malleus, Elina; Kikas, Eve; Marken, Tiivi

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research was to explore children's understandings of everyday, synthetic and scientific concepts to enable a description of how abstract, verbally taught material relates to previous experience-based knowledge and the consistency of understanding about cloud formation. This study examined the conceptual understandings of cloud…

Business Math in Everyday Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGee, Phil

The material presented in this booklet is designed to provide supplemental information and exercises to aid in the development of basic everyday skills in business math. Seven units are presented with each unit containing basic information on the unit topic, followed by student exercises, and a review section. The seven units are (1) check writing…

[Philosophy of psychiatry and phenomenology of everyday life: The disruptions of ordinary experience in schizophrenia].

PubMed

Troubé, Sarah

2016-12-01

The paper considers the philosophy of psychiatry from the perspective of everyday life, as a particular structure of experience. We outline some questions raised by disturbances typical of psychotic disorders with regard to a phenomenology of the everyday and common sense. As a link between philosophy and clinical psychopathology, this phenomenology implies a transcendental point of view, embedded in concrete and practical forms of ordinary experience, along with social norms. This opens the possibility of a mutual questioning between philosophy and psychiatry, drawing on its clinical, epistemological, and ethical dimensions.

High pressure injection injury of the foot: a role of negative pressure wound therapy.

PubMed

Marinovic, Marin; Bakota, Bore; Spanjol, Josip; Sosa, Ivan; Grzalja, Nikola; Gulan, Gordan; Ivancic, Aldo; Cicvaric, Tedi

2013-09-01

High pressure injection injuries (HPII) of the foot are not common in every-day practice. We present a 50-year-old patient with a HPII of the left foot caused by water-gun in a self-inflicted accident working as a technical diver four meters under the sea surface. Surgical treatment included extensive debridement of necrotic tissue and fibrin deposits and removal of foreign material. A negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) device was applied resulting in a good wound base for subsequent skin grafting leading to a good functional and cosmetic outcome. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Good Relations between Foster Parents and Birth Parents: A Swedish Study of Practices Promoting Successful Cooperation in Everyday Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedin, Lena

2015-01-01

The importance for foster children's well-being of good relations between foster parents and birth parents is a common topic of research. This article aims to contribute to an understanding of how co-parenting by foster parents and birth parents works in everyday life, from both parties' perspectives, whether or not they knew each other…

A Cross-Cultural Exploration of the Everyday Social Participation of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Australia and Taiwan: An Experience Sampling Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yu-Wei; Bundy, Anita C.; Cordier, Reinie; Chien, Yi-Ling; Einfeld, Stewart L.

2017-01-01

Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder commonly have limited social participation. This study aimed to examine the similarities and differences of everyday participation among males and females with autism spectrum disorder in Australia and Taiwan, using an experience sampling methodology. A total of 14 Australians (4 males, aged 16-43…

Norms of Descriptive Adjective Responses to Common Nouns.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robbins, Janet L.

This paper gives the results of a controlled experiment on word association. The purpose was to establish norms of commonality of primary descriptive adjective responses to common nouns. The stimuli consisted of 203 common nouns selected from 10 everyday topics of conversation, approximately 20 from each topic. There were 350 subjects, 50% male,…

Evaluating everyday competence in older adult couples: epidemiological considerations.

PubMed

Dixon, Roger A

2011-01-01

Among older adults, everyday competence is often expressed in the context of other participating individuals. Although this active human context may be occasionally comprised of mere acquaintances, long-term partners (such as couples) often act as a unit in engaging in everyday actions or reporting on familiar domains. This special section reflects an important movement in aging research to examine couples as an alternative but normatively common unit of analysis. My discussion focuses on 2 main issues. First, I sketch the rationale, logic, expectation and evidence that long-term couples might develop and display unique advantages in everyday competence. Second, I explore the possibilities that epidemiological principles - thus far applied primarily to individual-level aging, decline and disease - may provide concepts or models for research on long-term changes in couple-level adaptation. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Evaluating Everyday Competence in Older Adult Couples: Epidemiological Considerations

PubMed Central

Dixon, Roger A.

2011-01-01

Among older adults, everyday competence is often expressed in the context of other participating individuals. Although this active human context may be occasionally comprised of mere acquaintances, long-term partners (such as couples) often act as a unit in engaging in everyday actions or reporting on familiar domains. This special section reflects an important movement in aging research to examine couples as an alternative but normatively common unit of analysis. My discussion focuses on 2 main issues. First, I sketch the rationale, logic, expectation and evidence that long-term couples might develop and display unique advantages in everyday competence. Second, I explore the possibilities that epidemiological principles – thus far applied primarily to individual-level aging, decline and disease – may provide concepts or models for research on long-term changes in couple-level adaptation. PMID:20733285

Object Lessons: Thinking about Material Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burkhart, Anne

2006-01-01

This article describes why art educators might consider studying material forms from everyday life, presents suggestions for exploring them in an art classroom, and includes an example to illustrate teaching about an object of material culture. The author presents reasons for studying material culture in the art classroom and offers suggestions…

Geometry and surface controlled formation of nanoparticle helical ribbons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pham, Jonathan; Lawrence, Jimmy; Lee, Dong; Grason, Gregory; Emrick, Todd; Crosby, Alfred

2013-03-01

Helical structures are interesting because of their space efficiency, mechanical tunability and everyday uses in both the synthetic and natural world. In general, the mechanisms governing helix formation are limited to bilayer material systems and chiral molecular structures. However, in a special range of dimensions where surface energy dominates (i.e. high surface to volume ratio), geometry rather than specific materials can drive helical formation of thin asymmetric ribbons. In an evaporative assembly technique called flow coating, based from the commonly observed coffee ring effect, we create nanoparticle ribbons possessing non-rectangular nanoscale cross-sections. When released into a liquid medium of water, interfacial tension between the asymmetric ribbon and water balances with the elastic cost of bending to form helices with a preferred radius of curvature and a minimum pitch. We demonstrate that this is a universal mechanism that can be used with a wide range of materials, such as quantum dots, metallic nanoparticles, or polymers. Nanoparticle helical ribbons display excellent structural integrity with spring-like characteristics and can be extended high strains.

Impact of self-reported multiple chemical sensitivity on everyday life: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Skovbjerg, Sine; Brorson, Stig; Rasmussen, Alice; Johansen, Jeanne Duus; Elberling, Jesper

2009-08-01

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a descriptive term covering symptoms attributed to exposure to common airborne chemicals. There are no internationally accepted criteria, but it has been suggested that MCS is a chronic and disabling condition. However, details of the impact of MCS on everyday life are limited. To describe the impact of MCS on everyday life, strategies for managing the condition, and experiences with healthcare management. A focus group study was conducted, including two interviews with a sample of six women and six men between 27 and 78 years of age, a duration of MCS of at least 1 year, and with different occupational conditions. MCS may severely influence different aspects of everyday life, including lifestyle, social relations, and occupational conditions. Avoiding common airborne chemicals was the most prevalent coping strategy, which implied creating a chemical-free living space and limiting social activities. Experiences with healthcare management were overall reported as negative in terms of not receiving acknowledgement of the reported symptoms. MCS may have serious implications for daily functioning. Further research on individual consequences and the social and psychological factors that may be associated with MCS is needed in order to add to our understanding of this condition and to the provision of more satisfactory healthcare.

The Importance of Kinetic Metastability: Some Common Everyday Examples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jensen, William B.

2015-01-01

The importance of kinetic metastability is illustrated in detail using several common household products and recommendations are made for how this important and widespread, but often neglected, phenomenon can be more effectively presented in the introductory chemistry textbook.

Memory and communication support in dementia: research-based strategies for caregivers.

PubMed

Smith, Erin R; Broughton, Megan; Baker, Rosemary; Pachana, Nancy A; Angwin, Anthony J; Humphreys, Michael S; Mitchell, Leander; Byrne, Gerard J; Copland, David A; Gallois, Cindy; Hegney, Desley; Chenery, Helen J

2011-03-01

Difficulties with memory and communication are prominent and distressing features of dementia which impact on the person with dementia and contribute to caregiver stress and burden. There is a need to provide caregivers with strategies to support and maximize memory and communication abilities in people with dementia. In this project, a team of clinicians, researchers and educators in neuropsychology, psychogeriatrics, nursing and speech pathology translated research-based knowledge from these fields into a program of practical strategies for everyday use by family and professional caregivers. From the available research evidence, the project team identified compensatory or facilitative strategies to assist with common areas of difficulty, and structured these under the mnemonics RECAPS (for memory) and MESSAGE (for communication). This information was adapted for presentation in a DVD-based education program in accordance with known characteristics of effective caregiver education. The resultant DVD comprises (1) information on the nature and importance of memory and communication in everyday life; (2) explanations of common patterns of difficulty and preserved ability in memory and communication across the stages of dementia; (3) acted vignettes demonstrating the strategies, based on authentic samples of speech in dementia; and (4) scenarios to prompt the viewer to consider the benefits of using the strategies. Using a knowledge-translation framework, information and strategies can be provided to family and professional caregivers to help them optimize residual memory and communication in people with dementia. Future development of the materials, incorporating consumer feedback, will focus on methods for enabling wider dissemination.

Video Fact Sheets: Everyday Advanced Materials

ScienceCinema

None

2018-06-21

What are Advanced Materials? Ames Laboratory is behind some of the best advanced materials out there. Some of those include: Lead-Free Solder, Photonic Band-Gap Crystals, Terfenol-D, Aluminum-Calcium Power Cable and Nano Particles. Some of these are in products we use every day.

Video Fact Sheets: Everyday Advanced Materials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

2015-10-06

What are Advanced Materials? Ames Laboratory is behind some of the best advanced materials out there. Some of those include: Lead-Free Solder, Photonic Band-Gap Crystals, Terfenol-D, Aluminum-Calcium Power Cable and Nano Particles. Some of these are in products we use every day.

Experiments in materials science from household items

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spiegel, F. Xavier

1993-01-01

Everyday household items are used to demonstrate some unique properties of materials. A coat hanger, rubber band, balloon, and corn starch have typical properties which we often take for granted but can be truly amazing.

Unambiguous detection of nitrated explosive vapours by fluorescence quenching of dendrimer films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geng, Yan; Ali, Mohammad A.; Clulow, Andrew J.; Fan, Shengqiang; Burn, Paul L.; Gentle, Ian R.; Meredith, Paul; Shaw, Paul E.

2015-09-01

Unambiguous and selective standoff (non-contact) infield detection of nitro-containing explosives and taggants is an important goal but difficult to achieve with standard analytical techniques. Oxidative fluorescence quenching is emerging as a high sensitivity method for detecting such materials but is prone to false positives--everyday items such as perfumes elicit similar responses. Here we report thin films of light-emitting dendrimers that detect vapours of explosives and taggants selectively--fluorescence quenching is not observed for a range of common interferents. Using a combination of neutron reflectometry, quartz crystal microbalance and photophysical measurements we show that the origin of the selectivity is primarily electronic and not the diffusion kinetics of the analyte or its distribution in the film. The results are a major advance in the development of sensing materials for the standoff detection of nitro-based explosive vapours, and deliver significant insights into the physical processes that govern the sensing efficacy.

Unambiguous detection of nitrated explosive vapours by fluorescence quenching of dendrimer films.

PubMed

Geng, Yan; Ali, Mohammad A; Clulow, Andrew J; Fan, Shengqiang; Burn, Paul L; Gentle, Ian R; Meredith, Paul; Shaw, Paul E

2015-09-15

Unambiguous and selective standoff (non-contact) infield detection of nitro-containing explosives and taggants is an important goal but difficult to achieve with standard analytical techniques. Oxidative fluorescence quenching is emerging as a high sensitivity method for detecting such materials but is prone to false positives—everyday items such as perfumes elicit similar responses. Here we report thin films of light-emitting dendrimers that detect vapours of explosives and taggants selectively—fluorescence quenching is not observed for a range of common interferents. Using a combination of neutron reflectometry, quartz crystal microbalance and photophysical measurements we show that the origin of the selectivity is primarily electronic and not the diffusion kinetics of the analyte or its distribution in the film. The results are a major advance in the development of sensing materials for the standoff detection of nitro-based explosive vapours, and deliver significant insights into the physical processes that govern the sensing efficacy.

Unambiguous detection of nitrated explosive vapours by fluorescence quenching of dendrimer films

PubMed Central

Geng, Yan; Ali, Mohammad A.; Clulow, Andrew J.; Fan, Shengqiang; Burn, Paul L.; Gentle, Ian R.; Meredith, Paul; Shaw, Paul E.

2015-01-01

Unambiguous and selective standoff (non-contact) infield detection of nitro-containing explosives and taggants is an important goal but difficult to achieve with standard analytical techniques. Oxidative fluorescence quenching is emerging as a high sensitivity method for detecting such materials but is prone to false positives—everyday items such as perfumes elicit similar responses. Here we report thin films of light-emitting dendrimers that detect vapours of explosives and taggants selectively—fluorescence quenching is not observed for a range of common interferents. Using a combination of neutron reflectometry, quartz crystal microbalance and photophysical measurements we show that the origin of the selectivity is primarily electronic and not the diffusion kinetics of the analyte or its distribution in the film. The results are a major advance in the development of sensing materials for the standoff detection of nitro-based explosive vapours, and deliver significant insights into the physical processes that govern the sensing efficacy. PMID:26370931

Introduction:

PubMed Central

Rabier, Christelle

2013-01-01

The special issue "Fitting for Health" offers a critical inquiry into the co-construction of medicine and technology in the early industrial age. It investigates the "social life" of medical things, through their material configuration, invention, improvement, and diversification, the sites of their deployment, their status as both novelties and less spectacular objects of everyday use, and the challenges they faced in fitting themselves into people's lives and European res publica. The set of articles (on steel trusses, medical electricity, anatomical models, and trade catalogs) heuristically uses "technology" to analyze how medicine and its material processes were crafted, endowed with meaning, and woven into European societies. Opening the medical "black box"—circumventing its tendency to be ignored as a mediating tool—provides a significant common point of entry for the four enquiries, triggering further analysis of the relationship between humans and non-humans as shaped in medical knowledge and practice. PMID:27057070

Radiologists remember mountains better than radiographs, or do they?

PubMed

Evans, Karla K; Marom, Edith M; Godoy, Myrna C B; Palacio, Diana; Sagebiel, Tara; Cuellar, Sonia Betancourt; McEntee, Mark; Tian, Charles; Brennan, Patrick C; Haygood, Tamara Miner

2016-01-01

Expertise with encoding material has been shown to aid long-term memory for that material. It is not clear how relevant this expertise is for image memorability (e.g., radiologists' memory for radiographs), and how robust over time. In two studies, we tested scene memory using a standard long-term memory paradigm. One compared the performance of radiologists to naïve observers on two image sets, chest radiographs and everyday scenes, and the other radiologists' memory with immediate as opposed to delayed recognition tests using musculoskeletal radiographs and forest scenes. Radiologists' memory was better than novices for images of expertise but no different for everyday scenes. With the heterogeneity of image sets equated, radiologists' expertise with radiographs afforded them better memory for the musculoskeletal radiographs than forest scenes. Enhanced memory for images of expertise disappeared over time, resulting in chance level performance for both image sets after weeks of delay. Expertise with the material is important for visual memorability but not to the same extent as idiosyncratic detail and variability of the image set. Similar memory decline with time for images of expertise as for everyday scenes further suggests that extended familiarity with an image is not a robust factor for visual memorability.

Aggression, Recognition and Qualification: On the Social Psychology of Adult Education in Everyday Life. [Publications from the Adult Education Research Group].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Kirsten

This paper discusses the impact of life history and everyday life in the context of training unskilled adults for social work in Denmark. It describes origins of these two texts used as empirical material: a discussion by a group of long-term unemployed skilled adult male workers who went through a 2-year training program to obtain permanent…

Staff Manual for Instructional Material Centers. Fourth Revised Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petrucci, Martha

For media center volunteers or inexperienced technicians, a workshop training guide provides reference and assistance in everyday problems and situations that arise in an instructional material center (IMC). Two five-hour days of instruction and participation, using the guide, are suggested for workshops. Step-by-step processing of book materials,…

Using Everyday Materials To Promote Problem Solving in Toddlers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Segatti, Laura; Brown-DuPaul, Judy; Keyes, Tracy L.

2003-01-01

Outlines benefits of and skills involved in problem solving. Details how an environment rich in materials that foster cause-and-effect or trial-and-error explorations promote cognitive development among toddlers. Offers examples of problem-solving experiences and lists materials for use in curriculum planning. Describes the teacher' role as one of…

Hooke's Law and the Stiffness of a Plastic Spoon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pestka, Kenneth A.; Warren, Cori

2012-11-01

The study of elastic properties of solids is essential to both physics and engineering. Finding simple, easy-to-visualize examples to demonstrate these concepts is often difficult. In a previous article written by one of us (KAPII), a simple method for determining Youngs modulus using marshmallows was given. In this article we will illustrate another method to explore elastic properties of everyday materials. This experiment uses a common plastic spoon exposed to a transverse force in order to determine the stiffness constant, yield point, and rupture point of the plastic spoon. In addition, much like the "Youngs Modulus of a Marshmallow" activity, this experiment visually demonstrates Hooke's law, is fun and easy to perform, and leaves a lasting impression on the students.

What Is Everyday Ethics? A Review and a Proposal for an Integrative Concept.

PubMed

Zizzo, Natalie; Bell, Emily; Racine, Eric

2016-01-01

"Everyday ethics" is a term that has been used in the clinical and ethics literature for decades to designate normatively important and pervasive issues in healthcare. In spite of its importance, the term has not been reviewed and analyzed carefully. We undertook a literature review to understand how the term has been employed and defined, finding that it is often contrasted to "dramatic ethics." We identified the core attributes most commonly associated with everyday ethics. We then propose an integrative model of everyday ethics that builds on the contribution of different ethical theories. This model proposes that the function of everyday ethics is to serve as an integrative concept that (1) helps to detect current blind spots in bioethics (that is, shifts the focus from dramatic ethics) and (2) mobilizes moral agents to address these shortcomings of ethical insight. This novel integrative model has theoretical, methodological, practical, and pedagogical implications, which we explore. Because of the pivotal role that moral experience plays in this integrative model, the model could help to bridge empirical ethics research with more conceptual and normative work. Copyright 2016 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

Radiologists remember mountains better than radiographs, or do they?

PubMed Central

Evans, Karla K.; Marom, Edith M.; Godoy, Myrna C. B.; Palacio, Diana; Sagebiel, Tara; Cuellar, Sonia Betancourt; McEntee, Mark; Tian, Charles; Brennan, Patrick C.; Haygood, Tamara Miner

2015-01-01

Abstract. Expertise with encoding material has been shown to aid long-term memory for that material. It is not clear how relevant this expertise is for image memorability (e.g., radiologists’ memory for radiographs), and how robust over time. In two studies, we tested scene memory using a standard long-term memory paradigm. One compared the performance of radiologists to naïve observers on two image sets, chest radiographs and everyday scenes, and the other radiologists’ memory with immediate as opposed to delayed recognition tests using musculoskeletal radiographs and forest scenes. Radiologists’ memory was better than novices for images of expertise but no different for everyday scenes. With the heterogeneity of image sets equated, radiologists’ expertise with radiographs afforded them better memory for the musculoskeletal radiographs than forest scenes. Enhanced memory for images of expertise disappeared over time, resulting in chance level performance for both image sets after weeks of delay. Expertise with the material is important for visual memorability but not to the same extent as idiosyncratic detail and variability of the image set. Similar memory decline with time for images of expertise as for everyday scenes further suggests that extended familiarity with an image is not a robust factor for visual memorability. PMID:26870748

Material Development and Meeting Learner's Need

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin, Abdullah

2013-01-01

In this study, the aim was to show that learners' needs can be met using simple and cheap materials that can be found everywhere in 9th to 11th grade Chemistry courses. To this end, materials were developed using simple everyday life materials for 9th to 11th grade Chemistry courses. In the research, the project method was employed. The study was…

Aesthetic engagements: "being" in everyday life with advanced cancer.

PubMed

la Cour, Karen; Hansen, Helle Ploug

2012-03-01

Living with advanced cancer can present an overwhelming challenge. It may impact the everyday life of the individual with respect to an array of psychological, physical, social, and existential issues. We focus on ways in which people with advanced cancer experience and use their engagement in daily activities when confronting nearing death. Through a phenomenological analysis based on Heidegger's thinking, we illuminate the complexities of "being toward death" and the human striving for authentic being through engagement in daily living. The main findings demonstrate how sensory experiences support being through an appreciation of everyday aesthetics. Furthermore, the making of material things was identified as a means to express the value of self and others in relation to the involved individual's past, present, and future.

Small Talk: Children's Everyday `Molecule' Ideas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jakab, Cheryl

2013-08-01

This paper reports on 6-11-year-old children's `sayings and doings' (Harré 2002) as they explore molecule artefacts in dialectical-interactive teaching interviews (Fleer, Cultural Studies of Science Education 3:781-786, 2008; Hedegaard et al. 2008). This sociocultural study was designed to explore children's everyday awareness of and meaning-making with cultural molecular artefacts. Our everyday world is populated with an ever increasing range of molecular or nanoworld words, symbols, images, and games. What do children today say about these artefacts that are used to represent molecular world entities? What are the material and social resources that can influence a child's everyday and developing scientific ideas about `molecules'? How do children interact with these cognitive tools when given expert assistance? What meaning-making is afforded when children are socially and materially assisted in using molecular tools in early chemical and nanoworld thinking? Tool-dependent discursive studies show that provision of cultural artefacts can assist and direct developmental thinking across many domains of science (Schoultz et al., Human Development 44:103-118, 2001; Siegal 2008). Young children's use of molecular artefacts as cognitive tools has not received much attention to date (Jakab 2009a, b). This study shows 6-11-year-old children expressing everyday ideas of molecular artefacts and raising their own questions about the artefacts. They are seen beginning to domesticate (Erneling 2010) the words, symbols, and images to their own purposes when given the opportunity to interact with such artefacts in supported activity. Discursive analysis supports the notion that using `molecules' as cultural tools can help young children to begin `putting on molecular spectacles' (Kind 2004). Playing with an interactive game (ICT) is shown to be particularly helpful in assisting children's early meaning-making with representations of molecules, atoms, and their chemical symbols.

Natural Learning Case Study Archives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawler, Robert W.

2015-01-01

Natural Learning Case Study Archives (NLCSA) is a research facility for those interested in using case study analysis to deepen their understanding of common sense knowledge and natural learning (how the mind interacts with everyday experiences to develop common sense knowledge). The database comprises three case study corpora based on experiences…

"So they are not alive?": Dementia, reality disjunctions and conversational strategies.

PubMed

Hydén, Lars-Christer; Samuelsson, Christina

2018-01-01

In some conversations involving persons with Alzheimer's disease, the participants may have to deal with the difficulty that they do not share a common ground in terms of not only who is alive or dead, but even more, who could possibly be alive. It is as if the participants face a reality disjunction. There are very few empirical studies of this difficulty in conversations involving persons with Alzheimer's disease or other kinds of dementia diagnoses. Often studies of confabulation have a focus on the behavior and experience of the healthy participants, but rarely on the interaction and the collaborative contributions made by the person with dementia. In the present article, we discuss various strategies used by all participants in an everyday conversation. The material consists of an hour long everyday conversation between a woman with Alzheimer's disease and two healthy participants (relatives). This conversation is analyzed by looking at the organization of the interaction with an emphasis on how the participants deal with instances of reality disjunctions. The result from the analysis demonstrates that both the healthy participants as well as the person with dementia together skillfully avoid the face threats posed by reality disjunctive contributions by not pursuing argumentative lines that in the end might jeopardize both the collaborative and the personal relations.

The assessment and treatment of adult heterosexual men with self-perceived problematic pornography use: A review.

PubMed

Sniewski, Luke; Farvid, Panteá; Carter, Phil

2018-02-01

Self-Perceived Problematic Porn Use (SPPPU) refers to an individual who self-identifies as addicted to porn because they feel they are unable to regulate their porn consumption, and that use interferes with everyday life. Although porn addiction has not been formally classified as its own distinct behavioral addiction, therapists and clinicians are advised to educate themselves on the current state of literature pertaining to pornography consumption given the widespread availability and consumption of sexually explicit material online. This review article begins with a general overview of pornography and porn use so that therapists and researchers can discern between non-intrusive and problematic pornography consumption patterns within their practice and understand the common characteristics of those that most commonly present with SPPPU. Thereafter, an overview and examination of therapeutic interventions for SPPPU will be identified and analysed. Finally, the review concludes with recommendations for therapists, clinicians, and future research. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Developing improved opportunities for the recycle and reuse of materials in road, bridge and construction projects : [summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-01-01

Reducing waste and reusing materials is now : a part of the everyday fabric of life. Recycling : glass, paper, and plastic is an activity in many : households and businesses. Similarly, the : transportation sector generates huge quantities : of concr...

Analysis of 19th century ceramic fragments excavated from Pirenópolis (Goiás, Brazil) using FT-IR, Raman, XRF and SEM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freitas, Renato P.; Coelho, Filipe A.; Felix, Valter S.; Pereira, Marcelo O.; de Souza, Marcos André Torres; Anjos, Marcelino J.

2018-03-01

This study used Raman, FT-IR and XRF spectroscopy and SEM to analyze ceramic fragments dating from the 19th century, excavated from an old farm in the municipality of Pirenópolis, Goiás, Brazil. The results show that the samples were produced in an open oven at a firing temperature below 500 °C, using raw materials including kaolinite, hematite, magnetite, quartz, microcline, albite, anhydrite, calcite, illite, orthoclase and MnO2. Although the analyses showed similarities in the manufacturing process and the presence of many minerals was common in all samples, multivariate statistical methods (PCA) allowed a more detailed assessment of similarities and differences in the mineral composition of the samples. The results of the PCA showed that the samples excavated in one of the slave quarters (senzalas) group with those excavated at the farmhouse, where the landowner lived, which indicates a paternalistic attitude towards captives, including the sharing of ceramic materials of everyday use.

N400 ERPs for actions: building meaning in context

PubMed Central

Amoruso, Lucía; Gelormini, Carlos; Aboitiz, Francisco; Alvarez González, Miguel; Manes, Facundo; Cardona, Juan F.; Ibanez, Agustín

2013-01-01

Converging neuroscientific evidence suggests the existence of close links between language and sensorimotor cognition. Accordingly, during the comprehension of meaningful actions, our brain would recruit semantic-related operations similar to those associated with the processing of language information. Consistent with this view, electrophysiological findings show that the N400 component, traditionally linked to the semantic processing of linguistic material, can also be elicited by action-related material. This review outlines recent data from N400 studies that examine the understanding of action events. We focus on three specific domains, including everyday action comprehension, co-speech gesture integration, and the semantics involved in motor planning and execution. Based on the reviewed findings, we suggest that both negativities (the N400 and the action-N400) reflect a common neurocognitive mechanism involved in the construction of meaning through the expectancies created by previous experiences and current contextual information. To shed light on how this process is instantiated in the brain, a testable contextual fronto-temporo-parietal model is proposed. PMID:23459873

Suppress to Forget: The Effect of a Mindfulness-Based Strategy during an Emotional Item-Directed Forgetting Paradigm.

PubMed

Gamboa, Olga L; Garcia-Campayo, Javier; Müller, Teresa; von Wegner, Frederic

2017-01-01

Forgetting is a common phenomenon in everyday life. Although it often has negative connotations, forgetting is an important adaptive mechanism to avoid loading the memory storage with irrelevant information. A very important aspect of forgetting is its interaction with emotion. Affective events are often granted special and priority treatment over neutral ones with regards to memory storage. As a consequence, emotional information is more resistant to extinction than neutral information. It has been suggested that intentional forgetting serves as a mechanism to cope with unwanted or disruptive emotional memories and the main goal of this study was to assess forgetting of emotional auditory material using the item-method directed forgetting (DF) paradigm using a forgetting strategy based on mindfulness as a means to enhance DF. Contrary to our prediction, the mindfulness-based strategy not only did not improve DF but reduced it for neutral material. These results suggest that an interaction between processes such as response inhibition and attention is required for intentional forgetting to succeed.

Everyday Ideas to Move More

MedlinePlus

... Curricula and Toolkits Materials for Ethnically Diverse Populations New PSA Campaign We Can! Challenge Trivia Logo Guidelines News and Events Media Newsroom Press Releases Audio News Releases Public Service ...

Medical Ultrasound Imaging.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Stephen

2001-01-01

Explains the basic principles of ultrasound using everyday physics. Topics include the generation of ultrasound, basic interactions with material, and the measurement of blood flow using the Doppler effect. (Author/MM)

Using the Paper around Us to Supplement a Life Skills Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayes, Miriam F.

1987-01-01

Such everyday paper materials as cash register receipts, labels, travel pamphlets, and train schedules provide a wealth of excellent materials for teaching life skills and functional reading to multihandicapped hearing-impaired students. Possible activities include comparing grocery receipts and conjecturing about the shoppers and reading medicine…

A La Buena: Living Better. Bilingual Adult Proficiency Level Materials for Everyday Living.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Philip D., Jr.; And Others

These bilingual English/Spanish Adult Proficiency Materials comprise three adult education courses in these areas: consumer education, health, and nutrition. Part 1, Consumer Education, covers these topics: money management, credit, frauds, consumer complaints, housing, utility bills, saving energy, banking, insurance (car, health, life), buying a…

Perceived Discrimination and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Older African Americans: Insights From the Jackson Heart Study.

PubMed

Dunlay, Shannon M; Lippmann, Steven J; Greiner, Melissa A; O'Brien, Emily C; Chamberlain, Alanna M; Mentz, Robert J; Sims, Mario

2017-05-01

To assess the associations of perceived discrimination and cardiovascular (CV) outcomes in African Americans (AAs) in the Jackson Heart Study. In 5085 AAs free of clinical CV disease at baseline enrolled in the Jackson Heart Study from September 26, 2000, through March 31, 2004, and followed through 2012, associations of everyday discrimination (frequency of occurrences of perceived unfair treatment) and lifetime discrimination (perceived unfair treatment in 9 life domains) with CV outcomes (all-cause mortality, incident coronary heart disease [CHD], incident stroke, and heart failure [HF] hospitalization) were examined using Cox proportional hazards regression models. Higher levels of everyday and lifetime discrimination were more common in participants who were younger and male and had higher education and income, lower perceived standing in the community, worse perceived health care access, and fewer comorbidities. Before adjustment, higher levels of everyday and lifetime discrimination were associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, incident CHD, stroke, and HF hospitalization. After adjustment for potential confounders, we found no association of everyday and lifetime discrimination with incident CHD, incident stroke, or HF hospitalization; however, a decrease in all-cause mortality with progressively higher levels of everyday discrimination persisted (hazard ratio per point increase in discrimination measure, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82-0.99; P=.02). The unexpected association of everyday discrimination and all-cause mortality was partially mediated by perceived stress. We found no independent association of perceived discrimination with risk of incident CV disease or HF hospitalization in this AA population. An observed paradoxical negative association of everyday discrimination and all-cause mortality was partially mediated by perceived stress. Copyright © 2017 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Everyday ethics in internal medicine resident clinic: an opportunity to teach.

PubMed

Carrese, Joseph A; McDonald, Erin L; Moon, Margaret; Taylor, Holly A; Khaira, Kiran; Catherine Beach, Mary; Hughes, Mark T

2011-07-01

Being a good doctor requires competency in ethics. Accordingly, ethics education during residency training is important. We studied the everyday ethics-related issues (i.e. ordinary ethics issues commonly faced) that internal medical residents encounter in their out-patient clinic and determined whether teaching about these issues occurred during faculty preceptor-resident interactions. This study involved a multi-method qualitative research design combining observation of preceptor-resident discussions with preceptor interviews. The study was conducted in two different internal medicine training programme clinics over a 2-week period in June 2007. Fifty-three residents and 19 preceptors were observed, and 10 preceptors were interviewed. Transcripts of observer field notes and faculty interviews were carefully analysed. The analysis identified several themes of everyday ethics issues and determined whether preceptors identified and taught about these issues. Everyday ethics content was considered present in 109 (81%) of the 135 observed case presentations. Three major thematic domains and associated sub-themes related to everyday ethics issues were identified, concerning: (i) the Doctor-Patient Interaction (relationships; communication; shared decision making); (ii) the Resident as Learner (developmental issues; challenges and conflicts associated with training; relationships with colleagues and mentors; interactions with the preceptor), and; (iii) the Doctor-System Interaction (financial issues; doctor-system issues; external influences; doctor frustration related to system issues). Everyday ethics issues were explicitly identified by preceptors (without teaching) in 18 of 109 cases (17%); explicit identification and teaching occurred in only 13 cases (12%). In this study a variety of everyday ethics issues were frequently encountered as residents cared for patients. Yet, faculty preceptors infrequently explicitly identified or taught these issues during their interactions with residents. Ethics education is important and residents may regard teaching about the ethics-related issues they actually encounter to be highly relevant. A better understanding of the barriers to teaching is needed in order to promote education about everyday ethics in the out-patient setting. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011.

Everyday ethics in internal medicine resident clinic: an opportunity to teach

PubMed Central

Carrese, Joseph A; McDonald, Erin L; Moon, Margaret; Taylor, Holly A; Khaira, Kiran; Beach, Mary Catherine; Hughes, Mark T

2011-01-01

OBJECTIVES Being a good doctor requires competency in ethics. Accordingly, ethics education during residency training is important. We studied the everyday ethics-related issues (i.e. ordinary ethics issues commonly faced) that internal medical residents encounter in their out-patient clinic and determined whether teaching about these issues occurred during faculty preceptor–resident interactions. METHODS This study involved a multi-method qualitative research design combining observation of preceptor-resident discussions with preceptor interviews. The study was conducted in two different internal medicine training programme clinics over a 2-week period in June 2007. Fifty-three residents and 19 preceptors were observed, and 10 preceptors were interviewed. Transcripts of observer field notes and faculty interviews were carefully analysed. The analysis identified several themes of everyday ethics issues and determined whether preceptors identified and taught about these issues. RESULTS Everyday ethics content was considered present in 109 (81%) of the 135 observed case presentations. Three major thematic domains and associated sub-themes related to everyday ethics issues were identified, concerning: (i) the Doctor–Patient Interaction (relationships; communication; shared decision making); (ii) the Resident as Learner (developmental issues; challenges and conflicts associated with training; relationships with colleagues and mentors; interactions with the preceptor), and; (iii) the Doctor–System Interaction (financial issues; doctor–system issues; external influences; doctor frustration related to system issues). Everyday ethics issues were explicitly identified by preceptors (without teaching) in 18 of 109 cases (17%); explicit identification and teaching occurred in only 13 cases (12%). CONCLUSIONS In this study a variety of everyday ethics issues were frequently encountered as residents cared for patients. Yet, faculty preceptors infrequently explicitly identified or taught these issues during their interactions with residents. Ethics education is important and residents may regard teaching about the ethics-related issues they actually encounter to be highly relevant. A better understanding of the barriers to teaching is needed in order to promote education about everyday ethics in the out-patient setting. PMID:21649704

Understanding Forces: What's the Problem?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kibble, Bob

2006-01-01

Misconceptions about forces are very common and seem to arise from everyday experience and use of words. Ways to improve students' understanding of forces, as used in recent a IOP CD-Rom, are discussed here.

Addressing secondary school students' everyday ideas about freshwater springs in order to develop an instructional tool to promote conceptual reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reinfried, S.; Tempelmann, S.; Aeschbacher, U.

2012-05-01

"Water knowledge" has now become a socio-political and future-orientated necessity. Everyday ideas or preconceptions of hydrology can have a deleterious effect one people's understanding of the scientific facts and their interrelations that are of relevance to sustainable water management. This explorative pilot study shows that preconceived notions about the origin of freshwater springs are common at the lower secondary school level. The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to investigate the nature of everyday ideas about freshwater springs among 81 13-yr-old Swiss students, and (2) to develop an efficient instructional tool that promotes conceptual reconstruction in the learners' minds. To assess students' everyday ideas we conducted interviews, examined student work, and asked students to fill in a questionnaire. The results indicate that half of the students have some basic hydrological knowledge. However, several preconceived notions that can significantly impede the understanding of hydrological concepts have been found. A common preconception concerns the idea that solid rocks cannot be permeable and that large underground cavities constitute a necessary precondition for the formation of springs. While these ideas may well be true for karst springs they inhibit the understanding of the concept of other spring types due to their plausibility and intelligibility. We therefore chose the concept of the hillslope spring to construct an instructional tool that takes into account the findings of the psychology of learning aimed at promoting deep learning, thus facilitating a lasting conceptual reconstruction of the concept of springs.

Applying Symmetries of Common Objects to Help Students Understand Stereoselectivity for Apparently Symmetric Substrates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jittam, Piyachat; Ruenwongsa, Pintip; Panijpan, Bhinyo

2008-01-01

We have found it an effective way of teaching symmetry in the context of stereoselectivity, to use common everyday objects with the same point groups as the substrates involved. This has helped students to distinguish between those symmetry elements which allow for stereospecificity and those which preclude it. Two symmetry elements, the simple…

Tapering Timbers: Finding the Volume of Conical Frustums

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Dustin L.; Coleman, Max

2012-01-01

Throughout history, humans have developed and refined methods of measuring. For the volumes of some common shapes, they have derived formulas. One such formula is that for the volume of a conical frustum. The conical frustum is not usually on a short list of common geometric shapes, but students encounter it in their everyday experience. In the…

Blending Education and Polymer Science: Semiautomated Creation of a Thermodynamic Property Database

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tchoua, Roselyne B.; Qin, Jian; Audus, Debra J.; Chard, Kyle; Foster, Ian T.; de Pablo, Juan

2016-01-01

Structured databases of chemical and physical properties play a central role in the everyday research activities of scientists and engineers. In materials science, researchers and engineers turn to these databases to quickly query, compare, and aggregate various properties, thereby allowing for the development or application of new materials. The…

Development of an Outreach Program for NASA: "NASA Ambassadors"

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lebo, George R.

1996-01-01

It is widely known that the average American citizen has either no idea or the wrong impression of what NASA is doing. The most common impression is that NASA's sole mission is to build and launch spacecraft and that the everyday experience of the common citizen would be impacted very little if NASA failed to exist altogether. Some feel that most of NASA's efforts are much too expensive and that the money would be better used on other efforts. Others feel that most of NASA's efforts either fail altogether or fail to meet their original objectives. Yet others feel that NASA is so mired in bureaucracy that it is no longer able to function. The goal of the NASA Ambassadors Program (NAP) is to educate the general populace as to what NASA's mission and goals actually are, to re-excite the "man on the street" with NASA's discoveries and technologies, and to convince him that NASA really does impact his everyday experience and that the economy of the U.S. is very dependent on NASA-type research. Each of the NASA centers currently run a speakers bureau through its Public Affairs Office (PAO). The speakers, NASA employees, are scheduled on an "as available" status and their travel is paid by NASA. However, there are only a limited number of them and their message may be regarded as being somewhat biased as they are paid by NASA. On the other hand, there are many members of NASA's summer programs which come from all areas of the country. Most of them not only believe that NASA's mission is important but are willing and able to articulate it to others. Furthermore, in the eyes of the public, they are probably more effective as ambassadors for NASA than are the NASA employees, as they do not derive their primary funding from it. Therefore it was decided to organize materials for them to use in presentations to general audiences in their home areas. Each person who accepted these materials was to be called a "NASA Ambassador".

The Influence of Discrimination on Smoking Cessation among Latinos

PubMed Central

Kendzor, Darla E.; Businelle, Michael S.; Reitzel, Lorraine R.; Castro, Yessenia; Vidrine, Jennifer I.; Mazas, Carlos A.; Cinciripini, Paul M.; Lam, Cho Y.; Adams, Claire E.; Correa-Fernández, Virmarie; Cano, Miguel Ángel; Wetter, David W.

2014-01-01

Background: Although studies have shown a cross-sectional link between discrimination and smoking, the prospective influence of discrimination on smoking cessation has yet to be evaluated. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to determine the influence of everyday and major discrimination on smoking cessation among Latinos making a quit attempt. Methods: Participants were 190 Spanish speaking smokers of Mexican Heritage recruited from the Houston, TX metropolitan area who participated in the study between 2009 and 2012. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the associations of everyday and major discrimination with smoking abstinence at 26 weeks post-quit. Results: Most participants reported at least some everyday discrimination (64.4%), and at least one major discrimination event (56%) in their lifetimes. Race/ethnicity/nationality was the most commonly perceived reason for both everyday and major discrimination. Everyday discrimination was not associated with post-quit smoking status. However, experiencing a greater number of major discrimination events was associated with a reduced likelihood of achieving 7-day point prevalence smoking abstinence, OR = .51, p = .004, and continuous smoking abstinence, OR = .29, p = .018, at 26 weeks post-quit. Conclusions: Findings highlight the high frequency of exposure to discrimination among Latinos, and demonstrate the negative impact of major discrimination events on a smoking cessation attempt. Efforts are needed to attenuate the detrimental effects of major discrimination events on smoking cessation outcomes. PMID:24485880

Low-resistive vibratory penetration in granular media.

PubMed

Darbois Texier, Baptiste; Ibarra, Alejandro; Melo, Francisco

2017-01-01

Non-cohesive materials such as sand, dry snow or cereals are encountered in various common circumstances, from everyday situations to industry. The process of digging into these materials remains a challenge to most animals and machines. Within the animal kingdom, different strategies are employed to overcome this issue, including excavation methods used by ants, the two-anchor strategy employed by soft burrowers such as razor-clams, and undulatory motions exhibited by sandfish lizards. Despite the development of technology to mimic these techniques in diggers and robots, the limitations of animals and machines may differ, and mimicry of natural processes is not necessarily the most efficient technological strategy. This study presents evidence that the resisting force for the penetration of an intruder into a dry granular media can be reduced by one order of magnitude with small amplitude (A ≃ 10 μm) and low frequency (f = 50 - 200 Hz) mechanical vibrations. This observed result is attributed to the local fluidization of the granular bed which induces the rupture of force chains. The drop in resistive force on entering dry granular materials may be relevant in technological development in order to increase the efficiency of diggers and robots.

The Advantages of Repeat Interviews in a Study with Pregnant Schoolgirls and Schoolgirl Mothers: Piecing Together the Jigsaw

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vincent, Kerry Anne

2013-01-01

Qualitative interviewing is a commonly used approach in the social sciences and is generally regarded as an effective way of developing understandings about everyday experiences and the meanings people attach to them. Where fieldwork time-frames are relatively short, a single interview with each participant is common. This paper explores the…

SOS! Help for Parents: A Practical Guide for Handling Common Everyday Behavior Problems [With Video Leader's Guide].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Lynn

This book provides parents with guidance for handling a variety of common behavior problems based on the behavioral approach to child rearing and discipline. This approach suggests that good and bad behavior are both learned and can be changed, and proposes specific methods, skills, procedures, and strategies for parents to use in getting improved…

[Hygienic study and evaluation of textile materials with reduced combustibility with reference to the use of the new anti-inflammable preparations Pyrofix 2 and Torflam].

PubMed

Uzunova, S; Baĭnova, A; Iordanova, I; Dolova, D

1986-01-01

The new anti-flammable preparations, proposed by the Higher Chemical Technology Institute (Sofia), were studied, namely: Pyrofix 2--for treatment of textile materials and Torflam--for production of anti-inflammable polyester fibres. The following parameters were studied: skin-irritating and skin-sensitizing effect of both preparations, skin toxic effect of Pyrofix 2 and migration of chemicals from the anti-inflammable textile materials (from the composition of the preparations used). The results obtained revealed the absence of skin-irritating and skin-sensitizing effect of both preparations and cumulative dermal toxicity of Pyrofix 2. The textile materials with reduced combustibility are chemically stable and do not release compounds in the contact aqueous medium, imitating the underclothes space. Formaldehyde from recipe for the treatment of Pyrofix 2 migrates in the air environment. In conclusion, Pyrofix 2 could be applied for the final anti-inflammable treatment of the textile materials for industrial needs, working garments and everyday textile (with the elimination of formaldehyde compound from the recipe). Torflam could be used in the production of anti-inflammable polyester fibres for textile materials intended for industry and everyday life without immediate contact with the skin of the consumers.

Stressing The Person: Legal and Everyday Person Attributions Under Stress

PubMed Central

Kubota, Jennifer T.; Mojdehbakhsh, Rachel; Raio, Candace; Brosch, Tobias; Uleman, Jim S.; Phelps, Elizabeth A.

2014-01-01

When determining the cause of a person’s behavior, perceivers often overweigh dispositional explanations and underweigh situational explanations, an error known as the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). The FAE occurs in part because dispositional explanations are relatively automatic, whereas considering the situation requires additional cognitive effort. Stress is known to impair the prefrontal cortex and executive functions important for the attribution process. We investigated if stress increases dispositional attributions in common place and legal situations. Experiencing a physiological stressor increased participants’ cortisol, dispositional attributions of common everyday behaviors, and negative evaluations. When determining whether a crime was due to the defendant’s disposition or the mitigating situation, self-reported stress correlated with increased dispositional judgments of defendant’s behavior. These findings indicate that stress may makes people more likely to commit the FAE and less favorable in their evaluations of others both in daily life and when making socially consequential judicial decisions. PMID:25175000

"That's Ratchet": A Chicana Feminist "Rasquache" Pedagogy as Entryway to Understanding the Material Realities of Contemporary Latinx Elementary-Aged Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mendoza Aviña, Sylvia

2016-01-01

In line with this special issue's examination of theories of teaching and learning that are neither determined by nor isolated from restrictive spaces of learning, this essay introduces a Chicana feminist "rasquache" pedagogy. A Chicana feminist "rasquache" pedagogy is rooted in the everyday experiences and material realities…

Bilingual Vocational Training Program for Chinese Chefs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

China Inst. in America, New York, NY.

This document contains materials that can be used by instructors in an English-as-a-second-language course for Chinese kitchen workers or chefs. The materials consist of lessons on various topics that occur in the everyday life of Chinese chefs. Topics include: English names for Chinese dishes; phrases to employ when meeting people and when using…

Everyday technology use among people with mental retardation: relevance, perceived difficulty, and influencing factors.

PubMed

Hällgren, Monica; Nygård, Louise; Kottorp, Anders

2014-05-01

While the development and possibilities of technology today are commonly regarded to be unlimited, knowledge regarding the technological needs of people with mental retardation is fairly limited. The aim of this study was to enhance knowledge of perceived relevance and difficulty in using everyday technology (ET) such as stoves, cell phones, and elevators in adults with mental retardation. 120 participants with different levels of mental retardation were interviewed with the Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire (ETUQ) about their use of such technologies in their everyday life. Analyses of variance, post hoc tests, and regression analyses were used to explore the data. Participants with moderate and severe mental retardation differed in mean perceived difficulty from those with mild mental retardation, suggesting that increased perceived difficulty in ET use is related to the level of mental retardation. Differences between groups were also found in the proportion of items that were relevant for each person. The variables Level of Mental Retardation, Additional Disabilities, and Proportional Relevance of ET Items could together predict 67.2% of the variation in perceived difficulty in technology use. The findings also indicate that age, housing, gender, and geographical district do not covariate with perceived difficulty in ET use.

Brain structure links everyday creativity to creative achievement.

PubMed

Zhu, Wenfeng; Chen, Qunlin; Tang, Chaoying; Cao, Guikang; Hou, Yuling; Qiu, Jiang

2016-03-01

Although creativity is commonly considered to be a cornerstone of human progress and vital to all realms of our lives, its neural basis remains elusive, partly due to the different tasks and measurement methods applied in research. In particular, the neural correlates of everyday creativity that can be experienced by everyone, to some extent, are still unexplored. The present study was designed to investigate the brain structure underlying individual differences in everyday creativity, as measured by the Creative Behavioral Inventory (CBI) (N=163). The results revealed that more creative activities were significantly and positively associated with larger gray matter volume (GMV) in the regional premotor cortex (PMC), which is a motor planning area involved in the creation and selection of novel actions and inhibition. In addition, the gray volume of the PMC had a significant positive relationship with creative achievement and Art scores, which supports the notion that training and practice may induce changes in brain structures. These results indicate that everyday creativity is linked to the PMC and that PMC volume can predict creative achievement, supporting the view that motor planning may play a crucial role in creative behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Bringing in the Reinforcements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

What do NASA and ballistics have in common? More than the average person may know. Everyday, millions of Americans drive in vehicles, cross over bridges, and fly in airplanes without knowing just how important NASA s role in studying ballistics is in making these actions viable and safe for them. At Glenn Research Center s Ballistic Impact Facility, NASA scientists and engineers study the dynamics of high-speed projectiles and their impact on targets to create materials and structures that are smarter, lighter, and stronger. By applying the science of ballistics to new developments, these researchers are taking major steps in preventing catastrophic events. The Ballistic Impact Facility s main features are a 40-foot-long gas gun that can launch projectiles at speeds over 1,000 miles per hour and highspeed cameras that can capture up to 250 million images per second.

Textile-Based Electronic Components for Energy Applications: Principles, Problems, and Perspective

PubMed Central

Kaushik, Vishakha; Lee, Jaehong; Hong, Juree; Lee, Seulah; Lee, Sanggeun; Seo, Jungmok; Mahata, Chandreswar; Lee, Taeyoon

2015-01-01

Textile-based electronic components have gained interest in the fields of science and technology. Recent developments in nanotechnology have enabled the integration of electronic components into textiles while retaining desirable characteristics such as flexibility, strength, and conductivity. Various materials were investigated in detail to obtain current conductive textile technology, and the integration of electronic components into these textiles shows great promise for common everyday applications. The harvest and storage of energy in textile electronics is a challenge that requires further attention in order to enable complete adoption of this technology in practical implementations. This review focuses on the various conductive textiles, their methods of preparation, and textile-based electronic components. We also focus on fabrication and the function of textile-based energy harvesting and storage devices, discuss their fundamental limitations, and suggest new areas of study. PMID:28347078

Textile-Based Electronic Components for Energy Applications: Principles, Problems, and Perspective.

PubMed

Kaushik, Vishakha; Lee, Jaehong; Hong, Juree; Lee, Seulah; Lee, Sanggeun; Seo, Jungmok; Mahata, Chandreswar; Lee, Taeyoon

2015-09-07

Textile-based electronic components have gained interest in the fields of science and technology. Recent developments in nanotechnology have enabled the integration of electronic components into textiles while retaining desirable characteristics such as flexibility, strength, and conductivity. Various materials were investigated in detail to obtain current conductive textile technology, and the integration of electronic components into these textiles shows great promise for common everyday applications. The harvest and storage of energy in textile electronics is a challenge that requires further attention in order to enable complete adoption of this technology in practical implementations. This review focuses on the various conductive textiles, their methods of preparation, and textile-based electronic components. We also focus on fabrication and the function of textile-based energy harvesting and storage devices, discuss their fundamental limitations, and suggest new areas of study.

Discrimination attributed to mental illness or race-ethnicity by users of community psychiatric services.

PubMed

Gabbidon, Jheanell; Farrelly, Simone; Hatch, Stephani L; Henderson, Claire; Williams, Paul; Bhugra, Dinesh; Dockery, Lisa; Lassman, Francesca; Thornicroft, Graham; Clement, Sarah

2014-11-01

This study assessed participants' experienced discrimination and their causal attributions, particularly to mental illness or race-ethnicity. In a cross-sectional study, 202 service users with severe mental illnesses were interviewed to assess their reported experiences of discrimination. The Major Experiences of Discrimination Scale assessed major experiences of discrimination and their recency and frequency across 12 life domains and perceived reasons (attributions). The Everyday Experiences of Discrimination Scale assessed ten types of everyday discrimination and attributions for these experiences. Most participants (88%) reported discrimination in at least one life domain, and 94% reported ever experiencing everyday discrimination. The most common areas of major discrimination were mental health care (44%), neighbors (42%), police (33%), employment (31%), and general medical care (31%). The most common attributions for major discrimination were mental illness (57%), race-ethnicity (24%), education or income (20%), or appearance (19%). Almost half (47%) attributed experiences of major discrimination to two or more causes. No differences were found between racial-ethnic groups in overall experienced discrimination or in main attributions to mental illness. However, compared with the mixed and white groups, participants in the black group were most likely to endorse race-ethnicity as a main attribution (p<.001). Mental illness-related discrimination was found to be a common issue across racial-ethnic groups, and discrimination based on race-ethnicity was prevalent for the mixed and black groups. There is a need for antidiscrimination strategies that combine efforts to reduce the experience of discrimination attributed to mental illness and to race-ethnicity for racial-ethnic minority groups.

The everyday lives of energy transitions: Contested sociotechnical imaginaries in the American West.

PubMed

Smith, Jessica M; Tidwell, Abraham Sd

2016-06-01

This article brings together two growing literatures - on sociotechnical imaginaries in science and technology studies and on resource materialities in anthropology - to explore how two energy-producing communities in the American West understand the moral salience of energy systems and the place of labor within them. Studies of energy sociotechnical imaginaries overwhelmingly focus on the role that state and transnational actors play in shaping perceptions of the 'good society', rather than how these imaginaries inform and are transformed in the lived experience of everyday people. We illuminate the contested dimension of sociotechnical imaginaries and their positioning within structures of power that inform visions of moral behavior and social order. Whereas the role of energy in national imaginaries is grounded almost entirely in the consumption it enables, examining the everyday ethics of people who live and work in Colorado's uranium-rich Western Slope and Wyoming's coal-rich Powder River Basin reveals an insistence that 'good' energy systems also provide opportunities for dignified and well-paid blue-collar work. This imaginary, we argue, remains 'bounded' at a local scale rather than circulating more widely to gain national or international traction. Theorizing this boundedness illustrates not only the contested nature of sociotechnical imaginaries, but also the constraints that material assemblages and sediments of the past place on imagined futures.

USGS reference materials

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

1995-01-01

Every year in the United States, millions of measurements are made on the chemical composition of items that affect us on a daily basis. Determining the accuracy of these measurements is based on the analysis of appropriate reference materials whose composition was previously determined through rigorous testing. Today, reference materials help us evaluate the composition of the food we eat, medicine we use, soil we grow our crops in, and hundreds of other products that affect our everyday lives.

Intelligence Involves Risk-Awareness and Intellectual Disability Involves Risk-Unawareness: Implications of a Theory of Common Sense

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenspan, Stephen; Switzky, Harvey N.; Woods, George W.

2011-01-01

Survival in the everyday world (in both social and practical functioning) depends on one's ability to recognise and avoid going down the worst possible path, especially when doing so places one at risk of death, injury, or social disaster. Most people possess "common sense" (the ability to recognise obvious risk) but some people lack that ability…

Teaching Writing within the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR): A Supplement Asynchronous Blended Learning Approach in an EFL Undergraduate Course in Egypt

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaarawy, Hanaa Youssef; Lotfy, Nohayer Esmat

2013-01-01

Based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and following a blended learning approach (a supplement model), this article reports on a quasi-experiment where writing was taught evenly with other language skills in everyday language contexts and where asynchronous online activities were required from students to extend learning beyond…

A predictive framework for the design and fabrication of icephobic polymers

PubMed Central

Golovin, Kevin; Tuteja, Anish

2017-01-01

Ice accretion remains a costly, hazardous concern worldwide. Icephobic coatings reduce the adhesion between ice and a surface. However, only a handful of the icephobic systems reported to date reduce the ice adhesion sufficiently for the facile and passive removal of ice, such as under its own weight or by mild winds. Most of these icephobic surfaces have relied on sacrificial lubricants, which may be depleted over time, drastically raising the ice adhesion. In contrast, surfaces that use interfacial slippage to lower their adhesion to ice can remain icephobic indefinitely. However, the mechanism of interfacial slippage, as it relates to ice adhesion, is largely unexplored. We investigate how interfacial slippage reduces the ice adhesion of polymeric materials. We propose a new, universally applicable framework that may be used to predict the reduction in the adhesion of ice to surfaces exhibiting interfacial slippage. This framework allows one to rationally engender icephobicity in essentially any polymeric system, including common thermoplastics. Hence, we present several new, extremely icephobic systems fabricated from a wide range of materials, including everyday engineering plastics and sustainable, natural oils. PMID:28948227

Suppress to Forget: The Effect of a Mindfulness-Based Strategy during an Emotional Item-Directed Forgetting Paradigm

PubMed Central

Gamboa, Olga L.; Garcia-Campayo, Javier; Müller, Teresa; von Wegner, Frederic

2017-01-01

Forgetting is a common phenomenon in everyday life. Although it often has negative connotations, forgetting is an important adaptive mechanism to avoid loading the memory storage with irrelevant information. A very important aspect of forgetting is its interaction with emotion. Affective events are often granted special and priority treatment over neutral ones with regards to memory storage. As a consequence, emotional information is more resistant to extinction than neutral information. It has been suggested that intentional forgetting serves as a mechanism to cope with unwanted or disruptive emotional memories and the main goal of this study was to assess forgetting of emotional auditory material using the item-method directed forgetting (DF) paradigm using a forgetting strategy based on mindfulness as a means to enhance DF. Contrary to our prediction, the mindfulness-based strategy not only did not improve DF but reduced it for neutral material. These results suggest that an interaction between processes such as response inhibition and attention is required for intentional forgetting to succeed. PMID:28382015

Preface

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Agricultural products influence most aspects of life, including food and feed, feedstocks for bio-based products and everyday materials, such as fuels, textiles, and furniture. Advances in technology are necessary to address the future global needs from agriculture. Nanotechnology is a promising fie...

The survey project: researching women’s everyday experience and envisioning modernity in rural Bohemia at the end of the Second World War.

PubMed

Feinberg, Melissa

2011-01-01

This article examines a survey of rural Czech women conducted in 1944–1945. It argues that the survey tells two very different stories. First, the survey provides an unvarnished look into the everyday material circumstances of a few rural Czech women. But for all they tell us about the material conditions of these rural women’s lives, the surveys tell us very little about their ideals, hopes, and dreams. The surveys do, however, reveal quite a bit about the inner motivations of the very different group of women who commissioned this research, a group known as the Women’s Center. Reading in between the lines of these texts shows how the activists of the Women’s Center imagined modernity in the countryside. Theirs was a vision of rational households, technological advances, and good taste, even in rural villages.

Mobile phones as a new memory aid: a preliminary investigation using case studies.

PubMed

Wade, T K; Troy, J C

2001-04-01

Memory impairment is one of the most common concerns following a brain injury of any severity. The use of effective external memory aids can help minimize the devastating effects such memory impairment can have on an individual's everyday life. Reviewed in this report are case studies of five individuals suffering significant everyday memory problems that were given a new memory aid that utilizes standard mobile phones. Measurements included diary-format observations and qualitative feedback. The results of the study show promising outcomes for all of the cases, and have led to recent adaptations to allow for wider and more effective use of this memory aid.

Do-It-Yourself Early Learning: Easy and Fun Activities from Everyday Home Center Materials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Jeff A.; Johnson, Tasha A.

2006-01-01

Learning through play is as natural and important for young children as breathing. With this book, parents and teachers can create toys that help children become more confident, develop their intellect, and encourage play and exploration--all with materials easily found at the local hardware store or home center. Written by two experienced family…

Paying and playing with plastic. The meaning of plastics, plasticity, and plastic surgery.

PubMed

Williams, D

1996-11-01

Plastics are not only the proverbial everyday commodity, but they also permeate almost every aspect of medical devices, from technology to clinical application. This article addresses some of the confusing features of plasticity as they relate to the materials called plastics, to the phenomena of material plasticity, and to the clinical and biological usage of the word.

Indirect Observation in Everyday Contexts: Concepts and Methodological Guidelines within a Mixed Methods Framework.

PubMed

Anguera, M Teresa; Portell, Mariona; Chacón-Moscoso, Salvador; Sanduvete-Chaves, Susana

2018-01-01

Indirect observation is a recent concept in systematic observation. It largely involves analyzing textual material generated either indirectly from transcriptions of audio recordings of verbal behavior in natural settings (e.g., conversation, group discussions) or directly from narratives (e.g., letters of complaint, tweets, forum posts). It may also feature seemingly unobtrusive objects that can provide relevant insights into daily routines. All these materials constitute an extremely rich source of information for studying everyday life, and they are continuously growing with the burgeoning of new technologies for data recording, dissemination, and storage. Narratives are an excellent vehicle for studying everyday life, and quantitization is proposed as a means of integrating qualitative and quantitative elements. However, this analysis requires a structured system that enables researchers to analyze varying forms and sources of information objectively. In this paper, we present a methodological framework detailing the steps and decisions required to quantitatively analyze a set of data that was originally qualitative. We provide guidelines on study dimensions, text segmentation criteria, ad hoc observation instruments, data quality controls, and coding and preparation of text for quantitative analysis. The quality control stage is essential to ensure that the code matrices generated from the qualitative data are reliable. We provide examples of how an indirect observation study can produce data for quantitative analysis and also describe the different software tools available for the various stages of the process. The proposed method is framed within a specific mixed methods approach that involves collecting qualitative data and subsequently transforming these into matrices of codes (not frequencies) for quantitative analysis to detect underlying structures and behavioral patterns. The data collection and quality control procedures fully meet the requirement of flexibility and provide new perspectives on data integration in the study of biopsychosocial aspects in everyday contexts.

A Cool Challenge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roman, Harry T.

2012-01-01

The world of man-made design is all around, in everyday objects and appliances people use without a second thought. In this exercise, students have an opportunity to challenge the common refrigerator's design--and improve it. This approach can be used with many other appliances.

Everyday Ethics: Ethical Issues and Stress in Nursing Practice

PubMed Central

Ulrich, Connie M.; Taylor, Carol; Soeken, Karen; O'Donnell, Patricia; Farrar, Adrienne; Danis, Marion; Grady, Christine

2010-01-01

Aim This paper is a report of a study of the type, frequency, and level of stress of ethical issues encountered by nurses in their everyday practice. Background Everyday ethical issues in nursing practice attract little attention but can create stress for nurses. Nurses often feel uncomfortable in addressing the ethical issues they encounter in patient care. Methods A self-administered survey was sent in 2004 to 1000 nurses in four states in four different census regions of the United States of America. The adjusted response rate was 52%. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations and Pearson correlations. Results A total of 422 questionnaires were used in the analysis. The five most frequently-occurring and most stressful ethical and patient care issues were protecting patients' rights; autonomy and informed consent to treatment; staffing patterns; advanced care planning; and surrogate decision-making. Other common occurrences were unethical practices of healthcare professionals; breaches of patient confidentiality or right to privacy; and end-of-life decision-making. Younger nurses and those with fewer years of experience encountered ethical issues more frequently and reported higher levels of stress. Nurses from different regions also experienced specific types of ethical problems more commonly. Conclusion Nurses face daily ethical challenges in the provision of quality care. To retain nurses, targeted ethics-related interventions that address caring for an increasingly complex patient population are needed. PMID:20735502

Everyday ethics: ethical issues and stress in nursing practice.

PubMed

Ulrich, Connie M; Taylor, Carol; Soeken, Karen; O'Donnell, Patricia; Farrar, Adrienne; Danis, Marion; Grady, Christine

2010-11-01

This paper is a report of a study of the type, frequency, and level of stress of ethical issues encountered by nurses in their everyday practice. Everyday ethical issues in nursing practice attract little attention but can create stress for nurses. Nurses often feel uncomfortable in addressing the ethical issues they encounter in patient care. A self-administered survey was sent in 2004 to 1000 nurses in four states in four different census regions of the United States of America. The adjusted response rate was 52%. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations and Pearson correlations. A total of 422 questionnaires were used in the analysis. The five most frequently occurring and most stressful ethical and patient care issues were protecting patients' rights; autonomy and informed consent to treatment; staffing patterns; advanced care planning; and surrogate decision-making. Other common occurrences were unethical practices of healthcare professionals; breaches of patient confidentiality or right to privacy; and end-of-life decision-making. Younger nurses and those with fewer years of experience encountered ethical issues more frequently and reported higher levels of stress. Nurses from different regions also experienced specific types of ethical problems more commonly. Nurses face daily ethical challenges in the provision of quality care. To retain nurses, targeted ethics-related interventions that address caring for an increasingly complex patient population are needed. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Burning To Learn: An Introduction to Flame Retardants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Journal of Chemical Education, 2001

2001-01-01

Presents an activity that demonstrates the effectiveness of flame retardants--substances added to combustible materials to slow down or hinder burning--that can be introduced when discussing combustion reactions or during a practical or everyday chemistry unit. (ASK)

Normal Science Education and Its Dangers: The Case of School Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Berkel, Berry; De Vos, Wobbe; Verdonk, Adri H.; Pilot, Albert

2000-01-01

Attempts to solve the problem of hidden structure in school chemistry. Argues that normal chemistry education is isolated from common sense, everyday life and society, the history and philosophy of science, technology, school physics, and chemical research. (Author/CCM)

Taking a Common-Sense Approach to Moral Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, R. E.

2001-01-01

Outlines how one veteran high school teacher wrote up an everyday moral dilemma (obliquely involving drug trafficking) for his students to discuss and solve. Notes problem-solving steps and questions, and how the students worked their way to a solution through discussion. (SR)

The domestication of an everyday health technology: A case study of electric toothbrushes

PubMed Central

Carter, Simon; Green, Judith; Thorogood, Nicki

2013-01-01

Using the electric toothbrush as an example, this article examines the growing acceptability of domestic health technologies that blur the traditional boundaries between health, aesthetics and consumption. By using empirical material from individual and household interviews about people's oral health practices, this research explores the relationships between an everyday artefact, its users and their environments. It investigates the ways in which oral health technologies do, or do not, become domesticated in the home environment. We conclude that the domestication of oral health technologies is not inevitable, with the electric toothbrush often becoming an ‘unstable object' in the domestic setting. PMID:24260016

Destination Station: Bringing The International Space Station to Communities Across the United States

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edgington, Susan

2014-01-01

Today, space is no longer just a field of advanced technological development and of scientific research of excellence, but has become an essential asset for everyday life. Space has spurred countless scientific and technological achievements which are commonly used in aeronautics, medicine, material science and production, in information and communications technology. In parallel, more and more services are carried out through the use of space applications, ranging from detection of natural disasters and environmental monitoring to global navigation and telecommunication. Using space missions to build a better understanding of the universe fulfills our centuries-old curiosity and leads humanity into the future, opening up new frontiers of knowledge. The International Astronautical Congresses have always represented an arena in which issues have been discussed with friendship and among experts: scientists, technicians and managers from universities, agencies, research centres and industry. At the same time it introduces students and young professionals to the field.

Material Enactments of Identities and Learning in Everyday Community Practices: Implications for Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aberton, Helen

2012-01-01

In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in applying actor-network theory (ANT) to educational research and analysis. This article presents an account of how an ANT analysis of socio-material practices with a focus on objects can bring informal learning and identity formation to view. It is based on a doctoral study of the everyday…

Tribology: Diamonds are forever - or are they?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fineberg, Jay

2011-01-01

The friction and wear of materials is part of our everyday experience, and yet these processes are not well understood. The example of diamond highlights wear processes that result from bumping atoms, showing that the devil is indeed in the details.

LEVELS OF ORGANOCHLORINE, ORGANOPHOSPHATE, AND PYRETHROID PESTICIDES IN CTEPP NORTH CAROLINA MULTIMEDIA SAMPLES

EPA Science Inventory

CTEPP (Children's Total Exposure to Persistent Pesticides and Other Persistent Organic Pollutants) is a pilot study of the possible exposures of 257 preschool children and their primary adult caregivers to pollutants commonly found in their everyday environments. Sampling was p...

Recognizing and Dealing with Dangerous Gases.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bove, Robert A.

1978-01-01

When handling hazardous gases, it is necessary to know their properties, precautions that can be taken to protect workers, and proper first aid. This article gives everyday rules for handling gas cylinders, and a brief first aid guide for 12 common toxic gases and vapors. (BB)

Toxins in everyday life.

PubMed

Chey, Howard; Buchanan, Susan

2008-12-01

This article reviews the sources of exposure and health effects of common toxicants encountered by patients in primary care practice. The recognition and management of exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants, heavy metals, pesticides, electromagnetic fields, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals are listed. A sample environmental history form is included.

A PILOT STUDY OF CHILDREN'S TOTAL EXPOSURE TO PERSISTENT PESTICIDES AND OTHER PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS (CTEPP)

EPA Science Inventory

The Pilot Study of Children's Total Exposure to Persistent Pesticides and Other Persistent Organic Pollutants (CTEPP) investigated the aggregate exposures of 257 preschool children and their primary adult caregivers to pollutants commonly detected in their everyday environments. ...

[A careful look to postmodern tribes: caring for adolescent health in the context of their everyday lives].

PubMed

da Nóbrega, Juliana Fernandes; Nitschke, Rosane Gonçalves; da Silva, Fernanda Pravato; Carraro, Cláudia Anita Gomes; Alves, Cristiane

2013-09-01

This is a theoretical reflection, based on Michel Maffesoli's Comprehensive Sociology, which is concerned with the health care of adolescents in contemporary everyday life, and particularly with the phenomenon of urban tribes. These are understood as groups of people who have emotional ties, building a bond of sociality towards a common goal. This study focuses on the importance to take into account the lifestyle of adolescents and aims to raise awareness among health professionals about such issues, seeking for strategies tuned with reality and care needs in order to promote health, devising ways to improve caring, rethinking health policies for adolescents in contemporary society.

Mobility of coated and uncoated TiO2 nanomaterials in soil columns--Applicability of the tests methods of OECD TG 312 and 106 for nanomaterials.

PubMed

Nickel, Carmen; Gabsch, Stephan; Hellack, Bryan; Nogowski, Andre; Babick, Frank; Stintz, Michael; Kuhlbusch, Thomas A J

2015-07-01

Nanomaterials are commonly used in everyday life products and during their life cycle they can be released into the environment. Soils and sediments are estimated as significant sinks for those nanomaterials. To investigate and assess the behaviour of nanomaterials in soils and sediments standardized test methods are needed. In this study the applicability of two existing international standardized test guidelines for the testing of nanomaterials, OECD TG 106 "Adsorption/Desorption using a Bath Equilibrium Method" and the OECD TG 312 "Leaching in Soil Columns", were investigated. For the study one coated and two uncoated TiO2 nanomaterials were used, respectively. The results indicate that the OECD TG 106 is not applicable for nanomaterials. However, the test method according to OECD TG 312 was found to be applicable if nano-specific adaptations are applied. The mobility investigations of the OECD TG 312 indicated a material-dependent mobility of the nanomaterials, which in some cases may lead to an accumulation in the upper soil layers. Whereas no significant transport was observed for the uncoated materials for the double-coated material (coating with dimethicone and aluminiumoxide) a significant transport was detected and attributed to the coating. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

SOS! Ayuda para Padres: Una Guia Practica para Manejar Problemas de Conducta Comunes y Corrientes. (SOS! Help for Parents: A Practical Guide for Handling Common Everyday Behavior Problems.) Leader's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Lynn

This Spanish-language version of "SOS" provides parents with guidance for handling a variety of common behavior problems based on the behavior approach to child rearing and discipline. This approach suggests that good and bad behavior are both learned and can be changed, and proposes specific methods, skills, procedures, and strategies…

Some References on Metric Information.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Bureau of Standards (DOC), Washington, DC.

This resource work lists metric information published by the U.S. Government and the American National Standards Institute. Also organizations marketing metric materials for education are given. A short table of conversions is included as is a listing of basic metric facts for everyday living. (LS)

Mathematical Modeling and Pure Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Usiskin, Zalman

2015-01-01

Common situations, like planning air travel, can become grist for mathematical modeling and can promote the mathematical ideas of variables, formulas, algebraic expressions, functions, and statistics. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how the mathematical modeling that is present in everyday situations can be naturally embedded in…

The Aunt Gladys Letter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritter, Mark

1992-01-01

Describes an activity in which students receive individual questions (i.e., What is a sparkler made of and what makes it sparkle?) to answers from their "Aunt Gladys." Students must research the everyday question, discover the answer, and then translate the answer into the common language of the masses. (PR)

Mathematics and General Education. Stirling Seminar Papers No. 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruthven, Kenneth

1979-01-01

Despite the development of a common mathematics course, and the raising of the school leaving age, Scotland's mathematics curriculum is still designed for specialization. A general education perspective suggests that the curriculum should enable students to relate mathematics to everyday life (f=fiche number). (Author/CP)

Tell Me More: Issues and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hashim, Harwati; Yunus, Melor MD.

2012-01-01

Integration of technology into language education has become an everyday occurrence. Educational multimedia courseware as resource materials to enhance the teaching and learning of English language was produced extensively. Regardless of the cost, computers and courseware are becoming important tools for learning in institutions. Therefore, a…

Teaching Oral Chinese in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Chin-Chuan

1976-01-01

Because Chinese language textbooks were judged inadequate in teaching vocabulary dealing with everyday life in the U.S. and in China, new methods and materials were introduced into an oral Chinese course. Prepared discussion topics, Chinese films, soap operas, and shortwave radio broadcasts were used. (CHK)

Relevant Mathematics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Catterton, Gene; And Others

This material was developed to be used with the non college-bound student in the senior high school. It provides the student with everyday problems and experiences in which practical mathematical applications are made. The package includes worksheets pertaining to letterhead invoices, sales slips, payroll sheets, inventory sheets, carpentry and…

Reporting from the Shadows

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Katti

2012-01-01

From the outset of filming her report on college students who were not U.S. citizens, documentary journalist and then-graduate student Catherine Orr steered clear of common tools for crafting news stories about nonresidents wanting to conceal their identity. She aimed, instead, to explore the nuanced, everyday lives of her documentary subjects,…

The Preparation and Testing of a Common Emulsion and Personal Care Product: Lotion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mabrouk, Suzanne T.

2004-01-01

A chemical analysis of lotions, which comprises of categorizations of moisturizers and emulsions, with the preparation and testing of three lotions, is done. The experiment piques students' interest in preparing lotions and emulsions, and proves the value of chemistry in satisfying the needs of everyday life.

Run-D.M.C.: A Mnemonic Aid for Explaining Mass Transfer in Electrochemical Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, Deon T.

2013-01-01

Electrochemistry is a significant area of analytical chemistry encompassing electrical measurements of chemical systems. The applications associated with electrochemistry appear in many aspects of everyday life: explaining how batteries work, how the human nervous system functions, and how metal corrosion occurs. The most common electrochemical…

This Is Not Your Grandma's Library

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mader, Jan

2014-01-01

Students must understand the relevance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to their everyday lives to become employable in the rapidly changing, technologically driven economy. The intent of the Common Core State Standards is to prepare students to be college-, career-, and citizenship-ready. The school libraries of today…

Tips, Tropes, and Trivia: Ideas for Teaching Educational Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stallings, William M.; And Others

The collective experience of more than 50 years has led to the development of approaches that have enhanced student comprehension in the teaching of educational research methods, statistics, and measurement. Tips for teachers include using illustrative problems with one-digit numbers, using common situations and everyday objects to illustrate…

The Early Years: Integrating Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashbrook, Peggy; Nellor, Sue

2015-01-01

Engineering is such a common part of children's work in early childhood programs that teachers can simply look around the room to identify examples where students have engaged in engineering practices. This article presents a classroom activity that integrates engineering design by building on the everyday problems that young children encounter in…

Introduction to Metrics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edgecomb, Philip L.; Shapiro, Marion

Addressed to vocational, or academic middle or high school students, this book reviews mathematics fundamentals using metric units of measurement. It utilizes a common-sense approach to the degree of accuracy needed in solving actual trade and every-day problems. Stress is placed on reading off metric measurements from a ruler or tape, and on…

Social Media & English Learners' Academic Literacy Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shin, Dong-shin

2018-01-01

Social media are becoming a critical part of communication in everyday lives and are a common form of communication for many students in and outside of school. Accordingly, English learner (EL) students are using social media-based communication to gather information, maintain friendships, and express multiple identities. Considering that social…

Understanding the Civil Justice System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirshon, Robert E.; Bolduan, Linda M.

1997-01-01

Provides a concise and informative overview of the civil justice system. Examines various components and issues including the federal and state court systems, differences between civil and criminal law, background in common law, types of civil law, civil procedure, and the effect and implementation of civil law in everyday life. (MJP)

Mercury-Free Analysis of Lead in Drinking Water by Anodic Stripping Square Wave Voltammetry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilburn, Jeremy P.; Brown, Kyle L.; Cliffel, David E.

2007-01-01

The analysis of drinking water for lead, which has well-known health effects, is presented as an instructive example for undergraduate chemistry students. It allows the students to perform an experiment and evaluate to monitor risk factors and common hazard of everyday life.

An Innovation in Children's T.V. the Infinity Factory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

La Luz, 1977

1977-01-01

"Infinity Factory" is a slick, fast-paced, sophisticated series aimed at teaching mathematics fundamentals with a unique and arresting approach. The 30 minutes of live-action skits, brief filmed documentaries, and animation sequences explore common sense math concepts and present useful information showing math at work in everyday life. (NQ)

The Changing Science Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ediger, Marlow

2014-01-01

Science, as a curriculum area, has gone through many changes recently with the oncoming of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), as well as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Science is a part of everyday life which individuals experience. Even the drying up of a puddle of…

Recognizing Prefixes in Scientific Quantities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sokolowski, Andrzej

2015-01-01

Although recognizing prefixes in physical quantities is inherent for practitioners, it might not be inherent for students, who do not use prefixes in their everyday life experiences. This deficiency surfaces in AP Physics exams. For example, readers of an AP Physics exam reported "a common mistake of incorrectly converting nanometers to…

The Pennies-as-Electrons Analogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashmann, Scott

2009-01-01

Everyday experiences familiarize students with the ways in which electricity is used, but often the underlying concepts remain a mystery. Teachers often use analogies to help students relate the flow of electrons to other common systems, but many times these analogies are incomplete and lead to more student misconceptions. However, the "pass the…

Everyday Pedagogical Practices in Mathematical Play Situations in German "Kindergarten"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandt, Birgit

2013-01-01

This study describes situations in German daycare facilities (Kindergarten) in which the development of mathematical thinking in children is specifically encouraged through examination of common play objects. Using micro-sociological methods of analysis, the mathematical potential of such interactions between teacher and child is elaborated within…

Increasing Pragmatic Awareness: Die Vagheit der Sprache "und so"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Overstreet, Maryann; Tran, Jennie; Zietze, Sylvia

2006-01-01

This article presents a description of some pragmatic expressions ("oder so," "und so," "oder wie") rarely found in textbooks, but common in everyday conversation. Though often treated as vague or superfluous, these expressions perform important functions in interpersonal communication. Focusing on these easily identifiable phrases can help…

An Introduction to Technologies Commonly Used by College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Junco, Reynol; Cole-Avent, Gail A.

2008-01-01

Today's college students, the Net generation, have woven technology into their everyday repertoire of communication and connection tools. They use the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, and social networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace at higher rates than individuals from any other generation. Student affairs professionals,…

A cross-cultural exploration of the everyday social participation of individuals with autism spectrum disorders in Australia and Taiwan: An experience sampling study.

PubMed

Chen, Yu-Wei; Bundy, Anita C; Cordier, Reinie; Chien, Yi-Ling; Einfeld, Stewart L

2017-02-01

Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder commonly have limited social participation. This study aimed to examine the similarities and differences of everyday participation among males and females with autism spectrum disorder in Australia and Taiwan, using an experience sampling methodology. A total of 14 Australians (4 males, aged 16-43 years) and 16 Taiwanese (12 males, aged 19-45 years) with autism spectrum disorder who are cognitively able were asked to carry a device which prompted them seven times per day for 7 days, to record everyday participation: where they were, what they were doing, and who they were with. Multilevel analyses were used to identify the relationships between everyday participation and associated factors including gender, country of residence, clinical severity of autism spectrum disorder, and social anxiety. The results showed that Taiwanese participants were more likely to stay at home than Australian participants. However, female participants were more likely to engage in social situations than males. Furthermore, participants with fewer autism spectrum disorder symptoms and those with higher levels of social anxiety were less likely to engage in social interactions. This study sheds light on ways that culture and gender affect social participation and highlights the relationship of social anxiety to social participation. The findings have implications for interventions for social participation.

The role of stereopsis (three-dimensional vision) in dentistry: review of the current literature.

PubMed

Syrimi, M; Ali, N

2015-05-22

Clinical dental work is placing increasing demands on a clinician's vision as new techniques that require fine detail become more common. High hand-eye coordination requires good visual acuity as well as other psychological and neurological qualities such as stereopsis. Stereopsis (three-dimensional vision) is the highest form of depth perception obtained by visual disparity of images formed in the retinas of two eyes. It is believed to confer functional benefits on everyday tasks such as hand-eye coordination. Although its role in depth perception has long been established, little is known regarding the importance of stereopsis in dentistry. This article reviews the role of stereopsis in everyday life and the available literature on the importance of stereopsis in dentistry.

Self-assessment of social cognitive ability in schizophrenia: Association with social cognitive test performance, informant assessments of social cognitive ability, and everyday outcomes.

PubMed

Silberstein, Juliet M; Pinkham, Amy E; Penn, David L; Harvey, Philip D

2018-04-17

Impairments in self-assessment are common in people with schizophrenia and impairments in self-assessment of cognitive ability have been found to predict impaired functional outcome. In this study, we examined self-assessment of social cognitive ability and related them to assessments of social cognition provided by informants, to performance on tests of social cognition, and to everyday outcomes. The difference between self-reported social cognition and informant ratings was used to predict everyday functioning. People with schizophrenia (n=135) performed 8 different tests of social cognition. They were asked to rate their social cognitive abilities on the Observable Social Cognition Rating Scale (OSCARs). High contact informants also rated social cognitive ability and everyday outcomes, while unaware of the patients' social cognitive performance and self-assessments. Social competence was measured with a performance-based assessment and clinical ratings of negative symptoms were also performed. Patient reports of their social cognitive abilities were uncorrelated with performance on social cognitive tests and with three of the four domains of functional outcomes. Differences between self-reported and informant rated social cognitive ability predicted impaired everyday functioning across all four functional domains. This difference score predicted disability even when the influences of social cognitive performance, social competence, and negative symptoms were considered. Mis-estimation of social cognitive ability was an important predictor of social and nonsocial outcomes in schizophrenia compared to performance on social cognitive tests. These results suggest that consideration of self-assessment is critical when attempting to evaluate the causes of disability and when trying to implement interventions targeting disability reduction. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Indirect Observation in Everyday Contexts: Concepts and Methodological Guidelines within a Mixed Methods Framework

PubMed Central

Anguera, M. Teresa; Portell, Mariona; Chacón-Moscoso, Salvador; Sanduvete-Chaves, Susana

2018-01-01

Indirect observation is a recent concept in systematic observation. It largely involves analyzing textual material generated either indirectly from transcriptions of audio recordings of verbal behavior in natural settings (e.g., conversation, group discussions) or directly from narratives (e.g., letters of complaint, tweets, forum posts). It may also feature seemingly unobtrusive objects that can provide relevant insights into daily routines. All these materials constitute an extremely rich source of information for studying everyday life, and they are continuously growing with the burgeoning of new technologies for data recording, dissemination, and storage. Narratives are an excellent vehicle for studying everyday life, and quantitization is proposed as a means of integrating qualitative and quantitative elements. However, this analysis requires a structured system that enables researchers to analyze varying forms and sources of information objectively. In this paper, we present a methodological framework detailing the steps and decisions required to quantitatively analyze a set of data that was originally qualitative. We provide guidelines on study dimensions, text segmentation criteria, ad hoc observation instruments, data quality controls, and coding and preparation of text for quantitative analysis. The quality control stage is essential to ensure that the code matrices generated from the qualitative data are reliable. We provide examples of how an indirect observation study can produce data for quantitative analysis and also describe the different software tools available for the various stages of the process. The proposed method is framed within a specific mixed methods approach that involves collecting qualitative data and subsequently transforming these into matrices of codes (not frequencies) for quantitative analysis to detect underlying structures and behavioral patterns. The data collection and quality control procedures fully meet the requirement of flexibility and provide new perspectives on data integration in the study of biopsychosocial aspects in everyday contexts. PMID:29441028

Mobile Video in Everyday Social Interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reponen, Erika; Lehikoinen, Jaakko; Impiö, Jussi

Video recording has become a spontaneous everyday activity for many people, thanks to the video capabilities of modern mobile phones. Internet connectivity of mobile phones enables fluent sharing of captured material even real-time, which makes video an up-and-coming everyday interaction medium. In this article we discuss the effect of the video camera in the social environment, everyday life situations, mainly based on a study where four groups of people used digital video cameras in their normal settings. We also reflect on another study of ours, relating to real-time mobile video communication and discuss future views. The aim of our research is to understand the possibilities in the domain of mobile video. Live and delayed sharing seem to have their special characteristics, live video being used as a virtual window between places whereas delayed video usage has more scope for good-quality content. While this novel way of interacting via mobile video enables new social patterns, it also raises new concerns for privacy and trust between participating persons in all roles, largely due to the widely spreading possibilities of videos. Video in a social situation affects cameramen (who record), targets (who are recorded), passers-by (who are unintentionally in the situation), and the audience (who follow the videos or recording situations) but also the other way around, the participants affect the video by their varying and evolving personal and communicational motivations for recording.

Solar Thermal Energy Exploitation: An Opportunity to Enhance Conceptual Learning in Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodrigues, M. A.; Cravino, J. P.; Liberato, M. L. R.

2010-05-01

In a society mainly driven by Science and Technology it is becoming consensual the idea that scientific education should include three components: Education in Science, Education about Science and Education through Science. Some authors suggest that, in education, everyday objects should be used to illustrate scientific issues (e.g. Andrée, 2005). Thus the goal of this study is two-fold: first, to develop a teaching and learning strategy, in the framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), concerning the renewable energy issue, while showing the importance of using everyday situations in the improvement of students' motivation in Physics learning. Energy is the core concept in this study. Energy conservation includes the concepts applied to sustainable balance between environment and the energy availability and use. Dias et al. (2004) stress that education is one of the best ways to transform the human behavior for the rational use of energy, which represents a long-term investment. In this work students become aware and recognize the importance and value of energy in everyday life, they identify energy transfer and transformation processes, confirm energy availability, relating these topics to present human needs and climate change issues. A didactic model of a solar thermal panel has thus been built, using cheap, common materials, by 15-16 year-old Physics students, from a Portuguese secondary school. Students had to plan the experiments, in small groups, to identify and estimate physical magnitudes and to explore how to maximize the solar thermal panel efficiency. The experimental activities took place in the school's playground, in a place where there were no obstacles to capturing solar radiation. Finally, students had to deal with experimental data acquisition and analysis, they had to prepare a report, as well as to answer a survey, to evaluate their learning success. Results show that students appreciated the proposed themes and activities, while having significant learning,namely in terms of conceptual evolution on concepts such as thermodynamic systems and energy transfer. We believe that these kinds of proposals contribute to improve students' literacy and knowledge in Science, to strengthen the student-teacher relationship, while contributing to raising conscious citizens. References Andrée, M. (2005). Ways of Using ‘Everyday Life' in the Science Classroom. Research and the Quality of Science Education 107-116. Dias, R. A., Mattos, C. R., & Balestieri, J. A. P. (2004). Energy education: breaking up the rational energy use barriers. Energy Policy, 32(11), 1339-1347.

Interviews with children of persons with a severe mental illness: investigating their everyday situation.

PubMed

Ostman, Margareta

2008-01-01

Research on children of persons with a severe mental illness focuses predominantly on parents' and others' perceptions. Children of mentally ill parents form a vulnerable group that has not been adequately paid attention to in psychiatric care institutions. Comparatively little is known about the children's recognition of their parents and the everyday situation of these families. The aim of the study was to investigate experiences of their life situation in children 10-18 years of age in a family with a parent with a severe mental illness. Eight children were interviewed concerning their everyday life situation. The interviews were analysed inspired from using thematic analysis. From the analysis of the material emerged aspects concerning the following themes: need for conversation, love for their family, maturity, experience of fear and blame, feelings of loneliness, responsibility and associated stigma. This study highlights the situation experienced by children of severely mentally ill persons who also are parents. The study may be found to be a basis for inspiring structured interventions and treatments programmes including children of the adult patients seeking psychiatric treatment.

Transtibial prosthesis suspension failure during skydiving freefall: a case report.

PubMed

Gordon, Assaf T; Land, Rebekah M

2009-01-01

This report describes the unusual case of an everyday-use prosthesis suspension system failure during the freefall phase of a skydiving jump. The case individual was a 53-year-old male with a left transtibial amputation secondary to trauma. He used his everyday prosthesis, a transtibial endoskeleton with push-button, plunger-releasing, pin-locking silicon liner suction suspension and a neoprene knee suspension sleeve, for a standard recreational tandem skydive. Within seconds of exiting the plane, the suspension systems failed, resulting in the complete prosthesis floating away. Several factors may have led to suspension system failure, including an inadequate seal and material design of the knee suspension sleeve and liner, lack of auxiliary suspension mechanisms, and lack of a safety cover overlying the push-button release mechanism. This is the first report, to our knowledge, to discuss prosthetic issues specifically related to skydiving. While amputees are to be encouraged to participate in this extreme sport, special modifications to everyday components may be necessary to reduce the possibility of prosthesis failure during freefall, parachute deployment, and landing.

The Post-Piagetian Child: Early Mathematical Developments and a Role for Structured Materials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wing, Tony

2009-01-01

It is argued that the discourse currently regulating early years mathematical development in the UK and elsewhere is "producing its own truths" in an unhelpfully narrowing way, restricting the objects, imagery, and symbols involved to those arising within "everyday" or "realistic" situations, and producing an…

AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY ON THE POTENTIAL EXPOSURES OF 111 PRESCHOOL CHILDREN TO PHTHALATES IN THEIR EVERYDAY ENVIRONMENTS

EPA Science Inventory

The purpose of this work was to identify potential sources and routes of preschool children exposures to two phthalate diesters used in household and personal care products and building materials. Exposure and biomonitoring data was reviewed. The abstract included the preliminary...

Lexical Ambiguities in the Vocabulary of Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitaker, Douglas

2016-01-01

Lexical ambiguities exist when two different meanings are ascribed to the same word. Such lexical ambiguities can be particularly problematic for learning material with technical words that have everyday meanings that are not the same as the technical meaning. This study reports on lexical ambiguities in six statistical words germane to statistics…

California Library Laws, 2008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Paul G., Ed.

2008-01-01

"California Library Laws 2008" is a selective guide to state laws and related materials that most directly affect the everyday operations of public libraries and organizations that work with public libraries. It is intended as a convenient reference, not as a replacement for the annotated codes or for legal advice. The guide is organized…

Apples, Bubbles, and Crystals: Your Science ABCs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Andrea T.; Kessler, James H.

In this book a character named Archie and his friends teach science and reinforce alphabet skills. This approach combines reading and rhyming with simple science activities that begin with a list of everyday household materials and come with colorfully illustrated step-by-step instructions. Also provided are explanations of the science principles…

On the assessment of coordination between upper extremities: towards a common language between rehabilitation engineers, clinicians and neuroscientists.

PubMed

Shirota, Camila; Jansa, Jelka; Diaz, Javier; Balasubramanian, Sivakumar; Mazzoleni, Stefano; Borghese, N Alberto; Melendez-Calderon, Alejandro

2016-09-08

Well-developed coordination of the upper extremities is critical for function in everyday life. Interlimb coordination is an intuitive, yet subjective concept that refers to spatio-temporal relationships between kinematic, kinetic and physiological variables of two or more limbs executing a motor task with a common goal. While both the clinical and neuroscience communities agree on the relevance of assessing and quantifying interlimb coordination, rehabilitation engineers struggle to translate the knowledge and needs of clinicians and neuroscientists into technological devices for the impaired. The use of ambiguous definitions in the scientific literature, and lack of common agreement on what should be measured, present large barriers to advancements in this area. Here, we present the different definitions and approaches to assess and quantify interlimb coordination in the clinic, in motor control studies, and by state-of-the-art robotic devices. We then propose a taxonomy of interlimb activities and give recommendations for future neuroscience-based robotic- and sensor-based assessments of upper limb function that are applicable to the everyday clinical practice. We believe this is the first step towards our long-term goal of unifying different fields and help the generation of more consistent and effective tools for neurorehabilitation.

Dance as a Treatment Approach with a Multidisabled Child: Implications for School Counseling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lasseter, Jan; And Others

1989-01-01

Describes dance therapy with multidisabled children. Presents case study involving girl with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and emotional problems with goal of helping her adjust to everyday life and function as nearly as possible as a normal individual. Recommends common movements be combined extemporaneously or in cooperation with a…

Imaginary Worlds in Middle Childhood: A Qualitative Study of Two Pairs of Coordinated Paracosms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Marjorie; Mottweiler, Candice M.; Naylor, Emilee R.; Levernier, Jacob G.

2015-01-01

Imagining alternatives to actual experiences is an important part of everyday life that can take many forms. One manifestation in middle childhood is the creation of elaborate imaginary worlds, called "paracosms." Retrospective reports of adults indicate that having a childhood paracosm is more commonly reported in individuals…

Evaluating the Cognitive Consequences of Playing "Portal" for a Short Duration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Deanne M.; Pilegard, Celeste; Mayer, Richard E.

2016-01-01

Learning physics often requires overcoming common misconceptions based on naïve interpretations of observations in the everyday world. One proposed way to help learners build appropriate physics intuitions is to expose them to computer simulations in which motion is based on Newtonian principles. In addition, playing video games that require…

Individual Differences in Premotor and Motor Recruitment during Speech Perception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szenkovits, Gayaneh; Peelle, Jonathan E.; Norris, Dennis; Davis, Matthew H.

2012-01-01

Although activity in premotor and motor cortices is commonly observed in neuroimaging studies of spoken language processing, the degree to which this activity is an obligatory part of everyday speech comprehension remains unclear. We hypothesised that rather than being a unitary phenomenon, the neural response to speech perception in motor regions…

From Policy to Practice: The Implementation and Negotiation of Technologies in Everyday Child Welfare

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peckover, Sue; Hall, Christopher; White, Sue

2009-01-01

A central element of the Every Child Matters reforms in England are measures which aim at improving information sharing. Amongst these are the children's database and the Common Assessment Framework, both representing technological solutions to long-standing concerns about information sharing in child welfare. This article reports some findings…

The Sabar Ways of Knowing: Sustainable Ideas towards Educational Ecology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hickman, Richard; Sinha, Pallawi

2018-01-01

In common conception, art is often confined to a painting, sculpture, architecture or performance; we maintain however that what enables any art or artistic practice to become aesthetic is human experience. Arts and aesthetic practices are integral to the everyday lives of the indigenous Sabar tribes of India, particularly, in ascertaining Sabar…

LEVELS OF ORGANOPHOSPHATES AND THEIR DEGRADATION PRODUCTS IN THE HOMES, DAY CARE CENTERS, AND URINE OF 127 OHIO PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

EPA Science Inventory

This study examined the aggregate exposures of 257 preschool children to pollutants commonly found in their everyday environments. A primary objective of the study was to identify important sources and routes that contribute to the children's exposures in these environments. Pa...

Reducing Vocalized Pauses in Public Speaking Situations Using the VP Card

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramos Salazar, Leslie

2014-01-01

This article describes a speaking problem very common in today's world--"vocalized pauses" (VP). Vocalized pauses are defined as utterances such as "uh," "like," and "um" that occur between words in oral sentences. This practice of everyday speech can affect how a speaker's intentions are…

English-Dari Dictionary.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peace Corps, Washington, DC.

This 7,000-word dictionary is designed for English speakers learning Dari. The dictionary consists of two parts, the first a reference to find words easily translatable from one language to the other, the second a list of idioms and short phrases commonly used in everyday conversation, yet not readily translatable. Many of these entries have no…

From Restaurants to Board Rooms: How Initiating Negotiations Teaches Management Principles and Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Volkema, Roger J.; Kapoutsis, Ilias

2016-01-01

Negotiation is an interpersonal process common to everyday personal and professional success. Yet individuals often fail to recognize opportunities for initiating negotiations and the immediate and long-term implications of these oversights for themselves and others. This article describes a simple yet rich negotiation exercise that learners can…

A Mathematics Teacher's Practice in a Technological Environment: A Case Study Analysis Using Two Complementary Theories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tabach, Michal

2011-01-01

Integrating technology in school mathematics has become more and more common. The teacher is a key person in integrating technology into everyday practice. To understand teacher practice in a technological environment, this study proposes using two theoretical perspectives: the theory of technological pedagogical content knowledge to analyze…

Utility fog: A universal physical substance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, J. Storrs

1993-01-01

Active, polymorphic material ('Utility Fog') can be designed as a conglomeration of 100-micron robotic cells ('foglets'). Such robots could be built with the techniques of molecular nanotechnology. Controllers with processing capabilities of 1000 MIPS per cubic micron, and electric motors with power densities of one milliwatt per cubic micron are assumed. Utility Fog should be capable of simulating most everyday materials, dynamically changing its form and properties, and forms a substrate for an integrated virtual reality and telerobotics.

Microscale synthesis and characterization of polystyrene: NSF-POLYED scholars project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quaal, Karen S.; Wu, Chang-Ning

1994-01-01

Polystyrene is a familiar polymer with many commercial uses. Its applications range from the clear, high index of refraction, brittle plastic used to form audio cassette and CD cases to the foamed material used in insulated drink cups and packaging material. Polystyrene constitutes 11 percent of the plastics used in packaging with only High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) contributing a larger share: so much polystyrene is used today, it is one of six common plastics that manufacturers have assigned an identification code. The code helps recycling efforts. Polystyrene's code is (PS code 6). During the summer and fall of 1992 several new polymeric experiments were developed by the NSF POLYED Scholars for introduction into the chemistry core curriculum. In this presentation, one such project will be discussed. This laboratory project is recommended for a first or second year laboratory course allowing the introduction of polymeric science to undergraduates at the earliest opportunity. The reliability of the experiments which make up this project and the recognition factor of polystyrene, a material we come in contact with everyday, makes the synthesis and characterization of polystyrene a good choice for the introduction of polymerization to undergraduates. This laboratory project appeals to the varied interests of students enrolled in the typical first year chemistry course and becomes an ideal way to introduce polymers to a wide variety of science and engineering students.

The nursing home as a home: a field study of residents' daily life in the common living rooms.

PubMed

Hauge, Solveig; Kristin, Heggen

2008-02-01

This Norwegian-based study investigates how and to what extent the idea of the nursing home as a home has been realized. For the last two decades, Norway, as other Western Country has had an explicit national policy that nursing homes should become more like homes. The research literature indicates that residents in nursing home seem to lack the opportunities to maintain a private sphere. A field study design was conducted. Data were collected in 1999 in two long-term units in a traditional nursing home by using participant observation and interviewing the residents. A phenomenological hermeneutic analysis strategy was used to get an impression of the residents' everyday life. The residents spend most of their time in the common living room. The common living room has an ambiguous boundary between the public and private spheres, unlike the clear boundaries characterizing a home. The relationship among the residents is fragile, and the residents who can, withdraw from the common living room. Despite having single rooms and more home-like interior decoration, the residents in nursing home still have reduced opportunity to develop a private everyday lifestyle. The long-term unit examined in this research had a forced relationship between the residents, and the residents with best health resources systematically withdraw from the common area to control both where and with whom they wish to spend their time. This study lays the foundation for rethinking daily routines in long-term units in nursing homes. One way to realize the idea of the nursing home as a home could be to define the living room as a clear public area and to give the residents a chance to develop a more private lifestyle by alternating between their private rooms and a public common living room.

The role of resting-state EEG localized activation and central nervous system arousal in executive function performance in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

PubMed

Zhang, Da-Wei; Johnstone, Stuart J; Roodenrys, Steven; Luo, Xiangsheng; Li, Hui; Wang, Encong; Zhao, Qihua; Song, Yan; Liu, Lu; Qian, Qiujin; Wang, Yufeng; Sun, Li

2018-06-01

This study explored the relationships between resting-state electroencephalogram (RS-EEG) localized activation and two important types of executive functions (EF) to extend the prognostic utilization of RS-EEG in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD). Also, the role of central nervous system (CNS) arousal in the relationships was examined. Fifty-eight children with AD/HD participated in the study. RS-EEG localized activation was derived from spectral power differences between EEG in eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions. CNS arousal was measured based on alpha band power. Common and everyday EF scores were obtained as EF outcomes. Frontal delta activation predicted common EF ability and posterior alpha activation predicted everyday EF. A serial mediation analysis found that lower CNS baseline arousal was related to greater arousal and delta activation in series, which in turn related to worse common EF. A follow-up study found that baseline arousal was related to larger interference cost. RS-EEG is indicative of individual differences in two important types of EF in children with AD/HD. Lower CNS arousal may be a driving force for the poorer common EF performance. The current study supports prognostic utilization of RS-EEG and AD/HD models that take resting brain activity into consideration in children with AD/HD. Copyright © 2018 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Constructing a Scientific Explanation—A Narrative Account

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeo, Jennifer; Gilbert, John K.

2014-07-01

Studies analyzing explanations that have been constructed by science students have found that they were generally weak and lack necessary features. The goal of this study was to establish the competencies that one needs to construct a scientific explanation. Scientific explanations can be looked at in three ways, in terms of their function, form and level, as being essentially sign-making processes. Taking a case study approach and using Lemke's multimodal framework, we analyzed the scientific explanation of an electromagnetic induction phenomenon constructed by one high school student. We found that such a construction involves the complex coordination of different types of signs, not only to represent the entities in the phenomenon, but also to support thinking and reasoning about it at abstract levels. Scientific conventions and rules, and everyday material and social tools were found to be crucial in shifting from one level of abstraction to another. The findings highlight the importance of developing the skillful use of schemes of scientific representation by students and familiarizing them with commonly encountered contexts.

Archaeology as anthropology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rönnby, Johan

2007-12-01

The interaction between humans and the maritime coastal landscape must be one of the central theoretical questions for maritime archaeology. How should an academic discipline, which is defined by its studies in a certain physical milieu, avoid the trap of environmental determinism and still be able to argue for the special influence of the maritime factor? And how should this long-term relation to the sea be interpreted and described? In this article, based mainly on material from the central Swedish Baltic Sea coast, three examples of long-term structures regarding the relationship between people and the sea are discussed. The structures, here called “maritime durees”, which almost all coastal habitants in the analyzed area seem to have had in common are linked to: exploitation of marine resources, communication over water and the mental presence of the sea. In conclusion the actual meaning of these long-term structures for everyday life and for cultural and social change are discussed in comparison to more short term structures: the changing historical circumstances and possibilities for people to choose different strategies.

Context of the beginning of tobacco use in different social groups

PubMed Central

Panaino, Edina Ferreira; Soares, Cássia Baldini; Campos, Célia Maria Sivalli

2014-01-01

Objective analyze contextual aspects of the beginning of tobacco use in different social groups, from everyday representations about the act of smoking. Methods five focus groups were conducted to promote discussion about the context of beginning of tobacco use, with groups of people who represented different patterns of social reproduction. The data analysis was based on the theory of social representations, which contextualizes how each group presents the tobacco consumption. Results the contexts of the beginning of tobacco use were diverse, according to patterns of social reproduction; there were common representations to all groups, but there were also unique representations of each social group. Tobacco is represented as indispensable for groups in unstable social reproduction situations, and as an instrument of pleasure and stress relief for those who can access other material assets. Conclusions the study contributed to exposing the concepts on tobacco consumption that are socially disseminated, which can serve as an instrument to planning programs and health actions. PMID:25029047

Copyright Catechism II. Practical Answers to Everyday School Dilemmas. Copyright Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simpson, Carol

2011-01-01

This book contains valid, real-world copyright questions posed by real-life educators--all answered by a knowledgeable and experienced school attorney. Poor economic conditions have driven publishers to be more aggressive with pursuing improper use of their copyrighted materials. At the same time, new technologies are complicating old copyright…

Reasoning Strategies in the Context of Engineering Design with Everyday Materials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Worsley, Marcelo; Blikstein, Paulo

2016-01-01

"Making" represents an increasingly popular label for describing a form of engineering design. While making is growing in popularity, there are still open questions about the strategies that students are using in these activities. Assessing and improving learning in making/ engineering design contexts require that we have a better…

Assessing the Cyborg Center: Assemblage-Based, Feminist Frameworks toward Socially Just Writing Center Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andersen, Erin M.

2017-01-01

This dissertation will broaden the purview of recent scholarship pertaining to socially just writing assessments by making connections among assemblage theory and materialism, studies of ecological and anti-racist assessments, and studies of writing center work, to ground theoretical conversations in everyday practices. Focusing on systemic…

Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of the Greenhouse Effect Using Theory-Based Learning Materials that Promote Deep Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinfried, Sibylle; Aeschbacher, Urs; Rottermann, Benno

2012-01-01

Students' everyday ideas of the greenhouse effect are difficult to change. Environmental education faces the challenge of developing instructional settings that foster students' conceptual understanding concept of the greenhouse effect in order to understand global warming. To facilitate students' conceptual development with regard to the…

The Quantified Self (QS) Movement and Some Emerging Opportunities for the Educational Technology Field

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Victor R.

2013-01-01

The Quantified Self (QS) movement is a growing global effort to use new mobile and wearable technologies to automatically obtain personal data about everyday activities. The social and material infrastructure associated with the Quantified Self (QS) movement provides a number of ideas that educational technologists should consider incorporating…

Mapping Everyday: Gender, Blackness, and Discourse in Urban Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, L. Hill, Jr.; Helfenbein, Robert J.

2009-01-01

This article argues that by using theories of the spatial to understand how situated materiality (i.e., place) and contestations of identity matter when conceiving global and curricular space, educators may interrupt and rearticulate practices and systems of oppression. By focusing on globalization writ large, there is danger of leaving important…

California Library Laws, 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Paul G., Ed.

2009-01-01

California Library Laws 2009 is a selective guide to state laws and related materials that most directly affect the everyday operations of public libraries and organizations that work with public libraries. It is intended as a convenient reference, not as a replacement for the annotated codes or for legal advice. The guide is organized as follows.…

Making Physics Fun: Key Concepts, Classroom Activities, and Everyday Examples, Grades K-8

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prigo, Robert

2007-01-01

Teaching physical science in the elementary and middle grades can be challenging for busy teachers faced with growing science demands and limited classroom resources. Robert Prigo provides fun and engaging activities using safe, available materials that educators can easily incorporate into lesson plans. Extensive examples, sample inquiry…

MODERN SCIENCE. INSTRUCTIONAL GUIDE FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

RICE, GLORIA; AND OTHERS

ELEVEN UNITS OF STUDY INCLUDE--SCIENCE IN OUR LIVES TODAY, APPLIED CHEMISTRY, MODERN MATERIALS, MAN AND MECHANICS, HEAT AND FUELS, NUCLEAR ENERGY, SOUND, LIGHT, ELECTRICITY, ELECTRONICS, AND SPACE. ALL ARE DIRECTED AT THE STUDENT WHO WOULD USE THE INFORMATION GAINED IN EVERYDAY LIFE, RATHER THAN AT THE POTENTIAL SCIENCE STUDENT. UNIT 1 EXPLAINS…

Cultural Learning in the EFL Classroom: The Role of Visuals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiss, Tamás; Weninger, Csilla

2017-01-01

Visual texts are part of everyday communication and they have the potential to carry multiple layers of meaning. This complexity is what makes them an ideal resource not only for language learning, but also for developing learners' intercultural communicative competence and cultural awareness. Cultural meanings are not locked into these materials;…

Writing for Beginning Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Carria

This guide contains 15 units designed to help adult basic education or literacy education students write materials used in everyday life. The first section of the guide contains an introduction to the writing/teaching process and suggestions for teachers. The 15 units that follow serve as a workbook for students. They cover the following topics:…

Infant Manual Exploration of Composite Substrates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fontenelle, Sarah A.; Kahrs, Bjorn Alexander; Neal, S. Ashley; Newton, A. Taylor; Lockman, Jeffrey J.

2007-01-01

Everyday environments, even small regions within reach, vary dramatically in terms of material composition. Adapting one's manual behavior to such transitions can be considered to be an important element of skilled action. To investigate the origins of this ability, we presented 8-month-olds (n=24) and 10-month-olds (n=24) hard or soft objects on…

Fire retardancy using applied materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feldman, R.

1971-01-01

An example of advanced technology transfer from the Little Joe, Surveyor, Comsat, re-entry and Apollo age to everyday fire protection needs is presented. Utilizing the principle of sublimation cooling for thermostatic temperature control, the material meets a wide range of fire retardancy and heat transmission control requirements. Properties vary from flexible tape for conduits and electrical cables to rigid coatings for column protection, with a broad spectrum of sublimation temperatures available. The material can be applied in the field or in the factory, utilizing mass production techniques, yielding a product that is reliable, effective, widely available and low in cost.

The Rebirth of Montessori: Rebuilding a Public Charter Montessori School in Post-Katrina New Orleans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Selvidge, Ellen

2008-01-01

"Pre-Katrina" and "Post-Katrina" are common terms for time frames these days in New Orleans, often reminding me of the BCE/CE timeline distinctions. You hear "Pre-Katrina" and "Post-Katrina" on the news, in the paper, and in everyday conversations. Although more and more people have moved back to New…

A Tool in the Kit: Uses of Bullshitting among Millennial Workers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Daniel D.; Wilson, Janelle L.

2011-01-01

This study explores the nature, use, and social organization of one form of communicative action that is common in everyday life--"bullshitting." We use this form of communication to assess the ways in which dimensions of community, power and status are created in interaction. Abiding by the canons of ethnographic content analysis, we gathered…

Paint Analysis Using Visible Reflectance Spectroscopy: An Undergraduate Forensic Lab

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Erin M.; Beussman, Douglas J.

2007-01-01

The study of forensic science is found throughout undergraduate programs in growing numbers, both as stand-alone courses as well as specific examples within existing courses. Part of the driving force for this trend is the ability to apply common chemistry techniques to everyday situations, all couched in the context of a mystery that must be…

Spina Bifida and Folic Acid Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Exceptional Parent, 2007

2007-01-01

Spina bifida is the most common, permanently disabling birth defect in the United States. It is a birth defect that involves incomplete formation of the spine during the first month of pregnancy--often before a woman even knows she is pregnant. Everyday, an average of eight babies are born with spina bifida or a similar birth defect of the brain…

Positive Discipline A to Z: 1001 Solutions to Everyday Parenting Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelsen, Jane; And Others

This book is a parenting reference work that offers background on common disciplinary problems and parenting issues, advice on how to handle problems and issues as they arise, and insight into how to avoid disciplinary problems in the future. The book is divided into three sections: Basic Positive Discipline Parenting Tools, Positive Discipline…

Relationships between Handwriting Performance and Organizational Abilities among Children with and without Dysgraphia: A Preliminary Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenblum, Sara; Aloni, Tsipi; Josman, Naomi

2010-01-01

Organizational ability constitutes one executive function (EF) component essential for common everyday performance. The study aim was to explore the relationship between handwriting performance and organizational ability in school-aged children. Participants were 58 males, aged 7-8 years, 30 with dysgraphia and 28 with proficient handwriting.…

Doing Poverty: Learning Outcomes among Students Participating in the Community Action Poverty Simulation Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steck, Laura West; Engler, Jennifer N.; Ligon, Mary; Druen, Perri B.; Cosgrove, Erin

2011-01-01

This article discusses an application of the Lewinian/Kolb experiential learning model in the context of undergraduate participation in the Missouri Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) program. CAPS is designed to simulate common, everyday experiences among people living in poverty as participants take on the roles of family members working…

Thinking Skills and Propaganda Detection.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, John L.; Mann, George

This paper points out that one of the most appropriate and needed areas in which students should engage in critical thinking is in their everyday responses to messages aimed at them in attempts to persuade and convince them to buy or believe something. Ten commonly used tactics noted in the media are described. Examples are given of slanted or…

LEVELS OF 2,4-DICHLOROPHENOXYACETIC ACID IN THE HOMES AND URINE OF 135 PRESCHOOL CHILDREN AND THEIR ADULT CAREGIVERS IN NORTH CAROLINA AND OHIO

EPA Science Inventory

This study investigated the aggregate exposures of preschool children and their primary adult caregivers to chemicals commonly found in their everyday environments. One primary objective of this study was to identify the important sources and pathways of the participant's exposur...

"Putting Music On": Everyday Leisure Activities, Choice-Making and Person-Centred Planning in a Supported Living Scheme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hassan, Nedim

2017-01-01

Background: Person-centred planning, which commonly becomes formalised within services for people with learning disabilities through an Essential Lifestyle Plan (ELP), was intended to help place the choices of individuals at the forefront of service provision. However, beyond UK government policy rhetoric, scholars have raised issues regarding the…

The Multiple Faces of Argument in School Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavagnetto, Andy

2011-01-01

One common argument used by those who oppose evolution is that evolution is just a theory. This argument suggests that a theory has little support and is simply a glorified guess. This reasoning is not sound because it uses the everyday definition of theory in place of the scientific definition of the word. However, many citizens are persuaded by…

Timing Abilities among Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) in Comparison to Children with Typical Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenblum, Sara; Regev, Noga

2013-01-01

Timing ability is essential for common everyday performance. The aim of the study was to compare timing abilities and temporal aspects of handwriting performance and relationships between these two components among children with Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) and a control group. Forty two children, 21 diagnosed as DCD and 21 with…

Feeling as a Way of Knowing: A Practical Guide for Working with Emotional Experience.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Artz, Sibylle

Feeling, emotion, and passion are the "stuff" of everyday experience. This guidebook helps the reader understand emotions in a two-step approach. First, common assumptions about emotion are examined in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of current approaches to emotion, especially as these exist in the fields of psychology and…

Writing for a Change, Writing for Chip

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Patrick W.

2014-01-01

What does it mean to write for change? How do we negotiate the space between hope and critique? Drawing on Dewey's notion of a common faith, this article contemplates what the author learned from Chip Bruce. It suggests that when we compartmentalize the ideal and the everyday, the hopeful and the critical, we reduce the complexity of human…

Keys to Disciplining Your Young Child: From Infant to Toddler. Barron's Parenting Keys.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siegel, Eleanor; Siegel, Linda

Close parent-child relationships begin with an early, effective approach to everyday discipline problems. This book focuses on children from infancy to age five and discusses practical ways to handle common discipline problems using an approach of identifying the problem and providing a goal behavior. Thirty eight chapters address the following…

Travelling Teens: A Parents' Guide to Family Relocation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linke, Pam

2005-01-01

Moving house is becoming a more common aspect of modern life; but this does not make it any easier to cope with the many issues that arise--from the everyday practicalities, to the social and emotional challenges involved. Families who are required to relocate face the potentially difficult task of settling each family member into the new…

Time's Up, Turkey--Pop-Up Thermometers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moyer, Richard; Everett, Susan

2009-01-01

Meat thermometers can be awkward to use in terms of placement and avoidance of bones. Because of these problems, each year 30 million Thanksgiving turkeys have a built-in thermometer that pops up when the turkey is properly cooked. Turkey timers are an example of how engineering solved a common, everyday problem. The following 5E learning cycle…

The Library Manager's Deskbook: 102 Expert Solutions to 101 Common Dilemmas.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carson, Paula Phillips; And Others

This is a handbook of advice for handling the everyday problems encountered in all types and sizes of libraries. It is designed to assist managers before, during, and after crises develop. Organized in an question-and-answer format, it tackles many dilemmas that can occur in the library, then offers solutions drawn from actual experience. The…

Perception of Emotions from Facial Expressions in High-Functioning Adults with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennedy, Daniel P.; Adolphs, Ralph

2012-01-01

Impairment in social communication is one of the diagnostic hallmarks of autism spectrum disorders, and a large body of research has documented aspects of impaired social cognition in autism, both at the level of the processes and the neural structures involved. Yet one of the most common social communicative abilities in everyday life, the…

LEVELS OF CHLORPYRIFOS AND ITS DEGRADATION PRODUCT 3,5,6-TRICHLORO-2-PYRIDINOL IN THE HOMES, DAY CARE CENTERS, AND URINE OF 130 NORTH CAROLINA PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

EPA Science Inventory

This study examined the aggregate exposures of 257 preschool children to pollutants commonly found in their everyday environments. A primary objective was to identify important sources and routes that contribute to the children's exposures in these environments. Participants w...

Promotion of Scientific Literacy: Bangladeshi Teachers' Perspectives and Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarkar, Mahbub; Corrigan, Deborah

2014-01-01

Background: In Bangladesh, a common science curriculum caters for all students at the junior secondary level. Since this curriculum is for all students, its aims are both to build a strong foundation in science while still providing students with the opportunities to use science in everyday life--an aim consistent with the notion of scientific…

Coping with challenges to memory in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease: observation of behaviour in response to analogues of everyday situations.

PubMed

Oyebode, Jan Rachel; Motala, Jamilah R; Hardy, Rachel M; Oliver, Chris

2009-01-01

To describe ways of coping in people with mild to moderate AD when faced with situations that are challenging to their memory. Twenty-four participants (12 with mild and 12 with moderate AD) were presented with a set of seven tasks that were analogues of everyday situations that tax memory. The participants' responses were videotaped and analysed. Participants' coping responses were grouped into seven categories to best reflect the main strategies. Individuals used a significantly greater frequency of effortful problem solving (self-reliance and reliance on carers) (p < 0.01) than other ways of coping. Positive acknowledgement of memory difficulties was used significantly more than negative acknowledgement and defensive coping (concealment and avoidance) (p < 0.01). This study used novel methodology of observation of behavioural responses in analogues of everyday situations. The predominance of effortful problem-solving emphasizes the role of the person with AD as an active agent in the management of memory loss. An emphasis in previous literature on defensive coping and denial is counter-balanced by the finding that participants commonly coped by acknowledging their memory impairment.

3D printing and IoT for personalized everyday objects in nursing and healthcare

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asano, Yoshihiro; Tanaka, Hiroya; Miyagawa, Shoko; Yoshioka, Junki

2017-04-01

Today, application of 3D printing technology for medical use is getting popular. It strongly helps to make complicated shape of body parts with functional materials. We can complement injured, weakened or lacked parts, and recover original shape and functions. However, these cases are mainly focusing on the symptom itself, not on everyday lives of patients. With life span extending, many of us will live a life with chronic disease for long time. Then, we should think about our living environment more carefully. For example, we can make personalized everyday objects and support their body and mind. Therefore, we use 3D printing for making everyday objects from nursing / healthcare perspective. In this project, we have 2 main research questions. The first one is how to make objects which patients really require. We invited many kinds of people such as engineer, nurses and patients to our research activity. Nurses can find patient's real demands firstly, and engineers support them with rapid prototyping. Finally, we found the best collaboration methodologies among nurses, engineers and patients. The second question is how to trace and evaluate usages of created objects. Apparently, it's difficult to monitor user's activity for a long time. So we're developing the IoT sensing system, which monitor activities remotely. We enclose a data logger which can lasts about one month with 3D printed objects. After one month, we can pick up the data from objects and understand how it has been used.

Gender differences in older adults’ everyday cognitive collaboration

PubMed Central

Margrett, Jennifer A.; Marsiske, Michael

2010-01-01

Collaborative cognition research has demonstrated that social partners can positively impact individuals’ thinking and problem-solving performance. Research in adulthood and aging has been less clear about dyadic effects, such as partner gender, on collaborative cognition. The current study examined the objective and subjective experiences of older men and women’s collaboration on three everyday problems. Tasks included comprehension of everyday printed materials, a social dilemma task, and an errand-planning task. A sample of 98 older married couples (N = 196) worked both collaboratively and individually with either their spouse (N = 52 dyads) or a stranger of the other gender (N = 46 dyads). Analyses conducted using the actor-partner methodology (e.g., Gonzalez & Griffin, 1997; Kenny, 1996) suggest that men tended to be more influential during dyadic problem solving, particularly on more ambiguous tasks. Subjective appraisals of collaboration also varied between male and female partners, with familiarity of partner playing a large role in expectations of collaboration. Most notably, women assigned to work with an unfamiliar male partner tended to rate their satisfaction with collaborative teamwork less positively. Both self and partner-rated subjective appraisals, particularly expectations of competitiveness, were predictive of collaborative performance. PMID:20657668

Domestic science: making chemistry your cup of tea.

PubMed

Keene, Melanie

2008-03-01

In the early Victorian home, there were plenty of scientific lessons to be uncovered. With the appropriate interrogation, everyday objects could transform seemingly mundane activities such as eating breakfast, washing clothes or reading by candle-light into household lectures that gave children a familiar base from which to explore the hidden properties and marvellous histories of common commodities. Responding to an unprecedented hunger for scientific knowledge, a profusion of introductory texts appeared in the mid-nineteenth century that directed lessons into homes across Britain and beyond. In particular, the science of chemistry found its way into this domestic setting, as writers promoted its practice and practitioners as a source of authoritative expertise on everyday life. One of the most compelling illustrations of this encounter between the public and chemistry took place over a simple cup of tea.

The narrative psychology of community health workers.

PubMed

Murray, Michael; Ziegler, Friederike

2015-03-01

Community health psychology is an approach which promotes community mobilisation as a means of enhancing community capacity and well-being and challenging health inequalities. Much of the research on this approach has been at the more strategic and policy level with less reference to the everyday experiences of community workers who are actively involved in promoting various forms of community change. This article considers the narrative accounts of a sample of 12 community workers who were interviewed about their lives. Their accounts were analysed in terms of narrative content. This revealed the tensions in their everyday practice as they attempted to overcome community divisions and management demands for evidence. Common to all accounts was a commitment to social justice. These findings are discussed with reference to opportunities and challenges in the practice of community work. © The Author(s) 2015.

Robotic Assistance in Medication Management: Development and Evaluation of a Prototype.

PubMed

Schweitzer, Marco; Hoerbst, Alexander

2016-01-01

An increasing number of elderly people and the prevalence of multimorbid conditions often lead to age-related problems for patients in handling their common polypharmaceutical, domestic everyday medication. Ambient Assisted Living therefore provides means to support an elderly's everyday life. In the present paper we investigated the viability of using a commercial mass-produced humanoid robot system to support the domestic medication of an elderly person. A prototypical software application based on the NAO-robot platform was implemented to remind the patient for drug intakes, check for drug-drug-interactions, document the compliance and assist through the complete process of individual medication. A technical and functional evaluation of the system in a laboratory setting revealed versatile and viable results, though further investigations are needed to examine the practical use in an applied field.

Blending Education and Polymer Science: Semi Automated Creation of a Thermodynamic Property Database.

PubMed

Tchoua, Roselyne B; Qin, Jian; Audus, Debra J; Chard, Kyle; Foster, Ian T; de Pablo, Juan

2016-09-13

Structured databases of chemical and physical properties play a central role in the everyday research activities of scientists and engineers. In materials science, researchers and engineers turn to these databases to quickly query, compare, and aggregate various properties, thereby allowing for the development or application of new materials. The vast majority of these databases have been generated manually, through decades of labor-intensive harvesting of information from the literature; yet, while there are many examples of commonly used databases, a significant number of important properties remain locked within the tables, figures, and text of publications. The question addressed in our work is whether, and to what extent, the process of data collection can be automated. Students of the physical sciences and engineering are often confronted with the challenge of finding and applying property data from the literature, and a central aspect of their education is to develop the critical skills needed to identify such data and discern their meaning or validity. To address shortcomings associated with automated information extraction, while simultaneously preparing the next generation of scientists for their future endeavors, we developed a novel course-based approach in which students develop skills in polymer chemistry and physics and apply their knowledge by assisting with the semi-automated creation of a thermodynamic property database.

Blending Education and Polymer Science: Semiautomated Creation of a Thermodynamic Property Database

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tchoua, Roselyne B.; Qin, Jian; Audus, Debra J.

Structured databases of chemical and physical properties play a central role in the everyday research activities of scientists and engineers. In materials science, researchers and engineers turn to these databases to quickly query, compare, and aggregate various properties, thereby allowing for the development or application of new materials. The vast majority of these databases have been generated manually, through decades of labor-intensive harvesting of information from the literature, yet while there are many examples of commonly used databases, a significant number of important properties remain locked within the tables, figures, and text of publications. The question addressed in our workmore » is whether and to what extent the process of data collection can be automated. Students of the physical sciences and engineering are often confronted with the challenge of finding and applying property data from the literature, and a central aspect of their education is to develop the critical skills needed to identify such data and discern their meaning or validity. To address shortcomings associated with automated information extraction while simultaneously preparing the next generation of scientists for their future endeavors, we developed a novel course-based approach in which students develop skills in polymer chemistry and physics and apply their knowledge by assisting with the semiautomated creation of a thermodynamic property database.« less

Nonfood Applications of Proteinaceous Renewable Materials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barone, Justin R.; Schmidt, Walter F.

2006-01-01

It is well known that proteins are abundant in food and are vital to nutrition and biochemical function. What is not well known is that proteins derived from agricultural sources are used in everyday products such as glue and textiles. Research continues to find new uses for proteins in a wide variety of applications, most of which would be…

Cool Winter: Arts and Crafts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohl, MaryAnn

2011-01-01

Art is all about the process of exploration. The final results are less important than what a child imagines, experiences, and learns along the way. Packed with a year's worth of art projects kids can create out of everyday objects and recycled materials. From buttons to Bubble Wrap and rocks to socks, the author shows how to plan exciting art…

The Meaning of Money Revisited: The Development of the Money Ethic Scale.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tang, Thomas Li-Ping

Despite the fact that money is important in everyday life, there is a dearth of empirical material and research concerning the meaning of money and people's attitudes towards money in the psychological literature. This study examined the underlying concepts or beliefs people hold about money and the extent to which different needs can be fulfilled…

An Estimation of the Number and Size of Atoms in a Printed Period

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaefer, Beth; Collett, Edward; Tabor-Morris, Anne; Croman, Joseph

2011-01-01

Elementary school students learn that atoms are very, very small. Students are also taught that atoms (and molecules) are the fundamental constituents of the material world. Numerical values of their size are often given, but, nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine their size relative to one's everyday surroundings. In order for students to…

Making Connections: Promoting Music Making in the Home through a Preschool Music Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Shelly; Cardany, Audrey Berger

2008-01-01

The Musical Play program is designed to assist children ages 2 to 5 and their parents. The program creators sought to help families build a repertoire of songs and activities for everyday living and to encourage musical play at home. The program includes developmentally appropriate songs, materials, and activities and incorporates a wide variety…

Don't Throw It Away!: Raise Recycling Awareness through Communications Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lazaros, Edward J.; Shackelford, Ray

2008-01-01

Americans discard a huge amount of material everyday. The activity described in this article--determining how much waste is thrown out or recycled in the school cafeteria over a five-day period--dramatically increases students' awareness of this fact of contemporary life. Armed with the information they've gathered, students go on to the…

The Mediating Role of Responsive Digital Materials: A Conceptual Investigation and Analytic Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiltse, Heather

2013-01-01

Digital technologies have become thoroughly enmeshed in everyday life, forming a backdrop of experience. We live not only with these technologies but also through them as they mediate our engagement with the world. This mediation calls for closer attention with respect to practical design concerns as well as more theoretical and philosophical…

Teaching from Objects and Stories: Learning about the Bering Sea Eskimo People. Smithsonian in Your Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smigielski, Alan

The three lesson plans in this issue feature the Eskimos of the Bering Sea and their culture. The lesson plans are: (1) "Learning about a Culture from Its Objects"; (2) "Learning about a Culture from a Story"; and (3) "Everyday Objects." Each lesson cites student objectives; lists materials needed; gives subjects…

NETL: The Science of the Very Fast and the Very Small

ScienceCinema

None

2018-05-11

From innovations in nanotechnology to discoveries that increase our understanding of energy resources around us, NETL and the National Labs are leading the way in studying the science of the very fast and very small. In fields ranging from medicine to materials, our researchers are making advancements that have practical applications in everyday life.

The Squeeze is On. Grades 6-8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rushton, Erik; Ryan, Emily; Swift, Charles

When asked to list some strong materials, people think of steel, concrete, and wood. In this activity, students learn about the force of compression and how it acts on structural components through a hands-on group problem. Using everyday products such as paper, toothpicks, and tape, students construct a structure that will support the weight of a…

Bringing Human Rights Back Home: Learning from "Superman" and Addressing Political Issues at School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osler, Audrey

2013-01-01

Human rights are commonly conceived as more relevant to foreign policy than day-to-day living. Drawing on Eleanor Roosevelt's conception of human rights as beginning close to home, this article illustrates how human rights principles might inform everyday processes of schooling and learning to live together. It considers rights to, in and…

Persuasive Embodied Agents: Using Embodied Agents to Change People's Behavior, Beliefs, and Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickard, Matthew David

2012-01-01

Embodied Conversational Agents (i.e., avatars; ECAs) are appearing in increasingly many everyday contexts, such as e-commerce, occupational training, and airport security. Also common to a typical person's daily life is persuasion. Whether being persuaded or persuading, the ability to change another person's attitude or behavior is a…

"Just Good Different Things": Specific Accommodations Families Make to Positively Adapt to Their Children with Developmental Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maul, Christine A.; Singer, George H. S.

2009-01-01

Fifteen parents and two grandparents of children with developmental disabilities (DD) were interviewed to discover common themes regarding specific ways in which they devised positive adaptations to their everyday routines to accommodate the needs of their children with DD, how they decided upon the accommodations, and how much help they felt they…

The Perceived Benefits and Difficulties in Introducing and Maintaining Supervision Groups in a SEMH Special School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willis, Jonathan; Baines, Ed

2018-01-01

Supervision groups are often used in professional settings and are introduced to address and provide support in relation to the challenges that arise in everyday practice. Although group supervision is common amongst a range of helping professions, its use in schools is rare. Little research exists as to the merits and challenges of providing…

What to Use for Mathematics in High School: PC, Tablet or Graphing Calculator?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korenova, Lilla

2015-01-01

Digital technologies have made their way not only into our everyday lives, but nowadays they are also commonly used in schools. Computers, tablets and smartphones are now part of the lives of this new generation of students, so it's only natural that they are used for educational purposes as well. Besides the interactive whiteboards, computers and…

Aspects of First Year Statistics Students' Reasoning When Performing Intuitive Analysis of Variance: Effects of Within- and Between-Group Variability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trumpower, David L.

2015-01-01

Making inferences about population differences based on samples of data, that is, performing intuitive analysis of variance (IANOVA), is common in everyday life. However, the intuitive reasoning of individuals when making such inferences (even following statistics instruction), often differs from the normative logic of formal statistics. The…

The iPod Touch in Association with Other Technologies in Support of a Community of Inquiry in Off-Campus Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walta, Caroline; Nicholas, Howard

2013-01-01

Hand-held technologies are pervasive and convenient in everyday use, but less commonly associated with the delivery of teacher education programs. This has implications for the way graduate teachers view the challenge of utilising these devices once they become classroom teachers, as pre-service teachers generally associate these devices with…

Computational Chemistry Laboratory: Calculating the Energy Content of Food Applied to a Real-Life Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barbiric, Dora; Tribe, Lorena; Soriano, Rosario

2015-01-01

In this laboratory, students calculated the nutritional value of common foods to assess the energy content needed to answer an everyday life application; for example, how many kilometers can an average person run with the energy provided by 100 g (3.5 oz) of beef? The optimized geometries and the formation enthalpies of the nutritional components…

Teaching about Inequality in a Distance Education Course Using "The Second Shift"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauhart, Robert C.

2007-01-01

This paper describes the use of a simple survey followed by discussion in an online sociology course to create a setting in which undergraduate students may learn about inequality from the study of everyday life. The method described in this paper relies on the common experience of a gendered household division of labor and on the use of…

Squishy Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Habdas, Piotr; Weeks, Eric R.; Lynn, David G.

2006-05-01

Most people do not realize that many substances they use in the kitchen and the bathroom are not simple liquids or solids. Everyone is familiar with three states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. However, creams, shampoo, toothpaste, and ketchup all have properties of both liquids and solids. This paper describes demonstrations and laboratory exercises1 that show intriguing properties of squishy substances, defined as materials that are not unambiguously solid, liquid, or gas. Unlike some areas of physics, the concepts behind squishy materials are understandable even by beginning students. Squishy physics can be used to show physics questions arising from everyday life and to convey the excitement of current research.

Sociomateriality in medical practice and learning: attuning to what matters.

PubMed

Fenwick, Tara

2014-01-01

In current debates about professional practice and education, increasing emphasis is placed on understanding learning as a process of ongoing participation rather than one of acquiring knowledge and skills. However, although this socio-cultural view is important and useful, issues have emerged in studies of practice-based learning that point to certain oversights. Three issues are described here: (i) the limited attention paid to the importance of materiality - objects, technologies, nature, etc.-- in questions of learning; (ii) the human-centric view of practice that fails to note the relations among social and material forces, and (iii) the conflicts between ideals of evidence-based standardised models and the sociomaterial contingencies of clinical practice. It is argued here that a socio-material approach to practice and learning offers important insights for medical education. This view is in line with a growing field of research in the materiality of everyday life, which embraces wide-ranging families of theory that can be only briefly mentioned in this short paper. The main premise they share is that social and material forces, culture, nature and technology, are enmeshed in everyday practice. Objects and humans act upon one another in ways that mutually transform their characteristics and activity. Examples from research in medical practice show how materials actively influence clinical practice, how learning itself is a material matter, how protocols are in fact temporary sociomaterial achievements, and how practices form unique and sometimes conflicting sociomaterial worlds, with diverse diagnostic and treatment approaches for the same thing. This discussion concludes with implications for learning in practice. What is required is a shift from an emphasis on acquiring knowledge to participating more wisely in particular situations. This focus is on learning how to attune to minor material fluctuations and surprises, how to track one's own and others' effects on 'intra-actions' and emerging effects, and how to improvise solutions. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Smaller = Denser, and the Brain Knows It: Natural Statistics of Object Density Shape Weight Expectations

PubMed Central

Peters, Megan A. K.; Balzer, Jonathan; Shams, Ladan

2015-01-01

If one nondescript object’s volume is twice that of another, is it necessarily twice as heavy? As larger objects are typically heavier than smaller ones, one might assume humans use such heuristics in preparing to lift novel objects if other informative cues (e.g., material, previous lifts) are unavailable. However, it is also known that humans are sensitive to statistical properties of our environments, and that such sensitivity can bias perception. Here we asked whether statistical regularities in properties of liftable, everyday objects would bias human observers’ predictions about objects’ weight relationships. We developed state-of-the-art computer vision techniques to precisely measure the volume of everyday objects, and also measured their weight. We discovered that for liftable man-made objects, “twice as large” doesn’t mean “twice as heavy”: Smaller objects are typically denser, following a power function of volume. Interestingly, this “smaller is denser” relationship does not hold for natural or unliftable objects, suggesting some ideal density range for objects designed to be lifted. We then asked human observers to predict weight relationships between novel objects without lifting them; crucially, these weight predictions quantitatively match typical weight relationships shown by similarly-sized objects in everyday environments. These results indicate that the human brain represents the statistics of everyday objects and that this representation can be quantitatively abstracted and applied to novel objects. Finally, that the brain possesses and can use precise knowledge of the nonlinear association between size and weight carries important implications for implementation of forward models of motor control in artificial systems. PMID:25768977

Here today, gone tomorrow: biodegradable soft robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rossiter, Jonathan; Winfield, Jonathan; Ieropoulos, Ioannis

2016-04-01

One of the greatest challenges to modern technologies is what to do with them when they go irreparably wrong or come to the end of their productive lives. The convention, since the development of modern civilisation, is to discard a broken item and then procure a new one. In the 20th century enlightened environmentalists campaigned for recycling and reuse (R and R). R and R has continued to be an important part of new technology development, but there is still a huge problem of non-recyclable materials being dumped into landfill and being discarded in the environment. The challenge is even greater for robotics, a field which will impact on all aspects of our lives, where discards include motors, rigid elements and toxic power supplies and batteries. One novel solution is the biodegradable robot, an active physical machine that is composed of biodegradable materials and which degrades to nothing when released into the environment. In this paper we examine the potential and realities of biodegradable robotics, consider novel solutions to core components such as sensors, actuators and energy scavenging, and give examples of biodegradable robotics fabricated from everyday, and not so common, biodegradable electroactive materials. The realisation of truly biodegradable robots also brings entirely new deployment, exploration and bio-remediation capabilities: why track and recover a few large non-biodegradable robots when you could speculatively release millions of biodegradable robots instead? We will consider some of these exciting developments and explore the future of this new field.

Application of material flow analysis to estimate the efficiency of e-waste management systems: the case of Lithuania.

PubMed

Gurauskiene, Inga; Stasiskiene, Zaneta

2011-07-01

Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) has penetrated everyday life. The EEE industry is characterized by a rapid technological change which in turn prompts consumers to replace EEE in order to keep in step with innovations. These factors reduce an EEE life span and determine the exponential growth of the amount of obsolete EEE as well as EEE waste (e-waste). E-waste management systems implemented in countries of the European Union (EU) are not able to cope with the e-waste problem properly, especially in the new EU member countries. The analysis of particular e-waste management systems is essential in evaluation of the complexity of these systems, describing and quantifying the flows of goods throughout the system, and all the actors involved in it. The aim of this paper is to present the research on the regional agent based material flow analysis in e-waste management systems, as a measure to reveal the potential points for improvement. Material flow analysis has been performed as a flow of goods (EEE). The study has shown that agent-based EEE flow analysis incorporating a holistic and life cycle thinking approach in national e-waste management systems gives a broader view to the system than a common administrative one used to cover. It helps to evaluate the real efficiency of e-waste management systems and to identify relevant impact factors determining the current operation of the system.

“To Work Just Like Anyone Else”—A Narrative from a Man Aging with Spinal Cord Injury

PubMed Central

Lilja, Margareta; Isaksson, Gunilla

2017-01-01

People aging with spinal cord injury (SCI) develop medical problems commonly associated with the aging process at a younger age than the general population. However, research about how the life story changes and how meaning will be experienced in occupations is lacking. The aim was to describe and offer an explanation of how a man experienced meaning in everyday occupations while aging with an SCI. Four narrative interviews were performed over a four-year period, with a man in his fifties, who lived with SCI for 39 years. The narrative analysis generated an overall plot, named “To Work Just Like Anyone Else,” and gives a picture of his experiences, thoughts, and reflections about meaning in occupations, from when he became injured to the present, and in relation to his future. His life story is characterized by secondary health complications, and his experiences of negotiating with the aging body and making choices to continue working. Further, how occupational risk factors, e.g., imbalance, alienation, and deprivation, occur as a result of lack of rehabilitation and support from social systems is addressed. Future research should explore how rehabilitation and social systems can support people aging with SCI to experience meaning in everyday occupations and to have balance in everyday life. PMID:29120355

Cognitive training approaches to remediate attention and executive dysfunction after traumatic brain injury: A single-case series.

PubMed

Dymowski, Alicia Rhian; Ponsford, Jennie Louise; Willmott, Catherine

2016-10-01

Attentional deficits are common following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and interfere with daily functioning. This study employed a single-case design to examine the effects of individualised strategy training on attention beyond the effects of computerised training using Attention Process Training 3 (APT-3), and to examine the participants' subjective experience of these approaches. An ABCA (baseline, APT-3, strategy training, follow-up) design was repeated across three participants with severe TBI. Outcomes were measured on alternate versions of the oral Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and cancellation tasks; generalisation with the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) and self and significant other (SO) ratings on the Rating Scale of Attentional Behaviour (RSAB); and participant experiences with semi-structured interviews. Planned Tau-U analyses revealed improvements in speed of processing on the SDMT and the automatic condition of the cancellation task after APT-3 and at follow-up, but with most improvement after strategy training. Limited generalisation was evident on TEA subtests and self-RSAB ratings. SO-RSAB ratings were mixed after APT-3, but demonstrated improvement after strategy training. Variability in attentional deficits and everyday attentional requirements between patients required individualised goals and approaches to rehabilitation. This study highlights the need for individualised rehabilitation of attention to improve everyday functioning after TBI.

Lifespan changes in attention revisited: Everyday visual search.

PubMed

Brennan, Allison A; Bruderer, Alison J; Liu-Ambrose, Teresa; Handy, Todd C; Enns, James T

2017-06-01

This study compared visual search under everyday conditions among participants across the life span (healthy participants in 4 groups, with average age of 6 years, 8 years, 22 years, and 75 years, and 1 group averaging 73 years with a history of falling). The task involved opening a door and stepping into a room find 1 of 4 everyday objects (apple, golf ball, coffee can, toy penguin) visible on shelves. The background for this study included 2 well-cited laboratory studies that pointed to different cognitive mechanisms underlying each end of the U-shaped pattern of visual search over the life span (Hommel et al., 2004; Trick & Enns, 1998). The results recapitulated some of the main findings of the laboratory study (e.g., a U-shaped function, dissociable factors for maturation and aging), but there were several unique findings. These included large differences in the baseline salience of common objects at different ages, visual eccentricity effects that were unique to aging, and visual field effects that interacted strongly with age. These findings highlight the importance of studying cognitive processes in more natural settings, where factors such as personal relevance, life history, and bodily contributions to cognition (e.g., limb, head, and body movements) are more readily revealed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived racism in relation to weight change in the Black Women's Health Study.

PubMed

Cozier, Yvette C; Wise, Lauren A; Palmer, Julie R; Rosenberg, Lynn

2009-06-01

Obesity is more common in black women than in white women. Racial discrimination is a form of chronic stress that may influence weight. We assessed the association of perceived racism with weight change between 1997 and 2005 in 43,103 women from the Black Women's Health Study, a prospective follow-up of U.S. black women aged 21-69 years at entry in 1995. Eight questions about perceptions and experiences of racism were asked in 1997 from which two summary variables were created: everyday racism (e.g., how often do people act "as if you are not intelligent?"), and lifetime racism (e.g., unfair treatment due to race "on the job"). Mixed linear regression models were used to calculate the multivariate adjusted means for changes in body weight across categories of perceived racism. Weight gain increased as levels of everyday and lifetime racism increased. The mean multivariable-adjusted difference in weight change between the highest and the lowest quartile of everyday racism was 0.56 kg. The mean difference comparing the highest category of lifetime racism to the lowest was 0.48 kg. These prospective data suggest that experiences of racism may contribute to the excess burden of obesity in U.S. black women.

"To Work Just Like Anyone Else"-A Narrative from a Man Aging with Spinal Cord Injury.

PubMed

Lundström, Ulrica; Lilja, Margareta; Isaksson, Gunilla

2017-11-09

People aging with spinal cord injury (SCI) develop medical problems commonly associated with the aging process at a younger age than the general population. However, research about how the life story changes and how meaning will be experienced in occupations is lacking. The aim was to describe and offer an explanation of how a man experienced meaning in everyday occupations while aging with an SCI. Four narrative interviews were performed over a four-year period, with a man in his fifties, who lived with SCI for 39 years. The narrative analysis generated an overall plot, named "To Work Just Like Anyone Else," and gives a picture of his experiences, thoughts, and reflections about meaning in occupations, from when he became injured to the present, and in relation to his future. His life story is characterized by secondary health complications, and his experiences of negotiating with the aging body and making choices to continue working. Further, how occupational risk factors, e.g., imbalance, alienation, and deprivation, occur as a result of lack of rehabilitation and support from social systems is addressed. Future research should explore how rehabilitation and social systems can support people aging with SCI to experience meaning in everyday occupations and to have balance in everyday life.

Exploring the Everyday Context of Chemical Elements: Discovering the Elements of Car Components

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franco-Mariscal, Antonio Joaquín

2015-01-01

This paper presents a project about the chemical elements made by 15-year-old Spanish high school students of Chemistry. It focuses on context-based teaching combined with the advantages of creating a large mural which subsequently is exposed in the school. The project consisted of researching the chemical elements in the different materials that…

Is an Apple Magnetic: Magnetic Response of Everyday Materials Supporting Views about the Nature of Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laumann, Daniel

2017-01-01

Magnetism and its various applications are essential for our daily life and for many technological developments. The term "magnetism" is almost always used as a synonym for ferromagnetism. However, the magnetic properties of the elements of the periodic table indicate that the vast majority of elements are not ferromagnetic, but rather,…

Teachers Helping Parents To Raise the Level of Curiosity in Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Methlyn

This paper presents methods by which teachers can show parents how to use opportunities they have in everyday life to peak the interest and curiosity of their children. It establishes steps to build a workshop for teachers and day care providers, sharing tips and advice and displaying books and materials which parents can use in their homes. After…

Conserving Our Energy. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 11.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P9 SIS unit deals with: (1) the importance of energy in students' everyday lives; (2) energy forms and…

Urban Primary-Grade Children Think and Talk Science: Curricular and Instructional Practices that Nurture Participation and Argumentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Varelas, Maria; Pappas, Christine C.; Kane, Justine M.; Arsenault, Amy; Hankes, Jennifer; Cowan, Begona Marnotes

2008-01-01

We focus on the concept of matter and explore how young children in urban schools bridge their spontaneous concepts and everyday experiences with scientific concepts introduced to them by children's literature information books and their teacher. The study shows how material artifacts used in a sorting activity became ideational tools--semiotic…

The Enjoyment of Space: The University Campus in Students' Narratives and Photography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Voela, Angie

2014-01-01

In this paper I discuss how students use narratives and photography in order to represent their everyday engagement with the university space. I draw on the Lacanian notions of the Real and the drive, and suggest ways in which these notions can be used to develop a different approach to educational spaces, especially when photographic material is…

Alka-Seltzer Fizzing--Determination of Percent by Mass of NaHCO3 in Alka-Seltzer Tablets: An Undergraduate General Chemistry Experiment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yueh-Huey; Yaung, Jing-Fun

2002-01-01

Presents a general chemistry stoichiometry experiment using materials involved in everyday life. From this activity, students learn that a chemical reaction occurs when an Alka-Seltzer tablet is dropped into water. Students also practice plotting experimental data through the use of a graphing program. Interpretation of the graph helps them…

Art Activities about Vikings, Woodland Indians and Early Colonists. Hands-On America.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merrill, Yvonne Y.

This is the first book in a series that features folk art and everyday crafts for each century in the history of the United States. The book covers the period from 1598-1697. Based on museum and private collection artifacts, the book's objects are interpreted in paper and other accessible materials creating quality art projects for the camp,…

Socializing Relations in the Everyday Lives of Children: Comparing Domestic Texts from Norway and China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waerdahl, Randi; Haldar, Marit

2013-01-01

The text material analysed in this article consists of 20 teddy-diaries that circulated between the families of 6-year-old children in Beijing, China and in Oslo, Norway. The circulation process makes teddy-diaries highly normatively saturated domestic stories from families with 6-year-old children. A quantitative analysis of these texts inspired…

Say It with Flowers! An fMRI Study of Object Mediated Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tylen, Kristian; Wallentin, Mikkel; Roepstorff, Andreas

2009-01-01

Human communicational interaction can be mediated by a host of expressive means from words in a natural language to gestures and material symbols. Given the proper contextual setting even an everyday object can gain a mediating function in a communicational situation. In this study we used event-related fMRI to study the brain activity caused by…

A Narrative Inquiry about Values in a Finnish Preschool: The Case of Traffic Lights

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juutinen, Jaana; Viljamaa, Elina

2016-01-01

This research explored how values are communicated in everyday life at preschool. This narrative inquiry focused on how values are conveyed through the use of a material artefact, a chart with traffic lights, as a communication and pedagogical tool. Twenty children aged 3-4 years in one Finnish preschool were involved in the initial data…

Just Education: The Right to Education in Context and Conversation. Values and Ethics Series, Volume 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stengel, Barbara Senkowski

This book takes an interpretative look at a common phrase in American educational equity lexicon, "the right to education." It addresses the educational disputes and issues of policy, procedure, and popular will that are associated with this phrase. Interpretation of the phrase is based on a focus on the everyday situations in which a right to…

Variety Is Not the Spice of Life for People with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Frequency Ratings of Central, Variable and Inappropriate Aspects of Common Real-Life Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loth, Eva; Happe, Francesca; Gomez, Juan Carlos

2010-01-01

This study used a novel rating task to investigate whether high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties distinguishing essential from variable aspects of familiar events. Participants read stories about everyday events and judged how often central, variable, and inappropriate event-components normally occur in…

Acting out of Habits - Can Theatre of the Oppressed Promote Change? Boal's Theatre Methods in Relation to Bourdieu's Concept of Habitus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osterlind, Eva

2008-01-01

Habits make everyday life manageable, but can also become obstacles and cause problems. The tendency to repeat old patterns of behavior is a common problem for individuals and for society as a whole. Unreflexive habitual actions constitute an important aspect of social reproduction. In this article, two questions are addressed: Why is change so…

Functional Assessment for Human-Computer Interaction: A Method for Quantifying Physical Functional Capabilities for Information Technology Users

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, Kathleen J.

2011-01-01

The use of information technology is a vital part of everyday life, but for a person with functional impairments, technology interaction may be difficult at best. Information technology is commonly designed to meet the needs of a theoretical "normal" user. However, there is no such thing as a "normal" user. A user's capabilities will vary over…

Teaching Writing Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics: "I Never Would Have Thought of Doing That..."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hodgson-Drysdale, Tracy

2013-01-01

Writing is an essential tool for creating meaningful communication and as such it must be taught beginning in elementary school. Although in the past 100 years writing has become more common in our everyday lives, methods of teaching writing and teacher education have not kept pace with changes (National Commission on Writing, 2003). As a result,…

Searching for unity: Real-world versus item-based visual search in age-related eye disease.

PubMed

Crabb, David P; Taylor, Deanna J

2017-01-01

When studying visual search, item-based approaches using synthetic targets and distractors limit the real-world applicability of results. Everyday visual search can be impaired in patients with common eye diseases like glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. We highlight some results in the literature that suggest assessment of real-word search tasks in these patients could be clinically useful.

Creatures in the Classroom: Including Insects and Small Animals in Your Preschool Gardening Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hachey, Alyse C.; Butler, Deanna

2012-01-01

When doing spring planting activities, what does a teacher do while waiting for the plants to grow? This waiting time is a golden opportunity to explore another side of gardening--the creatures that make it all possible. Insects are an integral part of everyday world, having existed for over 300 million years; they are the most common animal on…

'Mind genomics': the experimental, inductive science of the ordinary, and its application to aspects of food and feeding.

PubMed

Moskowitz, Howard R

2012-11-05

The paper introduces the empirical science of 'mind genomics', whose objective is to understand the dimensions of ordinary, everyday experience, identify mind-set segments of people who value different aspects of that everyday experience, and then assign a new person to a mind-set by a statistically appropriate procedure. By studying different experiences using experimental design of ideas, 'mind genomics' constructs an empirical, inductive science of perception and experience, layer by layer. The ultimate objective of 'mind genomics' is a large-scale science of experience created using induction, with the science based upon emergent commonalities across many different types of daily experience. The particular topic investigated in the paper is the experience of healthful snacks, what makes a person 'want' them, and the dollar value of different sensory aspects of the healthful snack. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Portable device technology in organ donation: new "app" for procurement coordinators.

PubMed

Cavallin, M; Bertini, P; Lopane, P; Guarracino, F

2014-09-01

Portable devices are commonly used at bedside in everyday practice. Transplant procurement coordinators routinely have to deal with protocols and flow charts and need to assess the donor condition several times. In our experience, a great part of the organ procurement management work is provided by nurses "on call." We developed an application for iOS devices to facilitate their approach to relatives and procedures for organ donation. The application, which includes algorithms, tutorials, and simple calculators, has been designed by transplant procurement coordinators to speed up the process of organ donation and at the same time to be as accurate as possible for the process. It can be used alongside all of the procedures for procurement in the emergency room, intensive care unit, operating room, and morgue in both brainstem-dead and cadaver organ donors. The application could be effective in organ procurement management for everyday practice. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Extending Beyond Qualitative Interviewing to Illuminate the Tacit Nature of Everyday Occupation: Occupational Mapping and Participatory Occupation Methods.

PubMed

Huot, Suzanne; Rudman, Debbie Laliberte

2015-07-01

The study of human occupation requires a variety of methods to fully elucidate its complex, multifaceted nature. Although qualitative approaches have commonly been used within occupational therapy and occupational science, we contend that such qualitative research must extend beyond the sole use of interviews. Drawing on qualitative methodological literature, we discuss the limits of interview methods and outline other methods, particularly visual methods, as productive means to enhance qualitative research. We then provide an overview of our critical ethnographic study that used narrative, visual, and observational methods to explore the occupational transitions experienced by immigrants to Canada. We describe our use of occupational mapping and participatory occupation methods and the contributions of these combined methods. We conclude that adopting a variety of methods can enable a deeper understanding of the tacit nature of everyday occupation, and is key to advancing knowledge regarding occupation and to informing occupational therapy practice.

Trading legitimacy: everyday corruption and its consequences for medical regulation in southern Vietnam.

PubMed

Lê, Gillian

2013-09-01

Government regulation of health professionals is believed to ensure the efficacy and expertise of practitioners for and on behalf of patients. Certification and licensing are two common means to do so, legalizing a physician to practice medicine. However, ethnography from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) suggests that in corrupt socioeconomic environments, certification and licensing can alternatively produce a trade in legitimacy. Drawing on participant observations during 15 months of fieldwork with 25 medical acupuncturists in private practice in HCMC, southern Vietnam, and their patients, I argue that everyday practices of corruption and the importance of personal networks meant that legality, efficacy, and expertise separated. Certificates and licenses did not unproblematically validate expertise and efficacy. Consequently, compliance and enforcement of regulations as solutions to inadequate medical care may not achieve the effects intended. © 2013 by the American Anthropological Association.

Liver failure due to antithyroid drugs: report of a case and literature review.

PubMed

Livadas, Sarantis; Xyrafis, Xenofon; Economou, Frangiskos; Boutzios, Georgios; Christou, Maria; Zerva, Aristea; Karachalios, Athanasios; Palioura, Helen; Palimeri, Sotiria; Diamanti-Kandarakis, Evanthia

2010-08-01

Hyperthyroidism is a common endocrine disorder affecting 2% of females and 0.5% of males worldwide and antithyroid drugs constitute the first line of treatment in the majority of cases. These agents may cause severe adverse effects and among them liver failure, although rare, is a potential lethal one. This case illustrates the sudden and abrupt deterioration of hepatic function due to antithyroid drug administration. This case along with a concise literature review is presented aiming to increase the awareness of endocrinologists of possible fatal complications from the everyday use of common agents such as antithyroid drugs.

BioXSD: the common data-exchange format for everyday bioinformatics web services.

PubMed

Kalas, Matús; Puntervoll, Pål; Joseph, Alexandre; Bartaseviciūte, Edita; Töpfer, Armin; Venkataraman, Prabakar; Pettifer, Steve; Bryne, Jan Christian; Ison, Jon; Blanchet, Christophe; Rapacki, Kristoffer; Jonassen, Inge

2010-09-15

The world-wide community of life scientists has access to a large number of public bioinformatics databases and tools, which are developed and deployed using diverse technologies and designs. More and more of the resources offer programmatic web-service interface. However, efficient use of the resources is hampered by the lack of widely used, standard data-exchange formats for the basic, everyday bioinformatics data types. BioXSD has been developed as a candidate for standard, canonical exchange format for basic bioinformatics data. BioXSD is represented by a dedicated XML Schema and defines syntax for biological sequences, sequence annotations, alignments and references to resources. We have adapted a set of web services to use BioXSD as the input and output format, and implemented a test-case workflow. This demonstrates that the approach is feasible and provides smooth interoperability. Semantics for BioXSD is provided by annotation with the EDAM ontology. We discuss in a separate section how BioXSD relates to other initiatives and approaches, including existing standards and the Semantic Web. The BioXSD 1.0 XML Schema is freely available at http://www.bioxsd.org/BioXSD-1.0.xsd under the Creative Commons BY-ND 3.0 license. The http://bioxsd.org web page offers documentation, examples of data in BioXSD format, example workflows with source codes in common programming languages, an updated list of compatible web services and tools and a repository of feature requests from the community.

'Crisis' and 'everyday' initiators: A qualitative study of coercion and agency in the context of methadone maintenance treatment initiation.

PubMed

Damon, Will; Small, Will; Anderson, Solanna; Maher, Lisa; Wood, Evan; Kerr, Thomas; McNeil, Ryan

2017-03-01

Patient attrition is common among people enrolled in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programs and most pronounced during the first year of treatment. However, the experiences of patients initiating MMT have been overlooked in the literature. This study explores experiences of MMT initiation among MMT patients, focusing on contextual influences on MMT initiation and perceptions of MMT and their subsequent influence on treatment retention. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 39 MMT patients in Vancouver, Canada. Individuals reporting enrolment in MMT were recruited from within two ongoing cohort studies comprised of people who use drugs. Interview transcripts were analysed using an inductive and iterative approach. Two groups of MMT initiators were identified: (i) 'crisis initiators' prescribed methadone following critical transition events, such as incarceration or pregnancy; and (ii) 'everyday initiators' enrolled in MMT as part of routine healthcare utilisation. While most 'crisis initiators' and some 'everyday initiators' described experiencing coercion during MMT initiation, 'crisis initiators' were further subjected to the coercive leveraging of their vulnerability to motivate 'consent' for MMT. 'Crisis initiators' developed negative views towards MMT and were more likely to discontinue treatment. Long-standing patient-provider relationships and open dialogue were associated with more positive views regarding MMT, regardless of the circumstances of initiation. Findings underscore the need for clear and effective communication regarding treatment regimens and expectations during MMT initiation. Furthermore, training in trauma-informed care may help reduce perceptions of coercion and rates of early treatment termination. [Damon W, Small W, Anderson S, Maher L, Wood E, Kerr T, McNeil R. Crisis' and 'everyday' initiators: A qualitative study of coercion and agency in the context of methadone maintenance treatment initiation. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;36:253-260]. © 2016 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Hybrid bodies and the materiality of everyday life: how people living with pacemakers and defibrillators reinvent everyday routines and intimate relations.

PubMed

Oudshoorn, Nelly

2018-01-01

Technologies inside bodies pose new challenges in a technological culture. For people with pacemakers and defibrillators, activities such as passing security controls at airports, using electromagnetic machines, electrical domestic appliances and electronic devices, and even intimate contacts with their loved ones can turn into events where the proper functioning of their device may be at risk. Anticipation of potentially harmful events and situations thus becomes an important part of the choreography of everyday life. Technologies inside bodies not only pose a challenge for patients living with these devices but also to theorising body-technology relations. Whereas researchers usually address the merging of bodies and technologies, implants ask us to do the opposite as well. How are we to understand human-technology relations in which technologies should not entangle with bodies because they serve other purposes? Based on a study of the daily life practices of people with pacemakers and defibrillators in the Netherlands and the US, I argue that disentanglement work, i.e. work involved to prevent entanglements with objects and people that may inflict harm upon implanted devices, is key to understanding how hybrid bodies can survive in today's densely populated technological landscape. © 2017 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

Hospitals as factories of medical garbage.

PubMed

Hodges, Sarah

2017-12-01

Over the course of the twentieth century, as hospitals cleaned up, they came to produce more and more rubbish. Beginning in the 1970s and gaining pace in the 1980s and 1990s, single-use plastic items (syringes, blood bags, tubing) saturated everyday medical practice across the globe. This essay brings the question of plastic to bear upon the longer history of twentieth century sanitary science. The widespread adoption of single-use disposable medical plastics consolidated a century's worth of changes in medical hygiene. As strange as it may seem today, the initial uptake of medical plastics was not driven primarily by concerns about hygiene. Plastic began as a mid-century technology of convenience and durability. It was not until the end of the twentieth century that it morphed into a powerful symbol and instrument of medical hygiene. Today, both patients and practitioners have embraced plastic as an indispensable technology of clean medicine. The procession of single-use medical plastics through everyday medicine now comprises a constant, if disposable, infrastructure of medical hygiene. This new processional infrastructure of disposable hygiene has produced another, albeit unintended, consequence. This new regime has exponentially increased hospitals' material outputs. In so doing, plastic has refigured the ecologies of everyday medicine. Plastic hygiene has rendered hospitals factories of medical garbage.

"Here, There, and Everywhere": Connecting Science Across The Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watzke, Megan; Slane, P. O.; Arcand, K. K.; Lestition, K.; Edmonds, P.; Tucker, W. H.

2013-04-01

"Here, There, and Everywhere" (HTE) is a program -- conceived and developed by the Chandra Education and Public Outreach group -- that consists of a series of exhibitions, posters, and supporting hands-on activities that utilize analogies in the teaching of science, engineering, and technology to provide multi-generational and family-friendly content in English and Spanish to small community centers, libraries, under-resourced small science centers. The purpose of the program is to connect crosscutting science content (in Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences and astrophysics) with everyday phenomena, helping to demonstrate the universality of physical laws and the connection between our everyday world and the universe as a whole to members of the public who may not identify strongly with science. The program utilizes multimodal content delivery (physical exhibits and handouts, interpretive stations, facilitated activities for educators as well as online materials) hosted by under-served locations as identified by previous partnerships as well as through advertisement of opportunities.

ORNL Sustainable Campus Initiative

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Halford, Christopher K

2012-01-01

The research conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) spans many disciplines and has the potential for far-reaching impact in many areas of everyday life. ORNL researchers and operations staff work on projects in areas as diverse as nuclear power generation, transportation, materials science, computing, and building technologies. As the U.S. Department of Energy s (DOE) largest science and energy research facility, ORNL seeks to establish partnerships with industry in the development of innovative new technologies. The primary focus of this current research deals with developing technologies which improve or maintain the quality of life for humans while reducing themore » overall impact on the environment. In its interactions with industry, ORNL serves as both a facility for sustainable research, as well as a representative of DOE to the private sector. For these reasons it is important that the everyday operations of the Laboratory reflect a dedication to the concepts of stewardship and sustainability.« less

Everyday Technology Use Related to Activity Involvement Among People in Cognitive Decline.

PubMed

Hedman, Annicka; Nygård, Louise; Kottorp, Anders

We investigated how everyday technology use related to activity involvement over 5 yr in people with mild cognitive impairment. Thirty-seven older adults with mild cognitive impairment were evaluated regarding everyday technology use and involvement in activities over time. Information on diagnostic changes was collected from medical files. Linear mixed-effects models were used in data analysis. Ability to use everyday technology showed a significant effect on activity involvement (p = .007) beyond the effects of time, diagnostic change, and age. Decreases in number of everyday technologies used (p < .001) and share of accessible and relevant everyday technologies used (p = .04) were associated with decreasing activity involvement. However, these two aspects did not reinforce each other. When monitoring activity involvement in clients with cognitive decline, health care professionals should take into account clients' ability to use everyday technologies and the amount of everyday technologies they use. Copyright © 2017 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

The Purpose of the Cataloging for Matters of Equitable Access: Spanish-Language Cataloging and "Everyday" Approaches of Non-Native English Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adamich, Tom

2009-01-01

While teacher-librarians embrace the concept of equitable access when they select "multicultural" materials to include in their collections, plan special programs, and teach lessons on a variety of topics, what do they do to make equitable access a part of their online catalogs? Have they achieved (or nearly achieved) a consistent level of…

The Use of Computer-Generated Fading Materials to Teach Visual-Visual Non-Identity Matching Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Colleen; Figueroa, Maria; Martin, Garry L.; Yu, C. T.; Figueroa, Josue

2008-01-01

Many everyday matching tasks taught to persons with developmental disabilities are visual-visual non-identity matching (VVNM) tasks, such as matching the printed word DOG to a picture of a dog, or matching a sock to a shoe. Research has shown that, for participants who have failed a VVNM prototype task, it is very difficult to teach them various…

The Wheel of Life: Through Indian Eyes, Volume 1. Revised Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Donald J.; Johnson, Jean E.

This book, which can be used in secondary and college courses, is the first of two volumes which present an Indian view of India and the world. The reality of everyday life as experienced by the Indian people is recreated in the series. Almost all of the material in both volumes has been written by Indians and has been taken from a variety of…

Air and Weather Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P7 SIS unit focuses on: (1) the importance of air and air pressure in students' everyday lives; (2) oxidation…

Acids and Alkalis. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets]. Unit 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P8 SIS unit focuses on: (1) the uses of acids and bases (alkalis) in students' everyday lives, stressing their…

The European Association of Preventive Cardiology Exercise Prescription in Everyday Practice and Rehabilitative Training (EXPERT) tool: A digital training and decision support system for optimized exercise prescription in cardiovascular disease. Concept, definitions and construction methodology.

PubMed

Hansen, Dominique; Dendale, Paul; Coninx, Karin; Vanhees, Luc; Piepoli, Massimo F; Niebauer, Josef; Cornelissen, Veronique; Pedretti, Roberto; Geurts, Eva; Ruiz, Gustavo R; Corrà, Ugo; Schmid, Jean-Paul; Greco, Eugenio; Davos, Constantinos H; Edelmann, Frank; Abreu, Ana; Rauch, Bernhard; Ambrosetti, Marco; Braga, Simona S; Barna, Olga; Beckers, Paul; Bussotti, Maurizio; Fagard, Robert; Faggiano, Pompilio; Garcia-Porrero, Esteban; Kouidi, Evangelia; Lamotte, Michel; Neunhäuserer, Daniel; Reibis, Rona; Spruit, Martijn A; Stettler, Christoph; Takken, Tim; Tonoli, Cajsa; Vigorito, Carlo; Völler, Heinz; Doherty, Patrick

2017-07-01

Background Exercise rehabilitation is highly recommended by current guidelines on prevention of cardiovascular disease, but its implementation is still poor. Many clinicians experience difficulties in prescribing exercise in the presence of different concomitant cardiovascular diseases and risk factors within the same patient. It was aimed to develop a digital training and decision support system for exercise prescription in cardiovascular disease patients in clinical practice: the European Association of Preventive Cardiology Exercise Prescription in Everyday Practice and Rehabilitative Training (EXPERT) tool. Methods EXPERT working group members were requested to define (a) diagnostic criteria for specific cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and other chronic non-cardiovascular conditions, (b) primary goals of exercise intervention, (c) disease-specific prescription of exercise training (intensity, frequency, volume, type, session and programme duration), and (d) exercise training safety advices. The impact of exercise tolerance, common cardiovascular medications and adverse events during exercise testing were further taken into account for optimized exercise prescription. Results Exercise training recommendations and safety advices were formulated for 10 cardiovascular diseases, five cardiovascular disease risk factors (type 1 and 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia), and three common chronic non-cardiovascular conditions (lung and renal failure and sarcopaenia), but also accounted for baseline exercise tolerance, common cardiovascular medications and occurrence of adverse events during exercise testing. An algorithm, supported by an interactive tool, was constructed based on these data. This training and decision support system automatically provides an exercise prescription according to the variables provided. Conclusion This digital training and decision support system may contribute in overcoming barriers in exercise implementation in common cardiovascular diseases.

Assessment of the Speech Intelligibility Performance of Post Lingual Cochlear Implant Users at Different Signal-to-Noise Ratios Using the Turkish Matrix Test.

PubMed

Polat, Zahra; Bulut, Erdoğan; Ataş, Ahmet

2016-09-01

Spoken word recognition and speech perception tests in quiet are being used as a routine in assessment of the benefit which children and adult cochlear implant users receive from their devices. Cochlear implant users generally demonstrate high level performances in these test materials as they are able to achieve high level speech perception ability in quiet situations. Although these test materials provide valuable information regarding Cochlear Implant (CI) users' performances in optimal listening conditions, they do not give realistic information regarding performances in adverse listening conditions, which is the case in the everyday environment. The aim of this study was to assess the speech intelligibility performance of post lingual CI users in the presence of noise at different signal-to-noise ratio with the Matrix Test developed for Turkish language. Cross-sectional study. The thirty post lingual implant user adult subjects, who had been using implants for a minimum of one year, were evaluated with Turkish Matrix test. Subjects' speech intelligibility was measured using the adaptive and non-adaptive Matrix Test in quiet and noisy environments. The results of the study show a correlation between Pure Tone Average (PTA) values of the subjects and Matrix test Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) values in the quiet. Hence, it is possible to asses PTA values of CI users using the Matrix Test also. However, no correlations were found between Matrix SRT values in the quiet and Matrix SRT values in noise. Similarly, the correlation between PTA values and intelligibility scores in noise was also not significant. Therefore, it may not be possible to assess the intelligibility performance of CI users using test batteries performed in quiet conditions. The Matrix Test can be used to assess the benefit of CI users from their systems in everyday life, since it is possible to perform intelligibility test with the Matrix test using a material that CI users experience in their everyday life and it is possible to assess their difficulty in speech discrimination in noisy conditions they have to cope with.

Towards a Treatment for Intolerance of Uncertainty in Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Development of the Coping with Uncertainty in Everyday Situations (CUES©) Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodgers, Jacqui; Hodgson, Anna; Shields, Kerry; Wright, Catharine; Honey, Emma; Freeston, Mark

2017-01-01

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is indicated as an important transdiagnostic process variable in a range of anxiety disorders. Anxiety is very common in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study aimed to develop a parent group based manualised treatment programme for young people with ASD, which focused on IU. An eight session…

The science in social science

PubMed Central

Bernard, H. Russell

2012-01-01

A recent poll showed that most people think of science as technology and engineering—life-saving drugs, computers, space exploration, and so on. This was, in fact, the promise of the founders of modern science in the 17th century. It is less commonly understood that social and behavioral sciences have also produced technologies and engineering that dominate our everyday lives. These include polling, marketing, management, insurance, and public health programs. PMID:23213222

Static Electric Field Mapping Using a Mosquito Racket and Baby Oil

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rediansyah, Herfien; Khairurrijal; Viridi, Sparisoma

2015-01-01

The aim of this research was to design a simple experimental device to see electric field force lines using common components which are readily available in everyday life. A solution of baby oil was placed in a plastic container, 4.5 × 4.5 × 1 inches, with both ends of the electrodes (metal wire) immersed in the solution at a depth of 0.2 inches.…

UnCommon Knowledge: Projects That Help Middle-School-Age Youth Discover the Science and Mathematics in Everyday Life. Volume One: Hands-On Science Projects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Carolyn S.; Keyes, Marian; Kusimo, Patricia S.; Lunsford, Crystal

This guide contains hands-on science activities to connect middle-school students to the traditional knowledge of their grandparents and elders. Because girls often lose interest in science at the middle-school level, and because women in some communities (especially in rural areas) are seldom involved in work with an obvious science basis, the…

UnCommon Knowledge: Projects That Help Middle-School-Age Youth Discover the Science and Mathematics in Everyday Life. Volume Two: Hands-On Math Projects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Carolyn S.; Cohen, Sara; Keyes, Marian; Kusimo, Patricia S.; Lunsford, Crystal

This guide contains hands-on mathematics activities to connect middle-school students to the traditional knowledge of their grandparents and elders. Because girls often lose interest in math at the middle-school level, and because women in some communities (especially in rural areas) are seldom involved in work with an obvious math basis, the…

Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia.

PubMed

Pagel, Mark; Atkinson, Quentin D; S Calude, Andreea; Meade, Andrew

2013-05-21

The search for ever deeper relationships among the World's languages is bedeviled by the fact that most words evolve too rapidly to preserve evidence of their ancestry beyond 5,000 to 9,000 y. On the other hand, quantitative modeling indicates that some "ultraconserved" words exist that might be used to find evidence for deep linguistic relationships beyond that time barrier. Here we use a statistical model, which takes into account the frequency with which words are used in common everyday speech, to predict the existence of a set of such highly conserved words among seven language families of Eurasia postulated to form a linguistic superfamily that evolved from a common ancestor around 15,000 y ago. We derive a dated phylogenetic tree of this proposed superfamily with a time-depth of ~14,450 y, implying that some frequently used words have been retained in related forms since the end of the last ice age. Words used more than once per 1,000 in everyday speech were 7- to 10-times more likely to show deep ancestry on this tree. Our results suggest a remarkable fidelity in the transmission of some words and give theoretical justification to the search for features of language that might be preserved across wide spans of time and geography.

Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia

PubMed Central

Pagel, Mark; Atkinson, Quentin D.; S. Calude, Andreea; Meade, Andrew

2013-01-01

The search for ever deeper relationships among the World’s languages is bedeviled by the fact that most words evolve too rapidly to preserve evidence of their ancestry beyond 5,000 to 9,000 y. On the other hand, quantitative modeling indicates that some “ultraconserved” words exist that might be used to find evidence for deep linguistic relationships beyond that time barrier. Here we use a statistical model, which takes into account the frequency with which words are used in common everyday speech, to predict the existence of a set of such highly conserved words among seven language families of Eurasia postulated to form a linguistic superfamily that evolved from a common ancestor around 15,000 y ago. We derive a dated phylogenetic tree of this proposed superfamily with a time-depth of ∼14,450 y, implying that some frequently used words have been retained in related forms since the end of the last ice age. Words used more than once per 1,000 in everyday speech were 7- to 10-times more likely to show deep ancestry on this tree. Our results suggest a remarkable fidelity in the transmission of some words and give theoretical justification to the search for features of language that might be preserved across wide spans of time and geography. PMID:23650390

Fast and Accurate Learning When Making Discrete Numerical Estimates.

PubMed

Sanborn, Adam N; Beierholm, Ulrik R

2016-04-01

Many everyday estimation tasks have an inherently discrete nature, whether the task is counting objects (e.g., a number of paint buckets) or estimating discretized continuous variables (e.g., the number of paint buckets needed to paint a room). While Bayesian inference is often used for modeling estimates made along continuous scales, discrete numerical estimates have not received as much attention, despite their common everyday occurrence. Using two tasks, a numerosity task and an area estimation task, we invoke Bayesian decision theory to characterize how people learn discrete numerical distributions and make numerical estimates. Across three experiments with novel stimulus distributions we found that participants fell between two common decision functions for converting their uncertain representation into a response: drawing a sample from their posterior distribution and taking the maximum of their posterior distribution. While this was consistent with the decision function found in previous work using continuous estimation tasks, surprisingly the prior distributions learned by participants in our experiments were much more adaptive: When making continuous estimates, participants have required thousands of trials to learn bimodal priors, but in our tasks participants learned discrete bimodal and even discrete quadrimodal priors within a few hundred trials. This makes discrete numerical estimation tasks good testbeds for investigating how people learn and make estimates.

Fast and Accurate Learning When Making Discrete Numerical Estimates

PubMed Central

Sanborn, Adam N.; Beierholm, Ulrik R.

2016-01-01

Many everyday estimation tasks have an inherently discrete nature, whether the task is counting objects (e.g., a number of paint buckets) or estimating discretized continuous variables (e.g., the number of paint buckets needed to paint a room). While Bayesian inference is often used for modeling estimates made along continuous scales, discrete numerical estimates have not received as much attention, despite their common everyday occurrence. Using two tasks, a numerosity task and an area estimation task, we invoke Bayesian decision theory to characterize how people learn discrete numerical distributions and make numerical estimates. Across three experiments with novel stimulus distributions we found that participants fell between two common decision functions for converting their uncertain representation into a response: drawing a sample from their posterior distribution and taking the maximum of their posterior distribution. While this was consistent with the decision function found in previous work using continuous estimation tasks, surprisingly the prior distributions learned by participants in our experiments were much more adaptive: When making continuous estimates, participants have required thousands of trials to learn bimodal priors, but in our tasks participants learned discrete bimodal and even discrete quadrimodal priors within a few hundred trials. This makes discrete numerical estimation tasks good testbeds for investigating how people learn and make estimates. PMID:27070155

Everyday politics, social practices and movement networks: daily life in Barcelona's social centres.

PubMed

Yates, Luke

2015-06-01

The relations between everyday life and political participation are of interest for much contemporary social science. Yet studies of social movement protest still pay disproportionate attention to moments of mobilization, and to movements with clear organizational boundaries, tactics and goals. Exceptions have explored collective identity, 'free spaces' and prefigurative politics, but such processes are framed as important only in accounting for movements in abeyance, or in explaining movement persistence. This article focuses on the social practices taking place in and around social movement spaces, showing that political meanings, knowledge and alternative forms of social organization are continually being developed and cultivated. Social centres in Barcelona, Spain, autonomous political spaces hosting cultural and educational events, protest campaigns and alternative living arrangements, are used as empirical case studies. Daily practices of food provisioning, distributing space and dividing labour are politicized and politicizing as they unfold and develop over time and through diverse networks around social centres. Following Melucci, such latent processes set the conditions for social movements and mobilization to occur. However, they not only underpin mobilization, but are themselves politically expressive and prefigurative, with multiple layers of latency and visibility identifiable in performances of practices. The variety of political forms - adversarial, expressive, theoretical, and routinized everyday practices, allow diverse identities, materialities and meanings to overlap in movement spaces, and help explain networks of mutual support between loosely knit networks of activists and non-activists. An approach which focuses on practices and networks rather than mobilization and collective actors, it is argued, helps show how everyday life and political protest are mutually constitutive. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2014.

Synthetic Self-Healing Methods

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bello, Mollie

Given enough time, pressure, temperature fluctuation, and stress any material will fail. Currently, synthesized materials make up a large part of our everyday lives, and are used in a number of important applications such as; space travel, under water devices, precise instrumentation, transportation, and infrastructure. Structural failure of these material scan lead to expensive and dangerous consequences. In an attempt to prolong the life spans of specific materials and reduce efforts put into repairing them, biologically inspired, self-healing systems have been extensively investigated. The current review explores recent advances in three methods of synthesized self-healing: capsule based, vascular, and intrinsic.more » Ideally, self-healing materials require no human intervention to promote healing, are capable of surviving all the steps of polymer processing, and heal the same location repeatedly. Only the vascular method holds up to all of these idealities.« less

Experimental analysis of Nd-YAG laser cutting of sheet materials - A review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Amit; Yadava, Vinod

2018-01-01

Cutting of sheet material is considered as an important process due to its relevance among products of everyday life such as aircrafts, ships, cars, furniture etc. Among various sheet cutting processes (ASCPs), laser beam cutting is one of the most capable ASCP to create complex geometries with stringent design requirements in difficult-to-cut sheet materials. Based on the recent research work in the area of sheet cutting, it is found that the Nd-YAG laser is used for cutting of sheet material in general and reflective sheet material in particular. This paper reviews the experimental analysis of Nd-YAG laser cutting process, carried out to study the influence of laser cutting parameters on the process performance index. The significance of experimental modeling and different optimization approaches employed by various researchers has also been discussed in this study.

Common Commercial and Consumer Products Contain Activators of the Aryl Hydrocarbon (Dioxin) Receptor

PubMed Central

Zhao, Bin; Bohonowych, Jessica E. S.; Timme-Laragy, Alicia; Jung, Dawoon; Affatato, Alessandra A.; Rice, Robert H.; Di Giulio, Richard T.; Denison, Michael S.

2013-01-01

Activation of the Ah receptor (AhR) by halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons (HAHs), such as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD, dioxin), can produce a wide variety of toxic and biological effects. While recent studies have shown that the AhR can bind and be activated by structurally diverse chemicals, how widespread of these AhR agonists are in environmental, biological and synthetic materials remains to be determined. Using AhR-based assays, we demonstrate the presence of potent AhR agonists in a variety of common commercial and consumer items. Solvent extracts of paper, rubber and plastic products contain chemicals that can bind to and stimulate AhR DNA binding and/or AhR-dependent gene expression in hepatic cytosol, cultured cell lines, human epidermis and zebrafish embryos. In contrast to TCDD and other persistent dioxin-like HAHs, activation of AhR-dependent gene expression by these extracts was transient, suggesting that the agonists are metabolically labile. Solvent extracts of rubber products produce AhR-dependent developmental toxicity in zebrafish in vivo, and inhibition of expression of the metabolic enzyme CYP1A, significantly increased their toxic potency. Although the identity of the responsible AhR-active chemicals and their toxicological impact remain to be determined, our data demonstrate that AhR active chemicals are widely distributed in everyday products. PMID:23441220

State-of-the-art and outlook for biomimetic materials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Richman, R.H.; Bond, G.M.; McNaughton, W.P.

1994-11-01

A remarkable diversity of structures and molecular functions has evolved in plants and animals. Many of these natural substances have properties or capabilities that belie their origins in humble, everyday, starting materials. Consequently, there is a growing awareness among scientists and engineers that biological systems can be a valuable source of inspiration for man-made materials. Emphasis in this assessment is on biomimetics; that is, the achievement of unusual materials properties or processes by mimicking novel aspects of biological systems. Five broad areas are selected for detailed investigation: Mimicking of Natural Material Designs; Biomimetic Materials Processing; Artificial Photosynthesis; Biomimetic Molecular Electronics;more » and Biomimetic Catalysis. Each of these topics is examined in terms of current activities and approaches, key aspects, unresolved issues, and implications for the power industry. Finally, the researchers, their organizations, the main thrusts of investigation, achievements, and funding agencies are summarized in tabular form.« less

Laser-based three-dimensional multiscale micropatterning of biocompatible hydrogels for customized tissue engineering scaffolds

PubMed Central

Applegate, Matthew B.; Coburn, Jeannine; Partlow, Benjamin P.; Moreau, Jodie E.; Mondia, Jessica P.; Marelli, Benedetto; Kaplan, David L.; Omenetto, Fiorenzo G.

2015-01-01

Light-induced material phase transitions enable the formation of shapes and patterns from the nano- to the macroscale. From lithographic techniques that enable high-density silicon circuit integration, to laser cutting and welding, light–matter interactions are pervasive in everyday materials fabrication and transformation. These noncontact patterning techniques are ideally suited to reshape soft materials of biological relevance. We present here the use of relatively low-energy (< 2 nJ) ultrafast laser pulses to generate 2D and 3D multiscale patterns in soft silk protein hydrogels without exogenous or chemical cross-linkers. We find that high-resolution features can be generated within bulk hydrogels through nearly 1 cm of material, which is 1.5 orders of magnitude deeper than other biocompatible materials. Examples illustrating the materials, results, and the performance of the machined geometries in vitro and in vivo are presented to demonstrate the versatility of the approach. PMID:26374842

Formative assessment and equity: An exploration of opportunities for eliciting, recognizing, and responding within science classroom conversations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morrison, Deb

Educational inequity can be seen in both student participation and achievement outcomes. In science education, as in many other areas of education, disparities in equity of achievement (NCES, 2011) and equity of participation in science learning environments (Brown & Ryoo, 2008; Calabrese Barton, 2003) have been well documented. Some of these studies highlight the need to understand the components of effective science classroom talk as a way to bridge everyday and scientific discourse practices, to engage students in the intellectual work of sense-making in science. The National Research Council ([NRC]; 2012) specifically named the everyday to scientific connections of science classroom discourse as a focus for work on science learning equity. Formative assessment practices in science classrooms may provide an entree for teachers to improve their connections between everyday and science classroom discourses (Black & Wiliam, 1998b). In this study I examined science classroom conversations during formative assessment discussions in 10th grade biology contexts to determine where opportunities might exist to improve science learning. I engaged a theoretical framework focused on discourse (Gee, 2012) and classroom talk (Michaels, O'Connor, & Resnick, 2008) to socially situate student-teacher interactions in a community of learners (Rogoff, 1994). I used qualitative analysis (Gee, 2011; Carspecken, 1996) to locate patterns of talk during whole class and small group discussions of two science teachers, Robyn and Lisa, as they engaged in a two-year professional development focused on formative assessment. Both teachers' classroom conversation practices showed a number of opportunities to promote equity. Robyn and Lisa used common formative assessment tools to reorganize the way that students participated in their classroom conversations, allowing students individual thinking time prior to classroom talk. While Robyn often expanded reasoning herself, Lisa tended to press students for reasoning instead. Robyn and Lisa linked everyday to scientific language in their classrooms. Additionally, Lisa built on students' everyday experiences in her talk with students. Both teachers framed students' science ideas as misconceptions, however, Robyn did this more often than Lisa. Finally, this study suggested ways in which teachers may be further supported to increase these practices.

Investigation of nonlinear optical properties of various organic materials by the Z-scan method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ganeev, R. A.; Boltaev, G. S.; Tugushev, R. I.; Usmanov, T.

2012-06-01

We have studied the nonlinear optical properties of various organic materials (vegetable oil, juice, wine, cognac, Coca-Cola and Fanta drinks, Nescafé coffee, tea, gasoline, clock oil, glycerol, and polyphenyl ether) that are used in everyday life. Their nonlinearities have been studied by the Z-scan method in the near-IR and visible spectral ranges. We have shown that the majority of samples possess a nonlinear absorption; however, some of the studied materials show a strong saturated absorption and nonlinear refraction. Red wine and glycerol proved to be the most interesting materials. For these samples, we have observed a change in the sign of the nonlinear absorption with increasing laser intensity, which was attributed to the competition between two-photon absorption and saturated absorption.

"An evil heritage": interview study of pain and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

PubMed

Heiwe, Susanne; Bjuke, Monica

2009-09-01

Pain is a common problem for patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Knowledge about patients' experience of the pain, pain management, and pain's effect on everyday life is, however, limited. In clinical practice there is a need to improve the care of these patients. To be able to do so, information about how the disease and its pain affect the patients is required. This study explores patients' experience of living with ADPKD and its pain. The findings are based on in-depth semistructured interviews. The participants were 22 patients with ADPKD. The data were transcribed and analyzed by using phenomenology. Findings showed that the patients experienced limitations in their everyday life due to inexplicable and unpredictable pain and fatigue. Also, pain management was experienced as suboptimal and pain was seldom discussed at health care appointments. Emotional distress concerning the hereditary nature of the disease was also present. Health care providers need to increase their focus on pain and pain management to reduce the disease's intrusion in patients' everyday life. Also, patients and people in the patients' immediate surroundings need to be given information and education about the disease and its pain as well as the opportunity to talk about their worries concerning heredity. By implementing the findings of the present study when meeting a patient with ADPKD, improved patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life could be accomplished.

Experiences and management of fatigue in everyday life among adult patients living with heart failure: a systematic review of qualitative evidence.

PubMed

Schjoedt, Inge; Sommer, Irene; Bjerrum, Merete Bender

2016-03-01

Fatigue, a common and distressing symptom of heart failure, is a non-specific, invisible and subjective experience, which is difficult to describe and for which there are no effective interventions. Fatigue negatively impacts on patients' everyday life, prognosis and quality of life, therefore it is important that patients can manage, monitor and respond to changes in fatigue. To cope with fatigue patients may need or seek advice on self-management strategies. To synthesize the best available evidence on the experiences and management of fatigue in everyday life among adult patients with stable heart failure. Adults with confirmed and stable heart failure. Studies exploring the experiences and management of fatigue in everyday life among adults with heart failure. Qualitative studies focusing on qualitative data, including, but not limited to, designs within phenomenology, grounded theory or ethnography. A three-step search strategy was used to identify published and unpublished qualitative studies from 1995 to 2014. Studies that met the inclusion criteria were assessed by two independent reviewers for methodological validity using the standardized critical appraisal tools of the Joanna Briggs Institute Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-QARI). Data was extracted from the five included studies using JBI-QARI. Findings were identified and arranged according to the three research questions: patients' experiences of fatigue, impact of fatigue on everyday life and how patients' managed fatigue and its consequences in everyday life. Findings were pooled using JBI-QARI. From the five included studies, 108 findings were derived and subsequently aggregated into 24 categories, which were finally meta-synthesized into five syntheses: "A pervasive and unignorable bodily experience" captured the patients' descriptions of fatigue experiences; "Limited performance of daily living and social activities" and "Loss of self-esteem, identity and intellectual function" aggregated the impact of fatigue on patients' everyday life; "Using protecting and restoring strategies according to the body barometer" and "A dynamic balance between accepting and struggling against fatigue" captured how patients managed fatigue and its consequences. Three different types of bodily fatigue challenge patients with heart failure. Decreased physical capacity, unpredictability and fluctuating intensity are dominant features of fatigue experiences, which cause limitations in performing daily and social activities, increased dependency of others, and loss of self-esteem, identity and intellectual function. Patients' management of fatigue and its consequences is an ongoing process involving use of protective and restorative activities to handle the specific bodily fatigue. However it also relates to living constructively with fatigue by striking a balance between adjusting to and struggling against fatigue. Healthcare providers should be accountable to their patients, recognizing and taking into consideration patients' fatigue experiences and the meaning of fatigue, in order to provide optimal and individual care to their patients. Further qualitative research is needed to consider cultural factors of importance for managing fatigue in everyday life among patients with heart failure. Furthermore research should explore and test different kinds of physical and mind-body activities on the patients' functional capacity and wellbeing.

Transformation: Building a New Society. Through Chinese Eyes, Volume 2. Revised Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seybolt, Peter J.; Clark, Leon E., Ed.

A Chinese view of China and the world is presented in this book, which is second in a series of two volumes which can be used in secondary and college courses. The reality of everyday life as experienced by the Chinese people is recreated in the series. Almost all of the material in both volumes has been written by Chinese and has been taken from…

The Past: The Road from Isolation. Through Japanese Eyes, Volume 1. Revised Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minear, Richard H.; Clark, Leon E., Ed.

A Japanese view of Japan and the world is presented in this book, which is the first of two volumes which can be used in secondary and college courses. The reality of everyday life as experienced by the Japanese people is recreated in the series. Almost all of the material in both volumes has been written by Japanese and has been taken from a…

Understanding health through social practices: performance and materiality in everyday life.

PubMed

Maller, Cecily Jane

2015-01-01

The importance of recognising structure and agency in health research to move beyond methodological individualism is well documented. To progress incorporating social theory into health, researchers have used Giddens' and Bourdieu's conceptualisations of social practice to understand relationships between agency, structure and health. However, social practice theories have more to offer than has currently been capitalised upon. This article delves into contemporary theories of social practice as used in consumption and sustainability research to provide an alternative, and more contextualised means, of understanding and explaining human action in relation to health and wellbeing. Two key observations are made. Firstly, the latest formulations of social practice theory distinguish moments of practice performance from practices as persistent entities across time and space, allowing empirical application to explain practice histories and future trajectories. Secondly, they emphasise the materiality of everyday life, foregrounding things, technologies and other non-humans that cannot be ignored in a technologically dependent social world. In concluding, I argue the value of using contemporary social practice theories in health research is that they reframe the way in which health outcomes can be understood and could inform more effective interventions that move beyond attitudes, behaviour and choices. © 2015 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2015 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Analytical methods for the quantification of bisphenol A, alkylphenols, phthalate esters, and perfluoronated chemicals in biological samples.

PubMed

Nakazawa, Hiroyuki; Iwasaki, Yusuke; Ito, Rie

2014-01-01

Our modern society has created a large number of chemicals that are used for the production of everyday commodities including toys, food packaging, cosmetic products, and building materials. We enjoy a comfortable and convenient lifestyle with access to these items. In addition, in specialized areas, such as experimental science and various medical fields, laboratory equipment and devices that are manufactured using a wide range of chemical substances are also extensively employed. The association between human exposure to trace hazardous chemicals and an increased incidence of endocrine disease has been recognized. However, the evaluation of human exposure to such endocrine disrupting chemicals is therefore imperative, and the determination of exposure levels requires the analysis of human biological materials, such as blood and urine. To obtain as much information as possible from limited sample sizes, highly sensitive and reliable analytical methods are also required for exposure assessments. The present review focuses on effective analytical methods for the quantification of bisphenol A (BPA), alkylphenols (APs), phthalate esters (PEs), and perfluoronated chemicals (PFCs), which are chemicals used in the production of everyday commodities. Using data obtained from liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and LC/MS/MS analyses, assessments of the risks to humans were also presented based on the estimated levels of exposure to PFCs.

A Case for an Art Education of Everyday Aesthetic Experiences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duncum, Paul

1999-01-01

Argues for incorporating everyday sites, such as shopping malls, amusement parks, advertising, the Internet, and television, into art education. Also argues that everyday aesthetic experiences significantly impact the formation of individual identities and world views and that the dynamics behind the influence of everyday aesthetics will only…

Everyday Memory in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, I-Chen; Tsai, Pei-Luen; Hsu, Yung-Wen; Ma, Hui-Ing; Lai, Hsuan-An

2013-01-01

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have deficits in working memory, but little is known about the everyday memory of these children in real-life situations. We investigated the everyday memory function in children with DCD, and explored the specific profile of everyday memory across different domains. Nineteen children with…

Growing Everyday Multiculturalism: Practice-Based Learning of Chinese Immigrants through Community Gardens in Canada

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shan, Hongxia; Walter, Pierre

2015-01-01

While official rhetoric of multiculturalism claims to value cultural diversity, everyday multiculturalism focuses on how people of diverse cultural backgrounds live together in their everyday lives. Research on everyday multiculturalism has documented ways through which people negotiate senses, sensibilities, emotionality, and relationality across…

Tattoos and Piercings: A Review for the Emergency Physician

PubMed Central

Urdang, Michael; Mallek, Jennifer T; Mallon, William K

2011-01-01

Tattoos and piercings are increasingly part of everyday life for large sections of the population, and more emergency physicians are seeing these body modifications (BM) adorn their patients. In this review we elucidate the most common forms of these BMs, we describe how they may affect both the physical and psychological health of the patient undergoing treatment, and also try to educate around any potential pitfalls in treating associated complications. PMID:22224126

Research utilization in nursing: the power of one.

PubMed

Jacobson, A F

2000-01-01

Common barriers to research utilization in nursing include characteristics of the setting in which nurses practice, nurses themselves, and nursing's dependence on rituals and traditions in practice. Nurses can overcome these barriers by questioning their practice and adopting attitudes and values that prioritize research utilization. The "Power of One" Model of Research Utilization guides nurses to examine everyday practices, assess their research foundations, and implement and evaluate changes to research-based practice.

What Do "Ode to Joy," the Nobel Peace Prize, Umbrellas and Cartoons Have in Common? Why Critical Thinking Matters and How Higher Education Moulds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franco, Amanda

2016-01-01

Critical thinking is the kind of 'good' thinking used in everyday life to increase the chances of success. A critical thinker combines skill and will when working the odds in one's advantage. Nevertheless, thinking is very often far from rational. Since people are built to believe, since living is all about choosing and since education liberates,…

Consumer Education: A Teaching-Learning Unit on the Rights and Responsibilities of all Consumers and Special Problems of Elderly Consumers, Poor Consumers, Handicapped Consumers, Non-English Speaking Consumers and Nonreaders, Minors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tennessee Univ., Knoxville.

To help high school students understand the role of consumers in the everyday world, the teaching guide presents objectives and activities related to seven consumer topics. Topics are rights and responsibilities of all consumers, common transportation concerns of consumers with special problems, and problems which particularly affect consumers who…

Everyday Banality in a Documentary by Teenage Women: Between the Trivial and the Extreme. Schooling and Desiring in Contexts of Extreme Urban Poverty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grinberg, Silvia

2010-01-01

In this article, I offer some reflections on a video documentary workshop for students in the first year of middle school. The workshop, which was held in 2008, took place in a school in an area of extreme urban poverty in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, Argentina, specifically in one of the more and more common spaces usually called…

Programmable lab-on-a-chip system for single cell analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thalhammer, S.

2009-05-01

The collection, selection, amplification and detection of minimum genetic samples became a part of everyday life in medical and biological laboratories, to analyze DNA-fragments of pathogens, patient samples and traces on crime scenes. About a decade ago, a handful of researchers began discussing an intriguing idea. Could the equipment needed for everyday chemistry and biology procedures be shrunk to fit on a chip in the size of a fingernail? Miniature devices for, say, analysing DNA and proteins should be faster and cheaper than conventional versions. Lab-on-a-chip is an advanced technology that integrates a microfluidic system on a microscale chip device. The "laboratory" is created by means of channels, mixers, reservoirs, diffusion chambers, integrated electrodes, pumps, valves and more. With lab-ona- chip technology, complete laboratories on a square centimetre can be created. Here, a multifunctional programmable Lab-on-a-Chip driven by nanofluidics and controlled by surface acoustic waves (SAW) is presented. This system combines serial DNA-isolation-, amplification- and array-detection-process on a modified glass-platform. The fluid actuation is controlled via SAW by interdigital transducers implemented in the chemical modified chip surface. The chemical surface modification allows fluid handling in the sub-microliter range. Minute amount of sample material is extracted by laser-based microdissection out of e.g. histological sections at the single cell level. A few picogram of genetic material are isolated and transferred via a low-pressure transfer system (SPATS) onto the chip. Subsequently the genetic material inside single droplets, which behave like "virtual" beaker, is transported to the reaction and analysis centers on the chip surface via surface acoustic waves, mainly known as noise dumping filters in mobile phones. At these "biological reactors" the genetic material is processed, e.g. amplified via polymerase chain reaction methods, and genetically characterized.

BioXSD: the common data-exchange format for everyday bioinformatics web services

PubMed Central

Kalaš, Matúš; Puntervoll, Pæl; Joseph, Alexandre; Bartaševičiūtė, Edita; Töpfer, Armin; Venkataraman, Prabakar; Pettifer, Steve; Bryne, Jan Christian; Ison, Jon; Blanchet, Christophe; Rapacki, Kristoffer; Jonassen, Inge

2010-01-01

Motivation: The world-wide community of life scientists has access to a large number of public bioinformatics databases and tools, which are developed and deployed using diverse technologies and designs. More and more of the resources offer programmatic web-service interface. However, efficient use of the resources is hampered by the lack of widely used, standard data-exchange formats for the basic, everyday bioinformatics data types. Results: BioXSD has been developed as a candidate for standard, canonical exchange format for basic bioinformatics data. BioXSD is represented by a dedicated XML Schema and defines syntax for biological sequences, sequence annotations, alignments and references to resources. We have adapted a set of web services to use BioXSD as the input and output format, and implemented a test-case workflow. This demonstrates that the approach is feasible and provides smooth interoperability. Semantics for BioXSD is provided by annotation with the EDAM ontology. We discuss in a separate section how BioXSD relates to other initiatives and approaches, including existing standards and the Semantic Web. Availability: The BioXSD 1.0 XML Schema is freely available at http://www.bioxsd.org/BioXSD-1.0.xsd under the Creative Commons BY-ND 3.0 license. The http://bioxsd.org web page offers documentation, examples of data in BioXSD format, example workflows with source codes in common programming languages, an updated list of compatible web services and tools and a repository of feature requests from the community. Contact: matus.kalas@bccs.uib.no; developers@bioxsd.org; support@bioxsd.org PMID:20823319

Everyday Cognition: Age and Intellectual Ability Correlates

PubMed Central

Allaire, Jason C.; Marsiske, Michael

2010-01-01

The primary aim of this study was to examine the relationship between a new battery of everyday cognition measures, which assessed 4 cognitive abilities within 3 familiar real-world domains, and traditional psychometric tests of the same basic cognitive abilities. Several theoreticians have argued that everyday cognition measures are somewhat distinct from traditional cognitive assessment approaches, and the authors investigated this assertion correlationally in the present study. The sample consisted of 174 community-dwelling older adults from the Detroit metropolitan area, who had an average age of 73 years. Major results of the study showed that (a) each everyday cognitive test was strongly correlated with the basic cognitive abilities; (b) several basic abilities, as well as measures of domain-specific knowledge, predicted everyday cognitive performance; and (c) everyday and basic measures were similarly related to age. The results suggest that everyday cognition is not unrelated to traditional measures, nor is it less sensitive to age-related differences. PMID:10632150

Hestian Education: Everyday Life as a Curricular Paradigm.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Patricia J.

Everyday life as a curricular paradigm is discussed in this paper, beginning with a look at public and private feminist dilemmas, at the creation of nonpatriarchal categories, and at the everyday world seen both as phenomenon and as problematic. Numerous feminist scholars have addressed the question of a feminist standpoint on everyday life, and…

Everyday Learning about Brothers & Sisters. Everyday Learning Series. Volume 3, Number 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackey, Gerrie

2005-01-01

The "Everyday Learning" series has been developed to focus attention on the everyday ways in which children can be supported in their growth and development. It is for all those who are involved in children's development and learning, including early childhood professionals in all children's services, parents, grandparents and others…

Everyday movement and use of the arms: Relationship in children with hemiparesis differs from adults.

PubMed

Sokal, Brad; Uswatte, Gitendra; Vogtle, Laura; Byrom, Ezekiel; Barman, Joydip

2015-01-01

In adults with hemiparesis amount of movement of the more-affected arm is related to its amount of use in daily life. In children, little is known about everyday arm use. This report examines the relationships between everyday movement of the more-affected arm and its (a) everyday use and (b) motor capacity in children with hemiparesis. Participants were 28 children with a wide range of upper-extremity hemiparesis subsequent to cerebral palsy due to pre- or peri-natal stroke. Everyday movement of the more-affected arm was assessed by putting accelerometers on the children's forearms for three days. Everyday use of that arm and its motor capacity were assessed with the Pediatric Motor Activity Log-Revised and Pediatric Arm Function Test, respectively. Intensity of everyday movement of the more-affected arm was correlated with its motor capacity (rs ≥ 0.52, ps ≤ 0.003). However, everyday movement of that arm was not correlated with its everyday use (rs ≤ 0.30, ps ≥ $ 0.126). In children with upper-extremity hemiparesis who meet the study intake criteria amount of movement of the more-affected arm in daily life is not related to its amount to use, suggesting that children differ from adults in this respect.

Everyday social and conversation applications of theory-of-mind understanding by children with autism-spectrum disorders or typical development.

PubMed

Peterson, Candida C; Garnett, Michelle; Kelly, Adrian; Attwood, Tony

2009-02-01

Children with autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) often fail laboratory false-belief tests of theory of mind (ToM). Yet how this impacts on their everyday social behavior is less clear, partly owing to uncertainty over which specific everyday conversational and social skills require ToM understanding. A new caregiver-report scale of these everyday applications of ToM was developed and validated in two studies. Study 1 obtained parent ratings of 339 children (85 with autism; 230 with Asperger's; 24 typically-developing) on the new scale and results revealed (a) that the scale had good psychometric properties and (b) that children with ASD had significantly more everyday mindreading difficulties than typical developers. In Study 2, we directly tested links between laboratory ToM and everyday mindreading using teacher ratings on the new scale. The sample of 25 children included 15 with autism and 10 typical developers aged 5-12 years. Children in both groups who passed laboratory ToM tests had fewer everyday mindreading difficulties than those of the same diagnosis who failed. Yet, intriguingly, autistic ToM-passers still had more problems with everyday mindreading than younger typically-developing ToM-failers. The possible roles of family conversation and peer interaction, along with ToM, in everyday social functioning were considered.

Discontinuation of statin therapy due to muscular side effects: a survey in real life.

PubMed

Rosenbaum, D; Dallongeville, J; Sabouret, P; Bruckert, E

2013-09-01

To assess the burden of statin related muscular symptom in real life. We conducted a wide survey on 10,409 French subjects. Among these, 2850 (27%) had hypercholesterolemia and 1074 were treated with statins. Muscular symptoms were reported by 104 (10%) statin treated patients and led to discontinuation in 30% of the symptomatic patients. The main prescribed statins were low doses rosuvastatin, atorvastatin and simvastatin. Pains were the most commonly described symptoms (87%) but many patients also reported stiffness (62%), cramps (67%), weakness or a loss of strength during exertion (55%). Pain was localized in 70% but mostly described as affecting several muscular groups. Approximately 38% of patients reported that their symptoms prevented even moderate exertion during everyday activities, while 42% of patients suffered major disruption to their everyday life. Muscular symptoms associated with average dosage statin therapy are more frequent than in clinical trials and have a greater impact on patients' life than usually thought. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social Context of Depressive Distress in Aging Transgender Adults

PubMed Central

White Hughto, Jaclyn M.; Reisner, Sari L.

2016-01-01

This study investigates the relationship between discrimination and mental health in aging transgender adults. Survey responses from 61 transgender adults above 50 (Mage = 57.7, SD = 5.8; 77.1% male-to-female; 78.7% White non-Hispanic) were analyzed. Multivariable logistic regression models examined the relationship between gender- and age-related discrimination, number of everyday discrimination experiences, and past-week depressive distress, adjusting for social support, sociodemographics, and other forms of discrimination. The most commonly attributed reasons for experiencing discrimination were related to gender (80.3%) and age (34.4%). More than half of participants (55.5%) met criteria for past-week depressive distress. In an adjusted multivariable model, gender-related discrimination and a greater number of everyday discrimination experiences were associated with increased odds of past-week depressive distress. Additional research is needed to understand the effects of aging and gender identity on depressive symptoms and develop interventions to safeguard the mental health of this vulnerable aging population. PMID:28380703

The impact of appearance comparisons made through social media, traditional media, and in person in women's everyday lives.

PubMed

Fardouly, Jasmine; Pinkus, Rebecca T; Vartanian, Lenny R

2017-03-01

Appearance comparisons are an important sociocultural factor influencing women's body image. These comparisons can occur in different contexts (e.g., through magazines, social media, in person). However, little is known about the frequency and outcome of appearance comparisons made in different contexts in women's everyday lives. Using Ecological Momentary Assessment methods, female undergraduate students (n=146) completed a brief online survey at random times every day for 5 days. They reported the frequency, direction (upward, lateral, downward), and context of appearance comparisons, and also reported their appearance satisfaction, mood, and diet and exercise thoughts and behaviors. Upward appearance comparisons were the most common across all contexts. Upward comparisons through social media were associated with more negative outcomes on all measures (except diet and exercise behavior) than comparisons made in person, and with more negative mood than comparisons in any other context. These findings highlight the importance of the appearance comparison context. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social Context of Depressive Distress in Aging Transgender Adults.

PubMed

White Hughto, Jaclyn M; Reisner, Sari L

2016-11-01

This study investigates the relationship between discrimination and mental health in aging transgender adults. Survey responses from 61 transgender adults above 50 ( M age = 57.7, SD = 5.8; 77.1% male-to-female; 78.7% White non-Hispanic) were analyzed. Multivariable logistic regression models examined the relationship between gender- and age-related discrimination, number of everyday discrimination experiences, and past-week depressive distress, adjusting for social support, sociodemographics, and other forms of discrimination. The most commonly attributed reasons for experiencing discrimination were related to gender (80.3%) and age (34.4%). More than half of participants (55.5%) met criteria for past-week depressive distress. In an adjusted multivariable model, gender-related discrimination and a greater number of everyday discrimination experiences were associated with increased odds of past-week depressive distress. Additional research is needed to understand the effects of aging and gender identity on depressive symptoms and develop interventions to safeguard the mental health of this vulnerable aging population.

Multiple food allergy.

PubMed

Speer, F

1975-02-01

This paper is devoted to a study of multiple food allergy, here defined as sensitivity to three or more foods. The purpose of the study is to report findings obtained from a study of 250 private patients and to show what type of persons develop this condition, how it affects them, and what their common allergens are. It was found that multiple food allergy occurs in both sexes and at all ages but is more common in boys than in girls and more common in women then in men. The clinical manifestations were much like those caused by the more familiar inhalant allergy but with a much more widespread constitutional disturbance. The great majority of patients (86%) also reacted to such air-borne allergens as molds, pollens, house dust, and animal epithelials. This indicates that food allergy and inhalant allergy are fundamentally the same phenomenon. The common food allergens were such everyday foods as milk, chocolate, corn, egg, tomato, peanut, and citrus fruits.

Social Listening: A Content Analysis of E-Cigarette Discussions on Twitter.

PubMed

Cole-Lewis, Heather; Pugatch, Jillian; Sanders, Amy; Varghese, Arun; Posada, Susana; Yun, Christopher; Schwarz, Mary; Augustson, Erik

2015-10-27

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has increased in the United States, leading to active debate in the public health sphere regarding e-cigarette use and regulation. To better understand trends in e-cigarette attitudes and behaviors, public health and communication professionals can turn to the dialogue taking place on popular social media platforms such as Twitter. The objective of this study was to conduct a content analysis to identify key conversation trends and patterns over time using historical Twitter data. A 5-category content analysis was conducted on a random sample of tweets chosen from all publicly available tweets sent between May 1, 2013, and April 30, 2014, that matched strategic keywords related to e-cigarettes. Relevant tweets were isolated from the random sample of approximately 10,000 tweets and classified according to sentiment, user description, genre, and theme. Descriptive analyses including univariate and bivariate associations, as well as correlation analyses were performed on all categories in order to identify patterns and trends. The analysis revealed an increase in e-cigarette-related tweets from May 2013 through April 2014, with tweets generally being positive; 71% of the sample tweets were classified as having a positive sentiment. The top two user categories were everyday people (65%) and individuals who are part of the e-cigarette community movement (16%). These two user groups were responsible for a majority of informational (79%) and news tweets (75%), compared to reputable news sources and foundations or organizations, which combined provided 5% of informational tweets and 12% of news tweets. Personal opinion (28%), marketing (21%), and first person e-cigarette use or intent (20%) were the three most common genres of tweets, which tended to have a positive sentiment. Marketing was the most common theme (26%), and policy and government was the second most common theme (20%), with 86% of these tweets coming from everyday people and the e-cigarette community movement combined, compared to 5% of policy and government tweets coming from government, reputable news sources, and foundations or organizations combined. Everyday people and the e-cigarette community are dominant forces across several genres and themes, warranting continued monitoring to understand trends and their implications regarding public opinion, e-cigarette use, and smoking cessation. Analyzing social media trends is a meaningful way to inform public health practitioners of current sentiments regarding e-cigarettes, and this study contributes a replicable methodology.

Everyday Learning about Healthy Bodies. Everyday Learning Series. Volume 4, Number 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCrea, Nadine

2006-01-01

The "Everyday Learning" series has been developed to focus attention on the everyday ways in which children can be supported in their growth and development. It is for all those who are involved in children's development and learning, including early childhood professionals in all children's services, parents, grandparents and others with an…

Abstraction and Concreteness in the Everyday Mathematics of Structural Engineers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gainsburg, Julie

The everyday mathematics processes of structural engineers were studied and analyzed in terms of abstraction. A main purpose of the study was to explore the degree to which the notion of a gap between school and everyday mathematics holds when the scope of practices considered "everyday" is extended. J. Lave (1988) promoted a methodology…

Does Gender Make a Difference? Results from the German "Tandem Study" on the Pedagogical Activity of Female and Male ECE Workers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandes, Holger; Andrä, Markus; Röseler, Wenke; Schneider-Andrich, Petra

2015-01-01

Based on an everyday quasi-experimental situation with multiple materials, the behavior of male and female early childhood education (ECE) workers is recorded and compared. The research is based on a sample of 41 female and 41 male ECE workers, who in each case work together in tandem in a kindergarten class, as well as a control group of 12…

The Development of a Taxonomy of the Life Skills Required to Become a Balanced Self-Determined Person = Essaie de Classification des Competences Necessaires pour Devenir une Personne Autonome et Bien Equilibree.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Paul

Intended for use by life skills coaches and students, program evaluators, and individuals developing lesson plans and other training materials, this taxonomy includes all of the terminal performance behaviors and corresponding sub-skills required to become and function as a balanced, self-determined person who manages the problems of everyday life…

Cognitive Predictors of Everyday Problem Solving across the Lifespan

PubMed Central

Chen, Xi; Hertzog, Christopher; Park, Denise C.

2017-01-01

Background An important aspect of successful aging is maintaining the ability to solve everyday problems encountered in daily life. The limited evidence today suggests that everyday problem solving ability increases from young adulthood to middle age, but decreases in older age. Objectives The present study examined age differences in the relative contributions of fluid and crystallized abilities to solving problems on the Everyday Problems Test (EPT; [1]). We hypothesized that due to diminishing fluid resources available with advanced age, crystallized knowledge would become increasingly important in predicting everyday problem solving with greater age. Method Two hundred and twenty-one healthy adults from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study, aged 24–93 years, completed a cognitive battery that included measures of fluid ability (i.e., processing speed, working memory, inductive reasoning) and crystallized ability (i.e., multiple measures of vocabulary). These measures were used to predict performance on the Everyday Problems Test. Results Everyday problem solving showed an increase in performance from young to early middle age, with performance beginning to decrease at about age of fifty. As hypothesized, fluid ability was the primary predictor of performance on everyday problem solving for young adults, but with increasing age, crystallized ability became the dominant predictor. Conclusion This study provides evidence that everyday problem solving ability differs with age, and, more importantly, that the processes underlying it differ with age as well. The findings indicate that older adults increasingly rely on knowledge to support everyday problem solving, whereas young adults rely almost exclusively on fluid intelligence. PMID:28273664

Everyday and exotic foodborne parasites

PubMed Central

Lee, Marilyn B

2000-01-01

Everyday foodborne parasites, which are endemic in Canada, include the protozoans Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum. However, these parasites are most frequently acquired through unfiltered drinking water, homosexual activity or close personal contact such as in daycare centres and occasionally via a food vehicle. It is likely that many foodborne outbreaks from these protozoa go undetected. Transmission of helminth infections, such as tapeworms, is rare in Canada because of effective sewage treatment. However, a common foodborne parasite of significance is Toxoplasma gondii. Although infection can be acquired from accidental ingestion of oocysts from cat feces, infection can also result from consumption of tissue cysts in undercooked meat, such as pork or lamb. Congenital transmission poses an immense financial burden, costing Canada an estimated $240 million annually. Also of concern is toxoplasmosis in AIDS patients, which may lead to toxoplasmosis encephalitis, the second most common AIDS-related opportunistic infection of the central nervous system. Exotic parasites (ie, those acquired from abroad or from imported food) are of growing concern because more Canadians are travelling and the number of Canada's trading partners is increasing. Since 1996, over 3000 cases of Cyclospora infection reported in the United States and Canada were epidemiologically associated with importation of Guatemalan raspberries. Unlike toxoplasmosis, where strategies for control largely rest with individual practices, control of cyclosporiasis rests with government policy, which should prohibit the importation of foods at high risk. PMID:18159283

Everyday Learning in the Kitchen. Everyday Learning Series. Volume 2, Number 4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darbyshire, Jo

2004-01-01

The "Everyday Learning" series has been developed to focus attention on the everyday ways in which children can be supported in their growth and development. Many of one's earliest memories are likely to be about time spent in the kitchen. Licking the bowl, setting the table, doing the dishes, chatting about the day, eating a meal,…

Cognitive predictors of everyday functioning in older adults: results from the ACTIVE Cognitive Intervention Trial.

PubMed

Gross, Alden L; Rebok, George W; Unverzagt, Frederick W; Willis, Sherry L; Brandt, Jason

2011-09-01

The present study sought to predict changes in everyday functioning using cognitive tests. Data from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly trial were used to examine the extent to which competence in different cognitive domains--memory, inductive reasoning, processing speed, and global mental status--predicts prospectively measured everyday functioning among older adults. Coefficients of determination for baseline levels and trajectories of everyday functioning were estimated using parallel process latent growth models. Each cognitive domain independently predicts a significant proportion of the variance in baseline and trajectory change of everyday functioning, with inductive reasoning explaining the most variance (R2 = .175) in baseline functioning and memory explaining the most variance (R2 = .057) in changes in everyday functioning. Inductive reasoning is an important determinant of current everyday functioning in community-dwelling older adults, suggesting that successful performance in daily tasks is critically dependent on executive cognitive function. On the other hand, baseline memory function is more important in determining change over time in everyday functioning, suggesting that some participants with low baseline memory function may reflect a subgroup with incipient progressive neurologic disease.

Participation after acquired brain injury: Associations with everyday technology and activities in daily life.

PubMed

Fallahpour, Mandana; Kottorp, Anders; Nygård, Louise; Lund, Maria Larsson

2015-01-01

The development of the information society has led to increased use of everyday technology and changed the conditions for participation. Enabling participation in everyday life situations is an important rehabilitation goal after acquired brain injury (ABI). Identifying factors associated with individuals' experienced participation and problems therein is therefore essential. This study aimed at exploring the relationship between perceived difficulty in everyday technology use, perceived ability in the activities of daily living (ADL), and perceived participation, and participation problems in persons with ABI. Eighty-one persons with ABI participated in the study and were assessed by the Impact on Participation and Autonomy questionnaire, the Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire, and the ADL taxonomy. Findings showed that the combined model of difficulty in everyday technology (ET) use, ADL ability, and the interaction between them explained both participation in various domains of everyday life, and also overall level of perceived participation and the perceived problems. The findings underscore the importance of evaluating individuals' ability in both ET use and ADL after ABI to increase the probability of explaining these persons' participation in desired everyday life situations and, also, for rehabilitation design.

Psychometric evaluation of a new assessment of the ability to manage technology in everyday life.

PubMed

Malinowsky, Camilla; Nygård, Louise; Kottorp, Anders

2011-03-01

Technology increasingly influences the everyday lives of most people, and the ability to manage technology can be seen as a prerequisite for participation in everyday occupations. However, knowledge of the ability and skills required for management of technology is sparse. This study aimed to validate a new observation-based assessment, the Management of Everyday Technology Assessment (META). The META has been developed to assess the ability to manage technology in everyday life. A sample of 116 older adults with and without cognitive impairment were observed and interviewed by the use of the META when managing their everyday technology at home. The results indicate that the META demonstrates acceptable person response validity and technology goodness-of-fit. Additionally, the META can separate individuals with higher ability from individuals with lower ability to manage everyday technology. The META can be seen as a complement to existing ADL assessment techniques and is planned to be used in both research and practice.

Understanding healthcare practices in superdiverse neighbourhoods and developing the concept of welfare bricolage: Protocol of a cross-national mixed-methods study.

PubMed

Phillimore, Jenny; Bradby, Hannah; Knecht, Michi; Padilla, Beatriz; Brand, Tilman; Cheung, Sin Yi; Pemberton, Simon; Zeeb, Hajo

2015-06-28

Diversity in Europe has both increased and become more complex posing challenges to both national and local welfare state regimes. Evidence indicates specific barriers for migrant, faith and minority ethnic groups when accessing healthcare. However, previous studies of health in diverse cities in European countries have mainly adopted an ethno-national focus. Taking into account the new complexity of diversity within cities, a deeper and multi-faceted understanding of everyday health practices in superdiverse contexts is needed to support appropriate healthcare provision. This protocol describes a mixed method study investigating how residents in superdiverse neighbourhoods access healthcare. The study will include participant observation and qualitative interviewing as well as a standardised health survey and will be carried out in eight superdiverse neighbourhoods - with varying deprivations levels and trajectories of change - in four European countries (Germany, Portugal, Sweden and UK). In each neighbourhood, trained polylingual community researchers together with university researchers will map formal and informal provision and infrastructures supportive to health and healthcare. In-depth interviews with residents and healthcare providers in each country will investigate local health-supportive practices. Thematic analysis will be used to identify different types of help-seeking behaviours and support structures across neighbourhoods and countries. Using categories identified from analyses of interview material, a health survey will be set up investigating determinants of access to healthcare. Complex models, such as structural equation modelling, will be applied to analyse commonalities and differences between population groups, neighbourhoods and countries. This study offers the potential to contribute to a deeper understanding of how residents in superdiverse neighbourhoods deal with health and healthcare in everyday practices. The findings will inform governmental authorities, formal and informal healthcare providers how to further refine health services and how to achieve equitable access in diverse population groups.

Everyday music listening and affect regulation: The role of MP3 players

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The use of digital portable music devices such as MP3 players has rapidly increased during the last decade, and the sheer availability of music offered by such players raises questions about their impact on listeners’ mental and physical health and well-being. This article explores MP3 player use as an everyday tactic for affect regulation, here understood as an individual's efforts to maintain or change the intensity or duration of a given affect. The ability to understand and regulate affects has significant health implications, and among the tactics relevant to such regulation, engagement with music has proven to be particularly successful. The material presented in this article is based on a qualitative interview study focused on MP3 player use as a medium for musical self-care. Because MP3 users can listen to whatever they want, whenever they want, and target their music in the interests of managing and regulating moods and emotions, the MP3 player represents a valuable and convenient technology of affect regulation. PMID:23930987

Everyday music listening and affect regulation: the role of MP3 players.

PubMed

Skånland, Marie Strand

2013-08-07

The use of digital portable music devices such as MP3 players has rapidly increased during the last decade, and the sheer availability of music offered by such players raises questions about their impact on listeners' mental and physical health and well-being. This article explores MP3 player use as an everyday tactic for affect regulation, here understood as an individual's efforts to maintain or change the intensity or duration of a given affect. The ability to understand and regulate affects has significant health implications, and among the tactics relevant to such regulation, engagement with music has proven to be particularly successful. The material presented in this article is based on a qualitative interview study focused on MP3 player use as a medium for musical self-care. Because MP3 users can listen to whatever they want, whenever they want, and target their music in the interests of managing and regulating moods and emotions, the MP3 player represents a valuable and convenient technology of affect regulation.

Familiar communication partners' facilitation of topic management in conversations with individuals with dementia.

PubMed

Hall, Karinna; Lind, Christopher; Young, Jessica A; Okell, Elise; van Steenbrugge, Willem

2018-05-01

Language and memory impairments affect everyday interactions between individuals with dementia and their communication partners. Impaired topic management, which compromises individuals' construction of relevant, meaningful discourse, is commonly reported amongst individuals with dementia. Currently, limited empirical evidence describes the sequential patterns of behaviour comprising topic-management practices in everyday conversation between individuals with dementia and their communication partners. To describe the sequential patterns of behaviour relating to the manifestation of topic-management impairments and facilitative behaviours in everyday interactions between individuals with dementia and their familiar communication partners (FCPs). Three 20-min conversations between individuals with moderate to severe dementia and their FCPs were recorded. Conversation Analysis was used to examine sequences in which topic-management appeared to be impaired. Conversational behaviours that reflected a difficulty in contributing on-topic talk were pervasive in the talk of the three individuals with dementia. FCPs responded to these conversational difficulties by using two categories of facilitative behaviours. The first involved responding to an individual with dementia's explicit repair-initiation by performing repair. In the second category, explicit repair-initiation was absent; instead, the distance of the conversational difficulty from the prior topic-shifting turn mediated the form and outcome of the FCPs' facilitative behaviours. Each category successfully facilitated the individual with dementia to contribute on-topic talk. The findings contribute to a growing understanding of topic-management abilities in everyday interactions involving individuals with dementia. Individuals with dementia took a proactive role in eliciting topic-management support. The FCPs responded with turns that facilitated the individuals with dementia to talk on-topic. Clinically, the results support and extend the current topic-management recommendations available in communication partner training programmes, and promote conversations which attend to the personhood of the individual with dementia. © 2018 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Characterising the Profile of Everyday Executive Functioning and Relation to IQ in Adults with Williams Syndrome: Is the BRIEF Adult Version a Valid Rating Scale?

PubMed Central

Porter, Melanie A.

2015-01-01

Although there is evidence of a distinct profile of executive dysfunction in Williams syndrome (WS), a rare genetically based neurodevelopmental disorder, the utility of informant reports of everyday executive function (EF) impairments and their relation to intelligence is not yet clear. Here we aimed to evaluate the functional impact of executive dysfunction in adults with WS and to establish the validity of child and adult versions of the most commonly used rating scale for EF assessment, the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). We were also interested in whether distinct components of everyday EF relate to intelligence in WS. Parent report child (BRIEF-C) and adult (BRIEF-A) ratings were collected on 20 adults with WS (aged 18.5 to 53 years), with a mean IQ of 60.95 (SD = 17.67). Neuropsychological measures of EF included: The Shape School Test (Espy, 2007); select subdomains of EF from the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, Australian Adaptation (WJ III COG); and select subdomains from the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales, Second Edition—Parent Survey (Vineland-II). Results showed that the BRIEF-A, but not the BRIEF-C, was the most highly correlated with neuropsychological measures of EF, suggesting that it was a valid measure of the profile of EF impairments in adults with WS. The profile of everyday EF dysfunction revealed relative impairments in monitoring, working memory, planning and organisation in WS. In addition, both neuropsychological and rating scale measures showed an association between the shifting component of EF and intelligence. These findings indicate that the BRIEF-A is a valid measure of the multidimensional nature of real-world impairments in EF, and highlight its utility as a less labor intensive and low-cost screening tool for measuring specific EF impairments that could become the focus of targeted intervention in adults with WS. PMID:26355600

Everyday functioning of male adolescents who later died by suicide: Results of a pilot case-control study using mixed-method analysis.

PubMed

Buhnick-Atzil, Ortal; Rubinstein, Katya; Tuval-Mashiach, Rivka; Fischer, Sharon; Fruchter, Eyal; Large, Matthew; Weiser, Mark

2015-02-01

Previous research has shown a link between difficulties in everyday functioning and suicidality in adolescence. The majority of research in this field focuses on suicidal ideation and attempts, rather than on completed suicide. The main goal of this study is to better characterize everyday functioning among young men who later completed suicide. Based on previous literature, we hypothesized that the functioning of adolescents who died by suicide would be poor, compared to controls. The current study is a record-driven study, which examined summaries of screening interviews performed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of 20 male adolescents who later completed suicide, compared with 20 matched living controls. The current study is a pilot stage of a larger project. The study used unique data, collected as part of the IDF pre-induction process, in the months or years before the tragic outcome. The data were extracted by two psychologists, blinded to the participants׳ suicide or non-suicide outcome, using mixed-method technique, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis. The main findings indicated that, in comparison with controls, male adolescents who later died by suicide were described as having more interpersonal difficulties, were more likely to be involved in violent behavior, had more difficulties in dealing with problems in everyday functioning and had an avoidant conflict resolution style. Functional difficulties are apparent in a wide range of behavioral domains in adolescents who later complete suicide. These findings indicate a need for interventions that might assist young persons, and it is possible that such assistance might reduce the likelihood of suicide. However, because suicide is a rare outcome and these behavioral traits are common in adolescence, the presence of such traits might not be useful in identifying people at risk of suicide. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Developing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging measurement of the forces within 3D granular materials under external loads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elrington, Stefan; Bertrand, Thibault; Frey, Merideth; Shattuck, Mark; O'Hern, Corey; Barrett, Sean

2014-03-01

Granular materials are comprised of an ensemble of discrete macroscopic grains that interact with each other via highly dissipative forces. These materials are ubiquitous in our everyday life ranging in scale from the granular media that forms the Earth's crust to that used in agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. Granular materials exhibit complex behaviors that are poorly understood and cannot be easily described by statistical mechanics. Under external loads individual grains are jammed into place by a network of force chains. These networks have been imaged in quasi two-dimensional and on the outer surface of three-dimensional granular materials. Our goal is to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect contact forces deep within three-dimensional granular materials, using hydrogen-1 relaxation times as a reporter for changes in local stress and strain. To this end, we use a novel pulse sequence to narrow the line width of hydrogen-1 in rubber. Here we present our progress to date, and prospects for future improvements.

Not all minds wander equally: The influence of traits, states and road environment factors on self-reported mind wandering during everyday driving.

PubMed

Burdett, Bridget R D; Charlton, Samuel G; Starkey, Nicola J

2016-10-01

Inattention is a road safety problem, but few studies have focused specifically on mind wandering during everyday driving. This paper explores differences in self-reported mind wandering according to driver demographic characteristics (including age and gender), cognitive traits (such as tendency toward cognitive failure or mindful attention), states (such as feeling tired or stressed) and road environment factors (such as route familiarity). Five hundred and two participants (113 male, average age 44.4 years, SD=14.0years) completed a series of questionnaires (Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) and Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ)), as well as study-specific questions about mind wandering during different personal states and across a range of road and traffic situations. All respondents reported mind wandering during driving at least some of the time. Mind wandering was more likely to be reported on familiar roads than on unfamiliar roads and when drivers are tired. Drivers who reported relatively more mind wandering were younger, reported less mindful attention in daily life, more cognitive failures, and more driving violations and lapses. Together, the findings suggest that mind wandering is common in everyday driving, however any link with crash risk remains unclear. Future research using self-report and naturalistic methods could provide more insight into relationships between mind wandering, error and crash risk. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PlayDoh and Toothpicks and Gummy Bears... OH MY, They're Models!

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolandaivelu, K. P.; Wilson, M. W.; Glesener, G. B.

2017-12-01

Simple, everyday items found around the house are often used in geoscience lab activities. Gummy bears and silly putty can model the bending and breaking behaviour of rocks; shaking buildings during an earthquake can be modeled with some Jello, toothpicks, and marshmallows; PlayDoh can be used to demonstrate layers of sedimentary rocks; and even plumbing pipes filled with pebbles and playground sand become miniature physical models of aquifers. When performed correctly, these activities can help students visualize geoscience phenomena or increase students' motivation to pay attention in class, but how do these activities help students develop ways to think like a scientist? "Developing and using models" is one of the important science and engineering practices recommended in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In this presentation, we will demonstrate a variety of common geoscience lab activities using simple, everyday household items in order to describe ways instructors can help their students develop model-based reasoning skills. Specific areas of interest will be on identifying positive and negative attributes of a model, ways to evaluate the reliability of a model, and how a model can be revised to improve its outcome. We will also outline other kinds of models that can be generated from these lab activities, such as mathematical, graphical, and verbal models. Our goal is to encourage educators to focus more time on helping students develop model-based reasoning skills, which can be used in almost all aspects of everyday life.

Organic Electronics for Point-of-Care Metabolite Monitoring.

PubMed

Pappa, Anna-Maria; Parlak, Onur; Scheiblin, Gaetan; Mailley, Pascal; Salleo, Alberto; Owens, Roisin M

2018-01-01

In this review we focus on demonstrating how organic electronic materials can solve key problems in biosensing thanks to their unique material properties and implementation in innovative device configurations. We highlight specific examples where these materials solve multiple issues related to complex sensing environments, and we benchmark these examples by comparing them to state-of-the-art commercially available sensing using alternative technologies. We have categorized our examples by sample type, focusing on sensing from body fluids in vitro and on wearable sensors, which have attracted significant interest owing to their integration with everyday life activities. We finish by describing a future trend for in vivo, implantable sensors, which aims to build on current progress from sensing in biological fluids ex vivo. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cognitive Predictors of Everyday Problem Solving across the Lifespan.

PubMed

Chen, Xi; Hertzog, Christopher; Park, Denise C

2017-01-01

An important aspect of successful aging is maintaining the ability to solve everyday problems encountered in daily life. The limited evidence today suggests that everyday problem solving ability increases from young adulthood to middle age, but decreases in older age. The present study examined age differences in the relative contributions of fluid and crystallized abilities to solving problems on the Everyday Problems Test (EPT). We hypothesized that due to diminishing fluid resources available with advanced age, crystallized knowledge would become increasingly important in predicting everyday problem solving with greater age. Two hundred and twenty-one healthy adults from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study, aged 24-93 years, completed a cognitive battery that included measures of fluid ability (i.e., processing speed, working memory, inductive reasoning) and crystallized ability (i.e., multiple measures of vocabulary). These measures were used to predict performance on EPT. Everyday problem solving showed an increase in performance from young to early middle age, with performance beginning to decrease at about age of 50 years. As hypothesized, fluid ability was the primary predictor of performance on everyday problem solving for young adults, but with increasing age, crystallized ability became the dominant predictor. This study provides evidence that everyday problem solving ability differs with age, and, more importantly, that the processes underlying it differ with age as well. The findings indicate that older adults increasingly rely on knowledge to support everyday problem solving, whereas young adults rely almost exclusively on fluid intelligence. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

[Movement disorders is psychiatric diseases].

PubMed

Hidasi, Zoltan; Salacz, Pal; Csibri, Eva

2014-12-01

Movement disorders are common in psychiatry. The movement disorder can either be the symptom of a psychiatric disorder, can share a common aetiological factor with it, or can be the consequence of psychopharmacological therapy. Most common features include tic, stereotypy, compulsion, akathisia, dyskinesias, tremor, hypokinesia and disturbances of posture and gait. We discuss characteristics and clinical importance of these features. Movement disorders are frequently present in mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, catatonia, Tourette-disorder and psychogenic movement disorder, leading to differential-diagnostic and therapeutical difficulties in everyday practice. Movement disorders due to psychopharmacotherapy can be classified as early-onset, late-onset and tardive. Frequent psychiatric comorbidity is found in primary movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, Wilson's disease, Huntington's disease, diffuse Lewy-body disorder. Complex neuropsychiatric approach is effective concerning overlapping clinical features and spectrums of disorders in terms of movement disorders and psychiatric diseases.

Teaching Science Through the Language of Students in Technology-Enhanced Instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryoo, Kihyun

2015-02-01

This study examines whether and how tapping into students' everyday language in a web-based learning environment can improve all students' science learning in linguistically heterogeneous classrooms. A total of 220 fifth-grade English Language Learners (ELLs) and their non-ELL peers were assigned to either an everyday English approach condition or a textbook approach condition, and completed technology-enhanced instruction focusing on respiration and photosynthesis. Students in the everyday English approach condition were taught the concepts in everyday, conversational English before content-specific scientific terms were introduced, while students in the textbook approach condition were taught the same concepts and vocabulary simultaneously. The results show that the everyday English approach was significantly more effective in helping both ELLs and non-ELL students develop a coherent understanding of abstract concepts related to photosynthesis and respiration. Students in the everyday English approach condition were also better able to link content-specific terms to their understanding of the concepts. These findings show the potential advantage of using students' everyday English as a resource to make science more accessible to linguistically diverse students in mainstream classrooms. By integrating students' everyday language in science instruction, it is possible for all students including ELLs to acquire both the content and language of science.

Online processing of moral transgressions: ERP evidence for spontaneous evaluation

PubMed Central

Kunkel, Angelika; Mackenzie, Ian G.; Filik, Ruth

2015-01-01

Experimental studies using fictional moral dilemmas indicate that both automatic emotional processes and controlled cognitive processes contribute to moral judgments. However, not much is known about how people process socio-normative violations that are more common to their everyday life nor the time-course of these processes. Thus, we recorded participants’ electrical brain activity while they were reading vignettes that either contained morally acceptable vs unacceptable information or text materials that contained information which was either consistent or inconsistent with their general world knowledge. A first event-related brain potential (ERP) positivity peaking at ∼200 ms after critical word onset (P200) was larger when this word involved a socio-normative or knowledge-based violation. Subsequently, knowledge-inconsistent words triggered a larger centroparietal ERP negativity at ∼320 ms (N400), indicating an influence on meaning construction. In contrast, a larger ERP positivity (larger late positivity), which also started at ∼320 ms after critical word onset, was elicited by morally unacceptable compared with acceptable words. We take this ERP positivity to reflect an implicit evaluative (good–bad) categorization process that is engaged during the online processing of moral transgressions. PMID:25556210

A behavioral medicine intervention for older women living alone with chronic pain – a feasibility study

PubMed Central

Cederbom, Sara; Rydwik, Elisabeth; Söderlund, Anne; Denison, Eva; Frändin, Kerstin; von Heideken Wågert, Petra

2014-01-01

Background To be an older woman, live alone, have chronic pain, and be dependent on support are all factors that may have an impact on daily life. One way to promote ability in everyday activities in people with pain-related conditions is to use individualized, integrated behavioral medicine in physical therapy interventions. How this kind of intervention works for older women living alone at home, with chronic pain, and dependent on formal care to manage their everyday lives has not been studied. The aim was to explore the feasibility of a study and to evaluate an individually tailored integrated behavioral medicine in physical therapy intervention for the target group of women. Materials and methods The study was a 12-week randomized trial with two-group design. Primary effect outcomes were pain-related disability and morale. Secondary effect outcomes focused on pain-related beliefs, self-efficacy for exercise, concerns of falling, physical activity, and physical performance. Results In total, 23 women agreed to participate in the study and 16 women completed the intervention. The results showed that the behavioral medicine in physical therapy intervention was feasible. No effects were seen on the primary effect outcomes. The experimental intervention seemed to improve the level of physical activity and self-efficacy for exercise. Some of the participants in both groups perceived that they could manage their everyday life in a better way after participation in the study. Conclusion Results from this study are encouraging, but the study procedure and interventions have to be refined and tested in a larger feasibility study to be able to evaluate the effects of these kinds of interventions on pain-related disability, pain-related beliefs, self-efficacy in everyday activities, and morale in the target group. Further research is also needed to refine and evaluate effects from individualized reminder routines, support to collect self-report data, safety procedures for balance training, and training of personnel to enhance self-efficacy. PMID:25170262

Pregnant women's navigation of information on everyday household chemicals: phthalates as a case study.

PubMed

Ashley, Justin M; Hodgson, Alexandra; Sharma, Sapna; Nisker, Jeff

2015-11-25

Current developments in science and the media have now placed pregnant women in a precarious situation as they are charged with the responsibility to navigate through information sources to make the best decisions for her pregnancy. Yet little is known regarding how pregnant women want to receive and use health information in general, let alone information regarding the uncertain risks to pregnancy in everyday household products such as phthalates found in cosmetics and canned food liners. Using phthalates as an example, this study investigated how pregnant women obtain, evaluate, and act on information regarding their pregnancy. Pregnant women were recruited using pamphlets and posters distributed in prenatal clinics, prenatal fairs and physician offices in Southwestern Ontario Canada. Research participants were engaged in 20 to 40 min semi-structured interviews regarding their use of information sources in pregnancy, particularly regarding phthalates in cosmetics and canned food liners. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using constructivist grounded theory techniques supported by NVivo 9™ software. Theoretical sufficiency was reached after 23 pregnant women were interviewed and their transcripts analyzed. Three overlapping themes resulted from the co-constructed analysis: I-Strength of Information Sources; II-Value Modifiers; and III-Deciding to Control Exposure. The research participants reported receiving information from a wide range of sources that they perceived varying in strength or believability. They then described the strategies employed to increase the validity of the message in order to avoid risk exposure. Pregnant women preferred a strong source of information such as physician, government but frequently used weak sources such as the internet or the opinions of friends. A model was developed from the relationship between themes that describes how pregnant women navigate the multiple sources of information available to them. Our study provides insight into how pregnant women receive, appraise, and act on information regarding everyday household chemicals. Clinicians and their professional organizations should produce specific educational materials to assist women in understanding exposure to everyday products in pregnancy.

Interactive influences of ethnicity, endothelin-1 gene, and everyday discrimination upon nocturnal ambulatory blood pressure.

PubMed

Gregoski, Mathew J; Buxbaum, Sarah G; Kapuku, Gaston; Dong, Yanbin; Zhu, Haidong; Davis, Mary; Gonto, Kelsey; Treiber, Frank A

2013-06-01

Everyday discrimination scale scores are associated with increased ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and reduced nocturnal dipping, and the endothelin-1 (ET-1)/Lys198Asn polymorphism is associated with increased resting BP and exaggerated BP reactivity among African Americans compared to European Americans. Combined influences of these factors on BP control are unknown. This study tested the hypothesis of a three-way interaction between ethnicity, ET-1 carrier status, and everyday discrimination upon ambulatory BP and nocturnal dipping. Baseline laboratory anthropometrics and the everyday discrimination scale were completed by 352 (175 African American) young adult normotensives, followed by 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring. For nocturnal dipping, multiple regression models controlling for age, sex, ethnicity, and body mass index revealed significant three-way ET-1 × everyday discrimination × ethnicity interactions. Specifically, among African American ET-1 T-allele carriers, increases in everyday discrimination led to reduced nocturnal dipping. African Americans that carry the ET-1/Lys198Asn T-allele and report higher everyday discrimination scores may be at particular risk for reduced nocturnal dipping.

Rehabilitation of everyday memory deficits in paediatric brain injury: self-instruction and diary training.

PubMed

Ho, Joanna; Epps, Adrienne; Parry, Louise; Poole, Miriam; Lah, Suncica

2011-04-01

Memory problems that interfere with everyday living are frequently reported in children who have sustained acquired brain injury (ABI), but their nature and rehabilitation is under-researched. This study aimed to (1) determine neuropsychological correlates of everyday memory deficits in children with ABI, and (2) investigate the effectiveness of a newly developed programme for their rehabilitation. We assessed everyday memory, verbal memory, attention and behaviour in 15 children with ABI. The children attended the everyday memory rehabilitation programme: six weekly sessions that involved diary training, self-instruction training and case examples. At the onset we found that everyday memory problems were related to impaired attention and behavioural difficulties. On completion of the programme there was a significant increase in children's abilities to perform daily routines that demanded recall of information and events. In addition, children used diaries more frequently. Moreover, significant secondary gains were found in attention and mood (anxiety and depression). In conclusion, the results provided preliminary evidence that our six week programme could be effective in reducing everyday memory difficulties and improving psychological well-being in children with ABI.

Interactive Influences of Ethnicity, Endothelin-1 Gene, and Everyday Discrimination Upon Nocturnal Ambulatory Blood Pressure

PubMed Central

Gregoski, Mathew J.; Buxbaum, Sarah G.; Kapuku, Gaston; Dong, Yanbin; Zhu, Haidong; Davis, Mary; Gonto, Kelsey; Treiber, Frank A.

2013-01-01

Background Everyday discrimination scale scores are associated with increased ambulatory blood pressure (BP), and reduced nocturnal dipping, and the ET-1/Lys198Asn polymorphism is associated with increased resting BP and exaggerated BP reactivity among African Americans compared to European Americans. Combined influences of these factors on BP control are unknown. Purpose This study tested the hypothesis of a three-way interaction between ethnicity, ET-1 carrier status and everyday discrimination upon ambulatory BP and nocturnal dipping. Methods Baseline laboratory anthropometrics and the everyday discrimination scale were completed by 351 (175 African American) young adult normotensives; followed by 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring. Results For nocturnal dipping, multiple regression models controlling for age, sex, race, and BMI revealed significant three-way ET-1 x everyday discrimination x ethnicity interactions. Specifically, among African American ET-1 T-allele carriers, increases in everyday discrimination led to reduced nocturnal dipping. Conclusions African Americans that carry the ET1/Lys198Asn T-allele and report higher everyday discrimination scores may be at particular risk for reduced nocturnal dipping. PMID:23436272

Essence of Excellence - Lessons from Naval Executives About Superior Performing Tactical and Readiness Staffs.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-06-01

the organization. 21 7L III. CONSISTENCY -THE INSTRUMENT OF PERFORMANCE "Knowle -dge of our duties is the most essential part of the philosophy of life ...to accomplish them. This means remaining flex- ible under the operation of everyday crisis situ- ations. It requires focusing on what is important...as a way of life . All actions are dominated by a common vision or goal shared throughout the staff. These staffs are innovators, 15 - . t. excellent

Thermal Network Modelling Handbook

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

Thermal mathematical modelling is discussed in detail. A three-fold purpose was established: (1) to acquaint the new user with the terminology and concepts used in thermal mathematical modelling, (2) to present the more experienced and occasional user with quick formulas and methods for solving everyday problems, coupled with study cases which lend insight into the relationships that exist among the various solution techniques and parameters, and (3) to begin to catalog in an orderly fashion the common formulas which may be applied to automated conversational language techniques.

[Practical approach to management of gynecomastia: six questions to be answered by the paediatrician regarding a patient with gynecomastia].

PubMed

2011-08-01

Pubertal gynecomastia is a common concern in the consultation of the adolescent. Usually, it is accompanied by an emotional component that can lead to changes in everyday attitudes of youth. The responsability of the pediatrician is to rule out other etiologies, to avoid unnecessary additional studies, to limit active therapeutic attitudes, and to reaffirm the variation of normality. We briefly describe six eminently practical questions to be answered by the physician.

[Food addiction].

PubMed

Locatelli, L; Correia, J C; Golay, A

2015-03-25

Food addiction is a common term used in everyday language by obese patients. Although the neurobiological evidence points to some similarities between addictive mechanisms and the consumption of certain foods, this diagnosis is not yet officially recognized. After a brief history of food addiction compared to other eating disorders, we review the neurobiological processes underlying this concept. A food addiction assessment tool is presented and discussed with the current literature and new classifications of the DSM-5. The concept of food addiction needs to be rethought and requires further research.

Antarctica Meta-Analysis: Psychosocial Factors Related to Long Duration Isolation and Confinement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leveton, Lauren; Shea, Camille; Slack, Kelley J.; Keeton, Kathryn E.; Palinkas, Lawrence A.

2009-01-01

This meta-analysis is examining the psychological effects of wintering-over in Antarctica. As an isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environment, Antarctica provides invaluable opportunities to experience stressors more common to spaceflight than to the average person s everyday life. Increased prevalence of psychological symptoms, syndromes, and psychiatric disorders, as well as positive effects, are expected to be associated with various demographic and environmental factors. Implications for spaceflight are discussed. Findings from statistical review of the Antarctic articles will be shared.

[Hyperammonemia type II as an example of urea cycle disorder].

PubMed

Hawrot-Kawecka, Anna M; Kawecki, Grzegorz P; Duława, Jan

2006-01-01

Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency is the most common inherited urea cycle disorder. Its clinical manifestations as lethargy, vomites, coma and cerebral edema are the effect of the higher concentration of the ammonia in plasma. Hyperammonemia, caused by mutation in ornithine transcarbamylase gene, is often considered as a reason of coma by pediatricians but skipped by internist, although it is the third reason of hepatic coma in adults. This article is the recapitulation of published studies and their implication on everyday clinical practice.

Rare-Earth Metals and Their Applications in Aviation

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-08-01

metals are not as common as iron and steel which are visible everywhere, yet they are not unfamiliar to us. We often encounter them in everyday life...the flint of a lighter. It is an alloy of rare-earth metal and iron . It contains about 30% iron and the remainder is a composite rare-earth alloy...used to manufacture the detonators of bullets and shells as well as the pyrophoric alloys of firing devices. This type of alloy has a 49.5% content of

"A little information excites us." Consumer sensory experience of Vermont artisan cheese as active practice.

PubMed

Lahne, Jacob; Trubek, Amy B

2014-07-01

This research is concerned with explaining consumer preference for Vermont artisan cheese and the relationship between that preference and sensory experience. Artisan cheesemaking is increasingly an important part of Vermont's dairy sector, and this tracks a growing trend of artisan agricultural practice in the United States. In popular discourse and academic research into products like artisan cheese, consumers explain their preferences in terms of intrinsic sensory and extrinsic - supposedly nonsensory - food qualities. In laboratory sensory studies, however, the relationship between preference, intrinsic, and extrinsic qualities changes or disappears. In contrast, this study explains this relationship by adopting a social theory of sensory perception as a practice in everyday life. This theory is applied to a series of focus group interviews with Vermont artisan cheese consumers about their everyday perceptions. Based on the data, a conceptual framework for the sensory perception of Vermont artisan cheese is suggested: consumers combine information about producer practice, social context, and the materiality of the product through an active, learned practice of sensory perception. Particular qualities that drive consumer sensory experience and preference are identified from the interview data. Many of these qualities are difficult to categorize as entirely intrinsic or extrinsic, highlighting the need for developing new approaches of sensory evaluation in order to fully capture everyday consumer sensory perception. Thus, this research demonstrates that social theory provides new and valuable insights into consumer sensory preference for Vermont artisan cheese. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical warfare in Colombia, evidentiary ecologies and senti-actuando practices of justice.

PubMed

Lyons, Kristina

2018-03-01

Between 1994 and 2015, militarized aerial fumigation was a central component of US-Colombia antidrug policy. Crop duster planes sprayed a concentrated formula of Monsanto's herbicide, glyphosate, over illicit crops, and also forests, soils, pastures, livestock, watersheds, subsistence food and human bodies. Given that a national peace agreement was signed in 2016 between FARC-EP guerrillas and the state to end Colombia's over five decades of war, certain government officials are quick to proclaim aerial fumigation of glyphosate an issue of the past. Rural communities, however, file quejas (complaints or grievances) seeking compensation from the state for the ongoing effects of the destruction of their licit agro-forestry. At the interfaces of feminist science and technology studies and anthropology, this article examines how evidentiary claims are mobilized when war deeply politicizes and moralizes technoscientific knowledge production. By ethnographically tracking the grievances filed by small farmers, I reveal the extent to which evidence circulating in zones of war - tree seedlings, subsistence crops, GPS coordinates and bureaucratic documents - retains (or not) the imprints of violence and toxicity. Given the systematic rejection of compensation claims, farmers engage in everyday material practices that attempt to transform chemically degraded ecologies. These everyday actualizations of justice exist both alongside and outside contestation over the geopolitically backed violence of state law. Rather than simply contrasting everyday acts of justice with denunciatory claims made against the state, farmers' reparative practices produce an evidentiary ecology that holds the state accountable while also ' senti-actuando' (feel-acting) alternative forms of justice.

Digit Span as a measure of everyday attention: a study of ecological validity.

PubMed

Groth-Marnat, Gary; Baker, Sonya

2003-12-01

This study investigated the effectiveness of the WAIS-III Digit Span subtest to predict the everyday attention of 75 participants with heterogeneous neurological conditions who were administered the Digit Span subtest as well as the ecologically valid Test of Everyday Attention. In addition, the more visually oriented Picture Completion subtest along with the verbally loaded National Adult Reading Test were administered. Analysis indicated that, although Digit Span was a weak but statistically significant predictor of attentional ability (accounting for 12.7% of the unique variance). Picture Completion was a somewhat stronger predictor (accounting for 19% of the unique variance). The weak association of Digit Span and the Test of Everyday Attention, along with the finding that Picture Completion was a better predictor of performance on the Test of Everyday Attention, question the clinical utility of using Digit Span as a measure of everyday attention.

Affective and Motivational Factors Mediate the Relation between Math Skills and Use of Math in Everyday Life

PubMed Central

Jansen, Brenda R. J.; Schmitz, Eva A.; van der Maas, Han L. J.

2016-01-01

This study focused on the use of math in everyday life (the propensity to recognize and solve quantitative issues in real life situations). Data from a Dutch nation-wide research on math among adults (N = 521) were used to investigate the question whether math anxiety and perceived math competence mediated the relationship between math skills and use of math in everyday life, taken gender differences into account. Results showed that women reported higher math anxiety, lower perceived math competence, and lower use of math in everyday life, compared to men. Women's skills were estimated at a lower level than men's. For both women and men, higher skills were associated with higher perceived math competence, which in turn was associated with more use of math in everyday life. Only for women, math anxiety also mediated the relation between math skills and use of math in everyday life. PMID:27148122

Everyday attention.

PubMed

Risko, Evan F; Kingstone, Alan

2017-06-01

Understanding the basic mechanisms underlying attentional function using naturalistic stimuli, tasks, and/or settings is the focus of everyday attention research. Interest in everyday approaches to attention research has increased recently-arguably riding a more general wave of support for such considerations in experimental psychology. This special issue of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology attempts to capture the emerging enthusiasm for studying everyday attention by bringing together work from a wide array of attentional domains (e.g., visual attention, dual tasking, search, mind wandering, social attention) that are representative of this general approach. The 14 contributions to the special issue highlight the breadth of topics addressed in this research, the methodological creativity required to carry it out, and the promise of everyday attention for understanding the basic mechanisms underlying attentional function. This introduction will summarise the everyday attention approach as represented in the contributions to the special issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Do everyday problems of people with chronic illness interfere with their disease management?

PubMed

van Houtum, Lieke; Rijken, Mieke; Groenewegen, Peter

2015-10-01

Being chronically ill is a continuous process of balancing the demands of the illness and the demands of everyday life. Understanding how everyday life affects self-management might help to provide better professional support. However, little attention has been paid to the influence of everyday life on self-management. The purpose of this study is to examine to what extent problems in everyday life interfere with the self-management behaviour of people with chronic illness, i.e. their ability to manage their illness. To estimate the effects of having everyday problems on self-management, cross-sectional linear regression analyses with propensity score matching were conducted. Data was used from 1731 patients with chronic disease(s) who participated in a nationwide Dutch panel-study. One third of people with chronic illness encounter basic (e.g. financial, housing, employment) or social (e.g. partner, children, sexual or leisure) problems in their daily life. Younger people, people with poor health and people with physical limitations are more likely to have everyday problems. Experiencing basic problems is related to less active coping behaviour, while experiencing social problems is related to lower levels of symptom management and less active coping behaviour. The extent of everyday problems interfering with self-management of people with chronic illness depends on the type of everyday problems encountered, as well as on the type of self-management activities at stake. Healthcare providers should pay attention to the life context of people with chronic illness during consultations, as patients' ability to manage their illness is related to it.

The lived experience of engaging in everyday occupations in persons with mild to moderate aphasia.

PubMed

Niemi, Tuuli; Johansson, Ulla

2013-10-01

Impairment of language ability, aphasia, can cause barriers to communication and hence impact on participation in many life situations. This study aimed to describe and explore how persons with aphasia following stroke experience engaging in everyday occupations. Six persons from Southwest Finland who had aphasia due to stroke one to four years previously were interviewed for the study. A modified form of the empirical phenomenological psychological method was used for data analysis. Three main characteristics of experiences of engaging in everyday occupations were identified: (1) encountering new experiences in everyday occupations, (2) striving to handle everyday occupations and (3) going ahead with life. The participants had experienced an altering life-world. Engagement in occupations affected their perceptions of competence and identity, and experiences of belonging and well-being. It was also through engagement in everyday occupations that they had discovered and learnt to handle changes in their everyday life. Aphasia can have a long-term impact on engagement in everyday occupations and participation in society, but conversely, engagement in meaningful occupations can also contribute to adaptation to disability and life changes. Aphasia can have a long-term impact on engagement in everyday occupations and participation in society. Health care professionals need to determine what clients with aphasia think about their occupations and life situations in spite of difficulties they may have verbalizing their thoughts. Experiences of engaging in meaningful occupations can help clients with aphasia in reconstructing their life stories, thereby contributing to adaptation to disability and life changes.

A Classroom Activity for Teaching Electric Polarization of Insulators and Conductors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deligkaris, Christos

2018-04-01

The phenomenon of electric polarization is crucial to student understanding of forces exerted between charged objects and insulators or conductors, the process of charging by induction, and the behavior of electroscopes near charged objects. In addition, polarization allows for microscopic-level models of everyday-life macroscopic-level phenomena. Textbooks may adequately discuss polarization, but there is little material in active learning labs and tutorials on this topic. Since polarization of materials is a microscopic phenomenon, instructors often use diagrams and figures on the classroom board to explain the process in a lecture setting. In this paper I will describe a classroom activity where the students play the role of electrons as an alternative option.

Life and the laundromat: reflections on dirty linen and everyday private life.

PubMed

Lawler, J

1997-09-01

This is a paper in which I reflect on, and draw issues from, an unplanned ethnographic experience in a London laundromat. The concept of 'everyday life' has a kind of simple, even benign, quality. However, there are many events in everyday life that are complex and complicating. Everyday life can be mundane--boring even. But it can also confront and trouble us, even when it concerns such apparently ordinary matters like doing the laundry. This paper is about how the ordinary matters of everyday life can become problematic and how our involvement in them can confront us with dilemmas that are unwanted yet require our attention and judgement as participants in social life.

Changes in experienced value of everyday occupations after nature-based vocational rehabilitation.

PubMed

Pálsdóttir, Anna María; Grahn, Patrik; Persson, Dennis

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to describe and assess changes in participants' experiences of everyday occupations after nature-based vocational rehabilitation (NBVR), to assess changes regarding symptoms of severe stress and the rate of return to work and possible association with experiencing the occupational value of everyday occupations. The NBVR was carried out by a transdisciplinary rehabilitation team and took place in a specially designed rehabilitation garden. The study had a longitudinal and mixed-method approach. Data concerning experiences of everyday occupations (Oval-pd), self-assessed occupational competence (OSA-F), health status (EQ-VAS, SCI-93), and sense of coherence (SOC-13) were collected before and after the intervention, and a one-year follow-up was carried out regarding returning to work. Semi-structured interviews were performed 12 weeks after the intervention. Significant changes were measured regarding perceived occupational values in daily life, symptoms of severe stress, and returning to work. Both the return to work rate and symptoms of severe stress were significantly associated with changed experience of everyday occupation. In the interviews, participants explained that they now had a slower pace of everyday life and that everyday occupations were more often related to nature and creativity. This could be interpreted as nature-based rehabilitation inducing changes through meaningful occupations in restorative environments, leading to a positive change in perceived values of everyday occupations.

The surgical manegement of metastases to humerus-clinical evaluation.

PubMed

Chrobok, Adam; Spindel, Jerzy; Miszczyk, Leszek; Koczy, Bogdan; Pilecki, Bogdan; Jarosz, Adam; Mrozek, Tomasz

2003-06-30

Background. The humerus is a common localisation of cancer metastases. The restoration of anatomical order and tumor resection within humerus is important for patients quality of everyday life and for their pain relief. The surgical treatment is one of the most important part of the whole oncological ways of tratment.
The study objective was a clinical assesment of tumor resection and reconstruction within humerus according to matastasis localisation and the choice of surgical technique.
Material and methods. In the years 1999-2002 19 patients underwent surgery due to pathological fracture or/and cancer metastasis within humerus. The shaft localisation of the tumor was found in 8 cases and in 11 patients the metastatic foci were found in proximnal diaphysis. In patients with proximal diaphysis localisation of the tumor the partial resection with subsequent joint exchange procedure was made. The humeral shaft metastatic cancer changes were treated by the segmental resection with subsequent surgical cement filling or auto/allogenical bone grafting combined with intramedullary nail or AO/ASIF plate stabilisation. The average follow-up period was 8,5 months.
Results. In patients after resection with shoulder joint alloplasty according to the Enneking test a very good result was found in 7 and very good in 4 cases.
In patients with femoral shaft metastatic tumor locaslisation, 6 good and 2 fair results were found. In 1 patient after 2 months rehabilitation a reoperation was needed due to the mechanical destabilisation. The best results were found in patients after intramedullary nailing.An acute soft tissue inflamation requiering surgical treatment was found in 1 patient after shoulder joint replacement.
Conclusions. After clinical analysis of the material we highly recomend the partial humeral bone resection with subsequent shoulder alloplasty in patients with proximal humeral diaphysis metastatic localisation. In cases with shaft localisation a better results were found after intramedullary nailing compared to common plate technique.

Mechanical and durability characteristics of externally GFRP reinforced unsaturated polyester polymer concrete

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouguessir, H.; Harkati, E.; Rokbi, M.; Priniotakis, G.; Vassiliadis, S.

2017-10-01

The last decades of the XXe century cognized a huge extent of composite materials uses to almost all everyday life’s applications, replacing the conventional materials, due to their outstanding properties especially highest strength-to-weight ratio and the ability to be designed to satisfy specific performance requirements. To get the most out of these wonder materials, a new concept, combining polymer concrete and composite laminates, is currently used in Algeria. This research work has the aim to investigate applicability of this concept in civil engineering through tensile and bending tests. On the other hand, the influence of various chemicals (Sodium hydroxide, Potassium Hydroxide and Calcium Carbonates) on our material and its tensile properties retention over long-time exposure was examined. The mechanical properties obtained indicate the convenience of this material for use in civil engineering thanks to its very good tensile and flexural performances in addition to its sufficient residual strength after theoretically 56 years.

Preferred strategies for workforce development: feedback from aged care workers.

PubMed

Choy, Sarojni; Henderson, Amanda

2016-11-01

Objective The aim of the present study was to investigate how aged care workers prefer to learn and be supported in continuing education and training activities. Methods Fifty-one workers in aged care facilities from metropolitan and rural settings across two states of Australia participated in a survey and interviews. Survey responses were analysed for frequencies and interview data provided explanations to the survey findings. Results The three most common ways workers were currently learning and prefer to continue to learn are: (1) everyday learning through work individually; (2) everyday learning through work individually assisted by other workers; and (3) everyday learning plus group training courses at work from the employer. The three most common types of provisions that supported workers in their learning were: (1) working and sharing with another person on the job; (2) direct teaching in a group (e.g. a trainer in a classroom at work); and (3) direct teaching by a workplace expert. Conclusions A wholly practice-based continuing education and training model is best suited for aged care workers. Two variations of this model could be considered: (1) a wholly practice-based model for individual learning; and (2) a wholly practice-based model with guidance from coworkers or other experts. Although the model is preferred by workers and convenient for employers, it needs to be well resourced. What is known about the topic? Learning needs for aged care workers are increasing significantly because of an aging population that demands more care workers. Workforce development is largely 'episodic', based on organisational requirements rather than systematic life-long learning. This study is part of a larger 3-year Australian research to investigate models of continuing education training. What does this paper add? Based on an analysis of survey and interview data from 51 workers, the present study suggests effective models of workforce development for aged care workers. What are the implications for practitioners? The effectiveness of the suggested models necessitates a culture where aged care workers' advancement in the workplace is valued and supported. Those responsible for the development of these workers need to be adequately prepared for mentoring and coaching in the workplace.

Everyday life in breast cancer survivors experiencing challenges: A qualitative study.

PubMed

Jakobsen, Klara; Magnus, Eva; Lundgren, Steinar; Reidunsdatter, Randi J

2017-05-31

Early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer results in an increasing number of survivors, some of whom face new challenges in their transition to daily life. Based on these experiences, the aim of this study was to describe the everyday life in breast cancer survivors experiencing challenges. Eleven women recruited from a follow-up study of breast cancer patients participated in qualitative interviews about their everyday occupations seven years after ending treatment. The inductive analysis revealed ten categories that were organized into five subthemes under the two main themes 'bodily and mental loneliness' and 'new center of gravity in everyday life'. Findings showed how relevant information and guidance; active support to the client and their relatives; and a balance between occupations at home and at work were important matters to handle their everyday life challenges. By assisting these women in finding new patterns of meaningful occupations that positively affect their everyday life, the study suggests some central elements to be included in future follow-up practice for breast cancer survivors. Approaching this goal, occupational therapists should contribute to more involvement assisting cancer survivors and their partners in finding new patterns of meaningful occupations that positively affect their everyday life.

Longitudinal changes in everyday life after home modifications for people aging with disabilities.

PubMed

Petersson, Ingela; Kottorp, Anders; Bergström, Jakob; Lilja, Margareta

2009-05-01

To investigate longitudinal impacts of home modifications on the difficulty of performing everyday life tasks for people aging with disabilities, and to investigate whether other factors had any additional impacts on difficulty in everyday life tasks for people receiving home modifications. The sample consisted of 103 persons aging with disabilities and in need of home modifications, divided into an intervention group and a comparison group. The data were first subjected to Rasch analysis and a random coefficient model was used. Participants in the intervention group reported a significantly lower level of difficulty in everyday life tasks compared with those in the comparison group. One confounding factor, number of months waiting for home modification, had an impact on difficulty in everyday life. Home modifications are effective in decreasing difficulty in performing everyday life tasks up to six months after the installation. Furthermore, to be effective home modifications need to be installed in a timely fashion. For each consecutive month the person waited for their home modification the difficulty of performing everyday life tasks increased. Therefore, it is important that home modifications be installed as soon as possible after the need has been identified.

Team reasoning: Solving the puzzle of coordination.

PubMed

Colman, Andrew M; Gold, Natalie

2017-11-03

In many everyday activities, individuals have a common interest in coordinating their actions. Orthodox game theory cannot explain such intuitively obvious forms of coordination as the selection of an outcome that is best for all in a common-interest game. Theories of team reasoning provide a convincing solution by proposing that people are sometimes motivated to maximize the collective payoff of a group and that they adopt a distinctive mode of reasoning from preferences to decisions. This also offers a compelling explanation of cooperation in social dilemmas. A review of team reasoning and related theories suggests how team reasoning could be incorporated into psychological theories of group identification and social value orientation theory to provide a deeper understanding of these phenomena.

Brain-computer interfacing under distraction: an evaluation study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brandl, Stephanie; Frølich, Laura; Höhne, Johannes; Müller, Klaus-Robert; Samek, Wojciech

2016-10-01

Objective. While motor-imagery based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been studied over many years by now, most of these studies have taken place in controlled lab settings. Bringing BCI technology into everyday life is still one of the main challenges in this field of research. Approach. This paper systematically investigates BCI performance under 6 types of distractions that mimic out-of-lab environments. Main results. We report results of 16 participants and show that the performance of the standard common spatial patterns (CSP) + regularized linear discriminant analysis classification pipeline drops significantly in this ‘simulated’ out-of-lab setting. We then investigate three methods for improving the performance: (1) artifact removal, (2) ensemble classification, and (3) a 2-step classification approach. While artifact removal does not enhance the BCI performance significantly, both ensemble classification and the 2-step classification combined with CSP significantly improve the performance compared to the standard procedure. Significance. Systematically analyzing out-of-lab scenarios is crucial when bringing BCI into everyday life. Algorithms must be adapted to overcome nonstationary environments in order to tackle real-world challenges.

Differential effects of wakeful rest, music and video game playing on working memory performance in the n-back task.

PubMed

Kuschpel, Maxim S; Liu, Shuyan; Schad, Daniel J; Heinzel, Stephan; Heinz, Andreas; Rapp, Michael A

2015-01-01

The interruption of learning processes by breaks filled with diverse activities is common in everyday life. We investigated the effects of active computer gaming and passive relaxation (rest and music) breaks on working memory performance. Young adults were exposed to breaks involving (i) eyes-open resting, (ii) listening to music and (iii) playing the video game "Angry Birds" before performing the n-back working memory task. Based on linear mixed-effects modeling, we found that playing the "Angry Birds" video game during a short learning break led to a decline in task performance over the course of the task as compared to eyes-open resting and listening to music, although overall task performance was not impaired. This effect was associated with high levels of daily mind wandering and low self-reported ability to concentrate. These findings indicate that video games can negatively affect working memory performance over time when played in between learning tasks. We suggest further investigation of these effects because of their relevance to everyday activity.

'Somebody there to watch over you': the role of the family in everyday and emergency diabetes care.

PubMed

Gunn, Kathleen L; Seers, Kate; Posner, Natasha; Coates, Vivien

2012-11-01

This paper reports on the role of family members in everyday diabetes self-care and in diabetic crises. It is based on qualitative data drawn from 45 semi-structured interviews with a wide range of people with an established diagnosis of Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, who were admitted to hospital for urgent or emergency treatment in connection with their diabetes. The interviews were carried out in two contrasting sites in the United Kingdom in 2009-2010, transcribed and analysed thematically with particular reference to framework analysis methods. We found that family involvement in self-care was common, and the role of family and friends was especially important when the person with diabetes needed urgent help. We comment on the diversity of family members who assisted regularly or dealt with crises, the importance of taking account of the complexities of family life, including reciprocal care, and the particular problems faced by people without family support. Finally, we make recommendations for further research and for improvements in existing services. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The great efficacy of personal and equipment assistance in reducing disability.

PubMed Central

Verbrugge, L M; Rennert, C; Madans, J H

1997-01-01

OBJECTIVES: Personal and equipment assistance are common strategies to reduce disability. This study sought to determine how often assistance reduces or even completely resolves health-related difficulties in everyday tasks. METHODS: Data are from the NHANES I Epidemiologic Followup Study. Adults aged 35 to 90 reported difficulty doing 12 everyday tasks on their own without assistance. Those stating that they had much difficulty or were unable were asked if they had personal assistance and/or equipment assistance, and their degree of difficulty with assistance. Use and efficacy of assistance are studied by gender, age, intrinsic (unassisted) degree of difficulty, and type of assistance. RESULTS: Most people use assistance for the 12 tasks; "personal assistance only" is the principal type used for upper-extremity and body transfer tasks; "equipment only" ranks first for lower-extremity tasks. Assistance reduces difficulty for the great majority of persons (75% to 85%) and completely resolves difficulty for about 25%. Equipment only proves to be the most efficacious strategy for reducing and resolving limitations. CONCLUSIONS: Equipment's success may be due to greater perceived gains when people accomplish the assistance by themselves. PMID:9096538

Preliminary Findings of the Brief Everyday Activities Measurement (BEAM) in Older Adults.

PubMed

Scharaga, E A; Holtzer, R

2015-11-01

Functional losses are common in healthy and cognitively impaired older adults. However, subtle declines in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) are not always detected in self-reports. Performance IADL measurements are financially and time burdensome, restricting their use in varied settings. To address these limitations, we developed the Brief Everyday Activities Measure (BEAM), a short (< 5 minutes) objective IADL measure that assesses medication and finance management. The BEAM was administered to 209 cognitively non-demented community-dwellers (ages 65 - 95 years). Participants completed standardized motor, neuropsychological, psychological, and self-report functional assessments. BEAM completion time ranged from 54.16 to 259.31 seconds. Interclass correlations (ICC) for total BEAM completion time was moderate (0.65, 95% CI [.43 -.78]). Accuracy for total BEAM performance was in the low-moderate range (Kappa = 0.38, p < .001, 95% CI [.18 -.54]). As predicted, lower accuracy and longer time to complete the BEAM were both associated with worse executive functions, attention, and processing speed. Medication and finance management can be efficiently assessed within five minutes. The BEAM may be a valuable screening tool to evaluate these functional abilities.

Social Support in Two Cultures: Everyday Transactions in the U.S. and Empathic Assurance in Japan

PubMed Central

Morling, Beth; Uchida, Yukiko; Frentrup, Sandra

2015-01-01

We studied received social support using the cross-cultural method of situation sampling. College students from the US and Japan described and rated recent examples of received social support, both everyday support as well as support in response to stress. Middle class, European-American (EuA) students’ situations fit a model in which support is frequent and offered freely in interactions, even for relatively minor issues. Even when it’s unrequested, EuA support makes recipients feel in control, and support-givers are perceived to have acted by free choice. In contrast, results suggest that middle-class Japanese (Jpn) contexts favor support that is empathic and responsive to the recipients’ degree of need. Japanese support was experienced positively when it was emotional support, when it was in more serious situations and when the support was rated as needed by the recipient. In Japan, although problem-based support is most common, it is not particularly positive, apparently because it is less likely to be perceived as needed. PMID:26107165

The Impact of Service Dogs on Engagement in Occupation among Females with Mobility Impairments: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

PubMed Central

Herlache-Pretzer, Ellen; Winkle, Melissa Y.; Csatari, Rachel; Kolanowski, Alyssa; Londry, Amy; Dawson, Rachel

2017-01-01

It is becoming more common for people with disabilities to procure service dogs as a form of assistive technology (AT). However, there is little qualitative research examining the impact of service dogs on engagement in valued daily activities (occupations) among persons with mobility impairments. This study used a qualitative descriptive methodology to learn about the experiences of four female service dog owners with mobility impairments, with a focus on the impact of service dog use on the performance of daily occupations and participation in social activities, and their experiences utilizing a service dog as a form of AT. Data analysis indicated that each participant’s service dog made a significant impact on their everyday lives and their ability to independently perform everyday activities; however, there are also unique challenges associated with service dog ownership that must be considered when evaluating benefits of service dog partnership. Overall, the positive outcomes reported by participants indicate that service dogs can be considered a beneficial, adaptable form of AT for some persons with mobility impairments. PMID:28621752

The Impact of Service Dogs on Engagement in Occupation among Females with Mobility Impairments: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.

PubMed

Herlache-Pretzer, Ellen; Winkle, Melissa Y; Csatari, Rachel; Kolanowski, Alyssa; Londry, Amy; Dawson, Rachel

2017-06-16

It is becoming more common for people with disabilities to procure service dogs as a form of assistive technology (AT). However, there is little qualitative research examining the impact of service dogs on engagement in valued daily activities (occupations) among persons with mobility impairments. This study used a qualitative descriptive methodology to learn about the experiences of four female service dog owners with mobility impairments, with a focus on the impact of service dog use on the performance of daily occupations and participation in social activities, and their experiences utilizing a service dog as a form of AT. Data analysis indicated that each participant's service dog made a significant impact on their everyday lives and their ability to independently perform everyday activities; however, there are also unique challenges associated with service dog ownership that must be considered when evaluating benefits of service dog partnership. Overall, the positive outcomes reported by participants indicate that service dogs can be considered a beneficial, adaptable form of AT for some persons with mobility impairments.

Differential effects of wakeful rest, music and video game playing on working memory performance in the n-back task

PubMed Central

Kuschpel, Maxim S.; Liu, Shuyan; Schad, Daniel J.; Heinzel, Stephan; Heinz, Andreas; Rapp, Michael A.

2015-01-01

The interruption of learning processes by breaks filled with diverse activities is common in everyday life. We investigated the effects of active computer gaming and passive relaxation (rest and music) breaks on working memory performance. Young adults were exposed to breaks involving (i) eyes-open resting, (ii) listening to music and (iii) playing the video game “Angry Birds” before performing the n-back working memory task. Based on linear mixed-effects modeling, we found that playing the “Angry Birds” video game during a short learning break led to a decline in task performance over the course of the task as compared to eyes-open resting and listening to music, although overall task performance was not impaired. This effect was associated with high levels of daily mind wandering and low self-reported ability to concentrate. These findings indicate that video games can negatively affect working memory performance over time when played in between learning tasks. We suggest further investigation of these effects because of their relevance to everyday activity. PMID:26579055

Strategic offloading of delayed intentions into the external environment.

PubMed

Gilbert, Sam J

2015-01-01

In everyday life, we often use external artefacts such as diaries to help us remember intended behaviours. In addition, we commonly manipulate our environment, for example by placing reminders in noticeable places. Yet strategic offloading of intentions to the external environment is not typically permitted in laboratory tasks examining memory for delayed intentions. What factors influence our use of such strategies, and what behavioural consequences do they have? This article describes four online experiments (N = 1196) examining a novel web-based task in which participants hold intentions for brief periods, with the option to strategically externalize these intentions by creating a reminder. This task significantly predicted participants' fulfilment of a naturalistic intention embedded within their everyday activities up to one week later (with greater predictive ability than more traditional prospective memory tasks, albeit with weak effect size). Setting external reminders improved performance, and it was more prevalent in older adults. Furthermore, participants set reminders adaptively, based on (a) memory load, and (b) the likelihood of distraction. These results suggest the importance of metacognitive processes in triggering intention offloading, which can increase the probability that intentions are eventually fulfilled.

When Sandpaper Is 'Kiki' and Satin Is 'Bouba': an Exploration of the Associations Between Words, Emotional States, and the Tactile Attributes of Everyday Materials.

PubMed

Etzi, Roberta; Spence, Charles; Zampini, Massimiliano; Gallace, Alberto

2016-01-01

Over the last decade, scientists working on the topic of multisensory integration, as well as designers and marketers involved in trying to understand consumer behavior, have become increasingly interested in the non-arbitrary associations (e.g., sound symbolism) between different sensorial attributes of the stimuli they work with. Nevertheless, to date, little research in this area has investigated the presence of these crossmodal correspondences in the tactile evaluation of everyday materials. Here, we explore the presence and nature of the associations between tactile sensations, the sound of non-words, and people's emotional states. Samples of cotton, satin, tinfoil, sandpaper, and abrasive sponge, were stroked along the participants' forearm at the speed of 5 cm/s. Participants evaluated the materials along several dimensions, comprising scales anchored by pairs of non-words (e.g., Kiki/Bouba) and adjectives (e.g., ugly/beautiful). The results revealed that smoother textures were associated with non-words made up of round-shaped sounds (e.g., Maluma), whereas rougher textures were more strongly associated with sharp-transient sounds (e.g., Takete). The results also revealed the presence of a number of correspondences between tactile surfaces and adjectives related to visual and auditory attributes. For example, smooth textures were associated with features evoked by words such as 'bright' and 'quiet'; by contrast, the rougher textures were associated with adjectives such as 'dim' and 'loud'. The textures were also found to be associated with a number of emotional labels. Taken together, these results further our understanding of crossmodal correspondences involving the tactile modality and provide interesting insights in the applied field of design and marketing.

The importance of a daily rhythm in a supportive environment--promoting ability in activities in everyday life among older women living alone with chronic pain.

PubMed

Cederbom, Sara; Wågert, Petra von Heideken; Söderlund, Anne; Söderbäck, Maja

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to explore how older women living alone with chronic musculoskeletal pain, describe their ability in performing activities in everyday life and what could promote their ability in activities in everyday life as well as their perceived meaning of a changed ability to perform activities in everyday life. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 women, and an inductive content analysis was used. The results showed the importance of a daily rhythm of activities. Activities included in the daily rhythm were socializing with family and friends, physical activities, doing own activities as well as activities supported by relatives and the community. The activities described by the women also promoted their ability in activities in everyday life. Other findings were the women's perceived meaning of being independent and maintaining that independency, along with the meaning of accepting and adapting to a changed life situation. This paper concludes that it is important to be sensitive of individual needs regarding the daily rhythm of activities when health-care professionals intervene in the activities in everyday life of older women living alone, promote the women's independency, and enable them to participate in the community. Implications for Rehabilitation A daily rhythm of activities is important for older women who live alone with chronic musculoskeletal pain. The importance of health-care professionals being sensitive to individual needs to promote ability in activities in everyday life and to encourage the everyday activities into a daily rhythm. Facilitate the women's desire and will of independency, despite their needs of help from their environment to manage their everyday life.

Questionnaire-based evaluation of everyday competence in older adults.

PubMed

Kalisch, Tobias; Richter, Julia; Lenz, Melanie; Kattenstroth, Jan-Christoph; Kolankowska, Izabela; Tegenthoff, Martin; Dinse, Hubert R

2011-01-01

Gerontological research aims at understanding factors that are crucial for mediating "successful aging". This term denotes the absence of significant disease and disabilities, maintenance of high levels of physical and cognitive function, and preservation of social and productive activities. Preservation of an active lifestyle is considered an effective means through which everyday competence can be attained. In this context, it is crucial to obtain ratings of modern day older adults' everyday competence by means of appropriate assessments. Here, we introduce the Everyday Competence Questionnaire (ECQ), designed to assess healthy older adults' everyday competence. The ECQ includes 17 items, covering housekeeping, leisure activities, sports, daily routines, manual skills, subjective well-being, and general linguistic usage. The ECQ was administered to a population of 158 healthy subjects aged 60-91 years, who were divided into groups on the basis of their physical activity. These groups were community-dwelling subjects, those living independently and having a sedentary lifestyle, those living independently but characterized by a general lifestyle without any noteworthy physical activity, and those living independently and exercising regularly. Age, gender, and education levels were balanced between the groups. Using the ECQ, we could identify and distinguish different everyday competence levels between the groups tested: Subjects characterized by an active lifestyle outperformed all other groups. Subjects characterized by a general lifestyle showed higher everyday competence than those with a sedentary lifestyle or subjects who needed care. Furthermore, the ECQ data showed a significant positive correlation between individual physical activity and everyday competence. The ECQ is a novel tool for the questionnaire-based evaluation of everyday competence among healthy subjects. By including leisure activities, it considers the changed living conditions of modern-day older adults.

Experiences of using information and communication technology within the first year after stroke - a grounded theory study.

PubMed

Gustavsson, Martha; Ytterberg, Charlotte; Nabsen Marwaa, Mille; Tham, Kerstin; Guidetti, Susanne

2018-03-01

The purpose of this study was to identify how people 6-12 months after stroke were using and integrating information and communication technology (ICT) in their everyday lives. To capture the participants' experiences, one focus group and 14 individual interviews were carried out in Sweden and Denmark regarding the use of ICT in everyday life. The participants comprised 11 men and seven women aged 41-79 years. A grounded theory approach was used throughout the study and a constant comparative method was used in the analysis. Five categories were identified from the analysis of the interviews with the participants: 1) Using the mobile phone to feel safe, 2) Staying connected with others, 3) Recreating everyday life, 4) A tool for managing everyday life, and 5) Overcoming obstacles for using ICT. From these categories one core category emerged: The drive to integrate ICT in everyday life after stroke. People with stroke had a strong drive to integrate ICT in order to manage and bring meaning to their everyday lives, although sometimes they needed support and adaptations. It is not only possible but also necessary to start using ICT in rehabilitation in order to support people's recovery and promote participation in everyday life after stroke. Implications for rehabilitation People with stroke have a strong drive for using information and communication technology in their everyday lives, although support and adaptations are needed. The recovery process of people with stroke could benefit from the use of ICT in the rehabilitation and ICT could possibly contribute to independence and promote participation in everyday life. Knowledge from this study can be used in the development of an ICT-based stroke rehabilitation model.

Which behaviours? Identifying the most common and burdensome behaviour changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PubMed

Andrews, Sophie Claire; Pavlis, Alexia; Staios, Mathew; Fisher, Fiona

2017-04-01

Behaviour change is increasingly recognised as a common feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and may be similar to that seen in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The behaviours most disturbed in ALS, and those that relate most significantly to caregiver burden, however, have not been well established. Forty ALS participants and their caregivers, and 27 age- and gender-matched healthy controls and their relatives, participated in this study. ALS participants were assessed on a disease rating scale, and caregivers and control informants completed the revised version of the Cambridge Behaviour Inventory and a measure of burden. ALS caregivers reported significantly more disturbance than healthy control informants on the functional domains of everyday skills, self-care, and sleep, and in the behavioural domains of mood and motivation. There were no differences between groups in frequency of memory and orientation difficulties, or behaviours characteristic of FTD, such as changes to eating habits or stereotypic and motor behaviour, indicating that the behavioural profile in ALS may differ from FTD. In the ALS group, the domains with the strongest relationship to caregiver burden were everyday skills, motivation and memory, likely because poor motivation, memory dysfunction and difficulties completing activities of daily living require more carer support via direct supervision, prompting or hands on care. Services to support ALS patients and caregivers need to provide targeted interventions for those functional and behavioural changes which are most burdensome in the disease.

Bidirectional Relationships Between Fatigue and Everyday Experiences in Persons Living With HIV.

PubMed

Cook, Paul F; Hartson, Kimberly R; Schmiege, Sarah J; Jankowski, Catherine; Starr, Whitney; Meek, Paula

2016-06-01

Fatigue symptoms are very common among persons living with HIV (PLWH). Fatigue is related to functional and psychological problems and to treatment nonadherence. Using secondary data from ecological momentary assessment, we examined fatigue as a predictor of PLWH everyday experiences. In bidirectional analyses based on the shape shifters model, we also examined these experiences as predictors of fatigue. Data were examined from 67 PLWH who completed daily surveys on a handheld computer. Brief validated scales were used to assess participants' control beliefs, mood, stress, coping, social support, experience of stigma, and motivation. At the beginning and end of the study, fatigue was measured with two CES-D items that have been used in past HIV symptom research. Multilevel models and logistic regression were used to test reciprocal predictive relationships between variables. Moderate to severe fatigue affected 45% of PLWH in the study. Initial fatigue predicted PLWH subsequent overall level of control beliefs, mood, stress, coping, and social support, all p < .05. These state variables remained relatively constant over time, regardless of participants' initial fatigue. In tests for reciprocal relationships with 33 PLWH, average daily stress, OR = 4.74, and stigma, OR = 4.86, also predicted later fatigue. Fatigue predicted several daily survey variables including stress and social support. Stress and support in turn predicted fatigue at a later time, suggesting a self-perpetuating cycle but also a possible avenue for intervention. Future studies should examine daily variation in fatigue among PLWH and its relation to other everyday experiences and behaviors. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Social Listening: A Content Analysis of E-Cigarette Discussions on Twitter

PubMed Central

Cole-Lewis, Heather; Pugatch, Jillian; Sanders, Amy; Varghese, Arun; Posada, Susana; Yun, Christopher; Schwarz, Mary

2015-01-01

Background Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has increased in the United States, leading to active debate in the public health sphere regarding e-cigarette use and regulation. To better understand trends in e-cigarette attitudes and behaviors, public health and communication professionals can turn to the dialogue taking place on popular social media platforms such as Twitter. Objective The objective of this study was to conduct a content analysis to identify key conversation trends and patterns over time using historical Twitter data. Methods A 5-category content analysis was conducted on a random sample of tweets chosen from all publicly available tweets sent between May 1, 2013, and April 30, 2014, that matched strategic keywords related to e-cigarettes. Relevant tweets were isolated from the random sample of approximately 10,000 tweets and classified according to sentiment, user description, genre, and theme. Descriptive analyses including univariate and bivariate associations, as well as correlation analyses were performed on all categories in order to identify patterns and trends. Results The analysis revealed an increase in e-cigarette–related tweets from May 2013 through April 2014, with tweets generally being positive; 71% of the sample tweets were classified as having a positive sentiment. The top two user categories were everyday people (65%) and individuals who are part of the e-cigarette community movement (16%). These two user groups were responsible for a majority of informational (79%) and news tweets (75%), compared to reputable news sources and foundations or organizations, which combined provided 5% of informational tweets and 12% of news tweets. Personal opinion (28%), marketing (21%), and first person e-cigarette use or intent (20%) were the three most common genres of tweets, which tended to have a positive sentiment. Marketing was the most common theme (26%), and policy and government was the second most common theme (20%), with 86% of these tweets coming from everyday people and the e-cigarette community movement combined, compared to 5% of policy and government tweets coming from government, reputable news sources, and foundations or organizations combined. Conclusions Everyday people and the e-cigarette community are dominant forces across several genres and themes, warranting continued monitoring to understand trends and their implications regarding public opinion, e-cigarette use, and smoking cessation. Analyzing social media trends is a meaningful way to inform public health practitioners of current sentiments regarding e-cigarettes, and this study contributes a replicable methodology. PMID:26508089

Racial Microaggressions as a Tool for Critical Race Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pérez Huber, Lindsay; Solorzano, Daniel G.

2015-01-01

This conceptual article utilizes critical race theory (CRT) to explain how everyday forms of racism--racial microaggressions--emerge in the everyday experiences of People of Color. We provide a framework for understanding and analyzing racial microaggressions that demonstrates how everyday racist events are systemically mediated by…

Everyday Attention Failures: An Individual Differences Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash; McMillan, Brittany D.; Brewer, Gene A.; Spillers, Gregory J.

2012-01-01

The present study examined individual differences in everyday attention failures. Undergraduate students completed various cognitive ability measures in the laboratory and recorded everyday attention failures in a diary over the course of a week. The majority of attention failures were failures of distraction or mind wandering in educational…

Evaluation of Students' Understanding of Thermal Concepts in Everyday Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chu, Hye-Eun; Treagust, David F.; Yeo, Shelley; Zadnik, Marjan

2012-01-01

The aims of this study were to determine the underlying conceptual structure of the thermal concept evaluation (TCE) questionnaire, a pencil-and-paper instrument about everyday contexts of heat, temperature, and heat transfer, to investigate students' conceptual understanding of thermal concepts in everyday contexts across several school years and…

Test-Retest Reliability of Computerized, Everyday Memory Measures and Traditional Memory Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Youngjohn, James R.; And Others

Test-retest reliabilities and practice effect magnitudes were considered for nine computer-simulated tasks of everyday cognition and five traditional neuropsychological tests. The nine simulated everyday memory tests were from the Memory Assessment Clinic battery as follows: (1) simple reaction time while driving; (2) divided attention (driving…

Entrepreneurship as Everyday Practice: Towards a Personalized Pedagogy of Enterprise Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blenker, Per; Frederiksen, Signe Hedeboe; Korsgaard, Steffen; Muller, Sabine; Neergaard, Helle; Thrane, Claus

2012-01-01

Adopting the perspective of "entrepreneurship as an everyday practice" in education, the authors conceptualize opportunities as arising from the everyday practice of individuals. Opportunities are thus seen as emanating from the individual entrepreneur's ability to disclose anomalies and disharmonies in their personal life. The paper illustrates…

Final Conversations, Phase 2: Children and Everyday Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keeley, Maureen; Baldwin, Paula

2012-01-01

This qualitative study examined messages of everyday communication (small talk and routine interactions). The importance of these messages was highlighted in light of their role in creating structure, safety, and meaning making in the family at the end of life. In addition, family rituals that developed from children's everyday communication were…

Variation in Cognitive Failures: An Individual Differences Investigation of Everyday Attention and Memory Failures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash; Brewer, Gene A.; Spillers, Gregory J.

2012-01-01

The present study examined individual differences in everyday cognitive failures assessed by diaries. A large sample of participants completed various cognitive ability measures in the laboratory. Furthermore, a subset of these participants also recorded everyday cognitive failures (attention, retrospective memory, and prospective memory failures)…

Unruly energies: Provocations of renewable energy development in a northern German village

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlson, Jennifer D.

This dissertation asks how inhabitants of a sustainable village are living out Germany's transition from nuclear to renewable energy. The sustainable village remains a locus of optimistic attachments for renewable energy advocates, who argue that a decentralized power grid will enable people to more directly participate in power production and politics as "energy citizens." Yet while rural areas have become sites of speculation, innovation and growth, few rural-dwellers are enfranchised in (or profiting from) the technoscientific projects in their midst. I draw upon 13 months of fieldwork in a northern German village transformed by wind turbines, photovoltaics and biofuels to consider why, asking what kinds of public life flourish in the absence of democratic engagement with renewable technologies. This ethnography engages the village as multiply constituted across domains of everyday life, including transit, farming, waste management, domestic life, and social gatherings. I found that environmental policy, everyday practices, and the area's material histories combined to produce ontologies---senses of what exists---that circumscribe citizen participation in the energy sector, affording more formal opportunities to men than to women, and privileging farmers' interests in plans that impacted the larger community. These findings illuminate how many villagers become ambivalent toward the project of the energy transition and disenfranchised from its implementation. Yet many who were excluded from formal participation also engaged with renewable technologies as they sensed out their worlds, using tropes of sustainable energy and technoscientific materials to place themselves in this emerging energy polity. Their everyday worldmaking brimmed with what I call unruly energies, structures of feeling that registered more as affects than as discourse. In the village, these took form as sensory disturbances, disquiet among neighbors, technoscientific optimism and skepticism toward environmental policy. These affective modes of attention, investment and participation were vital aspects of public life that shaped the transition's unfolding. They exceeded liberal models of renewable energy citizenship, which presume that socioeconomic interest and environmental commitment are universal among citizens. In this way, unruly energies compel more nuanced attention to the multiple, contingent, site-specific ways in which citizenship takes form in the making of eco-capitalist energy infrastructure.

Advancing Materials Science using Neutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

ScienceCinema

Carpenter, John

2018-02-14

Jack Carpenter, pioneer of accelerator-based pulsed spallation neutron sources, talks about neutron science at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a need for a second target station at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). ORNL is the Department of Energy's largest multiprogram science and energy laboratory, and is home to two scientific user facilities serving the neutron science research community: the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and SNS. HFIR and SNS provide researchers with unmatched capabilities for understanding the structure and properties of materials, macromolecular and biological systems, and the fundamental physics of the neutron. Neutrons provide a window through which to view materials at a microscopic level that allow researchers to develop better materials and better products. Neutrons enable us to understand materials we use in everyday life. Carpenter explains the need for another station to produce long wavelength neutrons, or cold neutrons, to answer questions that are addressed only with cold neutrons. The second target station is optimized for that purpose. Modern technology depends more and more upon intimate atomic knowledge of materials, and neutrons are an ideal probe.

Transport-aware imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kutulakos, Kyros N.; O'Toole, Matthew

2015-03-01

Conventional cameras record all light falling on their sensor regardless of the path that light followed to get there. In this paper we give an overview of a new family of computational cameras that offers many more degrees of freedom. These cameras record just a fraction of the light coming from a controllable source, based on the actual 3D light path followed. Photos and live video captured this way offer an unconventional view of everyday scenes in which the effects of scattering, refraction and other phenomena can be selectively blocked or enhanced, visual structures that are too subtle to notice with the naked eye can become apparent, and object appearance can depend on depth. We give an overview of the basic theory behind these cameras and their DMD-based implementation, and discuss three applications: (1) live indirect-only imaging of complex everyday scenes, (2) reconstructing the 3D shape of scenes whose geometry or material properties make them hard or impossible to scan with conventional methods, and (3) acquiring time-of-flight images that are free of multi-path interference.

Conditional reasoning in autism: activation and integration of knowledge and belief.

PubMed

McKenzie, Rebecca; Evans, Jonathan St B T; Handley, Simon J

2010-03-01

Everyday conditional reasoning is typically influenced by prior knowledge and belief in the form of specific exceptions known as counterexamples. This study explored whether adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; N = 26) were less influenced by background knowledge than typically developing adolescents (N = 38) when engaged in conditional reasoning. Participants were presented with pretested valid and invalid conditional inferences with varying available counterexamples. The group with ASD showed significantly less influence of prior knowledge on valid inferences (p = .01) and invalid inferences (p = .01) compared with the typical group. In a secondary probability judgment task, no significant group differences were found in probabilistic judgments of the believability of the premises. Further experiments found that results could not be explained by differences between the groups in the ability to generate counterexamples or any tendency among adolescents with ASD to exhibit a "yes" response pattern. It was concluded that adolescents with ASD tend not to spontaneously contextualize presented material when engaged in everyday reasoning. These findings are discussed with reference to weak central coherence theory and the conditional reasoning literature.

The role of training in IBA implementation beyond primary health care settings in the UK

PubMed Central

Thom, Betsy; Herring, Rachel; Bayley, Mariana

2016-01-01

Abstract There has been a considerable drive to encourage a wide range of professional groups to incorporate alcohol screening (or identification) and brief advice (IBA) into their everyday practice. This article aims to examine the role of training in promoting IBA delivery in contexts outside primary care and other health settings. The data are drawn mainly from a structured online survey supplemented by illustrative material from nine qualitative interviews and insights from an expert workshop. Findings support the results from other research that issues relating to role relevance and role security continue to act as barriers to professional change. Furthermore, issues of organisational commitment and organisational barriers are insufficiently addressed in strategy to promote wider use of IBA. The article concludes that development of appropriate training for alcohol IBA needs to take account of the role of IBA within a complex interactive system of related services and help seeking pathways and consider how training can contribute to changing both professional attitudes and behaviours and organisational approaches to implementing and sustaining IBA in everyday professional practice. PMID:28018054

How Well Do Health-Mediation Programs Address the Determinants of the Poor Health Status of Roma? A Longitudinal Case Study

PubMed Central

P. van Dijk, Jitse

2017-01-01

In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), health-mediation programs (HMPs) have become central policy instruments targeting health inequities between segregated Roma and general populations. Social determinants of health (SDH) represent the root causes behind health inequities. We therefore evaluated how an HMP based in Slovakia addressed known SDH in its agenda and its everyday implementation. To produce descriptive data on the HMP’s agenda and everyday implementation we observed and consulted 70 program participants across organizational levels and 30 program recipients over the long-term. We used a World Health Organization framework on SDH to direct data acquisition and consequent data content analysis, to structure the reporting of results, and to evaluate the program’s merits. In its agenda, the HMP did not address most known SDH, except for healthcare access and health-related behaviours. In the HMP’s everyday implementation, healthcare access facilitation activities were well received, performed as set out and effective. The opposite was true for most educational activities targeting health-related behaviours. The HMP fieldworkers were proactive and sometimes effective at addressing most other SDH domains beyond the HMP agenda, especially material conditions and psychosocial factors, but also selected local structural aspects. The HMP leaders supported such deliberate engagement only informally, considering the program inappropriate by definition and too unstable institutionally to handle such extensions. Reports indicate that the situation in other CEE HMPs is similar. To increase the HMPs’ impact on SDH, their theories and procedures should be adapted according to the programs’ more promising actual practice regarding SDH. PMID:29236067

How Well Do Health-Mediation Programs Address the Determinants of the Poor Health Status of Roma? A Longitudinal Case Study.

PubMed

Belak, Andrej; Veselska, Zuzana Dankulincova; Geckova, Andrea Madarasova; Dijk, Jitse P van; Reijneveld, Sijmen A

2017-12-13

In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), health-mediation programs (HMPs) have become central policy instruments targeting health inequities between segregated Roma and general populations. Social determinants of health (SDH) represent the root causes behind health inequities. We therefore evaluated how an HMP based in Slovakia addressed known SDH in its agenda and its everyday implementation. To produce descriptive data on the HMP's agenda and everyday implementation we observed and consulted 70 program participants across organizational levels and 30 program recipients over the long-term. We used a World Health Organization framework on SDH to direct data acquisition and consequent data content analysis, to structure the reporting of results, and to evaluate the program's merits. In its agenda, the HMP did not address most known SDH, except for healthcare access and health-related behaviours. In the HMP's everyday implementation, healthcare access facilitation activities were well received, performed as set out and effective. The opposite was true for most educational activities targeting health-related behaviours. The HMP fieldworkers were proactive and sometimes effective at addressing most other SDH domains beyond the HMP agenda, especially material conditions and psychosocial factors, but also selected local structural aspects. The HMP leaders supported such deliberate engagement only informally, considering the program inappropriate by definition and too unstable institutionally to handle such extensions. Reports indicate that the situation in other CEE HMPs is similar. To increase the HMPs' impact on SDH, their theories and procedures should be adapted according to the programs' more promising actual practice regarding SDH.

Everyday science & science every day: Science-related talk & activities across settings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zimmerman, Heather

To understand the development of science-related thinking, acting, and learning in middle childhood, I studied youth in schools, homes, and other neighborhood settings over a three-year period. The research goal was to analyze how multiple everyday experiences influence children's participation in science-related practices and their thinking about science and scientists. Ethnographic and interaction analysis methodologies were to study the cognition and social interactions of the children as they participated in activities with peers, family, and teachers (n=128). Interviews and participant self-documentation protocols elucidated the participants' understandings of science. An Everyday Expertise (Bell et al., 2006) theoretical framework was employed to study the development of science understandings on three analytical planes: individual learner, social groups, and societal/community resources. Findings came from a cross-case analysis of urban science learners and from two within-case analyses of girls' science-related practices as they transitioned from elementary to middle school. Results included: (1) children participated actively in science across settings---including in their homes as well as in schools, (2) children's interests in science were not always aligned to the school science content, pedagogy, or school structures for participation, yet children found ways to engage with science despite these differences through crafting multiple pathways into science, (3) urban parents were active supporters of STEM-related learning environments through brokering access to social and material resources, (4) the youth often found science in their daily activities that formal education did not make use of, and (5) children's involvement with science-related practices can be developed into design principles to reach youth in culturally relevant ways.

Negotiating role management through everyday activities: narratives in action of two stroke survivors and their spouses.

PubMed

Satink, Ton; Josephsson, Staffan; Zajec, Jana; Cup, Edith H C; de Swart, Bert J M; Nijhuis-van der Sanden, Maria W G

2016-12-01

To manage social roles is a challenging part of self-management post-stroke. This study explored how stroke survivors act as role managers with their spouses in the context of everyday activities. Two stroke survivors with a first time stroke living at home with a spouse were included. Data were generated through participant observations at their own environment at 3, 6, 9, 15 and 21 months post-discharge. The narrative analysis focused on the actions of participants. Daily activities can be understood as an arena where role management and a meaningful live is negotiated and co-constructed with others. Everyday activities gave stroke survivors and their spouses insight into stroke survivors' capacities in daily situations. This was sometimes empowering, and other times conflicting when a spouse had negative perceptions of the abilities of the stroke survivors. The findings add to the current understanding of self-management and role management with regard to how these are situated in everyday activities. Daily activities can help both spouses to reflect and understand about self-management, role management and comanagement in daily life. Moreover, observing stroke survivors in everyday situations provides professionals with concrete pictures of stroke survivors' performance and self-management in interaction with their spouses. Implications for Rehabilitation Self-management is a dynamic process in which individuals actively manage a chronic condition and finally live a meaningful life with a long-term chronic condition; self-management can be divided into medical, role, and emotional management; comanagement is when individuals activate resources and use the capacities of other persons to manage a situation together. Self-management is situated in everyday activities. Everyday activities give stroke survivors ánd their partners impressions about stroke survivors' self-management abilities post-stroke in an everyday context. Everyday activities give stroke survivors ánd their partners an arena where role management and a meaningful life are negotiated and coconstructed through doing. Observing stroke survivors in everyday situations provides professionals a concreter picture of stroke survivors' self-management and comanagement with their partners than can be obtained from an informal interview.

An evidence-based solution for minimizing stress and anger in nursing students.

PubMed

Shirey, Maria R

2007-12-01

Manifestations of stress and anger are becoming more evident in society. Anger, an emotion associated with stress, often affects other aspects of everyday life, including the workplace and the educational setting. Stress and irrational anger in nursing students presents a potential teaching-learning problem that requires innovative evidence-based solutions. In this article, anger in nursing students is discussed, and background information on the topic is provided. Common sources and manifestations of anger in nursing students are presented, and one evidence-based solution--mindfulness-based-stress reduction--is discussed.

Sixty-year anniversary of the Apgar scoring system and 100-year anniversary of the "Moro" reflex.

PubMed

Brucknerova, Ingrid; Holomanova, Anna; Ujhazy, Eduard; Mach, Mojmir

2012-01-01

It is well known that the names of discoverers are commonly used in medical terminology, especially in everyday use. The advantage of an eponym is that a complex description of a certain syndrome, surgical procedure, manifestations of a particular disease, or its details, can be expressed in a single word (Holomáňová & Brucknerová 2003). Current official anatomical nomenclatures do not use eponyms. Some exceptions do however exist. In pediatrics, we frequently use the names of two famous persons: Virginia Apgar and Ernst Moro.

Religion and psychosis: a common evolutionary trajectory?

PubMed

Dein, Simon; Littlewood, Roland

2011-07-01

In this article we propose that schizophrenia and religious cognition engage cognate mental modules in the over-attribution of agency and the overextension of theory of mind. We argue similarities and differences between assumptions of ultrahuman agents with omniscient minds and certain ''pathological'' forms of thinking in schizophrenia: thought insertion, withdrawal and broadcasting, and delusions of reference. In everyday religious cognition agency detection and theory of mind modules function ''normally,'' whereas in schizophrenia both modules are impaired. It is suggested that religion and schizophrenia have perhaps had a related evolutionary trajectory.

Poststroke Communication Disorders and Dysphagia.

PubMed

González-Fernández, Marlís; Brodsky, Martin B; Palmer, Jeffrey B

2015-11-01

Communication and swallowing disorders are common after stroke. Targeted surveillance followed by prompt evaluation and treatment is of paramount importance. The overall goals of rehabilitation for impaired swallowing and communication and swallowing deficits may differ based on the specific deficits caused by the stroke but the main goal is always to improve the patient's everyday interpersonal interactions and optimize participation in society. Fortunately, therapeutic or compensatory interventions can decrease the effects that communication and swallowing deficits have on the quality of life of stroke survivors. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The ethics of waiting and anticipating life beyond.

PubMed

Milton, Constance L

2014-01-01

Waiting is a common everyday experience. It is particularly important to person(s) and families living with changing complex health patterns and may be especially vital to those who are anticipating the end-of-life and beyond. The author in this column offers a discussion of potential definitions, meanings, and straight thinking responsibilities for healthcare professionals, as they provide professional services with persons and families who may be arduously experiencing the phenomenon of waiting with ever-changing health situations. Implications for professional nurse practice are offered from a humanbecoming perspective.

Quantitative nondestructive evaluation: Requirements for tomorrow's reliability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heyman, Joseph S.

1991-01-01

Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation (QNDE) is the technology of measurement, analysis, and prediction of the state of material/structural systems for safety, reliability, and mission assurance. QNDE has impact on everyday life from the cars we drive, the planes we fly, the buildings we work or live in, literally to the infrastructure of our world. Here, researchers highlight some of the new sciences and technologies that are part of a safer, cost effective tomorrow. Specific technologies that are discussed are thermal QNDE of aircraft structural integrity, ultrasonic QNDE for materials characterization, and technology spinoffs from aerospace to the medical sector. In each case, examples are given of how new requirements result in enabling measurement technologies, which in turn change the boundaries of design/practice.

Everyday Mathematics®. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report. Updated November 2015

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2015

2015-01-01

The "Everyday Mathematics®" curriculum aims to provide students in prekindergarten through grade 6 with multiple opportunities to learn math concepts and practice skills. Since the release of the WWC's 2010 Everyday Mathematics report, the curriculum continues to be widely used and evaluated. This updated review includes 30 studies that…

"Everyday Memory" Impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Catherine R. G.; Happe, Francesca; Pickles, Andrew; Marsden, Anita J. S.; Tregay, Jenifer; Baird, Gillian; Simonoff, Emily; Charman, Tony

2011-01-01

"Everyday memory" is conceptualised as memory within the context of day-to-day life and, despite its functional relevance, has been little studied in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In the first study of its kind, 94 adolescents with an ASD and 55 without an ASD completed measures of everyday memory from the Rivermead…

Anytime-Anywhere? Mobile Communicative Practices and the Management of Relationships in Everyday Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moreno Becerra, Tabita Alejandra

2015-01-01

The present study examines how mobile practices of social-media use are integrated into individuals' everyday lives as a way to manage their relationships. Mobile communication technologies and social-media use intersect in people's everyday communicative practices, allowing individuals to engage in continuous interactions that take place on the…

A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Children's Everyday Ideas: Implications for Science Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wee, Bryan

2012-01-01

Children's everyday ideas form critical foundations for science learning yet little research has been conducted to understand and legitimize these ideas, particularly from an international perspective. This paper explores children's everyday ideas about the environment across the US, Singapore and China to understand what they reveal about…

Taking Advantage of the "Big Mo"--Momentum in Everyday English and Swedish and in Physics Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haglund, Jesper; Jeppsson, Fredrik; Ahrenberg, Lars

2015-01-01

Science education research suggests that our everyday intuitions of motion and interaction of physical objects fit well with how physicists use the term "momentum". Corpus linguistics provides an easily accessible approach to study language in different domains, including everyday language. Analysis of language samples from English text…

Sociodemographic Characteristics Associated with the Everyday Health Information Literacy of Young Men

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirvonen, Noora; Ek, Stefan; Niemelä, Raimo; Korpelainen, Raija; Huotari, Maija-Leena

2015-01-01

Introduction: Everyday health information literacy refers to the competencies needed to find relevant information, evaluate its reliability, and use it to make decisions concerning health in everyday life. More evidence is needed of the determinants of health information literacy to better understand how it is acquired and through which mechanisms…

Toddlers Master Everyday Activities in Kindergarten: A Gender Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meland, Aud Torill; Kaltvedt, Elsa Helen; Reikerås, Elin

2016-01-01

This article discusses how 2-year olds cope with various everyday activities as observed by kindergarten staff from a gender perspective. Everyday activities are part of the daily pedagogical life in a kindergarten and are linked to situations such as meals, dressing and undressing, grooming and potty/toilet training. Data were collected through…

Everyday Matters in Science and Mathematics: Studies of Complex Classroom Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nemirovsky, Ricardo, Ed.; Rosebery, Ann S., Ed.; Solomon, Jesse, Ed.; Warren, Beth, Ed.

2005-01-01

This book re-examines the dichotomy between the everyday and the disciplinary in mathematics and science education, and explores alternatives to this opposition from points of view grounded in the close examination of complex classroom events. It makes the case that students' everyday experience and knowledge in their entire manifold forms matter…

Ten-year longitudinal trajectories of older adults' basic and everyday cognitive abilities.

PubMed

Yam, Anna; Gross, Alden L; Prindle, John J; Marsiske, Michael

2014-11-01

To examine the longitudinal trajectories of everyday cognition and longitudinal associations with basic (i.e., laboratory and experimentally measured) cognitive abilities, including verbal memory, inductive reasoning, visual processing speed, and vocabulary. Participants were healthy older adults drawn from the no-treatment control group (N = 698) of the Advanced Cognitive Training for the Independent and Vital Elderly (Willis et al., 2006) randomized trial and were assessed at baseline and 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 years later. Analyses were conducted using latent growth models. Modeling revealed an overall inverted-U shape (quadratic) trajectory across cognitive domains. Among basic cognitive predictors, level and slope in reasoning demonstrated the closest association to level and slope of everyday cognition, and accounted for most of the individual differences in linear gain in everyday cognition. Everyday cognition is not buffered against decline, and is most closely related to inductive reasoning in healthy older adults. To establish the clinical utility of everyday cognitive measures, future research should examine these associations in samples with more cognitive impairment. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Everyday problem solving across the adult life span: solution diversity and efficacy.

PubMed

Mienaltowski, Andrew

2011-10-01

Everyday problem solving involves examining the solutions that individuals generate when faced with problems that take place in their everyday experiences. Problems can range from medication adherence and meal preparation to disagreeing with a physician over a recommended medical procedure or compromising with extended family members over where to host Thanksgiving dinner. Across the life span, research has demonstrated divergent patterns of change in performance based on the type of everyday problems used as well as based on the way that problem-solving efficacy is operationally defined. Advancing age is associated with worsening performance when tasks involve single-solution or fluency-based definitions of effectiveness. However, when efficacy is defined in terms of the diversity of strategies used, as well as by the social and emotional impact of solution choice on the individual, performance is remarkably stable and sometimes even improves in the latter half of life. This article discusses how both of these approaches to everyday problem solving inform research on the influence that aging has on everyday functioning. © 2011 New York Academy of Sciences.

Everyday problem solving across the adult life span: solution diversity and efficacy

PubMed Central

Mienaltowski, Andrew

2013-01-01

Everyday problem solving involves examining the solutions that individuals generate when faced with problems that take place in their everyday experiences. Problems can range from medication adherence and meal preparation to disagreeing with a physician over a recommended medical procedure or compromising with extended family members over where to host Thanksgiving dinner. Across the life span, research has demonstrated divergent patterns of change in performance based on the type of everyday problems used as well as based on the way that problem-solving efficacy is operationally defined. Advancing age is associated with worsening performance when tasks involve single-solution or fluency-based definitions of effectiveness. However, when efficacy is defined in terms of the diversity of strategies used, as well as by the social and emotional impact of solution choice on the individual, performance is remarkably stable and sometimes even improves in the latter half of life. This article discusses how both of these approaches to everyday problem solving inform research on the influence that aging has on everyday functioning. PMID:22023569

Exploring demand reduction through design, durability and 'usership' of fashion clothes.

PubMed

Fletcher, Kate

2017-06-13

Global planetary boundaries confer limits to production and consumption of material goods. They also confer an obligation to experiment, as individuals and collectively as society, with less-materially-intensive, but no less exuberant, ways of living. This paper takes up this mantle and explores materials demand reduction through a focus on design, fashion garments and the universal, everyday activity of wearing clothes. It takes as its starting point the design of longer-lasting products, a widely favoured strategy for increasing materials efficiency and reducing materials demand in many sectors, including fashion. Drawing on scholarship in the field of design for sustainability and ethnographic research conducted in 16 locations in nine countries about already-existing practices of intensive use and maintenance of clothing, this paper critiques the effectiveness of durability strategies to reduce the amount of materials used. It argues for an update in the familiar preference within sustainability debates for the 'techno-fix' to explore instead resourceful use of materials as emerging from human actions and relationships with material goods. It suggests that, while facilitated by design, technology and engineering, opportunities to reduce materials demand begin in individual and collective practices, which, in turn, have dynamic implications for use of materials.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Exploring demand reduction through design, durability and ‘usership’ of fashion clothes

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Global planetary boundaries confer limits to production and consumption of material goods. They also confer an obligation to experiment, as individuals and collectively as society, with less-materially-intensive, but no less exuberant, ways of living. This paper takes up this mantle and explores materials demand reduction through a focus on design, fashion garments and the universal, everyday activity of wearing clothes. It takes as its starting point the design of longer-lasting products, a widely favoured strategy for increasing materials efficiency and reducing materials demand in many sectors, including fashion. Drawing on scholarship in the field of design for sustainability and ethnographic research conducted in 16 locations in nine countries about already-existing practices of intensive use and maintenance of clothing, this paper critiques the effectiveness of durability strategies to reduce the amount of materials used. It argues for an update in the familiar preference within sustainability debates for the ‘techno-fix’ to explore instead resourceful use of materials as emerging from human actions and relationships with material goods. It suggests that, while facilitated by design, technology and engineering, opportunities to reduce materials demand begin in individual and collective practices, which, in turn, have dynamic implications for use of materials. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’. PMID:28461430

"Need to Know" vs. "Need to Believe" in UFOlogy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teodorani, Massimo

2009-09-01

How authentic is UFO documentation? A lot of factors demonstrate -- doing a simple analysis -- that most of UFO photographic material, in particular the one that circulates on the web, is totally unreliable. It is not only a matter of lack of scientific method; it is mostly a simple matter of lack of common sense. The common sense of people is constantly made a fun of and the reasons of this are many, the most important of which is the emotional effect caused by the imaginary collective. UFO iconography is a drug at all effects, and can be used to switch minds in many ways, also to collect proselytes to make up new fanatic religions, but more generally to give people a sort of psychological medicine with which people can escape from the hard reality of everyday, where the continuous competitions of present society often obscure the human and spiritual dimension: people need to retrieve the very nucleus of their soul. This intimate need is clearly legitimate, but it is also risky: in fact persons who are not well rationally grounded are very easily subject to manipulation: it seems that most persons in the world are just in this condition, especially at our epoch. When critical thinking starts to lack, who leads this society has at his disposal a huge mass of sheep, ready to follow alleged miracles, saviour aliens and related gurus. The less people think in a grounded way the least this people are conscious of what is happening at their shoulders. This is the effect of UFO iconography.

Potential Role of Pet Cats As a Sentinel Species for Human Exposure to Flame Retardants

PubMed Central

Henríquez-Hernández, Luis A.; Carretón, Elena; Camacho, María; Montoya-Alonso, José Alberto; Boada, Luis D.; Bernal Martín, Verónica; Falcón Cordón, Yaiza; Falcón Cordón, Soraya; Zumbado, Manuel; Luzardo, Octavio P.

2017-01-01

Flame retardants are a wide group of chemicals used by the industry to avoid combustion of materials. These substances are commonly found in plastics, electronic equipment, fabrics, and in many other everyday articles. Subsequently, ubiquitous environmental contamination by these common chemical is frequently reported. In the present study, we have evaluated the level of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), and organophosphorous flame retardants (OPFRs) in pet cats through the analysis of their serum. We also analyzed the level exposure to such chemicals in a series of 20 cat owners, trying to disclose the role of pet cats as sentinel species of human exposure to FRs. Our results showed that PCBs, banned 40 years ago, showed the lowest levels of exposure, followed by BDEs—banned recently. Congeners PCB-138 and PCB-180 were detected in ≥50% of the series, while BDE-47 was detected in near 90% of the pet cats. On the other hand, the highest levels were that of OPFRs, whose pattern of detection was similar to that observed in humans, thus suggesting a potential role of cats as a sentinel species for human exposure to these currently used FRs. Six out of 11 OPFRs determined [2-ethylhexyldiphenyl phosphate, tributylphosphate, triisobutylphosphate, triphenylphosphate, tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate, and tris (2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate] were detected in 100% of the samples. It will be interesting to perform future studied aimed to elucidating the potential toxicological effects of these highly detected chemicals both, in cats and humans. PMID:28620612

Methodology and technological aspects of the flexible substrate preparation for ink-jet printing technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarapata, Grzegorz; Marzecki, Michał

2013-10-01

The ink-jet printing technology becomes especially promising for wide volume of production of cheap sensors, consumable electronics and other dedicated applications of everyday life like smart packaging, smart textiles, smart labels, etc. To achieve this goal new materials compatible with ink-jet printing should be developed. Currently on the market there is a growing number of inks with different properties, but their use requires many tests related to its printability and their interaction with other materials. The paper presents technological problems that are encountered by people associated with fabrication of various devices with using of inkjet printing techniques. Results presented in the paper show the influence of surface preparation techniques on the quality of achieved shapes, the impact of other materials already deposited and the impact of another external factors. During carried out experiments the printer Dimatix DMP 2831 and several inks base on nanosilver or dielectric UV curable was used.

Spreading granular material with a blade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dressaire, Emilie; Singh, Vachitar; Grimaldi, Emma; Sauret, Alban

2015-11-01

The spreading of a complex fluid with a blade is encountered in applications that range from the bulldozing of granular material in construction projects to the coating of substrates with fluids in industrial applications. This spreading process is also present in everyday life, when we use a knife to turn a lump of peanut butter into a thin layer over our morning toast. In this study, we rely on granular media in a model experiment to describe the three-dimensional spreading of the material. Our experimental set-up allows tracking the spreading of a sandpile on a translating flat surface as the blade remains fixed. We characterize the spreading dynamics and the shape of the spread fluid layer when varying the tilt of the blade, its spacing with the surface and its speed. Our findings suggest that it is possible to tune the spreading parameters to optimize the coating.

Kinetics of the Shanghai Maglev: Kinematical Analysis of a Real "Textbook" Case of Linear Motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsu, Tung

2014-10-01

A vehicle starts from rest at constant acceleration, then cruises at constant speed for a time. Next, it decelerates at a constant rate.… This and similar statements are common in elementary physics courses. Students are asked to graph the motion of the vehicle or find the velocity, acceleration, and distance traveled by the vehicle from a given graph.1 However, a "constant acceleration-constant velocity-constant deceleration" motion, which gives us an ideal trapezoidal shape in the velocity-time graph, is not common in everyday life. Driving a car or riding a bicycle for a short distance can be much more complicated. Therefore, it is interesting to take a look at a real case of "constant acceleration-constant velocity-constant deceleration" motion.

Connecting science to everyday experiences in preschool settings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roychoudhury, Anita

2014-06-01

In this paper I discuss the challenges of teaching science concepts and discourse in preschool in light of the study conducted by Kristina Andersson and Annica Gullberg. I then suggest a complementary approach to teaching science at this level from the perspective of social construction of knowledge based on Vygotsky's theory (1934/1987). In addition, I highlight the importance of the relational aspect of knowing using feminist standpoint theory (Harding 2004). I also draw from feminist research on preservice elementary teachers' learning of science to further underscore the connection between learning content and everyday experiences. Combining these research strands I propose that science needs to be grounded in everyday experiences. In this regard, the idea is similar to the choices made by the teachers in the study conducted by Andersson and Gullberg but I also suggest that the everyday experiences chosen for teaching purposes be framed appropriately. In and of itself, the complexity of everyday experiences can be impediment for learning as these researchers have demonstrated. Such complexities point to the need for framing of everyday experiences (Goffman 1974) so that children can do science and construct meaning from their actions. In the conclusion of my discussion of science and its discourse in preschool settings, I provide examples of everyday experiences and their framings that have the potential for engaging children and their teachers in science.

Neural mechanism for judging the appropriateness of facial affect.

PubMed

Kim, Ji-Woong; Kim, Jae-Jin; Jeong, Bum Seok; Ki, Seon Wan; Im, Dong-Mi; Lee, Soo Jung; Lee, Hong Shick

2005-12-01

Questions regarding the appropriateness of facial expressions in particular situations arise ubiquitously in everyday social interactions. To determine the appropriateness of facial affect, first of all, we should represent our own or the other's emotional state as induced by the social situation. Then, based on these representations, we should infer the possible affective response of the other person. In this study, we identified the brain mechanism mediating special types of social evaluative judgments of facial affect in which the internal reference is related to theory of mind (ToM) processing. Many previous ToM studies have used non-emotional stimuli, but, because so much valuable social information is conveyed through nonverbal emotional channels, this investigation used emotionally salient visual materials to tap ToM. Fourteen right-handed healthy subjects volunteered for our study. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activation during the judgmental task for the appropriateness of facial affects as opposed to gender matching tasks. We identified activation of a brain network, which includes both medial frontal cortex, left temporal pole, left inferior frontal gyrus, and left thalamus during the judgmental task for appropriateness of facial affect compared to the gender matching task. The results of this study suggest that the brain system involved in ToM plays a key role in judging the appropriateness of facial affect in an emotionally laden situation. In addition, our result supports that common neural substrates are involved in performing diverse kinds of ToM tasks irrespective of perceptual modalities and the emotional salience of test materials.

Recovery from Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Qualitative Study of Attributions in Survivors of War

PubMed Central

Ajdukovic, Dean; Ajdukovic, Dea; Bogic, Marija; Franciskovic, Tanja; Galeazzi, Gian Maria; Kucukalic, Abdulah; Lecic-Tosevski, Dusica; Schützwohl, Matthias; Priebe, Stefan

2013-01-01

Objective The study explored factors to which people traumatized by war attribute their recovery from posttraumatic symptoms and from war experiences. Methods : In-depth interviews were conducted with two groups of participants with mental sequelae of the war in the former Yugoslavia: 26 people who had recovered from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 17 people with ongoing symptoms of PTSD. Participants could attribute their recovery to any event, person or process in their life. The material was subjected to thematic analysis. Results Eight themes covered all factors to which participants attributed their recovery. Six themes described healing factors relevant for both groups of participants: social attachment and support, various strategies of coping with symptoms, personality hardiness, mental health treatment, received material support, and normalization of everyday life. In addition to the common factors, recovered participants reported community involvement as healing, and recovered refugees identified also feeling safe after resolving their civil status as helpful. Unique to the recovered group was that they maintained reciprocal relations in social attachment and support, employed future-oriented coping and emphasised their resilient personality style. Conclusions The reported factors of recovery are largely consistent with models of mental health protection, models of resilience and recommended interventions in the aftermath of massive trauma. Yet, they add the importance of a strong orientation towards the future, a reciprocity in receiving and giving social support and involvement in meaningful activities that ensure social recognition as a productive and valued individual. The findings can inform psychosocial interventions to facilitate recovery from posttraumatic symptoms of people affected by war and upheaval. PMID:23950965

Children's Use of Metacognition in Solving Everyday Problems: An Initial Study from an Asian Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Chwee Beng; Teo, Timothy; Bergin, David

2009-01-01

The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between metacognition and students' everyday problem solving. Specifically, we were interested to find out whether regulation of cognition and knowledge of cognition are related to everyday problem solving and whether students who perform better in the decision-making problem will better…

Learning Science through the PDEODE Teaching Strategy: Helping Students Make Sense of Everyday Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costu, Bayram

2008-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate effectiveness of PDEODE (Predict-Discuss-Explain-Observe-Discuss-Explain) teaching strategy in helping students make sense of everyday situations. For this, condensation concept was chosen among many science concepts since it is related to many everyday-life events. Forty-eight eleventh graders students…

The Dynamics of Learning Science in Everyday Contexts: A Case Study of Everyday Science Class in Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Mijung; Yoon, Heesook; Ji, Young Rae; Song, Jinwoong

2012-01-01

With recognition of the importance of scientific literacy for the nation and yet the increasing students' disinterest in science through school science curriculum, the Korea Science Foundation launched an innovative program called "Everyday Science Class (ESC)" in partnership with universities and local government offices in 2003. In…

Brief Report: Contrasting Profiles of Everyday Executive Functioning in Smith-Magenis Syndrome and Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilde, Lucy; Oliver, Chris

2017-01-01

Everyday executive function (EF) was examined in Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS), associated with high risk of behaviour disorder, and Down syndrome (DS), associated with relatively low risk of behaviour disorder. Caregivers of 13 children with SMS and 17 with DS rated everyday EF using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive…

Adapting to Conversation with Semantic Dementia: Using Enactment as a Compensatory Strategy in Everyday Social Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kindell, Jacqueline; Sage, Karen; Keady, John; Wilkinson, Ray

2013-01-01

Background: Studies to date in semantic dementia have examined communication in clinical or experimental settings. There is a paucity of research describing the everyday interactional skills and difficulties seen in this condition. Aims: To examine the everyday conversation, at home, of an individual with semantic dementia. Methods &…

The relationship between everyday problem solving and inconsistency in reaction time in older adults.

PubMed

Burton, Catherine L; Strauss, Esther; Hultsch, David F; Hunter, Michael A

2009-09-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether inconsistency in reaction time (RT) is predictive of older adults' ability to solve everyday problems. A sample of 304 community dwelling non-demented older adults, ranging in age from 62 to 92, completed a measure of everyday problem solving, the Everyday Problems Test (EPT). Inconsistency in latencies across trials was assessed on four RT tasks. Performance on the EPT was found to vary according to age and cognitive status. Both mean latencies and inconsistency were significantly associated with EPT performance, such that slower and more inconsistent RTs were associated with poorer everyday problem solving abilities. Even after accounting for age, education, and mean level of performance, inconsistency in reaction time continued to account for a significant proportion of the variance in EPT scores. These findings suggest that indicators of inconsistency in RT may be of functional relevance.

Making a difference: ethical consumption and the everyday.

PubMed

Adams, Matthew; Raisborough, Jayne

2010-06-01

Our everyday shopping practices are increasingly marketed as opportunities to 'make a difference' via our ethical consumption choices. In response to a growing body of work detailing the ways in which specific alignments of 'ethics' and 'consumption' are mediated, we explore how 'ethical' opportunities such as the consumption of Fairtrade products are recognized, experienced and taken-up in the everyday. The 'everyday' is approached here via a specially commissioned Mass Observation directive, a volunteer panel of correspondents in the UK. Our on-going thematic analysis of their autobiographical accounts aims to explore a complex unevenness in the ways 'ordinary' people experience and negotiate calls to enact their ethical agency through consumption. Situating ethical consumption, moral obligation and choice in the everyday is, we argue, important if we are to avoid both over-exaggerating the reflexive and self-conscious sensibilities involved in ethical consumption, and, adhering to a reductive understanding of ethical self-expression.

"What is this genetics, anyway?" Understandings of genetics, illness causality and inheritance among British Pakistani users of genetic services.

PubMed

Shaw, Alison; Hurst, Jane A

2008-08-01

Misconceptions about basic genetic concepts and inheritance patterns may be widespread in the general population. This paper investigates understandings of genetics, illness causality and inheritance among British Pakistanis referred to a UK genetics clinic. During participant observation of genetics clinic consultations and semi-structured interviews in Urdu or English in respondents' homes, we identified an array of environmental, behavioral and spiritual understandings of the causes of medical and intellectual problems. Misconceptions about the location of genetic information in the body and of genetic mechanisms of inheritance were common, reflected the range of everyday theories observed for White British patients and included the belief that a child receives more genetic material from the father than the mother. Despite some participants' conversational use of genetic terminology, some patients had assimilated genetic information in ways that conflict with genetic theory with potentially serious clinical consequences. Additionally, skepticism of genetic theories of illness reflected a rejection of a dominant discourse of genetic risk that stigmatizes cousin marriages. Patients referred to genetics clinics may not easily surrender their lay or personal theories about the causes of their own or their child's condition and their understandings of genetic risk. Genetic counselors may need to identify, work with and at times challenge patients' understandings of illness causality and inheritance.

Online processing of moral transgressions: ERP evidence for spontaneous evaluation.

PubMed

Leuthold, Hartmut; Kunkel, Angelika; Mackenzie, Ian G; Filik, Ruth

2015-08-01

Experimental studies using fictional moral dilemmas indicate that both automatic emotional processes and controlled cognitive processes contribute to moral judgments. However, not much is known about how people process socio-normative violations that are more common to their everyday life nor the time-course of these processes. Thus, we recorded participants' electrical brain activity while they were reading vignettes that either contained morally acceptable vs unacceptable information or text materials that contained information which was either consistent or inconsistent with their general world knowledge. A first event-related brain potential (ERP) positivity peaking at ∼200 ms after critical word onset (P200) was larger when this word involved a socio-normative or knowledge-based violation. Subsequently, knowledge-inconsistent words triggered a larger centroparietal ERP negativity at ∼320 ms (N400), indicating an influence on meaning construction. In contrast, a larger ERP positivity (larger late positivity), which also started at ∼320 ms after critical word onset, was elicited by morally unacceptable compared with acceptable words. We take this ERP positivity to reflect an implicit evaluative (good-bad) categorization process that is engaged during the online processing of moral transgressions. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Optical diagnostics of vascular reactions triggered by weak allergens using laser speckle-contrast imaging technique

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kuznetsov, Yu L; Kalchenko, V V; Astaf'eva, N G

2014-08-31

The capability of using the laser speckle contrast imaging technique with a long exposure time for visualisation of primary acute skin vascular reactions caused by a topical application of a weak contact allergen is considered. The method is shown to provide efficient and accurate detection of irritant-induced primary acute vascular reactions of skin. The presented technique possesses a high potential in everyday diagnostic practice, preclinical studies, as well as in the prognosis of skin reactions to the interaction with potentially allergenic materials. (laser biophotonics)

Sound and heat revolutions in phononics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maldovan, Martin

2013-11-01

The phonon is the physical particle representing mechanical vibration and is responsible for the transmission of everyday sound and heat. Understanding and controlling the phononic properties of materials provides opportunities to thermally insulate buildings, reduce environmental noise, transform waste heat into electricity and develop earthquake protection. Here I review recent progress and the development of new ideas and devices that make use of phononic properties to control both sound and heat. Advances in sonic and thermal diodes, optomechanical crystals, acoustic and thermal cloaking, hypersonic phononic crystals, thermoelectrics, and thermocrystals herald the next technological revolution in phononics.

Preferred Visuographic Images to Support Reading by People with Chronic Aphasia.

PubMed

Knollman-Porter, Kelly; Brown, Jessica; Hux, Karen; Wallace, Sarah E; Uchtman, Elizabeth

2016-08-01

Written materials used both clinically and in everyday reading tasks can contain visuographic images that vary in content and attributes. People with aphasia may benefit from visuographic images to support reading comprehension. Understanding the image type and feature preferences of individuals with aphasia is an important first step when developing guidelines for selecting reading materials that motivate and support reading comprehension. The study purposes were to determine the preferences and explore the perceptions of and opinions provided by adults with chronic aphasia regarding various image features and types on facilitating the reading process. Six adults with chronic aphasia ranked visuographic materials varying in context, engagement, and content regarding their perceived degree of helpfulness in comprehending written materials. Then, they participated in semi-structured interviews that allowed them to elaborate on their choices and convey opinions about potential benefits and detriments associated with preferred and non-preferred materials. All participants preferred high-context photographs rather than iconic images or portraits as potential supports to facilitate reading activities. Differences in opinions emerged across participants regarding the amount of preferred content included in high context images.

Wavelet Analysis of Acoustic Emissions during Tensile Test of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Świt, Grzegorz; Adamczak, Anna; Krampikowska, Aleksandra

2017-10-01

The increase of the interest in polymer composites in technology and in people’s everyday lives has been noticed in the recent years. Producing new materials with polymer matrix of particular properties that cannot be achieved by traditional construction materials contributed to high interest in fibre composite materials. However, a wider use of these materials is limited because of the lack of detailed knowledge about their properties and behaviour in various conditions of exposure under load. Mechanical degradation of polymer composites, which is caused by prolonged permanent loads, is connected with the changes of the material structure that are local or that include the whole volume of the element’s body. These changes are in the form of various types of discontinuity, including: deboning, matrix and fibers cracks and delamination. The article presents the example of the application of acoustic emission method based on the analysis of the waves through the use of wavelet analysis for the evaluation of the progress of the destructive processes and the level of the degradation of composite tapes that were subject to tensile testing.

Outcomes research in pediatric settings: recent trends and future directions.

PubMed

Forrest, Christopher B; Shipman, Scott A; Dougherty, Denise; Miller, Marlene R

2003-01-01

Pediatric outcomes research examines the effects of health care delivered in everyday medical settings on the health of children and adolescents. It is an area of inquiry in its nascent stages of development. We conducted a systematic literature review that covered articles published during the 6-year interval 1994-1999 and in 39 peer-reviewed journals chosen for their likelihood of containing child health services research. This article summarizes the article abstraction, reviews the literature, describes recent trends, and makes recommendations for future work. In the sample of journals that we examined, the number of pediatric outcomes research articles doubled between 1994 and 1999. Hospitals and primary care practices were the most common service sectors, accounting for more than half of the articles. Common clinical categories included neonatal conditions, asthma, psychosocial problems, and injuries. Approximately 1 in 5 studies included multistate or national samples; 1 in 10 used a randomized controlled trial study design. Remarkably few studies examined the health effects of preventive, diagnostic, long-term management, or curative services delivered to children and adolescents. Outcomes research in pediatric settings is a rapidly growing area of inquiry that is acquiring breadth but has achieved little depth in any single content area. Much work needs to be done to inform decision making regarding the optimal ways to finance, organize, and deliver child health care services. To improve the evidence base of pediatric health care, more effectiveness research is needed to evaluate the overall and relative effects of services delivered to children and adolescents in everyday settings.

Mild cognitive impairment and everyday function: evidence of reduced speed in performing instrumental activities of daily living.

PubMed

Wadley, Virginia G; Okonkwo, Ozioma; Crowe, Michael; Ross-Meadows, Lesley A

2008-05-01

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may involve subtle functional losses that are not detected with typical self- or informant-report assessments of daily function. Information about the nature of functional difficulties in MCI can be used to augment common clinical assessment procedures, and aspects of function that are affected in MCI can serve as meaningful endpoints for intervention trials. Cross-sectional case and comparison group study. University medical center. Fifty participants with MCI and 59 cognitively normal participants. The authors compared the groups on dimensions of both speed and accuracy in performing instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), using a standardized Timed IADL measure that evaluates five functional domains commonly encountered in everyday life (telephone use, locating nutrition information on food labels, financial abilities, grocery shopping, medication management). Across Timed IADL domains, MCI participants demonstrated accuracy comparable with cognitively normal participants but took significantly longer to complete the functional activities, controlling for depressive symptoms (p< 0.001). Slower performance was demonstrated in each discrete domain except financial abilities. These results suggest that slower speed of task performance is an important component and perhaps an early marker of functional change in MCI that would not be detected using traditional measurements of daily function. Future research should address the question of whether performance-based functional measures, as well as simple queries regarding whether functional activities take longer than usual to complete, may improve the prediction of future cognitive decline and disease progression among those individuals in whom MCI represents impending dementia.

Working with 'hands-off' support: a qualitative study of multidisciplinary teams' experiences of home rehabilitation for older people.

PubMed

Randström, Kerstin Björkman; Wengler, Yvonne; Asplund, Kenneth; Svedlund, Marianne

2014-03-01

There is a move towards the provision of rehabilitation for older people in their homes. It is essential to ensure that rehabilitation services promote independence of older people. The aim of the study was to explore multidisciplinary teams' experiences of home rehabilitation for older people. Five focus groups were conducted with multidisciplinary teams based in a municipality in Sweden, covering seven different professions. In total, 28 participants volunteered to participate in these interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed according to content analysis. Two main categories, as well as four subcategories, emerged. The first main category, having a rehabilitative approach in everyday life, consisted of the subcategories: 'giving 'hands-off' support' and 'being in a home environment'. The second main category, working across professional boundaries, consisted of the subcategories: 'coordinating resources' and 'learning from each other'. Common goals, communication skills and role understanding contributed to facilitating the teams' performances of rehabilitation. A potential benefit of home rehabilitation, because the older person is in a familiar environment, is to work a rehabilitative approach into each individual's activity in their everyday life in order to meet their specific needs. At an organisational level, there is a need for developing services to further support older people's psychosocial needs during rehabilitation. Team performance towards an individual's rehabilitation should come from an emerged whole and not only from the performance of a specific professional approach depending on the traditional role of each profession. A rehabilitative approach is based on 'hands-off' support in order to incorporate an individual's everyday activities as a part of their rehabilitation. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

How do mental health practitioners operationalise cultural competency in everyday practice? A qualitative analysis.

PubMed

Mollah, Tooba Noor; Antoniades, Josefine; Lafeer, Fathima Ijaza; Brijnath, Bianca

2018-06-20

Despite continued policy and research emphasis to deliver culturally competent mental healthcare, there is: (1) limited evidence about what frontline practitioners consider to be culturally competent care and; (2) what helps or hinders them in delivering such care in their everyday practice. The aims of this article are to address these gaps. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 mental health practitioners working with immigrant patients to explore their understandings and experiences of culturally competent care. Interviews were conducted between September 2015 and February 2016 in the state of Victoria, Australia. Data were thematically analysed. There were common understandings of cultural competence but its operationalisation differed by profession, health setting, locality, and years of experience; urban psychiatrists were more functional in their approach and authoritarian in their communication with patients compared to allied health staff in non-specialist mental health settings, in rural areas, with less years of experience. Different methods of operationalising cultural competence translated into complex ways of building cultural concordance with patients, also influenced by health practitioners' own cultural background and cultural exposures. Limited access to interpreters and organisational apathy remain barriers to promoting cultural competency whereas organisational support, personal motivation, and professional resilience remain critical facilitators to sustaining cultural competency in everyday practice. While there is need for widespread cultural competence teaching to all mental health professionals, this training must be specific to different professional needs, health settings, and localities of practice (rural or urban). Experiential teaching at tertiary level or professional development programs may provide an avenue to improve the status quo but a 'one-size-fits-all' model is unlikely to work.

Switching, Adverse Effects and Use of Over-the-Counter Analgesics among Users of Oral Anticoagulants: A Pharmacy-based Survey.

PubMed

Hellfritzsch, Maja; Hyllested, Lea Maria Rønneberg; Meegaard, Line; Wiberg-Hansen, Alexander; Grove, Erik Lerkevang; Pottegård, Anton

2017-07-01

Oral anticoagulants are widely used but information on important aspects in that respect is not available from medical registers or clinical databases. Therefore, we conducted a survey including patients filling a prescription for oral anticoagulants at two large Danish community pharmacies. We collected information concerning the patients' knowledge of their anticoagulant treatment including prior drug switching. Further, patients were asked about use of over-the-counter analgesics, adverse effects and how the treatment affected their everyday life. Among 335 eligible patients, 301 (90%) agreed to participate. Atrial fibrillation was the most common indication (65%), and most patients filled a prescription for a non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) (58%). Among the 12% (n = 35) of participants who had switched oral anticoagulant treatment, 69% had switched from a vitamin K antagonist (VKA) to a NOAC. Switching was most frequently caused by inconvenience (34%) and adverse effects (23%). Although half of all patients had recently bought over-the-counter analgesics, purchase of ibuprofen and aspirin was rare (6%). More VKA users than NOAC users felt limited in their everyday life because of anticoagulant treatment (18% versus 9%). Among non-incident NOAC users, 21% had experienced adverse effects during their current treatment. Based on first-hand information from a large sample of anticoagulant users, we conclude that the main drug-related issues leading to anticoagulant switching and perceived limitations in everyday life were inconvenience and adverse effects. This varied between drug groups. Further, use of NSAIDs obtained over the counter was rare. © 2017 Nordic Association for the Publication of BCPT (former Nordic Pharmacological Society).

Everyday violence, structural racism and mistreatment at the US-Mexico border.

PubMed

Sabo, Samantha; Shaw, Susan; Ingram, Maia; Teufel-Shone, Nicolette; Carvajal, Scott; de Zapien, Jill Guernsey; Rosales, Cecilia; Redondo, Flor; Garcia, Gina; Rubio-Goldsmith, Raquel

2014-05-01

Immigration laws that militarize communities may exacerbate ethno-racial health disparities. We aimed to document the prevalence of and ways in which immigration enforcement policy and militarization of the US-Mexico border is experienced as everyday violence. Militarization is defined as the saturation of and pervasive encounters with immigration officials including local police enacting immigration and border enforcement policy with military style tactics and weapons. Data were drawn from a random household sample of US citizen and permanent residents of Mexican descent in the Arizona border region (2006-2008). Qualitative and quantitative data documented the frequency and nature of immigration related profiling, mistreatment and resistance to institutionalized victimization. Participants described living and working in a highly militarized environment, wherein immigration-related profiling and mistreatment were common immigration law enforcement practices. Approximately 25% of respondents described an immigration-related mistreatment episode, of which 62% were personally victimized. Nearly 75% of episodes occurred in a community location rather than at a US port of entry. Participant mistreatment narratives suggest the normalization of immigration-related mistreatment among the population. Given border security remains at the core of immigration reform debates, it is imperative that scholars advance the understanding of the public health impact of such enforcement policies on the daily lives of Mexican-origin US permanent residents, and their non-immigrant US citizen co-ethnics. Immigration policy that sanctions institutional practices of discrimination, such as ethno-racial profiling and mistreatment, are forms of structural racism and everyday violence. Metrics and systems for monitoring immigration and border enforcement policies and institutional practices deleterious to the health of US citizens and residents should be established. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dual loyalties: Everyday ethical problems of registered nurses and physicians in combat zones.

PubMed

Lundberg, Kristina; Kjellström, Sofia; Sandman, Lars

2017-01-01

When healthcare personnel take part in military operations in combat zones, they experience ethical problems related to dual loyalties, that is, when they find themselves torn between expectations of doing caring and military tasks, respectively. This article aims to describe how Swedish healthcare personnel reason concerning everyday ethical problems related to dual loyalties between care and military tasks when undertaking healthcare in combat zones. Abductive qualitative design. Participants and research context: Individual interviews with 15 registered nurses and physicians assigned for a military operation in Mali. Ethical considerations: The participants signed up voluntarily, and requirements for informed consent and confidentiality were met. The research was approved by the Regional Ethics Review Board in Gothenburg (D no. 816-14; 24 November 2014). Three main categories emerged: reasons for not undertaking combat duties, reasons for undertaking combat duties and restricted loyalty to military duties, and 14 subcategories. Reasons for not undertaking combat duties were that it was not in their role, not according to ethical codes or humanitarian law or a breach towards patients. Reasons for undertaking combat duties were that humanitarian law does not apply or has to be treated pragmatically or that it is a case of force protection. Shortage of resources and competence were reasons for both doing and not doing military tasks. Under some circumstances, they could imagine undertaking military tasks: when under threat, if unseen or if not needed for healthcare duties. These discrepant views suggest a lack of a common view on what is ethically acceptable or not, and therefore we suggest further normative discussion on how these everyday ethical problems should be interpreted in the light of humanitarian law and ethical codes of healthcare personnel and following this, further training in ethical reflection before going on military operations.

Foundations of Children's Self-Concepts about Everyday Activities: Identities and Comparative Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Laurel

2014-01-01

Children's motivations to engage in everyday activities draw on their experiences in thinking of oneself and the activities. In theory, these personal and social realities provide the complex foundations of self-concepts. The aim of this project was to define the foundations of children's self-concepts about everyday activities; to focus…

The Internet in the Everyday Life-World: A Comparison between High-School Students in China and Norway

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Fengshu

2010-01-01

Based on in-depth interviews, this study offers a comparison of how high-school students in China and Norway are actively constructing the Internet as an element of their everyday lives. Through the Schutzian notions of everyday life-world, social-biographical situation and relevance, the study has revealed striking differences between the Chinese…

Outcomes of Treatment Targeting Syntax Production in People with Broca's-Type Aphasia: Evidence from Psycholinguistic Assessment Tasks and Everyday Conversation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carragher, Marcella; Sage, Karen; Conroy, Paul

2015-01-01

Background: Capturing evidence of the effects of therapy within everyday communication is the holy grail of aphasia treatment design and evaluation. Whilst impaired sentence production is a predominant symptom of Broca's-type aphasia, the effects of sentence production therapy on everyday conversation have not been investigated. Given the…

Inquiry-Based Learning Using Everyday Objects: Hands-On Instructional Strategies That Promote Active Learning in Grades 3-8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvarado, Amy Edmonds; Herr, Patricia R.

This book explores the concept of using everyday objects as a process initiated both by students and teachers, encouraging growth in student observation, inquisitiveness, and reflection in learning. After "Introduction: Welcome to Inquiry-Based Learning using Everyday Objects (Object-Based Inquiry), there are nine chapters in two parts. Part 1,…

Cognitive Ability as a Resource for Everyday Functioning among Older Adults Who Are Visually Impaired

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heyl, Vera; Wahl, Hans-Werner

2010-01-01

This article reports on a study that investigated the role of cognitive resources in the everyday functioning of 121 older adults who were visually impaired and 150 sighted older adults, with a mean age of 82 years. Cognitive performance and everyday functioning were most strongly related in the group who were visually impaired. The authors…

Everyday memory measures in multiple sclerosis: a systematic review.

PubMed

dasNair, Roshan; Griffiths, Holly; Clarke, Sara; Methley, Abigail; Kneebone, Ian; Topcu, Gogem

2018-03-02

Everyday memory is one of the most affected cognitive functions in multiple sclerosis (MS). Assessing everyday memory problems is crucial for monitoring the impact of memory deficits on individuals' day-to-day lives and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions that aim to improve cognitive functions. The aim of this systematic review was to identify the research literature on everyday memory measures used with people with MS, describe the types of measures used, and summarise their psychometric properties. Empirical studies of cognitive function in MS using standardised everyday memory measures were included. Online databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Embase) and Google Scholar were searched. Forty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. A total of 12 measures were identified, with varied uses and administration methods. The majority of papers did not report any psychometric properties for MS populations. The few papers that did, reported that the measures have good reliability and appear to have good face, concurrent, and ecological validity, but these need to be evaluated further. This review presents researchers and clinicians with an overview of the various everyday memory measures used in studies with people with MS, to help them choose the appropriate measure for their evaluations.

Everyday listeners' impressions of speech produced by individuals with adductor spasmodic dysphonia.

PubMed

Nagle, Kathleen F; Eadie, Tanya L; Yorkston, Kathryn M

2015-01-01

Individuals with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) have reported that unfamiliar communication partners appear to judge them as sneaky, nervous or not intelligent, apparently based on the quality of their speech; however, there is minimal research into the actual everyday perspective of listening to ADSD speech. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impressions of listeners hearing ADSD speech for the first time using a mixed-methods design. Everyday listeners were interviewed following sessions in which they made ratings of ADSD speech. A semi-structured interview approach was used and data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Three major themes emerged: (1) everyday listeners make judgments about speakers with ADSD; (2) ADSD speech does not sound normal to everyday listeners; and (3) rating overall severity is difficult for everyday listeners. Participants described ADSD speech similarly to existing literature; however, some listeners inaccurately extrapolated speaker attributes based solely on speech samples. Listeners may draw erroneous conclusions about individuals with ADSD and these biases may affect the communicative success of these individuals. Results have implications for counseling individuals with ADSD, as well as the need for education and awareness about ADSD. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Association between satisfaction and participation in everyday occupations after stroke.

PubMed

Bergström, Aileen; Guidetti, Susanne; Tham, Kerstin; Eriksson, Gunilla

2017-09-01

Within occupational therapy, it is assumed that individuals are satisfied when participating in everyday occupations that they want to do. However, there is little empirical evidence to show this. The aim of this study is to explore and describe the relation between satisfaction and participation in everyday occupations in a Swedish cohort, 5 years post stroke. Sixty-nine persons responded to the Occupational Gaps Questionnaire (OGQ). The questionnaire measures subjective restrictions in participation, i.e. the discrepancy between doing and wanting to do 30 different occupations in everyday life, and satisfaction per activity. Results were analysed with McNemar/chi-square. Seventy percent of the persons perceived participation restrictions. Individuals that did not perceive restrictions in their participation had a significantly higher level of satisfaction (p = .002) compared to those that had restrictions. Participants that performed activities that they wanted to do report between 79 and 100% satisfaction per activity. In this cohort, there was a significant association between satisfaction and participating in everyday occupations one wants to do, showing that satisfaction is an important aspect of participation and substantiates a basic assumption within occupational therapy. The complexity of measuring satisfaction and participation in everyday occupations is discussed.

Dual Task of Fine Motor Skill and Problem Solving in Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Goverover, Y; Sandroff, B M; DeLuca, J

2018-04-01

To (1) examine and compare dual-task performance in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy controls (HCs) using mathematical problem-solving questions that included an everyday competence component while performing an upper extremity fine motor task; and (2) examine whether difficulties in dual-task performance are associated with problems in performing an everyday internet task. Pilot study, mixed-design with both a within and between subjects' factor. A nonprofit rehabilitation research institution and the community. Participants (N=38) included persons with MS (n=19) and HCs (n=19) who were recruited from a nonprofit rehabilitation research institution and from the community. Not applicable. Participant were presented with 2 testing conditions: (1) solving mathematical everyday problems or placing bolts into divots (single-task condition); and (2) solving problems while putting bolts into divots (dual-task condition). Additionally, participants were required to perform a test of everyday internet competence. As expected, dual-task performance was significantly worse than either of the single-task tasks (ie, number of bolts into divots or correct answers, and time to answer the questions). Cognitive but not motor dual-task cost was associated with worse performance in activities of everyday internet tasks. Cognitive dual-task cost is significantly associated with worse performance of everyday technology. This was not observed in the motor dual-task cost. The implications of dual-task costs on everyday activity are discussed. Copyright © 2017 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chronic exposure to everyday discrimination and sleep in a multiethnic sample of middle-aged women.

PubMed

Lewis, Tené T; Troxel, Wendy M; Kravitz, Howard M; Bromberger, Joyce T; Matthews, Karen A; Hall, Martica H

2013-07-01

Researchers have suggested that poor sleep may play a role in the association between discrimination and health, but studies linking experiences of discrimination to sleep are limited. The authors examined associations between reports of everyday discrimination over 4 years (chronic everyday discrimination) and subjective and objective indicators of poor sleep. Participants were 368 African American, Caucasian, and Chinese women from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation Sleep Study. Everyday discrimination was assessed each year from baseline through the third follow-up exam via questionnaire with the Everyday Discrimination Scale (intraclass correlation coefficient over 4 years = .90). Subjective sleep complaints were measured beginning in Year 5 with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Objective indices of sleep continuity, duration, and architecture were assessed via in-home polysomnography, beginning in Year 5. In linear regression analyses adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, and financial strain, chronic everyday discrimination was associated with more subjective sleep complaints (Estimate = 1.52, p < .001) and polysomnography-assessed wakefulness after sleep onset (Estimate = .19, p < .02), a marker of sleep continuity. Findings did not differ by race/ethnicity and remained significant after adjusting for menopausal status, body mass index, medication use, and depressive symptoms. Experiences of chronic everyday discrimination are independently associated with both subjective and objective indices of poor sleep. Findings add to the growing literature linking discrimination to key markers of biobehavioral health. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Learning and using technology in intertwined processes: a study of people with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Rosenberg, Lena; Nygård, Louise

2014-09-01

People with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease are likely to be challenged by the multitude of everyday technology in today's society. The aim of this study was to explore how they try to prohibit, avoid or solve problems in everyday technology use, maintain skills, and learn to use new technology. To explore how the participants applied and reasoned about using everyday technology in real-life situations interviews were conducted while the participants used their own technology in their homes. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants with mild cognitive impairment (n = 10) or Alzheimer's disease (n = 10). The analyses were inspired from grounded theory and resulted in one core category and three sub-categories that represent sub-processes in the core. The core finding presents a continuous, intertwined process of learning and using everyday technology, highlighting how the context was interwoven in the processes. The participants used a rich variety of management strategies when approaching technology, including communication with the everyday technologies on different levels. The findings underscore that it is important to support continued use of everyday technology as long as it is valued and relevant to the person with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease. The intertwined process of learning and using everyday technology suggests how support could target different sub-processes. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

Effects of Electromagnetic Field Over a Human Body, Sar Simulation with and Without Nanotextile in the Frequency Range 0.9-1.8GHZ

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomovski, Boyan; Gräbner, Frank; Hungsberg, Axel; Kallmeyer, Christian; Linsel, Mario

2011-11-01

Within only the last decade, usage of mobile phones and many other electronic devices with high speed wireless RF connection is rapidly increasing. Modern life requires reliable, quick and high-quality information connections, which explains the widely spreading craze for electronic mobile devices of various types. The vast technological advances we are witnessing in electronics, electro-optics, and computer science have profoundly affected our everyday lives. Meanwhile, safety concerns regarding the biological effects of electromagnetic (EM) radiation have been raised, in particular at a low level of exposure which we everyday experience. A variety of waves and signals have to be considered such as different sine waves, digital signals used in radio, television, mobile phone systems and other information transfer systems. The field around us has become rather complicated and the "air space is getting more and more dense with RF. The establishing of safety recommendations, law norms and rules augmented by adequate measurements is very important and requires quite an expertise. But as many scientific researches suggest, what we are currently witnessing is very likely to generate a great public danger and a bad influence over the human body. There are many health organisations warning the public for possible development of cancer, mental and physical disorders etc [7, 8]. These suggestions are quite serious and should not be neglected by the official bodies and the test laboratories. In the following work, the effects of electromagnetic field over a virtual model of a human head have been simulated in the frequency range from 900 MHz to 1800 MHz (commonly created in the real life by mobile GSM system) with the help of the program MEFiSTo 2D Classic [1]. The created virtual models using the 2D simulation & computation software proved that the use of new high tech nanotextile materials for shielding layers around the human body can reduce the effects of EM fields dramatically if chosen properly according to the area of application.

Dysexecutive symptoms and carer strain following acquired brain injury: Changes measured before and after holistic neuropsychological rehabilitation.

PubMed

Goodwin, Rachel A; Lincoln, Nadina B; Bateman, Andrew

2016-06-18

Following acquired brain injury (ABI), deficits in executive functioning (EF) are common. As a result many brain-injured patients encounter problems in every-day functioning, and their families experience significant strain. Previous research has documented the benefits of cognitive rehabilitation for executive dysfunction, and rehabilitation programmes designed to ameliorate functional problems associated with ABI. This study primarily aims to evaluate whether a neuropsychological rehabilitation programme reduces reported symptoms of everyday dysexecutive behaviour and carer strain. In this study 66 ABI outpatients attended comprehensive holistic neuropsychological rehabilitation programme. A repeated-measures design was employed to determine the effect of rehabilitation on EF and carer strain, as part of a service evaluation. Outcome measures comprised the dysexecutive questionnaire (DEX/DEX-I) and carer strain index (CSI), applied pre- and post-rehabilitation. Results indicate rehabilitation benefited clients and carers in 5 of 6 DEX/DEX-I subscales, and 2 of 3 CSI subscales, (p < 0.05). An effect of aetiology on rehabilitation was found on the metacognitive scale of the DEX-I. Therefore, this study supports a comprehensive holistic neuropsychological rehabilitation programme as effective in reducing reported symptoms of dysexecutive behaviour and carer strain following ABI.

Contextualising migrants' health behaviour - a qualitative study of transnational ties and their implications for participation in mammography screening.

PubMed

Lue Kessing, Linnea; Norredam, Marie; Kvernrod, Ann-Britt; Mygind, Anna; Kristiansen, Maria

2013-05-03

Lower participation rates in mammography screening are common among migrant women compared to native-born women. Explanations of these lower rates have mainly been based on behavioural theories investigating how lack of knowledge, access to services and culture influence the screening behaviour. The aim of the present study was to contextualise screening behaviour by exploring migrants' transnational ties and their influence on participation in mammography screening in Denmark. The study is based on the analysis of qualitative interviews with 29 women residing in greater Copenhagen, Denmark and born in Somalia, Turkey, India, Iran, Pakistan and Arab-speaking countries. We found that while women had knowledge about breast cancer and mammography screening, it was not prioritised. All women were embedded in transnational ties, which they struggled to retain through emotional and financial obligations, and these current struggles in their everyday life seemed to leave little room for concerns about breast cancer and therefore seemed to contribute to their lower participation in screening. The study emphasises the need to take into account the multi-layered and multi-sided factors in migrants' everyday life in order to further understand their health behaviour.

Greater cerebellar gray matter volume in car drivers: an exploratory voxel-based morphometry study

PubMed Central

Sakai, Hiroyuki; Ando, Takafumi; Sadato, Norihiro; Uchiyama, Yuji

2017-01-01

Previous functional neuroimaging studies have identified multiple brain areas associated with distinct aspects of car driving in simulated traffic environments. Few studies, however, have examined brain morphology associated with everyday car-driving experience in real traffic. Thus, the aim of the current study was to identify gray matter volume differences between drivers and non-drivers. We collected T1-weighted structural brain images from 73 healthy young adults (36 drivers and 37 non-drivers). We performed a whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis to examine between-group differences in regional gray matter volume. Compared with non-drivers, drivers showed significantly greater gray matter volume in the left cerebellar hemisphere, which has been associated with cognitive rather than motor functioning. In contrast, we found no brain areas with significantly greater gray matter volume in non-drivers compared with drivers. Our findings indicate that experience with everyday car driving in real traffic is associated with greater gray matter volume in the left cerebellar hemisphere. This brain area may be involved in abilities that are critical for driving a car, but are not commonly or frequently used during other daily activities. PMID:28417971

Driving risk and rural life: everyday and reconstructed realities.

PubMed

Rothe, J P; Elgert, L

2005-05-01

This article details the complex network of circumstances and meanings that influence rural people's driving behavior, and describes the manner in which some rural drivers' relevant social patterns support the everyday reality of driving and risk taking on rural roads. To fulfill the purpose of the study, 20 focus group interviews were conducted with 212 rural citizens in Alberta, Canada. The findings indicate that rural drivers routinely break traffic laws because: they do not perceive the harm in breaking laws, they believe that breaking laws is a natural thing to do, they negotiate the efficacy of laws according to their personal situations, and they believe in the maxim that the "ends justify the means. " It is common for rural drivers to break or "negotiate" traffic laws if it helps them in their work lives or in fulfillment of their immediate needs. They judge some traffic laws as unreasonable and question their effect on safety. Hence, they do not feel committed to universally honoring traffic laws. This information can be used to design intervention strategies for rural traffic safety that are relevant to rural drivers and thereby have optimal opportunity for success.

Unexpected Events Induce Motor Slowing via a Brain Mechanism for Action-Stopping with Global Suppressive Effects

PubMed Central

Aron, Adam R.

2013-01-01

When an unexpected event occurs in everyday life (e.g., a car honking), one experiences a slowing down of ongoing action (e.g., of walking into the street). Motor slowing following unexpected events is a ubiquitous phenomenon, both in laboratory experiments as well as such everyday situations, yet the underlying mechanism is unknown. We hypothesized that unexpected events recruit the same inhibition network in the brain as does complete cancellation of an action (i.e., action-stopping). Using electroencephalography and independent component analysis in humans, we show that a brain signature of successful outright action-stopping also exhibits activity following unexpected events, and more so in blocks with greater motor slowing. Further, using transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure corticospinal excitability, we show that an unexpected event has a global motor suppressive effect, just like outright action-stopping. Thus, unexpected events recruit a common mechanism with outright action-stopping, moreover with global suppressive effects. These findings imply that we can now leverage the considerable extant knowledge of the neural architecture and functional properties of the stopping system to better understand the processing of unexpected events, including perhaps how they induce distraction via global suppression. PMID:24259571

TummyTrials: A Feasibility Study of Using Self-Experimentation to Detect Individualized Food Triggers.

PubMed

Karkar, Ravi; Schroeder, Jessica; Epstein, Daniel A; Pina, Laura R; Scofield, Jeffrey; Fogarty, James; Kientz, Julie A; Munson, Sean A; Vilardaga, Roger; Zia, Jasmine

2017-05-02

Diagnostic self-tracking, the recording of personal information to diagnose or manage a health condition, is a common practice, especially for people with chronic conditions. Unfortunately, many who attempt diagnostic self-tracking have trouble accomplishing their goals. People often lack knowledge and skills needed to design and conduct scientifically rigorous experiments, and current tools provide little support. To address these shortcomings and explore opportunities for diagnostic self-tracking, we designed, developed, and evaluated a mobile app that applies a self-experimentation framework to support patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in identifying their personal food triggers. TummyTrials aids a person in designing, executing, and analyzing self-experiments to evaluate whether a specific food triggers their symptoms. We examined the feasibility of this approach in a field study with 15 IBS patients, finding that participants could use the tool to reliably undergo a self-experiment. However, we also discovered an underlying tension between scientific validity and the lived experience of self-experimentation. We discuss challenges of applying clinical research methods in everyday life, motivating a need for the design of self-experimentation systems to balance rigor with the uncertainties of everyday life.

Greater cerebellar gray matter volume in car drivers: an exploratory voxel-based morphometry study.

PubMed

Sakai, Hiroyuki; Ando, Takafumi; Sadato, Norihiro; Uchiyama, Yuji

2017-04-18

Previous functional neuroimaging studies have identified multiple brain areas associated with distinct aspects of car driving in simulated traffic environments. Few studies, however, have examined brain morphology associated with everyday car-driving experience in real traffic. Thus, the aim of the current study was to identify gray matter volume differences between drivers and non-drivers. We collected T1-weighted structural brain images from 73 healthy young adults (36 drivers and 37 non-drivers). We performed a whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis to examine between-group differences in regional gray matter volume. Compared with non-drivers, drivers showed significantly greater gray matter volume in the left cerebellar hemisphere, which has been associated with cognitive rather than motor functioning. In contrast, we found no brain areas with significantly greater gray matter volume in non-drivers compared with drivers. Our findings indicate that experience with everyday car driving in real traffic is associated with greater gray matter volume in the left cerebellar hemisphere. This brain area may be involved in abilities that are critical for driving a car, but are not commonly or frequently used during other daily activities.

First-time viewers' comprehension of films: bridging shot transitions.

PubMed

Ildirar, Sermin; Schwan, Stephan

2015-02-01

Which perceptual and cognitive prerequisites must be met in order to be able to comprehend a film is still unresolved and a controversial issue. In order to gain some insights into this issue, our field experiment investigates how first-time adult viewers extract and integrate meaningful information across film cuts. Three major types of commonalities between adjacent shots were differentiated, which may help first-time viewers with bridging the shots: pictorial, causal, and conceptual. Twenty first-time, 20 low-experienced and 20 high-experienced viewers from Turkey were shown a set of short film clips containing these three kinds of commonalities. Film clips conformed also to the principles of continuity editing. Analyses of viewers' spontaneous interpretations show that first-time viewers indeed are able to notice basic pictorial (object identity), causal (chains of activity), as well as conceptual (links between gaze direction and object attention) commonalities between shots due to their close relationship with everyday perception and cognition. However, first-time viewers' comprehension of the commonalities is to a large degree fragile, indicating the lack of a basic notion of what constitutes a film. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Everyday Experiences of 18- to 36-Month-Old Children from Migrant Families: The Influence of Host Culture and Migration Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Driessen, Ricarda; Leyendecker, Birgit; Scholmerich, Axel; Harwood, Robin

2010-01-01

We explored the everyday experiences of 18- to 36-month-old toddlers at two study sites and the influence of adaptation to the host culture on the everyday experiences of children from migrant families. First- and second-generation Puerto Rican families in Connecticut, USA, first- and second-generation Turkish families in Bochum, Germany, as well…

Sounding Lives in and through Music: A Narrative Inquiry of the "Everyday" Musical Engagement of a Young Child

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrett, Margaret S.

2009-01-01

There is growing interest in the study of young children's "everyday" lives. Music engagement is central to young children's experience of the "everyday" yet few studies have investigated the ways young children and their families engage with and use music in their daily lives. The purpose of this article is twofold: it interrogates the ways in…

Everyday Learning about Sleep. Everyday Learning Series. Volume 5, Number 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linke, Pam

2007-01-01

The Everyday Learning Series has been developed to focus attention on the every day life experiences of early childhood and to offer insight about how parents and carers can make the most of these experiences. Having a new baby is wonderful and exciting and one of the most trying times in a parent's life. So it is no wonder that anyone caring for…

The Role of Individual Differences in the Categorization (or Domain Placement) of Social Cues in Occurrences of Everyday Moral Conflicts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, John Y.

This study examines the role of individual differences in categorizing or domain placing social situations as entailing or not entailing moral harm in accounting for occurrences of everyday moral incidents. It was hypothesized that (1) much of what is experienced as morally injurious in everyday social events between significant others stems from…

Young children's non-numerical ordering ability at the start of formal education longitudinally predicts their symbolic number skills and academic achievement in maths.

PubMed

O'Connor, Patrick A; Morsanyi, Kinga; McCormack, Teresa

2018-01-25

Ordinality is a fundamental feature of numbers and recent studies have highlighted the role that number ordering abilities play in mathematical development (e.g., Lyons et al., ), as well as mature mathematical performance (e.g., Lyons & Beilock, ). The current study tested the novel hypothesis that non-numerical ordering ability, as measured by the ordering of familiar sequences of events, also plays an important role in maths development. Ninety children were tested in their first school year and 87 were followed up at the end of their second school year, to test the hypothesis that ordinal processing, including the ordering of non-numerical materials, would be related to their maths skills both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The results confirmed this hypothesis. Ordinal processing measures were significantly related to maths both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and children's non-numerical ordering ability in their first year of school (as measured by order judgements for everyday events and the parents' report of their child's everyday ordering ability) was the strongest longitudinal predictor of maths one year later, when compared to several measures that are traditionally considered to be important predictors of early maths development. Children's everyday ordering ability, as reported by parents, also significantly predicted growth in formal maths ability between Year 1 and Year 2, although this was not the case for the event ordering task. The present study provides strong evidence that domain-general ordering abilities play an important role in the development of children's maths skills at the beginning of formal education. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Attentional Control and Subjective Executive Function in Treatment-Naive Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

PubMed Central

Grane, Venke Arntsberg; Endestad, Tor; Pinto, Arnfrid Farbu; Solbakk, Anne-Kristin

2014-01-01

We investigated performance-derived measures of executive control, and their relationship with self- and informant reported executive functions in everyday life, in treatment-naive adults with newly diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; n = 36) and in healthy controls (n = 35). Sustained attentional control and response inhibition were examined with the Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.). Delayed responses, increased reaction time variability, and higher omission error rate to Go signals in ADHD patients relative to controls indicated fluctuating levels of attention in the patients. Furthermore, an increment in NoGo commission errors when Go stimuli increased relative to NoGo stimuli suggests reduced inhibition of task-irrelevant stimuli in conditions demanding frequent responding. The ADHD group reported significantly more cognitive and behavioral executive problems than the control group on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version (BRIEF-A). There were overall not strong associations between task performance and ratings of everyday executive function. However, for the ADHD group, T.O.V.A. omission errors predicted self-reported difficulties on the Organization of Materials scale, and commission errors predicted informant reported difficulties on the same scale. Although ADHD patients endorsed more symptoms of depression and anxiety on the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) than controls, ASEBA scores were not significantly associated with T.O.V.A. performance scores. Altogether, the results indicate multifaceted alteration of attentional control in adult ADHD, and accompanying subjective difficulties with several aspects of executive function in everyday living. The relationships between the two sets of data were modest, indicating that the measures represent non-redundant features of adult ADHD. PMID:25545156

Attentional control and subjective executive function in treatment-naive adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

PubMed

Grane, Venke Arntsberg; Endestad, Tor; Pinto, Arnfrid Farbu; Solbakk, Anne-Kristin

2014-01-01

We investigated performance-derived measures of executive control, and their relationship with self- and informant reported executive functions in everyday life, in treatment-naive adults with newly diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; n = 36) and in healthy controls (n = 35). Sustained attentional control and response inhibition were examined with the Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.). Delayed responses, increased reaction time variability, and higher omission error rate to Go signals in ADHD patients relative to controls indicated fluctuating levels of attention in the patients. Furthermore, an increment in NoGo commission errors when Go stimuli increased relative to NoGo stimuli suggests reduced inhibition of task-irrelevant stimuli in conditions demanding frequent responding. The ADHD group reported significantly more cognitive and behavioral executive problems than the control group on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version (BRIEF-A). There were overall not strong associations between task performance and ratings of everyday executive function. However, for the ADHD group, T.O.V.A. omission errors predicted self-reported difficulties on the Organization of Materials scale, and commission errors predicted informant reported difficulties on the same scale. Although ADHD patients endorsed more symptoms of depression and anxiety on the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) than controls, ASEBA scores were not significantly associated with T.O.V.A. performance scores. Altogether, the results indicate multifaceted alteration of attentional control in adult ADHD, and accompanying subjective difficulties with several aspects of executive function in everyday living. The relationships between the two sets of data were modest, indicating that the measures represent non-redundant features of adult ADHD.

Medical Malpractice in Dermatology-Part I: Reducing the Risks of a Lawsuit.

PubMed

Shah, Vidhi V; Kapp, Marshall B; Wolverton, Stephen E

2016-12-01

Malpractice risk is a common source of concern for the practicing physician. Dermatologists experience fewer lawsuits than most other specialists in medicine, but the risk is not negligible. All physicians should familiarize themselves with areas of potential risk and avoid medico-legal pitfalls. We present Part I of a two-part series addressing medico-legal questions common to most practitioners that cause a great deal of anxiety. Part I will focus upon risk management and prevention of future malpractice lawsuits, and Part II deals with suggestions and guidance once a lawsuit occurs. Herein, we discuss the primary sources of malpractice lawsuits delivered against healthcare practitioners including issues with informed consent, patient noncompliance, medical negligence, and inappropriate documentation, including use of electronic medical records. The overall goal is to effectively avoid these common sources of litigation. The risk management strategies discussed in this paper are relevant to the everyday practitioner and may offer physicians some degree of protection from potential liability.

Age differences in everyday problem-solving effectiveness: older adults select more effective strategies for interpersonal problems.

PubMed

Blanchard-Fields, Fredda; Mienaltowski, Andrew; Seay, Renee Baldi

2007-01-01

Using the Everyday Problem Solving Inventory of Cornelius and Caspi, we examined differences in problem-solving strategy endorsement and effectiveness in two domains of everyday functioning (instrumental or interpersonal, and a mixture of the two domains) and for four strategies (avoidance-denial, passive dependence, planful problem solving, and cognitive analysis). Consistent with past research, our research showed that older adults were more problem focused than young adults in their approach to solving instrumental problems, whereas older adults selected more avoidant-denial strategies than young adults when solving interpersonal problems. Overall, older adults were also more effective than young adults when solving everyday problems, in particular for interpersonal problems.

The Scriptural Economy, the Forbes Figuration and the Racial Order: Everyday Life in South Africa 1850-1930.

PubMed

Stanley, Liz

2015-10-01

Social change and large-scale transformations are as important to everyday life sociology as to macro sociology approaches. South Africa has been a 'hotspot' of change with a number of such transitions occurring in a condensed time-period, in particular regarding 'race' matters. A large South African family collection, concerning the Forbes family, is used to explore how the processes of change regarding the racial order can be analysed within an everyday sociology framework, focusing on the period 1850 to 1930. A range of documents throwing light on 'the space of the day', 'the world and the word' and other aspects of everyday experience are discussed.

Shining trinkets and unkempt gardens: on the materiality of care.

PubMed

van Hout, Annemarie; Pols, Jeannette; Willems, Dick

2015-11-01

The increasing use of telecare will profoundly change nursing care. How to understand these changes is, however, far from clear. This is because (i) studies on telecare seldom consider the situation it replaces, and (ii) current concepts and methods used to study the impact of telecare may not allow us to fully grasp these changes. We suggest that an analysis of the changing materiality of care practices is a suitable way to articulate and reflect on possible concerns. It allows us to compare care practices in the same terms before and after telecare has been introduced. To demonstrate this, we study the materiality of the classical care setting, the nursing house call, to map the situation before telecare is introduced. Building on science and technology studies, we apply four categories as heuristics to analyse materiality in care: signs, dis/enablers (or scripted things), tools and practical arrangements. We leave open the question of how material arrangements could or should be matters of concern in nursing care, and instead argue for studies that give insights into the everyday tinkering with the materiality of care that both nurses and patients need to engage in. © 2015 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

Adaptable and adaptive materials for light flux control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sixou, Pierre; Magnaldo, A.; Nourry, J.; Laye, C.

1996-04-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe and examine properties of light flux control materials. Indeed, intelligent light flux control is necessary not only to improve everyday visual convenience but also in an economical point of view in order to reduce global home energetic cost. Several types of materials are good potential candidates for such functions: (1) The most well-known investigations concern inorganic materials such as tungsten or molybdenum oxides in which an electrochrom layer darkens when enriched in ions, and looses its color when impoverished. Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no convenient way to realize correct ions suppliers. Moreover, other drawbacks arise, such as poor reversibility, reactive interferences or a sensitivity of the material to its environment. These systems only need a low voltage level to work. But, their dynamic response, which is correlated to the component surface, is quite long. (2) At the present time, another attractive issue seems promising. More and more studies concern micro-composite liquid crystal films. For first, we shall remind their principles as well as their way of preparation. After having talked about their main advantages as intelligent materials, we shall discuss their control, their light flux adaptability, or their memory capabilities.

Material identification of real impact sounds: effects of size variation in steel, glass, wood, and plexiglass plates.

PubMed

Giordano, Bruno L; McAdams, Stephen

2006-02-01

Identification of the material of struck objects of variable size was investigated. Previous studies on this issue assumed recognition to be based on acoustical measures of damping. This assumption was tested, comparing the power of a damping measure in explaining identification data with that of several other acoustical descriptors. Listeners' performance was perfect with respect to gross material categories (steel-glass and wood-plexiglass) comprising materials of vastly different mechanical properties. Impaired performance was observed for materials within the same gross category, identification being based on the size of the objects alone. The damping descriptor accounted for the identification of the gross categories. However other descriptors such as signal duration explained the results equally well. Materials within the same gross category were identified mainly on the basis of signal frequency. Overall poor support for the relevance of damping to material perception was found. An analysis of the acoustical support for perfect material identification was carried out. Sufficient acoustical information for perfect performance was found. Thus, procedural biases for the origin of the effects of size could be discarded, pointing toward their cognitive, rather than methodological nature. Identification performance was explained in terms of the regularities of the everyday acoustical environment.

Subclinical delusional ideation and a self-reference bias in everyday reasoning.

PubMed

Galbraith, Niall; Manktelow, Ken; Morris, Neil

2008-02-01

Previous studies (e.g. Moller & Husby, 2000; Blackwood et al., 2004) have revealed that delusional thinking is accompanied by an exaggerated focus upon the self and upon stimuli that are perceived to be related to the self. The objective was to examine whether those high in subclinical delusional ideation exhibit a heightened tendency for self-reference. Using a mixed design, healthy individuals, classified into high- and low-scoring groups on the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (Peters, Day, & Garety, 1996), were compared on everyday reasoning tasks across three experiments. High-PDI scorers, in contrast to the low-PDI group, rated self-referent objections to everyday arguments as stronger than other-referent objections and formulated more self-referent assertion-based objections to everyday arguments. The findings support the notion that subclinical delusional ideation is linked to a self-reference bias, which is evident in the sort of everyday thinking that people engage in when forming or evaluating their beliefs and which may contribute to delusion formation.

Everyday Experiences of Memory Problems and Control: The Adaptive Role of Selective Optimization with Compensation in the Context of Memory Decline

PubMed Central

Hahn, Elizabeth A.; Lachman, Margie E.

2014-01-01

The present study examined the role of long-term working memory decline in the relationship between everyday experiences of memory problems and perceived control, and we also considered whether the use of accommodative strategies [selective optimization with compensation (SOC)] would be adaptive. The study included Boston-area participants (n=103) from the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS) who completed two working memory assessments over ten years and weekly diaries following Time 2. In adjusted multi-level analyses, greater memory decline and lower general perceived control were associated with more everyday memory problems. Low perceived control reported in a weekly diary was associated with more everyday memory problems among those with greater memory decline and low SOC strategy use (Est.=−0.28, SE=0.13, p=.036). These results suggest that the use of SOC strategies in the context of declining memory may help to buffer the negative effects of low perceived control on everyday memory. PMID:24597768

Everyday experiences of memory problems and control: the adaptive role of selective optimization with compensation in the context of memory decline.

PubMed

Hahn, Elizabeth A; Lachman, Margie E

2015-01-01

The present study examined the role of long-term working memory decline in the relationship between everyday experiences of memory problems and perceived control, and we also considered whether the use of accommodative strategies [selective optimization with compensation (SOC)] would be adaptive. The study included Boston-area participants (n = 103) from the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS) who completed two working memory assessments over 10 years and weekly diaries following Time 2. In adjusted multi-level analyses, greater memory decline and lower general perceived control were associated with more everyday memory problems. Low perceived control reported in a weekly diary was associated with more everyday memory problems among those with greater memory decline and low SOC strategy use (Est. = -0.28, SE= 0.13, p = .036). These results suggest that the use of SOC strategies in the context of declining memory may help to buffer the negative effects of low perceived control on everyday memory.

[Diagnostic Errors in Medicine].

PubMed

Buser, Claudia; Bankova, Andriyana

2015-12-09

The recognition of diagnostic errors in everyday practice can help improve patient safety. The most common diagnostic errors are the cognitive errors, followed by system-related errors and no fault errors. The cognitive errors often result from mental shortcuts, known as heuristics. The rate of cognitive errors can be reduced by a better understanding of heuristics and the use of checklists. The autopsy as a retrospective quality assessment of clinical diagnosis has a crucial role in learning from diagnostic errors. Diagnostic errors occur more often in primary care in comparison to hospital settings. On the other hand, the inpatient errors are more severe than the outpatient errors.

Knitting Mochilas: A Sociocultural, Developmental Practice in Arhuaco Indigenous Communities

PubMed Central

Rodríguez-Burgos, Lilian Patricia; Rodríguez-Castro, Jennifer; Bojacá-Rodríguez, Sandra Milena; Izquierdo-Martínez, Dwrya Elena; Amórtegui-Lozano, Allain Alexander; Prieto-Castellanos, Miguel Angel

2016-01-01

The purpose of this article is to analyze the psycho-cultural processes involved in knitting “mochilas” (traditional bags), a common craft in the Arhuaco indigenous community located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. The article is structured in three parts, as follows: first, issues related to child development are discussed; then, the analysis method used to study the processes involved in the practice of knitting is presented and, finally, we reflect on the importance of recovering the sense and meaning of this everyday practice as a way to study child development. PMID:27298634

Social exclusion, health and hidden homelessness.

PubMed

Watson, J; Crawley, J; Kane, D

2016-10-01

Homelessness and poverty are extreme forms of social exclusion which extend beyond the lack of physical or material needs. The purpose of this study was to explore and expand the concept of social exclusion within the social determinants of health perspective - to understand how the social environment, health behaviours and health status are associated with material and social deprivation. Fundamental qualitative description with tones of focused ethnography. Participants who identified as hidden homeless described their everyday living conditions and how these everyday conditions were impacted and influenced by their social environments, coping/health behaviours and current health status. Research Ethics Board approval was granted and informed consents were obtained from 21 participants prior to the completion of individual interviews. Qualitative content analysis examined the descriptions of men and women experiencing hidden homelessness. Participants described the 'lack of quality social interactions and supports' and their 'daily struggles of street life'. They also shared the 'pain of addiction' and how coping strategies influenced health. Participants were hopeful that their insights would 'better the health of homeless people' by helping shape public policy and funding of community resources that would reduce barriers and improve overall health. Health professionals who understand health behaviours as coping mechanisms for poor quality social environments can provide more comprehensive and holistic care. The findings of this study can be used to support the importance of housing as a key factor in the health and well-being of people experiencing poverty, homelessness and social exclusion; and consequently, reinforces the need for a national housing strategy. Copyright © 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Brains striving for coherence: Long-term cumulative plot formation in the default mode network.

PubMed

Tylén, K; Christensen, P; Roepstorff, A; Lund, T; Østergaard, S; Donald, M

2015-11-01

Many everyday activities, such as engaging in conversation or listening to a story, require us to sustain attention over a prolonged period of time while integrating and synthesizing complex episodic content into a coherent mental model. Humans are remarkably capable of navigating and keeping track of all the parallel social activities of everyday life even when confronted with interruptions or changes in the environment. However, the underlying cognitive and neurocognitive mechanisms of such long-term integration and profiling of information remain a challenge to neuroscience. While brain activity is generally traceable within the short time frame of working memory (milliseconds to seconds), these integrative processes last for minutes, hours or even days. Here we report two experiments on story comprehension. Experiment I establishes a cognitive dissociation between our comprehension of plot and incidental facts in narratives: when episodic material allows for long-term integration in a coherent plot, we recall fewer factual details. However, when plot formation is challenged, we pay more attention to incidental facts. Experiment II investigates the neural underpinnings of plot formation. Results suggest a central role for the brain's default mode network related to comprehension of coherent narratives while incoherent episodes rather activate the frontoparietal control network. Moreover, an analysis of cortical activity as a function of the cumulative integration of narrative material into a coherent story reveals to linear modulations of right hemisphere posterior temporal and parietal regions. Together these findings point to key neural mechanisms involved in the fundamental human capacity for cumulative plot formation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessing workplace discrimination among medical practitioners in Western Sydney.

PubMed

Agrawal, Ravindra; Foresti, Katia; Rajadurai, Jeremy; Zubaran, Carlos

2018-05-01

To investigate the presence of different forms of experiences of discrimination in the medical workplace. A total of 526 questionnaires were sent out, including a demographic survey form and the Everyday Discrimination Scale. Experiences of being "treated with less courtesy than other people are" and feeling as "others acted if they're better than [me]" were reported as having occurred with almost daily frequency by 4.1 % of respondents. Those whose main language was not English and classified as "non-whites" had significantly more experiences ("ever") of discrimination in the medical workplace. The most commonly reported reasons for discrimination were ancestry (31.3%), "race" (28.1%), and gender (21.1%). The results of this survey indicate that a proportion of doctors experience discrimination in the workplace in Australia. This phenomenon was more commonly reported by doctors of minority status.