Sample records for draw important conclusions

  1. Selection of species and sampling areas: The importance of inference

    Treesearch

    Paul Stephen Corn

    2009-01-01

    Inductive inference, the process of drawing general conclusions from specific observations, is fundamental to the scientific method. Platt (1964) termed conclusions obtained through rigorous application of the scientific method as "strong inference" and noted the following basic steps: generating alternative hypotheses; devising experiments, the...

  2. The Importance of Statistical Modeling in Data Analysis and Inference

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rollins, Derrick, Sr.

    2017-01-01

    Statistical inference simply means to draw a conclusion based on information that comes from data. Error bars are the most commonly used tool for data analysis and inference in chemical engineering data studies. This work demonstrates, using common types of data collection studies, the importance of specifying the statistical model for sound…

  3. The genesis of errors in drawing.

    PubMed

    Chamberlain, Rebecca; Wagemans, Johan

    2016-06-01

    The difficulty adults find in drawing objects or scenes from real life is puzzling, assuming that there are few gross individual differences in the phenomenology of visual scenes and in fine motor control in the neurologically healthy population. A review of research concerning the perceptual, motoric and memorial correlates of drawing ability was conducted in order to understand why most adults err when trying to produce faithful representations of objects and scenes. The findings reveal that accurate perception of the subject and of the drawing is at the heart of drawing proficiency, although not to the extent that drawing skill elicits fundamental changes in visual perception. Instead, the decisive role of representational decisions reveals the importance of appropriate segmentation of the visual scene and of the influence of pictorial schemas. This leads to the conclusion that domain-specific, flexible, top-down control of visual attention plays a critical role in development of skill in visual art and may also be a window into creative thinking. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Solid Waste Reduction--A Hands-on Study.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wiessinger, Diane

    1991-01-01

    This lesson plan uses grocery shopping to demonstrate the importance of source reduction in the handling of solid waste problems. Students consider different priorities in shopping (convenience, packaging, and waste reduction) and draw conclusions about the relationship between packaging techniques and solid waste problems. (MCO)

  5. The Sweetest Chocolate Milk

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Newton, Kristie J.

    2010-01-01

    Using a nonroutine problem can be an effective way to encourage students to draw on prior knowledge, work together, and reach important conclusions about the mathematics they are learning. This article discusses a problem on the mathematical preparation of chocolate milk which was adapted from an old book of puzzles (Linn 1969) and has been used…

  6. Hazardous Waste Management and Community Involvement in Canada: The Case of Montreal's Rural-Urban Fringe.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Andre, Pierre; And Others

    1995-01-01

    Deals with conflicts associated with the management, disposal, and storage of hazardous wastes from the perspective of interests expressed in the local community. Analyzes three case studies to demonstrate the changing roles and relative importance of local and nonlocal interests. Draws conclusions regarding the significance of the analysis for…

  7. From Inductive Reasoning to Proof

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yopp, David A.

    2009-01-01

    Mathematical proof is an expression of deductive reasoning (drawing conclusions from previous assertions). However, it is often inductive reasoning (conclusions drawn on the basis of examples) that helps learners form their deductive arguments, or proof. In addition, not all inductive arguments generate more formal arguments. This article draws a…

  8. Comparison and Research on New Rural Community Management Patterns of Shan Dong Province

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fang, Lei; Zhang, Xiaomei

    Rural community is an important institutional innovation,which has important effect and edification to future new rural management.There are three new rural community management patterns in shandong province:divisions of the village community,many villages community and village merge community. This article not only introduce three models,but also compare them in four aspects: community scale, community management,infrastructure,resource utilization.Pointing out the strength and weakness of three models.Drawing a conclusion that village merge community is the active reaction for rural urbanization. And could be the important recommended breed.

  9. Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius; the shoulder girdle and the spine, a comparison.

    PubMed

    Ganseman, Y; Broos, P

    2008-01-01

    Leonardo Da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius were two important renaissance persons; Vesalius was a surgeon-anatomist who delivered innovative work on the study of the human body, Leonardo da Vinci was an artist who delivered strikingly accurate and beautiful drawings on the human body. Below we compare both masters with regard to their knowledge of the working of the muscles, their method and system of dissection and their system and presentation of the drawings. The investigation consisted of a comparison between both anatomists, in particular concerning their study on the shoulder girdle and spine, by reviewing their original work as well as already existing literature on this subject. The investigation led to the conclusion that the drawings mentioned meant a change in history, and were of high quality, centuries ahead of their time. Both were anatomists, both were revolutionary, only one changed history at the moment itself, while the other changed history centuries later. Leonardo has made beautiful drawings that are at a match with the drawings of today or are even better. Vesalius set the start for medicine as a science as it is until this day. Their lives differed as strongly as their impact. In the light of their time, the achievement they made was extraordinary.

  10. Television's impact on children.

    PubMed

    Zuckerman, D M; Zuckerman, B S

    1985-02-01

    Television has a major impact on children's knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Research has demonstrated the association between television viewing and four areas: (1) children's aggressive behavior; (2) racial and sex-role stereotypes; (3) decreased interest in reading and school activities; and (4) poorer health habits and attitudes. Methodological limitations make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about a causal relationship between television viewing and children's behavior. Representative studies in these four areas are reviewed, important methodological concerns are pointed out, and conclusions from the research findings are drawn. The implications of the data for pediatricians and other health professionals are discussed.

  11. Walking on water: the biomechanics of Michael A. MacConaill (1902-1987).

    PubMed

    Prendergast, P J; Lee, T C

    2006-01-01

    Biomechanics is a subject that draws on knowledge from many disciplines. One of its great practitioners in the last century was the Irish anatomist M.A. MacConaill. In this paper, we review some of MacConaill's fundamental contributions to biomechanics, namely: the hydrodynamic theory of synovial joint lubrication, the kinematics of joint motion and conjunct rotations; and the theory of spurt and shunt muscles. The aim is to revisit these topics in the light of current research, and to draw some conclusions about the import of his research in the context of recent developments in the field. The paper concludes with a discussion of science in Ireland, the development of the field of biomechanics since MacConaill's time, and some other matters.

  12. [Day-care mother--a successful model of child rearing?].

    PubMed

    Schetelig, H

    1977-02-17

    The scientific reports published so far on the project "day care mothering" do not allow to draw scientific conclusions, whether this educational model can achieve nearly equal results as family education. The author critisises, that such a clame is made. It seems necessary, to pay more importance to the function of the mother for her children, to give the children a sound emotional basis for their future development.

  13. The Importance of Being Colorful and Able to Fly: Interpretation and Implications of Children's Statements on Selected Insects and Other Invertebrates

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Breuer, Gabriele B.; Schlegel, Jürg; Kauf, Peter; Rupf, Reto

    2015-01-01

    Children have served as research subjects in several surveys on attitudes to insects and invertebrates. Most of the studies have used quantitative scoring methods to draw conclusions. This paper takes a different approach as it analyzes children's free-text comments to gain an understanding of their viewpoints. A total of 246 children aged 9-13…

  14. Perceptual Drawing as a Learning Tool in a College Biology Laboratory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Landin, Jennifer

    2011-12-01

    The use of drawing in the classroom has a contentious history in the U.S. education system. While most instructors and students agree that the activity helps students focus and observe more details, there is a lack of empirical data to support these positions. This study examines the use of three treatments (writing a description, drawing a perceptual image, or drawing a perceptual image after participating in a short instructional lesson on perceptual drawing) each week over the course of a semester. The students in the "Drawing with Instruction" group exhibit a small but significantly higher level of content knowledge by the end of the semester. When comparing Attitude Toward Biology and Observational Skills among the three groups, inconclusive results restrict making any conclusions. Student perceptions of the task are positive, although not as strong as indicated by other studies. A student behavior observed during the first study led to another question regarding student cognitive processes, and demonstrated cognitive change in student-rendered drawings. The data from the second study indicate that hemispheric dominance or visual/verbal learning do not impact learning from perceptual drawing activities. However, conservatism and need for closure are inversely proportional to the change seen in student drawings over the course of a lesson. Further research is needed to verify these conclusions, as the second study has a small number of participants.

  15. Exploratory power of the harmony search algorithm: analysis and improvements for global numerical optimization.

    PubMed

    Das, Swagatam; Mukhopadhyay, Arpan; Roy, Anwit; Abraham, Ajith; Panigrahi, Bijaya K

    2011-02-01

    The theoretical analysis of evolutionary algorithms is believed to be very important for understanding their internal search mechanism and thus to develop more efficient algorithms. This paper presents a simple mathematical analysis of the explorative search behavior of a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm called harmony search (HS). HS is a derivative-free real parameter optimization algorithm, and it draws inspiration from the musical improvisation process of searching for a perfect state of harmony. This paper analyzes the evolution of the population-variance over successive generations in HS and thereby draws some important conclusions regarding the explorative power of HS. A simple but very useful modification to the classical HS has been proposed in light of the mathematical analysis undertaken here. A comparison with the most recently published variants of HS and four other state-of-the-art optimization algorithms over 15 unconstrained and five constrained benchmark functions reflects the efficiency of the modified HS in terms of final accuracy, convergence speed, and robustness.

  16. Comment on "Ducklings imprint on the relational concept of 'same or different'".

    PubMed

    Hupé, Jean-Michel

    2017-02-24

    Martinho and Kacelnik's (Reports, 15 July 2016, p. 286) finding that mallard ducklings can deal with abstract concepts is important for understanding the evolution of cognition. However, a statistically more robust analysis of the data calls their conclusions into question. This example brings to light the risk of drawing too strong an inference by relying solely on P values. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  17. Parallel Evolution in Science: The Historical Roots and Central Concepts of General Systems Theory; and "General Systems Theory,""Modern Organizational Theory," and Organizational Communication.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lederman, Linda Costigan; Rogers, Don

    The two papers in this document focus on general systems theory. In her paper, Linda Lederman discusses the emergence and evolution of general systems theory, defines its central concepts, and draws some conclusions regarding the nature of the theory and its value as an epistemology. Don Rogers, in his paper, relates some of the important features…

  18. Age 60 Study, Part 2: Airline Pilot Age and Performance - A Review of the Scientific Literature

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-10-01

    It is clear that increasing age 14 differentially affects different memory processes. Hultsch and Dixon (1990) draw the following conclusions about...tasks involving retrieval from secondary memory that may also reflect age differences in initial encoding processes. Hultsch and Dixon (1990) also...working memory ( Hultsch & Dixon, 1990). These age-related declines in working memory are important because of working memory’s contribution to

  19. 76 FR 56491 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Picasso's Drawings, 1890...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-09-13

    ... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice: 7581] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``Picasso's Drawings, 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition'' SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the... exhibition ``Picasso's Drawings, 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition,'' imported from abroad for temporary...

  20. Can We Draw General Conclusions from Interval Training Studies?

    PubMed

    Viana, Ricardo Borges; de Lira, Claudio Andre Barbosa; Naves, João Pedro Araújo; Coswig, Victor Silveira; Del Vecchio, Fabrício Boscolo; Ramirez-Campillo, Rodrigo; Vieira, Carlos Alexandre; Gentil, Paulo

    2018-04-19

    Interval training (IT) has been used for many decades with the purpose of increasing performance and promoting health benefits while demanding a relatively small amount of time. IT can be defined as intermittent periods of intense exercise separated by periods of recovery and has been divided into high-intensity interval training (HIIT), sprint interval training (SIT), and repeated sprint training (RST). IT use has resulted in the publication of many studies and many of them with conflicting results and positions. The aim of this article was to move forward and understand the studies' protocols in order to draw accurate conclusions, as well as to avoid previous mistakes and effectively reproduce previous protocols. When analyzing the literature, we found many inconsistencies, such as the controversial concept of 'supramaximal' effort, a misunderstanding with regard to the term 'high intensity,' and the use of different strategies to control intensity. The adequate definition and interpretation of training intensity seems to be vital, since the results of IT are largely dependent on it. These observations are only a few examples of the complexity involved in IT prescription, and are discussed to illustrate some problems with the current literature regarding IT. Therefore, it is our opinion that it is not possible to draw general conclusions about IT without considering all variables used in IT prescription, such as exercise modality, intensity, effort and rest times, and participants' characteristics. In order to help guide researchers and health professionals in their practices it is important that experimental studies report their methods in as much detail as possible and future reviews and meta-analyses should critically discuss the articles included in the light of their methods to avoid inappropriate generalizations.

  1. Reflective Object: Capturing the Look of Metal

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rosen, Stephanie

    2012-01-01

    Very often, secondary art students feel most comfortable drawing from photographs or images they find in books or magazines. Although the author does find these drawing experiences play an important role in the introduction to drawing, and that these images keep students interested in art, it is important to encourage lessons in drawing from life.…

  2. Drawing conclusions: The effect of instructions on children's confabulation and fantasy errors.

    PubMed

    Macleod, Emily; Gross, Julien; Hayne, Harlene

    2016-01-01

    Drawing is commonly used in forensic and clinical interviews with children. In these interviews, children are often allowed to draw without specific instructions about the purpose of the drawing materials. Here, we examined whether this practice influenced the accuracy of children's reports. Seventy-four 5- and 6-year-old children were interviewed one to two days after they took part in an interactive event. Some children were given drawing materials to use during the interview. Of these children, some were instructed to draw about the event, and some were given no additional instructions at all. Children who were instructed to draw about the event, or who were interviewed without drawing, made few errors. In contrast, children who drew without being given specific instructions reported more errors that were associated with both confabulation and fantasy. We conclude that, to maximise accuracy during interviews involving drawing, children should be directed to draw specifically about the interview topic.

  3. 76 FR 10936 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Richard Serra Drawing: A...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-02-28

    ... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice: 7348] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective'' SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the following... objects to be included in the exhibition ``Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective,'' imported from abroad...

  4. Review of Recent Literature on Figure Drawing Tests as Related to Research Problems in Art Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McWhinnie, Harold J.

    1971-01-01

    McFee's perception-delineation theory is supported. Major methodological problems of the psychological research presented are in the area of set and the control of specific art materials. Among the conclusions: figure drawing may not be culture fair; a person trained in visual arts should be employed in research using figure drawing tests. (VW)

  5. [The importance of drawing in adolescence].

    PubMed

    Titia Rizzi, Alice

    Teenagers like to draw. A drawing is a fundamental object of creativity in the process of re-construction and change typical of this period. However, theoretical approaches often consider that the evolution of the stages of drawing come to an end in adolescence. It is important to consider the practical and clinical benefit of drawing and to develop expression-based activities which can be carried out with this population. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  6. Reporting from Qatar, this is Al-Jazeera

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-03-15

    facts of the stories and draw conclusions to Al-Jazeera’s motives and the effects of its reporting on U.S. military operations in Iraq. REPORTING FROM...vignettes examine the facts of the stories and draw conclusions to Al-Jazeera’s motives and the effects of its reporting on U.S. military operations...after a period of five years and no longer reliant on state funds through the sale of program advertisement and exclusive video footage to other

  7. Habitat Suitability Index Models: Lake trout (exclusive of the Great Lakes)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Marcus, Michael D.; Hubert, Wayne A.; Anderson, Stanley H.

    1984-01-01

    The lake trout is an important commercial and sport fish in North America. In the Central Rocky Mountain regi on, 1ake trout are common ly referred to as "mackinaw". There is good evidence that lake trout should be called "1 ake charr" (Morton 1980). No subspecies of lake trout is presently recognized (Robins et al. 1980). The species, however, has extreme variability throughout its range, making it difficult to draw general conclusions about its biology (Martin and Olver 1980).

  8. Inertia in the Brazil nut problem.

    PubMed

    Nahmad-Molinari, Y; Canul-Chay, G; Ruiz-Suárez, J C

    2003-10-01

    The rise dynamics of a large particle, in a granular bed under vertical vibrations, is experimentally studied with an inductive device designed to track the particle while it climbs through the granulate under different conditions. A model based on energy considerations is presented to explain our experimental data, drawing the important conclusion that it is the inertia of the particle, assisted by Reynolds dilatancy, the driven force behind its ascension mechanism. The ascension reveals a friction profile within the column which remains unchanged for different accelerations.

  9. Fears, Feelings, and Facts: Interactively Communicating Benefits and Risks of Medical Radiation With Patients

    PubMed Central

    Dauer, Lawrence T.; Thornton, Raymond H.; Hay, Jennifer L.; Balter, Rochelle; Williamson, Matthew J.; St. Germain, Jean

    2013-01-01

    OBJECTIVE As public awareness of medical radiation exposure increases, there has been heightened awareness among patients and physicians of the importance of holistic benefit-and-risk discussions in shared medical decision making. CONCLUSION We examine the rationale for informed consent and risk communication, draw on the literature on the psychology of radiation risk communication to increase understanding, examine methods commonly used to communicate radiation risk, and suggest strategies for improving communication about medical radiation benefits and risk. PMID:21427321

  10. Childhood Externalizing Behavior: Theory and Implications

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Jianghong

    2006-01-01

    TOPIC Childhood externalizing behavior PURPOSE To analyze the construct of externalizing behavior (aggression, delinquency, and hyperactivity), illustrate the biosocial model of childhood externalizing, and draw clinical implications for nursing research and practice. SOURCES A review of the literature based on psychological, psychiatric, and nursing journals. CONCLUSIONS A better understanding of childhood externalizing behavior problems and the risk factors underlying them are essential to prevent them. The employment of an integrative biosocial perspective is argued to be important in understanding this behavior. PMID:15535385

  11. The DAB model of drawing processes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hochhaus, Larry W.

    1989-01-01

    The problem of automatic drawing was investigated in two ways. First, a DAB model of drawing processes was introduced. DAB stands for three types of knowledge hypothesized to support drawing abilities, namely, Drawing Knowledge, Assimilated Knowledge, and Base Knowledge. Speculation concerning the content and character of each of these subsystems of the drawing process is introduced and the overall adequacy of the model is evaluated. Second, eight experts were each asked to understand six engineering drawings and to think aloud while doing so. It is anticipated that a concurrent protocol analysis of these interviews can be carried out in the future. Meanwhile, a general description of the videotape database is provided. In conclusion, the DAB model was praised as a worthwhile first step toward solution of a difficult problem, but was considered by and large inadequate to the challenge of automatic drawing. Suggestions for improvements on the model were made.

  12. Profile of student critical thinking ability on static fluid concept

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sulasih; Suparmi, A.; Sarwanto

    2017-11-01

    Critical thinking ability is an important part of educational goals. It has higher complex processes, such as analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating, drawing conclusion and reflection. This study is aimed to know the critical thinking ability of students in learning static fluids of senior high school students. This research uses the descriptive method which its instruments based on the indicator of critical thinking ability developed according to Ennis. The population of this research is XIth grade science class Public Senior High School, SMA N 1, Sambungmacan, Sragen, Central Java. The static fluid teaching material is delivered using Problem Based Learning Model through class experiment. The results of this study shows that the average student of XIth science class have high critical thinking skills, particularly in the ability of providing simple explanation, build basic skill, and provide advanced explanation, but they do not have high enough in ability of drawing conclusion and strategic and tactical components of critical thinking ability in the study of static fluid teaching material. The average of students critical thinking ability is 72.94, with 27,94% of students are in a low category and 72,22% of students in the high category of critical thinking ability.

  13. Content and strategy in syllogistic reasoning.

    PubMed

    Marrero, Hipólito; Elena, Gámez

    2004-09-01

    Syllogistic reasoning has been investigated as a general deductive process (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991; Revlis, 1975; Rips, 1994). However, several studies have demonstrated the role of cognitive strategies in this type of reasoning. These strategies focus on the method used by the participants (Ford, 1995; Gilhooly, Logie, Wetherick, & Wynn, 1993) and strategies related to different interpretations of the quantified premises (Roberts, Newstead, & Griggs, 2001). In this paper, we propose that content (as well as individual cognitive differences) is an important factor in inducing a certain strategy or method for syllogistic resolution. Specifically, we suggest that syllogisms with a causal conditional premise that can be extended by an agency premise induce the use of a conditional method. To demonstrate this, we carried out two experiments. Experiment 1 provided evidence that this type of syllogism leads participants to draw the predicted conditional conclusions, in contrast with control content syllogisms. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that the drawing of conditional conclusions is based on a causal conditional to an agent representation of the syllogism premises. These results support the role of content as inducing a particular strategy for syllogistic resolution. The implications of these results are discussed.

  14. 77 FR 38374 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Drawing Surrealism”

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-06-27

    ... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7936] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``Drawing Surrealism'' SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the following determinations: Pursuant... April 15, 2003), I hereby determine that the objects to be included in the exhibition ``Drawing...

  15. 75 FR 45194 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Drawing from Nature...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-08-02

    ... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7096] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``Drawing from Nature: Landscapes by Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, and Max Slevogt'' SUMMARY..., I hereby determine that the objects to be included in the exhibition ``Drawing from Nature...

  16. 75 FR 57826 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “On Line: Drawing Through...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-09-22

    ... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7180] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century'' SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the... that the objects to be included in the exhibition ``On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century...

  17. Young Children's Drawings in Problem Solving

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bakar, Kamariah Abu; Way, Jennifer; Bobis, Janette

    2016-01-01

    This paper explores young children's drawings (6 years old) in early number and addition activities in Malaysia. Observation, informal interviews and analysis of drawings revealed two types of drawing, and gave insight into the transitional process required for children to utilise drawings in problem solving. We argue the importance of valuing and…

  18. Drawing out Critical Thinking: Testing the Methodological Value of Drawing Collaboratively

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knight, Linda; Zollo, Lyn; McArdle, Felicity; Cumming, Tamara; Bone, Jane; Ridgway, Avis; Peterken, Corinna; Li, Liang

    2016-01-01

    Early childhood research has long established that drawing is a central, and important activity for young children. Less common are investigations into the drawing activity of adults involved in early childhood. A team of adult early childhood researchers, with differing exposures and familiarities with drawing, experimented with intergenerational…

  19. Drawing in nursing PBL.

    PubMed

    Chan, Zenobia C Y

    2013-08-01

    The implementation of art education in nursing is said to have positive effects on nursing students. Most studies applied visual art dialogues or object design, whereas the effectiveness of drawing as a teaching and learning method is rarely examined and discussed. This paper aimed to discuss the potential and effectiveness of drawing as a learning and teaching method. Four drawings which were created by Hong Kong nursing students are demonstrated and the students' perspectives of how drawing enhanced learning are shown in this paper. Topics on drawing as a fun teaching and learning method and the way it can enhance critical thinking and creativity are also discussed. In conclusion, the activity was a great success, and students enjoyed the learning process and reflected positive comments. However, we cannot conclude that drawing is an effective teaching and learning method based on a single paper, therefore more similar studies should be conducted to investigate this method. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Inverse Analysis to Formability Design in a Deep Drawing Process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buranathiti, Thaweepat; Cao, Jian

    Deep drawing process is an important process adding values to flat sheet metals in many industries. An important concern in the design of a deep drawing process generally is formability. This paper aims to present the connection between formability and inverse analysis (IA), which is a systematical means for determining an optimal blank configuration for a deep drawing process. In this paper, IA is presented and explored by using a commercial finite element software package. A number of numerical studies on the effect of blank configurations to the quality of a part produced by a deep drawing process were conducted and analyzed. The quality of the drawing processes is numerically analyzed by using an explicit incremental nonlinear finite element code. The minimum distance between elemental principal strains and the strain-based forming limit curve (FLC) is defined as tearing margin to be the key performance index (KPI) implying the quality of the part. The initial blank configuration has shown that it plays a highly important role in the quality of the product via the deep drawing process. In addition, it is observed that if a blank configuration is not greatly deviated from the one obtained from IA, the blank can still result a good product. The strain history around the bottom fillet of the part is also observed. The paper concludes that IA is an important part of the design methodology for deep drawing processes.

  1. Studies of social group dynamics under isolated conditions. Objective summary of the literature as it relates to potential problems of long duration space flight

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Vinograd, S. P.

    1974-01-01

    Scientific literature which deals with the study of human behavior and crew interaction in situations simulating long term space flight is summarized and organized. A bibliography of all the pertinent U.S. literature available is included, along with definitions of the behavioral characteristics terms employed. The summarized studies are analyzed according to behavioral factors and environmental conditions. The analysis consist of two matrices. (1) The matrix of factors studied correlates each research study area and individual study with the behavioral factors that were investigated in the study. (2) The matrix of conclusions identifies those studies whose investigators appeared to draw specific conclusions concerning questions of importance to NASA.

  2. Wooded draws in rangelands of the northern Great Plains

    Treesearch

    Ardell J. Bjugstad; Michele M. Girard

    1985-01-01

    Wooded draws and natural prairie woodlands occupy about 1.1 percent of the northern Great Plains. While the extent of wooded draws is extremely limited, their importance and value is much greater. These unique communities are important for wildlife and livestock habitats, soil stabilization, watershed maintenance, firewood, esthetics, and species diversity (Fig. 1). An...

  3. The influence of education on performance of adults on the Clock Drawing Test

    PubMed Central

    de Noronha, Ísis Franci Cavalcanti; Barreto, Simone dos Santos; Ortiz, Karin Zazo

    2018-01-01

    ABSTRACT The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is an important instrument for screening individuals suspected of having cognitive impairment. Objective: To determine the influence of education on the performance of healthy adults on the CDT. Methods: A total of 121 drawings by healthy adults without neurological complaints or impairments were analysed. Participants were stratified by educational level into 4 subgroups: 27 illiterate adults, 34 individuals with 1-4 years of formal education, 30 with 5-11 years, and 30 adults with >11 years' formal education. Scores on the CDT were analyzed based on a scale of 1-10 points according to the criteria of Sunderland et al. (1989).¹ The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to compare the different education groups. Tukey's multiple comparisons test was used when a significant factor was found. Results: Although scores were higher with greater education, statistically significant differences on the CDT were found only between the illiterate and other educated groups. Conclusion: The CDT proved especially difficult for illiterate individuals, who had lower scores. These results suggest that this screening test is suitable for assessing mainly visuoconstructional praxis and providing an overall impression of cognitive function among individuals, independently of years of education. PMID:29682235

  4. Response to Taguchi and Noma on "relationship between directionality and orientation in drawings by young children and adults.

    PubMed

    Karev, George B

    2006-02-01

    When assessing the relationship between direction and orientation in drawings by young children and adults, Taguchi and Noma used a fish-drawing task. However, the fish is not convenient enough as an object for such a task so it is highly preferable to use, instead of a single object, a set of several objects to assess directionality quantitatively. These authors' conclusions do not acknowledge alternative explanations.

  5. Why Save a Can?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gutierrez, Melida; Johnson, Cheryl

    2009-01-01

    This activity ties together the recycling of aluminum and the protection of rain forests. Students use critical thinking to study the effects of open pit mining of bauxite in rain forests and then draw their own conclusions about how to minimize the impact of bauxite mining and boost recycling efforts within their communities. Drawing conclusions…

  6. [Analysis of human tissue samples for volatile fire accelerants].

    PubMed

    Treibs, Rudolf

    2014-01-01

    In police investigations of fires, the cause of a fire and the fire debris analysis regarding traces of fire accelerants are important aspects for forensic scientists. Established analytical procedures were recently applied to the remains of fire victims. When examining lung tissue samples, vapors inhaled from volatile ignitable liquids could be identified and differentiated from products of pyrolysis caused by the fire. In addition to the medico-legal results this evidence allowed to draw conclusions as to whether the fire victim was still alive when the fire started.

  7. Managing innovation: lessons from the cardiac-pacing industry.

    PubMed

    Gobeli, D H; Rudelius, W

    1985-01-01

    In this article, the authors argue that innovation is a surefire way for a firm to increase its sales and market share. This, in turn, can stimulate American industries and make American firms more competitive in international markets. Through their study of the cardiac-pacing industry, they draw conclusions about what factors contribute to a successful innovation in other industries besides medical electronics. They identify general patterns and stages of the innovation process, key roles top management must fill in an organization, and effective policies that foster important innovations.

  8. Interpret with caution: multicollinearity in multiple regression of cognitive data.

    PubMed

    Morrison, Catriona M

    2003-08-01

    Shibihara and Kondo in 2002 reported a reanalysis of the 1997 Kanji picture-naming data of Yamazaki, Ellis, Morrison, and Lambon-Ralph in which independent variables were highly correlated. Their addition of the variable visual familiarity altered the previously reported pattern of results, indicating that visual familiarity, but not age of acquisition, was important in predicting Kanji naming speed. The present paper argues that caution should be taken when drawing conclusions from multiple regression analyses in which the independent variables are so highly correlated, as such multicollinearity can lead to unreliable output.

  9. Applying the four principles

    PubMed Central

    Macklin, R

    2003-01-01

    Gillon is correct that the four principles provide a sound and useful way of analysing moral dilemmas. As he observes, the approach using these principles does not provide a unique solution to dilemmas. This can be illustrated by alternatives to Gillon's own analysis of the four case scenarios. In the first scenario, a different set of factual assumptions could yield a different conclusion about what is required by the principle of beneficence. In the second scenario, although Gillon's conclusion is correct, what is open to question is his claim that what society regards as the child's best interest determines what really is in the child's best interest. The third scenario shows how it may be reasonable for the principle of beneficence to take precedence over autonomy in certain circumstances, yet like the first scenario, the ethical conclusion relies on a set of empirical assumptions and predictions of what is likely to occur. The fourth scenario illustrates how one can draw different conclusions based on the importance given to the precautionary principle. PMID:14519836

  10. Applying the four principles.

    PubMed

    Macklin, R

    2003-10-01

    Gillon is correct that the four principles provide a sound and useful way of analysing moral dilemmas. As he observes, the approach using these principles does not provide a unique solution to dilemmas. This can be illustrated by alternatives to Gillon's own analysis of the four case scenarios. In the first scenario, a different set of factual assumptions could yield a different conclusion about what is required by the principle of beneficence. In the second scenario, although Gillon's conclusion is correct, what is open to question is his claim that what society regards as the child's best interest determines what really is in the child's best interest. The third scenario shows how it may be reasonable for the principle of beneficence to take precedence over autonomy in certain circumstances, yet like the first scenario, the ethical conclusion relies on a set of empirical assumptions and predictions of what is likely to occur. The fourth scenario illustrates how one can draw different conclusions based on the importance given to the precautionary principle.

  11. Psychological Distress and Drawing Tests among Women with Breast Cancer

    PubMed Central

    2018-01-01

    Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of the Diagnostic Drawing Series (DDS) as a screening tool for the breast cancer patients with psychological distress. Methods All of 64 patients with breast cancer participated in this study. Patients' depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) when the DDS was applied to the partipicants. Results Depressed patients used more enclosure in the Feeling drawings (P = 0.002) and tilt in Free drawings (P = 0.048). Patients with anxiety drew a picture over 67% of the paper (P = 0.015) in Tree drawing and more medium pressure (P = 0.049) in Feeling drawings. Thirty four subjects (77.3%) of unstable emotion group used over 67% of the space (P = 0.002). More Landscapes were observed in the Feeling drawings of unstable patients (P = 0.042). Conclusion These results suggested that DDS could be used as a supplemental screening tool for psychological distress in breast cancer patients. PMID:29686600

  12. Brief report: new evidence for a social-specific imagination deficit in children with autism spectrum disorder.

    PubMed

    Ten Eycke, Kayla D; Müller, Ulrich

    2015-01-01

    Previous research suggests that children with autism have deficits in drawing imaginative content. However, these conclusions are largely based on tasks that require children to draw impossible persons, and performance on this task may be limited by social deficits. To determine the generality of the deficit in imagination in children with autism, we asked 25 children with autism (mean age 9;7) and 29 neurotypically developing children (mean age 8;7) to draw an imaginative person and house. Drawings of imaginary houses by children with autism did not differ from those by neurotypically developing controls, but drawings of persons were significantly less imaginative. These findings suggest that the impairment in imagination among children with autism may be specific to social stimuli.

  13. The “Face” of Diabetes

    PubMed Central

    Liesch, Shari K; Babler, Elizabeth K

    2016-01-01

    Objective: The purpose of this descriptive pilot study was to assess the ability of youth to create a meaningful drawing related to living with type 1 diabetes and explore the benefits of expressing emotion through drawing in future interventional work. Methods: Youth aged 4 to 19 years (N = 242) with type I diabetes attending routine follow-up appointments within a pediatric specialty clinic were asked to draw: “If diabetes had a face what would it look like?” Results: Drawings reflected many emotions and ranged from simple to complex in detail. Drawings reflected multiple experiences of living with diabetes including emotions, tools used for management, and effects of self-care. Conclusions: Youth were able to create drawings reflecting their experience of living with diabetes. Youth conveyed a variety of emotions, attitudes, and experiences in drawing the “face” of diabetes. Drawing during clinic visits provides opportunity to explore the unspoken experiences of living with a chronic health condition, which may not be obtained during routine clinical information gathering. Deeper understanding of patient’s lived experience may assist providers in therapeutic management. PMID:28725833

  14. Seizure drawings: insight into the self-image of children with epilepsy.

    PubMed

    Stafstrom, Carl E; Havlena, Janice

    2003-02-01

    Epilepsy is a chronic disorder that is associated with numerous psychological challenges, especially in children. Drawings have been underutilized as a method to obtain insight into psychological issues in children with epilepsy. We asked 105 children with epilepsy, ages 5 to 18 years, to draw a picture of what it is like to have a seizure. Across ages and epilepsy syndromes, the drawings showed evidence of impaired self-concept, low self-esteem, and a sense of helplessness and vulnerability. Overall, the drawings of human figures were less developed than expected for chronological age. In some drawings, indicators of underlying depression were found. When considered by epilepsy syndrome or seizure type, some specific artistic features were noted. Children with simple partial (motor) seizures drew distorted body parts, especially limbs. Those with complex partial seizures depicted sensory symptoms and mental status changes such as confusion. Children with generalized tonic-clonic seizures showed shaking extremities. Drawings by children with absence seizures illustrated mainly staring. In conclusion, drawings are a powerful method to examine the self-concept of children with epilepsy and gain insight into their feelings about themselves and their world.

  15. 77 FR 22376 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Ellsworth Kelly: Plant...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-04-13

    ... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7845] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``Ellsworth Kelly: Plant Drawings'' SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the following... object to be included in the exhibition ``Ellsworth Kelly: Plant Drawings,'' imported from abroad for...

  16. R2R - software to speed the depiction of aesthetic consensus RNA secondary structures

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background With continuing identification of novel structured noncoding RNAs, there is an increasing need to create schematic diagrams showing the consensus features of these molecules. RNA structural diagrams are typically made either with general-purpose drawing programs like Adobe Illustrator, or with automated or interactive programs specific to RNA. Unfortunately, the use of applications like Illustrator is extremely time consuming, while existing RNA-specific programs produce figures that are useful, but usually not of the same aesthetic quality as those produced at great cost in Illustrator. Additionally, most existing RNA-specific applications are designed for drawing single RNA molecules, not consensus diagrams. Results We created R2R, a computer program that facilitates the generation of aesthetic and readable drawings of RNA consensus diagrams in a fraction of the time required with general-purpose drawing programs. Since the inference of a consensus RNA structure typically requires a multiple-sequence alignment, the R2R user annotates the alignment with commands directing the layout and annotation of the RNA. R2R creates SVG or PDF output that can be imported into Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape or CorelDRAW. R2R can be used to create consensus sequence and secondary structure models for novel RNA structures or to revise models when new representatives for known RNA classes become available. Although R2R does not currently have a graphical user interface, it has proven useful in our efforts to create 100 schematic models of distinct noncoding RNA classes. Conclusions R2R makes it possible to obtain high-quality drawings of the consensus sequence and structural models of many diverse RNA structures with a more practical amount of effort. R2R software is available at http://breaker.research.yale.edu/R2R and as an Additional file. PMID:21205310

  17. Drawing Firmer Conclusions: Autistic Children Show No Evidence of a Local Processing Bias in a Controlled Copying Task

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Alastair D.; Kenny, Lorcan; Rudnicka, Anna; Briscoe, Josie; Pellicano, Elizabeth

    2016-01-01

    Drawing tasks are frequently used to test competing theories of visuospatial skills in autism. Yet, methodological differences between studies have led to inconsistent findings. To distinguish between accounts based on local bias or global deficit, we present a simple task that has previously revealed dissociable local/global impairments in…

  18. Online Emotional Inferences in Written and Auditory Texts: A Study with Children and Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Diergarten, Anna Katharina; Nieding, Gerhild

    2016-01-01

    Emotional inferences are conclusions that a reader draws about the emotional state of a story's protagonist. In this study, we examined whether children and adults draw emotional inferences while reading short stories or listening to an aural presentation of short stories. We used an online method that assesses inferences during reading with a…

  19. Some like it mellow: on gay men complicating pornography discourses.

    PubMed

    Corneau, Simon; van der Meulen, Emily

    2014-01-01

    Despite the proliferation of writing on pornography generally, much of the literature that focuses on gay pornography specifically conforms to either a pro- or anti-porn framework. This overly simplistic dichotomy positions pornography as a homogeneous construct, albeit one that is either "good" or "bad." Even theorists who situate pornography on a continuum, with erotica at one end and hardcore at the other, tend to reify these discourses. Further, it is not uncommon for researchers to draw conclusions about the effects of pornography consumption without defining exactly what pornography is. This ethnographic research draws on qualitative interviews with 20 consumers' of gay pornography in Toronto, Canada. By using a thematic analysis to document the ways in which gay men define, distinguish, and conceptualize gay pornography, five definitional categories were developed: Mellow; Commercial; Raunch; Amateur; and Bareback. These broad conceptualizations are discussed in reference to writing on gay pornography. Our research results emphasize the importance of clear definitions of pornography within pornography research.

  20. Leonardo da Vinci and the first hemodynamic observations.

    PubMed

    Martins e Silva, J

    2008-02-01

    Leonardo da Vinci was a genius whose accomplishments and ideas come down to us today, five centuries later, with the freshness of innovation and the fascination of discovery. This brief review begins with a summary of Leonardo's life and a description of the most important works of art that he bequeathed us, and then concentrates on his last great challenge. There was a point at which Leonardo's passion for art gave way to the study of human anatomy, not only to improve his drawing but to go beyond what had been simply a representation of form to understand the underlying functioning. Among his many interests, we focus on his study of the heart and blood vessels, which he observed carefully in animals and human autopsies, and reproduced in drawings of great quality with annotations of astonishing acuteness. The experience that he had acquired from observing the flow of water in currents and around obstacles, and the conclusions that he drew concerning hydrodynamics, were central to his interpretation of the mechanisms of the heart and of blood flow, to which he devoted much of his time between 1508 and 1513. From these studies, immortalized in drawings of great clarity, come what are acknowledged to be the first hemodynamic records, in which Leonardo demonstrates the characteristics of blood flow in the aorta and great vessels and the importance of blood reflux and the formation of eddies in the sinus in aortic valve his assiduous and careful observations, and his subsequent deductions, Leonardo put forward detailed findings on hemodynamic questions that advanced technology has only recently enabled us to confirm.

  1. Student perceptions of the links between nursing and the liberal arts.

    PubMed

    Peck, M L; Jennings, S

    1989-11-01

    This article examines the extent to which nursing students are aware of the importance of liberal arts in their professional education. Based on a survey of nursing students and alumnae from a small, New York state college, the project further explored the channels through which they became aware of the significant links between these two aspects of their education. One finding is that nursing students give a relatively high weight to the importance of the liberal arts in their total learning process. The more important conclusion is that students, on the whole, believe that they have made the links between liberal arts and nursing themselves. To the extent that other agents help forge these links, the most important seem to be nursing labs and clinicals, other nursing students, and nursing texts and modules. Students perceive that nursing faculty help draw links more often than liberal arts faculty, but neither rank very high.

  2. "Am I Famous Yet?" Judging Scholarly Merit in Psychological Science: An Introduction.

    PubMed

    Sternberg, Robert J

    2016-11-01

    The purpose of this symposium is to consider new ways of judging merit in academia, especially with respect to research in psychological science. First, I discuss the importance of merit-based evaluation and the purpose of this symposium. Next, I review some previous ideas about judging merit-especially creative merit-and I describe some of the main criteria used by institutions today for judging the quality of research in psychological science. Finally, I suggest a new criterion that institutions and individuals might use and draw some conclusions. © The Author(s) 2016.

  3. The role of effective connectivity between the task-positive and task-negative network for evidence gathering [Evidence gathering and connectivity].

    PubMed

    Andreou, Christina; Steinmann, Saskia; Kolbeck, Katharina; Rauh, Jonas; Leicht, Gregor; Moritz, Steffen; Mulert, Christoph

    2018-06-01

    Reports linking a 'jumping-to-conclusions' bias to delusions have led to growing interest in the neurobiological correlates of probabilistic reasoning. Several brain areas have been implicated in probabilistic reasoning; however, findings are difficult to integrate into a coherent account. The present study aimed to provide additional evidence by investigating, for the first time, effective connectivity among brain areas involved in different stages of evidence gathering. We investigated evidence gathering in 25 healthy individuals using fMRI and a new paradigm (Box Task) designed such as to minimize the effects of cognitive effort and reward processing. Decisions to collect more evidence ('draws') were contrasted to decisions to reach a final choice ('conclusions') with respect to BOLD activity. Psychophysiological interaction analysis was used to investigate effective connectivity. Conclusion events were associated with extensive brain activations in widely distributed brain areas associated with the task-positive network. In contrast, draw events were characterized by higher activation in areas assumed to be part of the task-negative network. Effective connectivity between the two networks decreased during draws and increased during conclusion events. Our findings indicate that probabilistic reasoning may depend on the balance between the task-positive and task-negative network, and that shifts in connectivity between the two may be crucial for evidence gathering. Thus, abnormal connectivity between the two systems may significantly contribute to the jumping-to-conclusions bias. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Brief Report: New Evidence for a Social-Specific Imagination Deficit in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ten Eycke, Kayla D.; Müller, Ulrich

    2015-01-01

    Previous research suggests that children with autism have deficits in drawing imaginative content. However, these conclusions are largely based on tasks that require children to draw impossible persons, and performance on this task may be limited by social deficits. To determine the generality of the deficit in imagination in children with autism,…

  5. Picturing Obama: Race, High School Students and a Critical Methodology of the Visual

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, William L.

    2017-01-01

    I draw on methodological findings from a case study on how high school students of color make sense of dominant narratives of race and politics in the Obama American Era. Incorporating literature from critical race theory, visual research methods, and the writings of cultural scholar Stuart Hall, I draw conclusions from this inquiry project as a…

  6. Understanding the Heterogeneity of Entrepreneurship Education: Going beyond Gartner

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jones, Colin; Matlay, Harry

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: This paper seeks to draw attention to the importance of appreciating and using ever-present diversity to achieve increased legitimacy for entrepreneurship education. As such, it aims to draw the reader into a reflective process of discovery as to why entrepreneurship education is important and how such importance can be prolonged.…

  7. Metabolic network visualization eliminating node redundance and preserving metabolic pathways

    PubMed Central

    Bourqui, Romain; Cottret, Ludovic; Lacroix, Vincent; Auber, David; Mary, Patrick; Sagot, Marie-France; Jourdan, Fabien

    2007-01-01

    Background The tools that are available to draw and to manipulate the representations of metabolism are usually restricted to metabolic pathways. This limitation becomes problematic when studying processes that span several pathways. The various attempts that have been made to draw genome-scale metabolic networks are confronted with two shortcomings: 1- they do not use contextual information which leads to dense, hard to interpret drawings, 2- they impose to fit to very constrained standards, which implies, in particular, duplicating nodes making topological analysis considerably more difficult. Results We propose a method, called MetaViz, which enables to draw a genome-scale metabolic network and that also takes into account its structuration into pathways. This method consists in two steps: a clustering step which addresses the pathway overlapping problem and a drawing step which consists in drawing the clustered graph and each cluster. Conclusion The method we propose is original and addresses new drawing issues arising from the no-duplication constraint. We do not propose a single drawing but rather several alternative ways of presenting metabolism depending on the pathway on which one wishes to focus. We believe that this provides a valuable tool to explore the pathway structure of metabolism. PMID:17608928

  8. Using tablets as tools for learner-generated drawings in the context of teaching the kinetic theory of gases

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lehtinen, A.; Viiri, J.

    2014-05-01

    Even though research suggests that the use of drawings could be an important part of learning science, learner-generated drawings have not received much attention in physics classrooms. This paper presents a method for recording students’ drawings and group discussions using tablets. Compared to pen and paper, tablets offer unique benefits, which include the recording of the whole drawing process and of the discussion associated with the drawing. A study, which investigated the use of drawings and the need for guidance among Finnish upper secondary school students, is presented alongside ideas for teachers on how to see drawing in a new light.

  9. Parenteral trace element provision: recent clinical research and practical conclusions

    PubMed Central

    Stehle, P; Stoffel-Wagner, B; Kuhn, K S

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this systematic review (PubMed, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed and Cochrane, www.cochrane.org; last entry 31 December 2014) was to present data from recent clinical studies investigating parenteral trace element provision in adult patients and to draw conclusions for clinical practice. Important physiological functions in human metabolism are known for nine trace elements: selenium, zinc, copper, manganese, chromium, iron, molybdenum, iodine and fluoride. Lack of, or an insufficient supply of, these trace elements in nutrition therapy over a prolonged period is associated with trace element deprivation, which may lead to a deterioration of existing clinical symptoms and/or the development of characteristic malnutrition syndromes. Therefore, all parenteral nutrition prescriptions should include a daily dose of trace elements. To avoid trace element deprivation or imbalances, physiological doses are recommended. PMID:27049031

  10. Insights into Human Behavior from Lesions to the Prefrontal Cortex

    PubMed Central

    Szczepanski, Sara M.; Knight, Robert T.

    2014-01-01

    SUMMARY The prefrontal cortex (PFC), a cortical region that was once thought to be functionally insignificant, is now known to play an essential role in the organization and control of goal-directed thought and behavior. Neuroimaging, neurophysiological, and modeling techniques have lead to tremendous advances in our understanding of PFC functions over the last few decades. It should be noted, however, that neurological, neuropathological, and neuropsychological studies have contributed some of the most essential, historical, and often prescient, conclusions regarding the functions of this region. Importantly, examination of patients with brain damage allows one to draw conclusions about whether a brain area is necessary for a particular function. Here, we provide a broad overview of PFC functions based upon behavioral and neural changes resulting from damage to PFC in both human patients and non-human primates. PMID:25175878

  11. Using Tablets as Tools for Learner-Generated Drawings in the Context of Teaching the Kinetic Theory of Gases

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lehtinen, A.; Viiri, J.

    2014-01-01

    Even though research suggests that the use of drawings could be an important part of learning science, learner-generated drawings have not received much attention in physics classrooms. This paper presents a method for recording students' drawings and group discussions using tablets. Compared to pen and paper, tablets offer unique benefits, which…

  12. Perceptions of diabetes obtained through drawing in childhood and adolescence

    PubMed Central

    Pera, Pilar Isla; Lois, María Palacin; Matheu, Carmen López; Pérez, María Honrubia; Rodriguez, Ana María Gómez; Camps, Eulalia Armengol; Villalba, Carmen Sanchez; Soria, Roser Insa; Cuadra, Assumpta Rigol; Marre, Diana

    2013-01-01

    Objective To examine whether drawing is useful in the detection of problems of psychosocial adaptation in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and in improving communication with health professionals. Methods We performed an exploratory descriptive study in 199 children and adolescents with T1D aged 4–13 years. The participants were asked to render a drawing on a suggested topic. The variables analyzed were related to the drawing and to clinical and sociodemographic data. Results Most participants showed evidence of having a well-balanced personality, but there were also signs of affective or psychosocial difficulties. Conclusion Drawing is a useful technique by which to identify children’s and adolescents’ feelings and possible problems in adapting to T1D, as well as to gain information directly from the children themselves. Future studies should delimit the possibilities of this technique in clinical practice in greater detail. PMID:23814467

  13. Effects of lumbopelvic sling and abdominal drawing-in exercises on lung capacity in healthy adults.

    PubMed

    Kim, Myoung-Kwon; Cha, Hyun-Gyu; Shin, Young-Jun

    2016-08-01

    [Purpose] To examine the effects of lumbopelvic sling and abdominal drawing-in exercises on the lung capacities of healthy subjects. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-nine healthy subjects with no orthopedic history of the back were recruited. Subjects were randomly assigned to a experimental group and control group. Subjects were allocated to one of two groups; an experimental group that underwent lumbopelvic sling and abdominal drawing-in exercises and a control group that underwent treadmill and abdominal drawing-in exercises. Lung capacities were evaluated 4 weeks after exercises. [Results] The experimental group showed significant increments in EV, ERV, IRV, VT vs. pre-intervention results, and the control group showed significant increments in the EVC and IRV. Significant intergroup differences were observed in terms of post-training gains in EVC, IRV, and VT. [Conclusion] Combined application of lumbopelvic sling and abdominal drawing-in exercises were found to have a positive effect on lung capacity.

  14. Analysis of Children's Perception of Triatomine Vectors of Chagas Disease through Drawings: Opportunities for Targeted Health Education

    PubMed Central

    Yevstigneyeva, Violetta; Camara-Mejia, Javier; Dumonteil, Eric

    2014-01-01

    Background Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease affecting about 10 million people, mostly in the Americas, and transmitted mainly by triatomine bugs. Insect vector control with indoor residual insecticides and the promotion of housing improvement is the main control intervention. The success of such interventions relies on their acceptance and appropriation by communities, which depends on their knowledge and perceptions of both the disease and the vector. In this study, we investigated school-aged children's knowledge and perception on triatomine vectors and Chagas disease to further understand how communities view this vector and the disease in Yucatan, Mexico. Methodology/Principal findings We performed an analysis of children's drawings on the theme of triatomines and their house in several rural villages, to explore in an open-ended manner their views, understanding and misconceptions. A total of 261 drawings were collected from children ages 6–12 from four villages. We found that children are very familiar with triatomine vectors, and know very well many aspects of their biology and ecology, and in particular their blood-feeding habits. On the other hand, their drawings suggest that the role of triatomines as vectors of a chronic and severe cardiac disease is less understood, and the main perceived health threat appears limited to the bite itself, as previously observed in adults. Conclusions/Significance These results have important implications for the specific design of future education materials and campaigns, and for the promotion of the inclusion of children in raising Chagas disease awareness in these endemic communities. PMID:25275321

  15. Approaches to Legacy System Evolution.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1997-12-01

    such as migrating legacy systems, to more distributed open environments. This framework draws out the important global issues early in the planning...ongoing system evolution initiatives, for drawing out important global issues early in the planning cycle using the checklists as a guide, and for

  16. Projective drawings for assessing stress among subjects with medical symptoms compatible with sick building syndrome, and validation of a modified version of the Stress Load Index from the Drawing Personality Profile: a pilot study.

    PubMed

    Runeson, Roma; Wahlstedt, Kurt; Norbäck, Dan

    2007-02-01

    It was hypothesized that subjects with medical symptoms would show more signs of stress in projective drawings. A Stress Load Index, including five signs of stress in drawings, was evaluated. A questionnaire with an instruction to draw "a person in the rain" was sent to a cohort of 195 subjects, and the drawings were analysed blindly for eight stress items. Men had a higher index than women (p < .05) and drew clouds more often (p < .05). Drawing of clouds was associated with headache (adjOR = 4.28; 95% CI 1.75; 11.68). Drawing of puddles was associated with ocular symptoms (adjOR = 3.22; 95% CI 1.38, 7.50), facial dermal symptoms (adjOR= 2.94; 95% CI 1.28, 6.81), and tiredness (adjOR = 2.44; 95% CI 1.05, 5.67). Drawing of long rain strokes was associated with nasal symptoms (adjOR = 2.28; 95% CI 1.05, 2.06) and headache (adjOR = 3.20; 95% CI 1.28, 8.05). Age and stress load were predictors of sick building syndrome symptoms (p < .05). In conclusion, a nonverbal projective drawing test detected sex differences which represent directions opposite to those with verbal methods. These need empirical assessment.

  17. Applying the Uses and Gratifications Theory to Compare Higher Education Students' Motivation for Using Social Networking Sites: Experiences from Iran, Malaysia, United Kingdom, and South Africa

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karimi, Leila; Khodabandelou, Rouhollah; Ehsani, Maryam; Ahmad, Muhammad

    2014-01-01

    Drawing from the Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study examined the Gratification Sought and the Gratification Obtained from using Social Networking Sites among Iranian, Malaysian, British, and South African higher education students. This comparison allowed to drawing conclusions about how social networking sites fulfill users' needs with…

  18. Boy v. Girl? How Gender Shapes Who We Are, What We Want, and How We Get Along.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abrahams, George; Ahlbrand, Sheila

    Noting that the middle-school years are a time when adolescents "try on" roles and attitudes, test boundaries, and draw tentative conclusions about personal and social behaviors, this book draws on findings of a survey of nearly 2,000 10- to 17-year-olds regarding perceived and real differences between girls and boys to guide teens…

  19. Older Age Relates to Worsening of Fine Motor Skills: A Population-Based Study of Middle-Aged and Elderly Persons

    PubMed Central

    Hoogendam, Yoo Young; van der Lijn, Fedde; Vernooij, Meike W.; Hofman, Albert; Niessen, Wiro J.; van der Lugt, Aad; Ikram, M. Arfan; van der Geest, Jos N.

    2014-01-01

    Introduction: In a population-based study of 1,912 community-dwelling persons of 45 years and older, we investigated the relation between age and fine motor skills using the Archimedes spiral-drawing test. Also, we studied the effect of brain volume on fine motor skills. Methods: Participants were required to trace a template of a spiral on an electronic drawing board. Clinical scores from this test were obtained by visual assessment of the drawings. Quantitative measures were objectively determined from the recorded data of the drawings. As tremor is known to occur increasingly with advancing age, we also rated drawings to assess presence of tremor. Results: We found presence of a tremor in 1.3% of the drawings. In the group without tremor, we found that older age was related to worse fine motor skills. Additionally, participants over the age of 75 showed increasing deviations from the template when drawing the spiral. Larger cerebral volume and smaller white matter lesion volume were related to better spiral-drawing performance, whereas cerebellar volume was not related to spiral-drawing performance. Conclusion: Older age is related to worse fine motor skills, which can be captured by clinical scoring or quantitative measures of the Archimedes spiral-drawing test. Persons with a tremor performed worse on almost all measures of the spiral-drawing test. Furthermore, larger cerebral volume is related to better fine motor skills. PMID:25309436

  20. Children's Gendered Drawings of Play Behaviours

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Akseer, Tabasum; Lao, Mary Grace; Bosacki, Sandra

    2012-01-01

    According to child psychologists, vital links exist between children's drawings and their emotional, social, and cognitive development. Previous research has explored the important relations between drawings and play in educational settings. Given the vast research that explores the ambiguous topic of children's play, according to Richer (1990),…

  1. Perseveration Found in a Human Drawing Task: Six-Fingered Hands Drawn by Patients with Right Anterior Insula and Operculum Damage

    PubMed Central

    Niki, Chiharu; Maruyama, Takashi; Muragaki, Yoshihiro; Kumada, Takatsune

    2014-01-01

    Background. Perseveration has been observed in a number of behavioural contexts, including speaking, writing, and drawing. However, no previous report describes patients who show perseveration only for drawing a human figure. Objective. The present report describes a group of patients who show body awareness-related cognitive impairment during a human figure drawing task, a different presentation from previously described neuropsychological cases. Methods. Participants were 15 patients who had a frontal lobe brain tumour around the insula cortex of the right hemisphere and had subsequently undergone a neurosurgical resective operation. Participants were asked to draw a human figure in both “hands-down” and “hands-up” configurations. Results. Eight of the 15 patients drew a human figure with six fingers during the “hands-up” and the “hands-down” human figure drawing tasks (one patient drew eight fingers). A statistical analysis of potential lesion areas revealed damage to the right anterior frontal insula and operculum in this group of patients relative to the five-finger drawing group. Conclusions. Our findings reveal a newly described neuropsychological phenomenon that could reflect impairment in attention directed towards body representations. PMID:24876665

  2. Using drawings to explore patients’ perceptions of their illness: a scoping review

    PubMed Central

    Cheung, Melissa Mei Yin; Saini, Bandana; Smith, Lorraine

    2016-01-01

    Background An emerging approach for investigating patient perspectives of their illness is the use of drawings. Objective This scoping review consolidates findings from current literature regarding the use of drawings to explore patients’ perceptions and experiences of their illness and treatment. Methods Electronic databases (Medline, PubMed, Embase, PsychINFO, Cinahl, Art Index and Scopus) and reference lists were searched to identify published English language studies using participant-generated drawings to explore adults’ perceptions and experiences of their illness and treatment. Using the scoping methodological framework, data were analyzed with respect to each study’s design, key findings and implications. Results Thirty-two studies were identified and these reflected diversities in both health conditions and methods of data collection and analysis. Participants’ drawings revealed new, insightful knowledge about patients’ perceptions, beliefs and experiences of their condition and were associated with clinical and psychological markers of health. Drawing was a powerful adjunct to traditional data collection approaches, and demonstrated potential benefits for participants. This review provides detailed insights and guidance on the use of drawings in research and clinical practice. Conclusion Drawing is a novel and potentially valuable technique for exploring patients’ perceptions and experiences about their illness and treatment. Advancing the methodology and applicability of drawings in this area will assist in the future development of this technique, with benefits for the patient, researcher and health care professional alike. PMID:27920550

  3. How Drawing Is Taught in Chinese Infant Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jolley, Richard; Zhang, Zhi

    2012-01-01

    The benefits of drawing for children are wide-ranging but are likely to be mediated by the art curriculum and other governmental guidance to teachers relevant to drawing/art. Furthermore, such statutory regulations vary between cultures, and therefore curricula represent an important influence on the cultural differences found in children's…

  4. The Importance of Scale Drawings or: Let's Not Blow Things Out of Proportion!

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DeBuvitz, William

    1990-01-01

    Discussed is the importance of using scale drawings in teaching physics. Concepts including the orbit of the Space Shuttle, the smoothness of the earth's surface, the oblateness of the earth, the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, and the solar system are illustrated. (CW)

  5. Enhancing the Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Visual Images

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Quinnell, Lorna

    2014-01-01

    The importance of mathematical visual images is indicated by the introductory paragraph in the Statistics and Probability content strand of the Australian Curriculum, which draws attention to the importance of learners developing skills to analyse and draw inferences from data and "represent, summarise and interpret data and undertake…

  6. Measuring Visual Literacy Skills on Students’ Concept Understanding of Genetic Transfer Material

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fibriana, F.; Pamelasari, S. D.; Aulia, L. S.

    2017-04-01

    Visualization is an important skill for all students majoring in natural sciences. Also, the visual literacy skills (VLS) are essential for Microbiology learning. The lecturer can use the external representations (ERs) to visualize the microorganisms and its microenvironment. One of learning materials which are rather difficult to interpret in microbiology is genetic transfer. In this study, we measure the VLS on students’ concept understanding of genetic transfer material using a simple test. The tests were held before and after the lecture on this topic employing a combination of talking drawing with picture and picture model. The results show that in the beginning, students showed their poor visual literacy. After the lecture, students were able to draw their understanding on the genetic transfer in bacteria. Most students’ visual literacy ability improves in the level of acceptable. In conclusion, the students’ ability was improved in the average amount of conceptual knowledge. This result reveals that some students comprehend in the correct level of ability, meaning that they have a high degree of conceptual (propositional) and visual knowledge.

  7. Drawing-to-Learn: A Framework for Using Drawings to Promote Model-Based Reasoning in Biology

    PubMed Central

    Quillin, Kim; Thomas, Stephen

    2015-01-01

    The drawing of visual representations is important for learners and scientists alike, such as the drawing of models to enable visual model-based reasoning. Yet few biology instructors recognize drawing as a teachable science process skill, as reflected by its absence in the Vision and Change report’s Modeling and Simulation core competency. Further, the diffuse research on drawing can be difficult to access, synthesize, and apply to classroom practice. We have created a framework of drawing-to-learn that defines drawing, categorizes the reasons for using drawing in the biology classroom, and outlines a number of interventions that can help instructors create an environment conducive to student drawing in general and visual model-based reasoning in particular. The suggested interventions are organized to address elements of affect, visual literacy, and visual model-based reasoning, with specific examples cited for each. Further, a Blooming tool for drawing exercises is provided, as are suggestions to help instructors address possible barriers to implementing and assessing drawing-to-learn in the classroom. Overall, the goal of the framework is to increase the visibility of drawing as a skill in biology and to promote the research and implementation of best practices. PMID:25713094

  8. [Time-Temperature indicators (TTI). A means of quality control of produce].

    PubMed

    Durand, M P

    1996-11-01

    The author, after having dwelt on the mediatic importance of bacterial food poisonings, analyses their reasons, insisting on the importance of the temperature as a factor of bacterial growth. Among the cures for the association temperature-bacterial growth, the author draws attention to the benefits of the use of the time temperature indicators (TTI). He describes the purposes, the required qualities, the principles of activity. The "Lifelines TTI" proves to be interesting. The author describes the principles of activity, the directions for reading the results, the practical application. Finally he describes the remarks following on its use in large scale in a group of chain-stores. In the conclusion, the author points that these TTI are an attractive technical innovation regarding to the fresh foods, for the control of coldness in the human nutrition.

  9. Drawing conclusions: a re-examination of empirical and conceptual bases for psychological evaluation of children from their drawings.

    PubMed

    Thomas, G V; Jolley, R P

    1998-05-01

    Although consideration of children's art work (usually drawings) in clinical investigations of children referred to psychologists is fairly common, there is little evidence for the reliability and validity of such assessments. We consider a variety of possible mechanisms which could operate to influence the characteristics of children's drawings, and review the evidence that such mechanisms operate to allow meaningful psychological evaluations of children from their drawings. The problem for making a reliable interpretation of the significance of a drawing is that a given feature could plausibly support several very different interpretations, depending which of many possible processes was active or dominant in the production of the drawing. Evidence from studies of clinical populations and experimental studies with non-selected samples are reviewed in the light of these possibilities. The review indicates that drawings are inaccurate and unreliable as personality or state assessments but can be influenced by children's emotional attitudes towards the topics depicted. The form of that expression, however, may be personal and idiosyncratic. Analogue studies of these effects undertaken with non-clinical samples under controlled conditions have produced mixed results. At best the reported effects are small. Children's drawings on their own are too complexly determined and inherently ambiguous to be reliable sole indicators of the emotional experiences of the children who drew them. Further research is needed to establish the extent to which such drawings can usefully facilitate assessment of children by other means or provide useful support as one of several converging lines of evidence.

  10. Comparison of changes in oxygenated hemoglobin during the tree-drawing task between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls

    PubMed Central

    Nakano, Shinya; Shoji, Yoshihisa; Morita, Kiichiro; Igimi, Hiroyasu; Sato, Mamoru; Ishii, Youhei; Kondo, Akihiko; Uchimura, Naohisa

    2018-01-01

    Background Tree-drawing test is used as a projective psychological test that expresses the abnormal internal experience in patients with schizophrenia (SZ). Despite the widely accepted view that the cognitive function is involved in characteristic tree-drawing in patients with SZ, no study has psychophysiologically examined it. The present study aimed to investigate the involvement of cognitive function during tree-drawing in patients with SZ. For that purpose, we evaluated the brain function in patients with SZ during a tree-drawing task by using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and compared them with those in healthy controls. Patients and methods The subjects were 28 healthy controls and 28 patients with SZ. Changes in the oxygenated hemoglobin ([oxy-Hb]) concentration in both the groups during the task of drawing a tree imagined freely (free-drawing task) and the task of copying an illustration of a tree (copying task) were measured by using NIRS. Results Because of the difference between the task conditions, [oxy-Hb] levels in controls during the free-drawing task were higher than that during the copying task at the bilateral frontal pole regions and left inferior frontal region. Because of the difference between the groups, [oxy-Hb] levels at the left middle frontal region, bilateral inferior frontal regions, bilateral inferior parietal regions, and left superior temporal region during the free-drawing task in patients were lower than that in controls. Conclusion [oxy-Hb] during the tree-drawing task in patients with SZ was lower than that in healthy controls. Our results suggest that brain dysfunction in patients with SZ might be associated with their tree-drawing. PMID:29719398

  11. Drawing conclusions from within-group comparisons and selected subsets of data leads to unsubstantiated conclusions: Letter regarding Malakellis et al.

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Malakellis et al. conducted an ambitious quasi-experimental evaluation of "multiple initiatives at [the] individual, community, and school policy level to support healthier nutrition and physical activity" among children. In the abstract they concluded, "There was some evidence of effectiveness of t...

  12. Impact of manual preference on directionality in children's drawings.

    PubMed

    Picard, Delphine

    2011-01-01

    The effects of handedness on directionality in drawing are already well documented in the literature, at least as far as adults are concerned. The present study investigates the impact of manual preference on directionality as seen in the drawing product and drawing process, from a developmental point of view. A total of 120 children aged 5 to 9, both right and left-handed drawers, volunteered for the study. Children were asked to draw twice from memory a set of six common objects. Results indicate that directionality in drawing product varies significantly according to manual preference in the 9-year-old children, but not in the younger age groups. The concomitant increase between 7 and 9 years of age in the use of preferred stroke directions and the impact of manual preference in the drawing process suggests that biomechanical factors might play an important role in behavioural asymmetries in drawing.

  13. Dissemination of Health-Related Research among Scientists in Three Countries: Access to Resources and Current Practices

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    Objectives. In public health and clinical settings insufficient dissemination of evidence-based practices limits the reach of new discoveries to broad populations. This study aimed to describe characteristics of the dissemination process by researchers across three countries (Brazil, United Kingdom, and United States), explore how designing for dissemination practices has been used, and analyze factors associated with dissemination. Methods. A similar online survey was used to query researchers across the three countries; data were pooled to draw cross-country conclusions. Findings. This study identified similarities and differences between countries. Importance of dissemination to nonresearcher audiences was widely recognized as important; however, traditional academic venues were the main dissemination method. Several factors were associated with self-rated dissemination effort in the pooled sample, but these predictive factors (e.g., support and resources for dissemination) had low prevalence. Less than one-third of researchers rated their level of effort for dissemination as excellent. Respondents reported limited support and resources to make it easier for researchers who might want to disseminate their findings. Conclusion. Though intentions show the importance of dissemination, researchers across countries lack supports to increase dissemination efforts. Additional resources and training in designing for dissemination along with improved partnerships could help bridge the research-practice gap. PMID:26495287

  14. Lessons learned from the misuse of mathematical models: The 2008 financial crisis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Campanario, M. L.; Lara, J. A.

    2014-10-01

    In this paper, we report the immediate causes of the 2008 financial crisis, in the shape of products of financial engineering associated with human greed and stupidity, and necessarily aided and abetted by the Black-Scholes-Merton model, and the mediate, and deeper, causesderived from development promoted by the scientific and technological binomial. We finally draw realistic conclusions regarding the inexorable effects that logically derive from the above causes. An important finding is that human beingsare the only animals to make the same mistake twice. The necessaryconditions are again being generated and will soon be sufficient for acrash, like the one thatcaused the 2007-08 financial crisis, to recur.

  15. Drawing a dog: The role of working memory and executive function.

    PubMed

    Panesi, Sabrina; Morra, Sergio

    2016-12-01

    Previous research suggests that young children draw animals by adapting their scheme for the human figure. This can be considered an early form of drawing flexibility. This study investigated preschoolers' ability to draw a dog that is different from the human figure. The role of working memory capacity and executive function was examined. The participants were 123 children (36-73 months old) who were required to draw both a person and a dog. The dog figure was scored on a list of features that could render it different from the human figure. Regression analyses showed that both working memory capacity and executive function predicted development in the dog drawing; the dog drawing score correlated with working memory capacity and executive function, even partialling out age, motor coordination, and drawing ability (measured with Goodenough's Draw-a-Man test). These results suggest that both working memory capacity and executive function play an important role in the early development of drawing flexibility. The implications regarding executive functions and working memory are also discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Comparison of changes in the mobility of the pelvic floor muscle on during the abdominal drawing-in maneuver, maximal expiration, and pelvic floor muscle maximal contraction

    PubMed Central

    Jung, Halim; Jung, Sangwoo; Joo, Sunghee; Song, Changho

    2016-01-01

    [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to compare changes in the mobility of the pelvic floor muscle during the abdominal drawing-in maneuver, maximal expiration, and pelvic floor muscle maximal contraction. [Subjects] Thirty healthy adults participated in this study (15 men and 15 women). [Methods] All participants performed a bridge exercise and abdominal curl-up during the abdominal drawing-in maneuver, maximal expiration, and pelvic floor muscle maximal contraction. Pelvic floor mobility was evaluated as the distance from the bladder base using ultrasound. [Results] According to exercise method, bridge exercise and abdominal curl-ups led to significantly different pelvic floor mobility. The pelvic floor muscle was elevated during the abdominal drawing-in maneuver and descended during maximal expiration. Finally, pelvic floor muscle mobility was greater during abdominal curl-up than during the bridge exercise. [Conclusion] According to these results, the abdominal drawing-in maneuver induced pelvic floor muscle contraction, and pelvic floor muscle contraction was greater during the abdominal curl-up than during the bridge exercise. PMID:27065532

  17. Comparison of changes in the mobility of the pelvic floor muscle on during the abdominal drawing-in maneuver, maximal expiration, and pelvic floor muscle maximal contraction.

    PubMed

    Jung, Halim; Jung, Sangwoo; Joo, Sunghee; Song, Changho

    2016-01-01

    [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to compare changes in the mobility of the pelvic floor muscle during the abdominal drawing-in maneuver, maximal expiration, and pelvic floor muscle maximal contraction. [Subjects] Thirty healthy adults participated in this study (15 men and 15 women). [Methods] All participants performed a bridge exercise and abdominal curl-up during the abdominal drawing-in maneuver, maximal expiration, and pelvic floor muscle maximal contraction. Pelvic floor mobility was evaluated as the distance from the bladder base using ultrasound. [Results] According to exercise method, bridge exercise and abdominal curl-ups led to significantly different pelvic floor mobility. The pelvic floor muscle was elevated during the abdominal drawing-in maneuver and descended during maximal expiration. Finally, pelvic floor muscle mobility was greater during abdominal curl-up than during the bridge exercise. [Conclusion] According to these results, the abdominal drawing-in maneuver induced pelvic floor muscle contraction, and pelvic floor muscle contraction was greater during the abdominal curl-up than during the bridge exercise.

  18. Methotrexate and Pregnancy

    MedlinePlus

    ... methotrexate to draw firm conclusions. One 2009 review paper reported no increase in miscarriage or birth defect ... methotrexate in the first trimester. While reassuring, this paper does not mean there is no risk for ...

  19. "Well-Being" through Reading: Drawing upon Literature and Literacy in Spiritual Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pike, Mark A.

    2004-01-01

    In this paper, reading is conceived as a spiritual gift that can help readers towards an understanding of being. The image of the well and the act of drawing water is employed to illustrate the relation of the spiritual and the aesthetic. The term "well-being" in relation to reading is used here to draw attention to the importance of ontology in…

  20. Grade 3 Learners' Representation of Their Solutions to a Design Problem through Drawing: A Semiotic Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alant, Busisiwe P.; Sherwood, Marion P.

    2017-01-01

    Literature suggests that drawing has an important role in the development of learning and thinking skills and the communication of ideas. However, the role and use of drawing by young learners within the process of designing is poorly understood. Working with 22 Grade 3 learners from a well-resourced school in KwaZulu-Natal, this study sought to…

  1. Sunspot drawings handwritten character recognition method based on deep learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheng, Sheng; Zeng, Xiangyun; Lin, Ganghua; Zhao, Cui; Feng, Yongli; Tao, Jinping; Zhu, Daoyuan; Xiong, Li

    2016-05-01

    High accuracy scanned sunspot drawings handwritten characters recognition is an issue of critical importance to analyze sunspots movement and store them in the database. This paper presents a robust deep learning method for scanned sunspot drawings handwritten characters recognition. The convolution neural network (CNN) is one algorithm of deep learning which is truly successful in training of multi-layer network structure. CNN is used to train recognition model of handwritten character images which are extracted from the original sunspot drawings. We demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method on sunspot drawings provided by Chinese Academy Yunnan Observatory and obtain the daily full-disc sunspot numbers and sunspot areas from the sunspot drawings. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a high recognition accurate rate.

  2. Expression of pain and distress in children during dental extractions through drawings as a projective measure: A clinical study

    PubMed Central

    Pala, Sai Priya; Nuvvula, Sivakumar; Kamatham, Rekhalakshmi

    2016-01-01

    AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of drawings as a projective measure of pain and distress in children undergoing dental extractions. METHODS: Children in the age range of 4-13 years with existence of untreatable caries or over-retained primary teeth, indicated for extractions were included. Pain was assessed using one behavioral [faces, legs, activity, cry and consolability (FLACC)] scale; and a self report measure; faces pain scale-revised (FPS-R), at two points of time, after completion of local anesthetic administration and after extraction. The general behavior of children was assessed with Wright’s modification of Frankl rating scale. At the end of the session, children were instructed to represent, themselves along with the dentist and their experiences of the dental treatment through drawing. The drawings were scored utilizing Child drawing: Hospital scale (CD: H) manual and correlated with FLACC, FPS-R and Frankl using Pearson correlation test. RESULTS: A positive correlation, though statistically not significant, was observed between CD: H scores and all other considered parameters (Frankl, FPS-R and FLACC) in the present study. CONCLUSION: Drawings could not act as surrogate measure of child’s pain; however, they acted as a narrative of his/her experiences and reflection of inner emotions. Hence, drawings can be used as an additional dental armamentarium. PMID:26862509

  3. Forum Response: Ethics in Business and Teaching.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anderson, James A.

    2003-01-01

    Discusses the teaching of business ethics. Draws conclusions about teaching business ethics noting that such instruction must start with the principles of capitalism and the functions of a market economy. (SG)

  4. The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence

    PubMed Central

    Lusardi, Annamaria; Mitchell, Olivia S.

    2017-01-01

    This paper undertakes an assessment of a rapidly growing body of economic research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research which casts financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital. Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for welfare as well as policies intended to enhance levels of financial knowledge in the larger population. Next, we draw on recent surveys to establish how much (or how little) people know and identify the least financially savvy population subgroups. This is followed by an examination of the impact of financial literacy on economic decision-making in the United States and elsewhere. While the literature is still young, conclusions may be drawn about the effects and consequences of financial illiteracy and what works to remedy these gaps. A final section offers thoughts on what remains to be learned if researchers are to better inform theoretical and empirical models as well as public policy. PMID:28579637

  5. The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence.

    PubMed

    Lusardi, Annamaria; Mitchell, Olivia S

    2014-03-01

    This paper undertakes an assessment of a rapidly growing body of economic research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research which casts financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital. Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for welfare as well as policies intended to enhance levels of financial knowledge in the larger population. Next, we draw on recent surveys to establish how much (or how little) people know and identify the least financially savvy population subgroups. This is followed by an examination of the impact of financial literacy on economic decision-making in the United States and elsewhere. While the literature is still young, conclusions may be drawn about the effects and consequences of financial illiteracy and what works to remedy these gaps. A final section offers thoughts on what remains to be learned if researchers are to better inform theoretical and empirical models as well as public policy.

  6. The Fate and Impact of Internal Waves in Nearshore Ecosystems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Woodson, C. B.

    2018-01-01

    Internal waves are widespread features of global oceans that play critical roles in mixing and thermohaline circulation. Similarly to surface waves, internal waves can travel long distances, ultimately breaking along continental margins. These breaking waves can transport deep ocean water and associated constituents (nutrients, larvae, and acidic low-oxygen waters) onto the shelf and locally enhance turbulence and mixing, with important effects on nearshore ecosystems. We are only beginning to understand the role internal waves play in shaping nearshore ecosystems. Here, I review the physics of internal waves in shallow waters and identify two commonalities among internal waves in the nearshore: exposure to deep offshore waters and enhanced turbulence and mixing. I relate these phenomena to important ecosystem processes ranging from extreme events to fertilization success to draw general conclusions about the influence of internal waves on ecosystems and the effects of internal waves in a changing climate.

  7. A note on bound constraints handling for the IEEE CEC'05 benchmark function suite.

    PubMed

    Liao, Tianjun; Molina, Daniel; de Oca, Marco A Montes; Stützle, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    The benchmark functions and some of the algorithms proposed for the special session on real parameter optimization of the 2005 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC'05) have played and still play an important role in the assessment of the state of the art in continuous optimization. In this article, we show that if bound constraints are not enforced for the final reported solutions, state-of-the-art algorithms produce infeasible best candidate solutions for the majority of functions of the IEEE CEC'05 benchmark function suite. This occurs even though the optima of the CEC'05 functions are within the specified bounds. This phenomenon has important implications on algorithm comparisons, and therefore on algorithm designs. This article's goal is to draw the attention of the community to the fact that some authors might have drawn wrong conclusions from experiments using the CEC'05 problems.

  8. Religion, health and medicine in African Americans: implications for physicians.

    PubMed

    Levin, Jeff; Chatters, Linda M; Taylor, Robert Joseph

    2005-02-01

    Recent years have seen a burgeoning of research and writing on the connections between religion and health. The very best of this work comes from epidemiologic studies of African Americans. This paper summarizes results of these investigations, including findings identifying effects of religious participation on both physical and mental health outcomes. Evidence mostly supports a protective religious effect on morbidity and mortality and on depressive symptoms and overall psychological distress among African Americans. This paper also carefully discusses what the results of these studies mean and do not mean, an important consideration due to frequent misinterpretations of findings on this topic. Because important distinctions between epidemiologic and clinical studies tend to get glossed over, reports of religion-health associations oftentimes draw erroneous conclusions that foster unrealistic expectations about the role of faith and spirituality in health and healing. Finally, implications are discussed for clinical practice, medical education and public health.

  9. The Fate and Impact of Internal Waves in Nearshore Ecosystems.

    PubMed

    Woodson, C B

    2018-01-03

    Internal waves are widespread features of global oceans that play critical roles in mixing and thermohaline circulation. Similarly to surface waves, internal waves can travel long distances, ultimately breaking along continental margins. These breaking waves can transport deep ocean water and associated constituents (nutrients, larvae, and acidic low-oxygen waters) onto the shelf and locally enhance turbulence and mixing, with important effects on nearshore ecosystems. We are only beginning to understand the role internal waves play in shaping nearshore ecosystems. Here, I review the physics of internal waves in shallow waters and identify two commonalities among internal waves in the nearshore: exposure to deep offshore waters and enhanced turbulence and mixing. I relate these phenomena to important ecosystem processes ranging from extreme events to fertilization success to draw general conclusions about the influence of internal waves on ecosystems and the effects of internal waves in a changing climate.

  10. Religion, health and medicine in African Americans: implications for physicians.

    PubMed Central

    Levin, Jeff; Chatters, Linda M.; Taylor, Robert Joseph

    2005-01-01

    Recent years have seen a burgeoning of research and writing on the connections between religion and health. The very best of this work comes from epidemiologic studies of African Americans. This paper summarizes results of these investigations, including findings identifying effects of religious participation on both physical and mental health outcomes. Evidence mostly supports a protective religious effect on morbidity and mortality and on depressive symptoms and overall psychological distress among African Americans. This paper also carefully discusses what the results of these studies mean and do not mean, an important consideration due to frequent misinterpretations of findings on this topic. Because important distinctions between epidemiologic and clinical studies tend to get glossed over, reports of religion-health associations oftentimes draw erroneous conclusions that foster unrealistic expectations about the role of faith and spirituality in health and healing. Finally, implications are discussed for clinical practice, medical education and public health. PMID:15712787

  11. Observational drawing biases are predicted by biases in perception: Empirical support of the misperception hypothesis of drawing accuracy with respect to two angle illusions.

    PubMed

    Ostrofsky, Justin; Kozbelt, Aaron; Cohen, Dale J

    2015-01-01

    We tested the misperception hypothesis of drawing errors, which states that drawing accuracy is strongly influenced by the perceptual encoding of a to-be-drawn stimulus. We used a highly controlled experimental paradigm in which nonartist participants made perceptual judgements and drawings of angles under identical stimulus exposure conditions. Experiment 1 examined the isosceles/scalene triangle angle illusion; congruent patterns of bias in the perception and drawing tasks were found for 40 and 60° angles, but not for 20 or 80° angles, providing mixed support for the misperception hypothesis. Experiment 2 examined shape constancy effects with respect to reproductions of single acute or obtuse angles; congruent patterns of bias in the perception and drawing tasks were found across a range of angles from 29 to 151°, providing strong support for the misperception hypothesis. In both experiments, perceptual and drawing biases were positively correlated. These results are largely consistent with the misperception hypothesis, suggesting that inaccurate perceptual encoding of angles is an important reason that nonartists err in drawing angles from observation.

  12. The use of drawing as an alternative assessment tool in biology teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nugraha, I.

    2018-05-01

    Science required the recording of data to build knowledge. The act of drawing an illustration is one of the oldest methods to record the data in science. Illustration in science provides information that the written word cannot, hence the old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is very important for studying science. Drawings an illustration is not only valuable for artists but also for scientists because some aspects of science process skills can also be developed through drawing. In terms of science teaching, applying the act of drawing can also be used as an assessment tool. In this study, we assessed drawing of human internal organs of 38 student teachers who enrolled human physiology course and its correlation to their final exam achievement. Guidance of biological drawing was employed to assess the quality, labelling, and annotations of the drawing. The finding of this study showed that there was a positive correlation between the quality of drawing and final exam achievement. It is suggested that using the method of drawing in combination with written responses assessment would provide a more complete information about student’s understanding of human internal organs.

  13. Distinguishing Depressive Pseudodementia from Alzheimer Disease: A Comparative Study of Hippocampal Volumetry and Cognitive Tests

    PubMed Central

    Sahin, Sevki; Okluoglu Önal, Tugba; Cinar, Nilgun; Bozdemir, Meral; Çubuk, Rahmi; Karsidag, Sibel

    2017-01-01

    Background and Aim Depressive pseudodementia (DPD) is a condition which may develop secondary to depression. The aim of this study was to contribute to the differential diagnosis between Alzheimer disease (AD) and DPD by comparing the neurocognitive tests and hippocampal volume. Materials and Methods Patients who met criteria of AD/DPD were enrolled in the study. All patients were assessed using the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS), clock-drawing test, Stroop test, Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT), Boston Naming Test, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Hippocampal volume was measured by importing the coronal T1-weighted magnetic resonance images to the Vitrea 2 workstation. Results A significant difference was found between the AD and DPD groups on the WMS test, clock-drawing test, Stroop test, Boston Naming Test, MMSE, GDS, and left hippocampal volume. A significant correlation between BFRT and bilateral hippocampal volumes was found in the AD group. No correlation was found among parameters in DPD patients. Conclusions Our results suggest that evaluation of facial recognition and left hippocampal volume may provide more reliable evidence for distinguishing DPD from AD. Further investigations combined with functional imaging techniques including more patients are needed. PMID:28868066

  14. Conversion of KEGG metabolic pathways to SBGN maps including automatic layout

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Biologists make frequent use of databases containing large and complex biological networks. One popular database is the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) which uses its own graphical representation and manual layout for pathways. While some general drawing conventions exist for biological networks, arbitrary graphical representations are very common. Recently, a new standard has been established for displaying biological processes, the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN), which aims to unify the look of such maps. Ideally, online repositories such as KEGG would automatically provide networks in a variety of notations including SBGN. Unfortunately, this is non‐trivial, since converting between notations may add, remove or otherwise alter map elements so that the existing layout cannot be simply reused. Results Here we describe a methodology for automatic translation of KEGG metabolic pathways into the SBGN format. We infer important properties of the KEGG layout and treat these as layout constraints that are maintained during the conversion to SBGN maps. Conclusions This allows for the drawing and layout conventions of SBGN to be followed while creating maps that are still recognizably the original KEGG pathways. This article details the steps in this process and provides examples of the final result. PMID:23953132

  15. Clinical usefulness of the clock drawing test applying rasch analysis in predicting of cognitive impairment.

    PubMed

    Yoo, Doo Han; Lee, Jae Shin

    2016-07-01

    [Purpose] This study examined the clinical usefulness of the clock drawing test applying Rasch analysis for predicting the level of cognitive impairment. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 187 stroke patients with cognitive impairment were enrolled in this study. The 187 patients were evaluated by the clock drawing test developed through Rasch analysis along with the mini-mental state examination of cognitive evaluation tool. An analysis of the variance was performed to examine the significance of the mini-mental state examination and the clock drawing test according to the general characteristics of the subjects. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to determine the cutoff point for cognitive impairment and to calculate the sensitivity and specificity values. [Results] The results of comparison of the clock drawing test with the mini-mental state showed significant differences in according to gender, age, education, and affected side. A total CDT of 10.5, which was selected as the cutoff point to identify cognitive impairement, showed a sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, positive predictive, and negative predicive values of 86.4%, 91.5%, 0.8, 95%, and 88.2%. [Conclusion] The clock drawing test is believed to be useful in assessments and interventions based on its excellent ability to identify cognitive disorders.

  16. Self-Image Perception of 171 Children and Adolescents With Cleft Lip and Palate From 22 Countries

    PubMed Central

    Abd-Elsayed, Alaa A.; Delgado, Sergio V.; Livingstone, Morgan

    2013-01-01

    Background Cleft lip (CL) and cleft palate (CP) are among the most common congenital deformities of the head and neck. They are associated with many problems, physical and psychological. We describe 171 children and adolescents with CL/CP from 22 countries who were asked to draw their faces in a self-image perception drawing 2 hours before surgery to repair their deformities. Methods The aim of the study was to explore whether children and adolescents with CL and CP perceived themselves as deformed when given the opportunity to draw their faces before surgery to repair their deformities. Children were asked to lie down on a large piece of paper to have their body outline traced. Subsequently, the children were asked to draw their faces within the outline. Results All of the children included in this study drew their faces with normal mouths. Conclusion None of the 171 patients with CL/CP drew their deformity when asked to draw their faces; the reasons are not clear. The children may have wanted to compensate for their disability with the constructive use of fantasy as they anticipated the surgery to repair their CL/CP. An additional hypothesis is that the children felt the need to draw an image that they knew represented their parents' desires. PMID:23789006

  17. Workshop on Fielded Applications of Machine Learning

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-05-11

    This report summaries the talks presented at the Workshop on Fielded Applications of Machine Learning , and draws some initial conclusions about the state of machine learning and its potential for solving real-world problems.

  18. School Age Populations Research Needs - NCS Dietary Assessment Literature Review

    Cancer.gov

    Drawing conclusions about the validity of available dietary assessment instruments in school age children is hampered by the differences in instruments, research design, reference methods, and populations in the validation literature.

  19. DRAWING SKILLS IN CHILDREN WITH NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DELAY AGED 2-5 YEARS.

    PubMed

    Morović, Maja Lang; Matijević, Valentina; Divljaković, Kristina; Kraljević, Marija; Dimić, Zdenka

    2015-06-01

    In typically developing children, drawing development occurs in stages from uncontrolled strokes to complex drawing. In this study, we examined drawing development in children with neurodevelopmental delay (NDD). In order to do so, we observed the influence of age, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and gender on the development of drawing skills. The sample consisted of 52 children with NDD, aged 2 years and 6 months to 5 years. All children were hospitalized for multidisciplinary team monitoring and developmental support. The evaluation of drawing development was administered by giving each child a blank A4 paper and the instruction to draw anything they wanted. All of the drawings were scored satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Descriptive statistics was employed on all relevant data to show results in frequencies and percentages. In order to determine differences between groups, the χ2-test was administered. The results showed greatest difference in drawing in children aged from 3 years to 3 years and 11 months. Children with lower IVH had better drawing scores than children with higher IVH levels. According to gender dissimilarities, a difference was found showing girls to have better drawing skills than boys. All study results pointed to the importance of early rehabilitation and continuous structured work with children with NDD.

  20. Benefits and Harms of Plant-Based Cannabis for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review.

    PubMed

    O'Neil, Maya E; Nugent, Shannon M; Morasco, Benjamin J; Freeman, Michele; Low, Allison; Kondo, Karli; Zakher, Bernadette; Elven, Camille; Motu'apuaka, Makalapua; Paynter, Robin; Kansagara, Devan

    2017-09-05

    Cannabis is available from medical dispensaries for treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in many states of the union, yet its efficacy in treating PTSD symptoms remains uncertain. To identify ongoing studies and review existing evidence regarding the benefits and harms of plant-based cannabis preparations in treating PTSD in adults. MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, and other sources from database inception to March 2017. English-language systematic reviews, trials, and observational studies with a control group that reported PTSD symptoms and adverse effects of plant-based cannabis use in adults with PTSD. Study data extracted by 1 investigator was checked by a second reviewer; 2 reviewers independently assessed study quality, and the investigator group graded the overall strength of evidence by using standard criteria. Two systematic reviews, 3 observational studies, and no randomized trials were found. The systematic reviews reported insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about benefits and harms. The observational studies found that compared with nonuse, cannabis did not reduce PTSD symptoms. Studies had medium and high risk of bias, and overall evidence was judged insufficient. Two randomized trials and 6 other studies examining outcomes of cannabis use in patients with PTSD are ongoing and are expected to be completed within 3 years. Very scant evidence with medium to high risk of bias. Evidence is insufficient to draw conclusions about the benefits and harms of plant-based cannabis preparations in patients with PTSD, but several ongoing studies may soon provide important results. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Quality Enhancement Research Initiative. (PROSPERO: CRD42016033623).

  1. Understanding Elementary Astronomy by Making Drawing-Based Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van Joolingen, W. R.; Aukes, Annika V. A.; Gijlers, H.; Bollen, L.

    2015-04-01

    Modeling is an important approach in the teaching and learning of science. In this study, we attempt to bring modeling within the reach of young children by creating the SimSketch modeling system, which is based on freehand drawings that can be turned into simulations. This system was used by 247 children (ages ranging from 7 to 15) to create a drawing-based model of the solar system. The results show that children in the target age group are capable of creating a drawing-based model of the solar system and can use it to show the situations in which eclipses occur. Structural equation modeling predicting post-test knowledge scores based on learners' pre-test knowledge scores, the quality of their drawings and motivational aspects yielded some evidence that such drawing contributes to learning. Consequences for using modeling with young children are considered.

  2. Comfort drawing during investigative interviews: evidence of the safety of a popular practice.

    PubMed

    Poole, Debra Ann; Dickinson, Jason J

    2014-02-01

    This study evaluated the impact of comfort drawing (allowing children to draw during interviews) on the quality of children's eyewitness reports. Children (N=219, 5 to 12 years) who had participated in an earlier memory study returned 1 or 2 years later, experienced a new event, and described these events during phased, investigative-style interviews. Interviewers delivered the same prompts to children in the no drawing and drawing conditions but provided paper and markers in the drawing condition, invited these children to draw, and periodically asked if they would like to make another picture. Most children in the drawing condition were interested in using the materials, and measures of eyewitness performance were sensitive to differences in cognitive ability (i.e., age) and task difficulty (i.e., delay between the remote event and interview). Comfort drawing had no overall impact as evidenced by nonsignificant main effects of condition across 20 performance measures, although more of the younger children reported experienced touching in the drawing than no drawing condition. The children successfully divided attention between voluntary drawing and conversations about past events. Importantly, comfort drawing did not impair the amount of information recalled, the accuracy of children's answers, or even the extent to which interviewers needed to prompt for answers. Due to the large number of analyses, the benefit of drawing for younger, touched children requires replication. Comfort drawing poses no documented risks for typically-developing school-aged children, but the practice remains untested for younger children and those with cognitive impairments. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Head Start.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Greenman, Geri

    2000-01-01

    Discusses an art project in which students created drawings of mop heads. Explains that the approach of drawing was more important than the subject. States that the students used the chiaroscuro technique, used by Rembrandt and Caravaggio, in which light appears out of the darkness. (CMK)

  4. Culture, perception, and artistic visualization: a comparative study of children's drawings in three Siberian cultural groups.

    PubMed

    Istomin, Kirill V; Panáková, Jaroslava; Heady, Patrick

    2014-01-01

    In a study of three indigenous and non-indigenous cultural groups in northwestern and northeastern Siberia, framed line tests and a landscape drawing task were used to examine the hypotheses that test-based assessments of context sensitivity and independence are correlated with the amount of contextual information contained in drawings, and with the order in which the focal and background objects are drawn. The results supported these hypotheses, and inspection of the regression relationships suggested that the intergroup variations in test performance were likely to result from differences in the attention accorded to contextual information, as revealed by the drawings. Social and environmental explanations for the group differences in context sensitivity are also discussed. The conclusions support the argument that cultural differences in artistic styles and perceptual tests reflect the same underlying perceptual tendencies, and they are consistent with the argument that these tendencies reflect corresponding differences in patterns of social and environmental interaction. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  5. Cultural intersections: a qualitative inquiry into the experience of Asian Indian-White interracial couples.

    PubMed

    Inman, Arpana G; Altman, Abby; Kaduvettoor-Davidson, Anju; Carr, Amanda; Walker, Jessica A

    2011-06-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the "lived experience" of Asian Indian (AI)-White couples in interracial marriages. Ten highly educated AI-White professional couples were individually interviewed about their subjective experience of being in an interracial marriage, the challenges and strengths of this marriage, and the potential role of culture in their marriages. Data were analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research methodology. Results indicated that the couples' marital experiences were influenced by a complex intersection of ecosystemic factors with significant psychological impacts. These findings highlight shortcomings in drawing simplistic conclusions regarding the success or failure of an interracial marriage and have important implications for theory, research, and clinical practice. 2011 © FPI, Inc.

  6. Investment in generation is heavy, but important needs remain

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

    Maize, K.

    2007-01-15

    Forecasting the direction of the US electric power industry for 2007, much less the distant future, is like defining a velocity vector; doing so requires a direction and speed to delineate progress. In this special report, the paper looks at current industry indicators and draws conclusions based on more than 100 years of experience. To borrow verbatim the title of basketball legend Charles Barkely's book 'I may be wrong but I doubt it'. The forecast takes into consideration USDOE's National Electric Transmission Congestion Study (August 2006),a summary of industry data prepared by Industrial Info Resources (IIR) and NERC's 2006 Long-Termmore » Reliability Assessment (October 2006). It also reports opinions of industry specialists. 3 figs., 4 tabs.« less

  7. Measuring change in social interaction skills of young children with autism.

    PubMed

    Cunningham, Allison B

    2012-04-01

    Designing effective treatments for improving early social behaviors in autism has been identified as a critical research need. One barrier to drawing conclusions about optimal treatments for children with autism is the use of highly varied dependent measures in the treatment literature. Contributing to this is the absence of "gold standard" assessment batteries. This is particularly true for assessing changes in social interaction impairments in very young children with autism. This paper addresses this issue by reviewing variables important in the development and evaluation of assessment measures, discussing previous studies' choices of socially-related dependent measures, and the strengths, limitations, and research questions pertaining to them. It concludes with recommendations for measurement selection and future directions for research.

  8. Catalytic Chemistry.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Borer, Londa; And Others

    1996-01-01

    Describes an approach for making chemistry relevant to everyday life. Involves the study of kinetics using the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide by vegetable juices. Allows students to design and carry out experiments and then draw conclusions from their results. (JRH)

  9. Investigating Children's Perception of Nurses Through Their Drawings.

    PubMed

    Çakirer Çalbayram, Nazan; Altundağ, Sebahat; Aydin, Bahise

    2017-09-01

    Hospitalized children can have various fantasies about hospital, health staff, and related tools and equipment. They need to develop new coping strategies for compliance with hospitalization.This study aimed to investigate the perception of nurses by children with acute and chronic illness through their drawings. The study was carried out using a descriptive research model. "Nurses through the eyes of sick children data collection form" was used in data collection procedure. The instruction "draw a picture of a nurse, please" was used to get the children to draw a picture. The majority of the children portrayed nurses as a smiling face. The children with chronic diseases featured nurses more in their drawings and they mentioned more nurse duties. The most important sign of the progression of nursing is that the mentioning of the modern roles of nursing by the children in their drawings and expressions. As children are influenced by their emotions, thoughts, observations, and experiences while drawing pictures, nurses can determine their thoughts about the disease, hospitals, physicians, and nurses by having sick children draw pictures.

  10. Graph Drawing Aesthetics-Created by Users, Not Algorithms.

    PubMed

    Purchase, H C; Pilcher, C; Plimmer, B

    2012-01-01

    Prior empirical work on layout aesthetics for graph drawing algorithms has concentrated on the interpretation of existing graph drawings. We report on experiments which focus on the creation and layout of graph drawings: participants were asked to draw graphs based on adjacency lists, and to lay them out "nicely." Two interaction methods were used for creating the drawings: a sketch interface which allows for easy, natural hand movements, and a formal point-and-click interface similar to a typical graph editing system. We find, in common with many other studies, that removing edge crossings is the most significant aesthetic, but also discover that aligning nodes and edges to an underlying grid is important. We observe that the aesthetics favored by participants during creation of a graph drawing are often not evident in the final product and that the participants did not make a clear distinction between the processes of creation and layout. Our results suggest that graph drawing systems should integrate automatic layout with the user's manual editing process, and provide facilities to support grid-based graph creation.

  11. Genes influence young children's human figure drawings and their association with intelligence a decade later.

    PubMed

    Arden, Rosalind; Trzaskowski, Maciej; Garfield, Victoria; Plomin, Robert

    2014-10-01

    Drawing is ancient; it is the only childhood cognitive behavior for which there is any direct evidence from the Upper Paleolithic. Do genes influence individual differences in this species-typical behavior, and is drawing related to intelligence (g) in modern children? We report on the first genetically informative study of children's figure drawing. In a study of 7,752 pairs of twins, we found that genetic differences exert a greater influence on children's figure drawing at age 4 than do between-family environmental differences. Figure drawing was as heritable as g at age 4 (heritability of .29 for both). Drawing scores at age 4 correlated significantly with g at age 4 (r = .33, p < .001, n = 14,050) and with g at age 14 (r = .20, p < .001, n = 4,622). The genetic correlation between drawing at age 4 and g at age 14 was .52, 95% confidence interval = [.31, .75]. Individual differences in this widespread behavior have an important genetic component and a significant genetic link with g. © The Author(s) 2014.

  12. Exploring students' conceptions of science learning via drawing: a cross-sectional analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hsieh, Wen-Min; Tsai, Chin-Chung

    2017-02-01

    This cross-sectional study explored students' conceptions of science learning via drawing analysis. A total of 906 Taiwanese students in 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade were asked to use drawing to illustrate how they conceptualise science learning. Students' drawings were analysed using a coding checklist to determine the presence or absence of specified attributes. Data analysis showed that the majority of students pictured science learning as school-based, involving certain types of experiment or teacher lecturing. In addition, notable cross-sectional differences were found in the 'Activity' and 'Emotions and attitudes' categories in students' drawings. Three major findings were made: (1) lower grade level students conceptualised science learning with a didactic approach, while higher graders might possess a quantitative view of science learning (i.e. how much is learned, not how well it is learned), (2) students' positive and negative emotions and attitudes toward science learning reversed around middle school, and (3) female students expressed significantly more positive emotions and attitudes than their male counterparts. In conclusion, higher graders' unfruitful conceptions of science learning warrant educators' attention. Moreover, further investigation of girls' more positive emotions and attitudes found in this study is needed.

  13. Screening for cognitive impairment in the elderly.

    PubMed Central

    Bush, C.; Kozak, J.; Elmslie, T.

    1997-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the extent and type of screening for cognitive impairment primary care physicians use for their elderly patients, to identify perceived barriers to screening, and to explore whether physicians would be willing to use the clock drawing test as a cognitive screening tool. DESIGN: Mailed questionnaire. SETTING: Primary care practices in the Ottawa-Carleton region. PARTICIPANTS: Family physicians and general practitioners culled from the Yellow Pages and Canadian Medical Directory; 368 of 568 questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 70%. Six respondents had fewer than 30 patients weekly and two responded too late to be included in the analysis; 360 cases were included in the analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Responses to 10 questions on cognitive screening and five on demographics and the nature of respondents' practices. RESULTS: About 80% of respondents reported doing at least one mental status examination during the past year. Only 24% routinely screened patients, although 82% believed screening was needed. Major barriers to cognitive screening were lack of time, risk of offending patients, and possible negative consequences of follow up. Clock drawing was perceived as an acceptable method of screening, if it were proven effective. CONCLUSIONS: Most primary care physicians believe cognitive screening is needed, but few routinely screen their elderly patients. Lack of time is the most important perceived barrier to screening. Primary care physicians are receptive to using the clock drawing test, and, because it is not time-consuming, are less likely to consider lack of time a barrier to testing. The clock test might help bridge the gap between perceived need for screening and actual screening. PMID:9356757

  14. Characterization of fine motor development: dynamic analysis of children's drawing movements.

    PubMed

    Lin, Qiushi; Luo, Jianfei; Wu, Zhongcheng; Shen, Fei; Sun, Zengwu

    2015-04-01

    In this study, we investigated children's fine motor development by analyzing drawing trajectories, kinematics and kinetics. Straight lines drawing task and circles drawing task were performed by using a force sensitive tablet. Forty right-handed and Chinese mother-tongue students aged 6-12, attending classes from grade 1 to 5, were engaged in the experiment. Three spatial parameters, namely cumulative trace length, vector length of straight line and vertical diameter of circle were determined. Drawing duration, mean drawing velocity, and number of peaks in stroke velocity profile (NPV) were derived as kinematic parameters. Besides mean normal force, two kinetic indices were proposed: normalized force angle regulation (NFR) and variation of fine motor control (VFC) for circles drawing task. The maturation and automation of fine motor ability were reflected by increased drawing velocity, reduced drawing duration, NPV and NFR, with decreased VFC in circles drawing task. Grade and task main effects as well as significant correlations between age and parameters suggest that factors such as schooling, age and task should be considered in the assessment of fine motor skills. Compared with kinematic parameters, findings of NFR and VFC revealed that kinetics is another important perspective in the analysis of fine motor movement. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Sixty years of dynamic examination of drawings.

    PubMed

    Hárdi, István

    2010-01-01

    Dynamic examination of drawing is a serial-comparative follow-up of drawings asking the patients to draw a person and an animal, - before, during the course and after - the treatment. We follow and compare clinical, psychopathological changes with the graphic ones based on dynamic psychopathologic processes. The material collected over 60 years consists of 85714 drawings, with 4710 series, including extended time observation of more than 10 years with 454 patients. Contrary to projective-associative methods, the emphasis here is placed on the changes of formal, dynamic elements and afterwards on the content. Some aspects of our evaluation are the following: alterations of line, impoverishment-enrichment, disproportion-proportion, deformation-harmony, deficiency-completeness, regression progression, and reintegration. Personality levels of drawings is one of the most important category, various types of adult drawings similar but not identical to children developmental phases of drawings. By the aid of personality levels of drawings comparison of the members of series regression could be more precisely stated, just as the grade of recovery. Dynamic examination of drawing has been practiced in outpatient and inpatient circumstances, differing from the atelier situation. It does not need special expensive technical equipments, or conditions and you can use it for evaluating pathologic and therapeutic processes, states and progression.

  16. Iwahashi Zenbei's Sunspot Drawings in 1793 in Japan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hayakawa, Hisashi; Iwahashi, Kiyomi; Tamazawa, Harufumi; Toriumi, Shin; Shibata, Kazunari

    2018-01-01

    Three Japanese sunspot drawings associated with Iwahashi Zenbei (1756 - 1811) are shown here from contemporary manuscripts and woodprint documents with the relevant texts. We reveal the observational date of one of the drawings to be 26 August 1793, and the overall observations lasted for over a year. Moreover, we identify the observational site for the dated drawing as Fushimi in Japan. We then compare Zenbei's observations with the group sunspot number and the raw group count from the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations (SILSO) to reveal the context of the data, and we conclude that these drawings fill gaps in our understanding that are due to the fragmental sunspot observations around 1793. These drawings are important as a clue to evaluate astronomical knowledge of contemporary Japan in the late eighteenth century and are valuable as a non-European observation, considering that most sunspot observations up to the middle of the nineteenth century are from Europe.

  17. Flow-guided sketch and accentuated-tone adjusting for pencil drawing generation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Ruirui; Yang, Lei; Hu, Wei

    2017-07-01

    Pencil drawing is an important artistic style which is widely used in draft sketch and finished rendering. It is non-trivial if we can automatically generate the pencil drawing more precisely in order to ease the human efforts. In this paper, we propose flow-guided sketch and accentuated-tone adjusting techniques to transform the pencil drawing from natural images. This work is extended from the existing pencil drawing framework where authors combine sketch and tone together for penciling purpose. Through an edge tangent flow guided classification and convolution, we can obtain more coherent and smooth strokes, especially for portraits. In addition, we also introduce a hierarchical approach to generate strokes. According to saliency map, we can adjust the tone of images automatically. The experimental results indicate the generated toned pencil drawings by our approach are of fewer artifacts and could even solve the images with dark background

  18. 77 FR 27066 - Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-08

    ... by Nimer and Lundahl (2007) in finding multiple studies with poor research designs and other methodological problems that made it hard for those authors to draw firm conclusions. Even where studies focused...

  19. A universal test for gravitational decoherence

    PubMed Central

    Pfister, C.; Kaniewski, J.; Tomamichel, M.; Mantri, A.; Schmucker, R.; McMahon, N.; Milburn, G.; Wehner, S.

    2016-01-01

    Quantum mechanics and the theory of gravity are presently not compatible. A particular question is whether gravity causes decoherence. Several models for gravitational decoherence have been proposed, not all of which can be described quantum mechanically. Since quantum mechanics may need to be modified, one may question the use of quantum mechanics as a calculational tool to draw conclusions from the data of experiments concerning gravity. Here we propose a general method to estimate gravitational decoherence in an experiment that allows us to draw conclusions in any physical theory where the no-signalling principle holds, even if quantum mechanics needs to be modified. As an example, we propose a concrete experiment using optomechanics. Our work raises the interesting question whether other properties of nature could similarly be established from experimental observations alone—that is, without already having a rather well-formed theory of nature to make sense of experimental data. PMID:27694976

  20. The Study on the Mechanical Properties of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube/Polypropylene Fibers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Youssefi, Mostafa; Safaie, Banafsheh

    2018-06-01

    Polypropylene (PP) is an important semicrystalline polymer with various applications. Polypropylene fibers containing 1 wt% of multi-walled carbon nanotube was spun using a conventional melt spinning apparatus. The produced fibers were drawn with varying levels of draw ratio. The mechanical properties of the composites were studied. Tensile strength and modulus of the composite fibers were increased with the increase in draw ratio. Molecular orientation and helical content of the composite fibers were increased after drawing. To conclude, tensile properties and molecular orientation of the composite fibers were higher than those of neat polypropylene fibers with the same draw ratio.

  1. Deep Drawing Behavior of CoCrFeMnNi High-Entropy Alloys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bae, Jae Wung; Moon, Jongun; Jang, Min Ji; Ahn, Dong-Hyun; Joo, Soo-Hyun; Jung, Jaimyun; Yim, Dami; Kim, Hyoung Seop

    2017-09-01

    Herein, the deep drawability and deep drawing behavior of an equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi HEA and its microstructure and texture evolution are first studied for future applications. The CoCrFeMnNi HEA is successfully drawn to a limit drawing ratio (LDR) of 2.14, while the planar anisotropy of the drawn cup specimen is negligible. The moderate combination of strain hardening exponent and strain rate sensitivity and the formation of deformation twins in the edge region play important roles in successful deep drawing. In the meanwhile, the texture evolution of CoCrFeMnNi HEA has similarities with conventional fcc metals.

  2. The Study on the Mechanical Properties of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube/Polypropylene Fibers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Youssefi, Mostafa; Safaie, Banafsheh

    2018-01-01

    Polypropylene (PP) is an important semicrystalline polymer with various applications. Polypropylene fibers containing 1 wt% of multi-walled carbon nanotube was spun using a conventional melt spinning apparatus. The produced fibers were drawn with varying levels of draw ratio. The mechanical properties of the composites were studied. Tensile strength and modulus of the composite fibers were increased with the increase in draw ratio. Molecular orientation and helical content of the composite fibers were increased after drawing. To conclude, tensile properties and molecular orientation of the composite fibers were higher than those of neat polypropylene fibers with the same draw ratio.

  3. Drawing-to-learn: a framework for using drawings to promote model-based reasoning in biology.

    PubMed

    Quillin, Kim; Thomas, Stephen

    2015-03-02

    The drawing of visual representations is important for learners and scientists alike, such as the drawing of models to enable visual model-based reasoning. Yet few biology instructors recognize drawing as a teachable science process skill, as reflected by its absence in the Vision and Change report's Modeling and Simulation core competency. Further, the diffuse research on drawing can be difficult to access, synthesize, and apply to classroom practice. We have created a framework of drawing-to-learn that defines drawing, categorizes the reasons for using drawing in the biology classroom, and outlines a number of interventions that can help instructors create an environment conducive to student drawing in general and visual model-based reasoning in particular. The suggested interventions are organized to address elements of affect, visual literacy, and visual model-based reasoning, with specific examples cited for each. Further, a Blooming tool for drawing exercises is provided, as are suggestions to help instructors address possible barriers to implementing and assessing drawing-to-learn in the classroom. Overall, the goal of the framework is to increase the visibility of drawing as a skill in biology and to promote the research and implementation of best practices. © 2015 K. Quillin and S. Thomas. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2015 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

  4. Analyzing prospective teachers' images of scientists using positive, negative and stereotypical images of scientists

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Subramaniam, Karthigeyan; Esprívalo Harrell, Pamela; Wojnowski, David

    2013-04-01

    Background and purpose : This study details the use of a conceptual framework to analyze prospective teachers' images of scientists to reveal their context-specific conceptions of scientists. The conceptual framework consists of context-specific conceptions related to positive, stereotypical and negative images of scientists as detailed in the literature on the images, role and work of scientists. Sample, design and method : One hundred and ninety-six drawings of scientists, generated by prospective teachers, were analyzed using the Draw-A-Scientist-Test Checklist (DAST-C), a binary linear regression and the conceptual framework. Results : The results of the binary linear regression analysis revealed a statistically significant difference for two DAST-C elements: ethnicity differences with regard to drawing a scientist who was Caucasian and gender differences for indications of danger. Analysis using the conceptual framework helped to categorize the same drawings into positive, stereotypical, negative and composite images of a scientist. Conclusions : The conceptual framework revealed that drawings were focused on the physical appearance of the scientist, and to a lesser extent on the equipment, location and science-related practices that provided the context of a scientist's role and work. Implications for teacher educators include the need to understand that there is a need to provide tools, like the conceptual framework used in this study, to help prospective teachers to confront and engage with their multidimensional perspectives of scientists in light of the current trends on perceiving and valuing scientists. In addition, teacher educators need to use the conceptual framework, which yields qualitative perspectives about drawings, together with the DAST-C, which yields quantitative measure for drawings, to help prospective teachers to gain a holistic outlook on their drawings of scientists.

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

    West, Bradley M.; Stuckelberger, Michael; Guthrey, Harvey

    We present that statistical and correlative analysis are increasingly important in the design and study of new materials, from semiconductors to metals. Non-destructive measurement techniques, with high spatial resolution, capable of correlating composition and/or structure with device properties, are few and far between. For the case of polycrystalline and inhomogeneous materials, the added challenge is that nanoscale resolution is in general not compatible with the large sampling areas necessary to have a statistical representation of the specimen under study. For the study of grain cores and grain boundaries in polycrystalline solar absorbers this is of particular importance since their dissimilarmore » behavior and variability throughout the samples makes it difficult to draw conclusions and ultimately optimize the material. In this study, we present a nanoscale in-operando approach based on the multimodal utilization of synchrotron nano x-ray fluorescence and x-ray beam induced current collected for grain core and grain boundary areas and correlated pixel-by-pixel in fully operational Cu(In (1-x)Ga x)Se 2 solar cells. We observe that low gallium cells have grain boundaries that over perform compared to the grain cores and high gallium cells have boundaries that under perform. In conclusion, these results demonstrate how nanoscale correlative X-ray microscopy can guide research pathways towards grain engineering low cost, high efficiency solar cells.« less

  6. On Blowing Trumpets to the Tulips: To Prove or Not to Prove the Null Hypothesis--Comment on Bosch, Steinkamp, and Boller (2006)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilson, David B.; Shadish, William R.

    2006-01-01

    The H. Bosch, F. Steinkamp, and E. Boller (see record 2006-08436-001) meta-analysis reaches mixed and cautious conclusions about the possibility of psychokinesis. The authors argue that, for both methodological and philosophical reasons, it is nearly impossible to draw any conclusions from this body of research. The authors do not agree that any…

  7. If We Don’t, Who Will? The Employment of the United States Army to Combat Potential Pandemic Outbreaks in West Africa

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-06-12

    27 viii Threats to Validity and Biases ...draw conclusions and make recommendations for future research. Threats to Validity and Biases There are a several issues that pose a threat to...validity and bias to the research. Threats to validity affect the accuracy of the research and soundness of the conclusion. Threats to external validity

  8. Ex-Huming an Old Issue.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Robert T.; Jackson, Lee A.

    1992-01-01

    Reviews research on inductive reasoning errors, including seeing patterns or relationships where none exist, neglecting statistical regression, overgeneralizing unrepresentative data, and drawing conclusions based on incomplete decision matrices. Considers "false consensus effect," through which associations with like-minded people lead one to…

  9. Preschool Age Populations Research Needs - NCS Dietary Assessment Literature Review

    Cancer.gov

    Drawing conclusions from the validation studies on preschool populations discussed in this chapter is difficult because of the varied study designs, the relatively small study populations, and limited number of studies on each dietary assessment method.

  10. Older adults’ attitudes toward noncompetent subjects participating in Alzheimers research

    PubMed Central

    Karlawish, Jason; Rubright, Jonathan; Casarett, David; Cary, Mark; TenHave, Thomas; Sankar, Pamela

    2008-01-01

    Objective Since research that enrolls noncompetent patients with Alzheimers disease and does not present potential benefit to subjects is the source of substantial ethical controversy, we assessed willingness to have a proxy for research decision making, and, for each of two Alzheimers disease biomarker studies (minimal risk blood draw and a greater than minimal risk blood draw and lumbar puncture), willingness to grant an advance consent, and willingness to grant a proxy leeway over advance consent. Methods Face to face survey of 538 persons 65 and over who resided in the Southeastern Pennsylvania region Results The majority 83% (445/538) granted advance consent to a blood draw study and nearly half to a blood draw plus lumbar puncture 259 (48%). Most persons (96%) were willing to identify a proxy for research decision making and most were willing to grant their proxy leeway over their advance consent: blood draw 434 (81%), and 375 (70%) blood draw plus lumbar puncture. Combining the preferences for advance consent and leeway, the proportion who would permit being enrolled in the blood draw and spinal fluid sample studies were, respectively, 92% (497/538) and 75% (404/538). Multi-variate models showed that willingness to be enrolled in research was most strongly associated with a favorable attitude about biomedical research. Conclusions Older adults generally support enrolling noncompetent persons with Alzheimers disease into research that does not present a benefit to subjects. Willingness to grant their proxy leeway over advance consent and a favorable attitude about biomedical research substantially explain this willingness. PMID:18923066

  11. Drawing out the Artist in Science Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Camacho, Al; Benenson, Gary; Rosas-Colin, Carmen Patricia

    2012-01-01

    Graphics are among the most important forms of communication in science and engineering. They are invaluable for both expressing understanding as well as generating new ideas. Unfortunately, many students do not think they can draw, and therefore fail to take advantage of this means of expression. However, with some basic instruction, nearly…

  12. Evaluating the Convergence of Muscle Appearance Attitude Measures

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cafri, Guy; Thompson, J. Kevin

    2004-01-01

    There has been growing interest in the assessment of a muscular appearance. Given the importance of assessing muscle appearance attitudes, the aim of this study was to explore the convergence of the Drive for Muscularity Scale, Somatomorphic Matrix, Contour Drawing Rating Scale, Male Figure Drawings, and the Muscularity Rating Scale. Participants…

  13. Children's Family Drawings as Expressions of Attachment Representations Across Cultures: Possibilities and Limitations.

    PubMed

    Gernhardt, Ariane; Keller, Heidi; Rübeling, Hartmut

    2016-07-01

    The present study explored the cross-cultural appropriateness of children's family drawings as a measure for attachment quality. The sample consisted of 63 children aged 6 years from two diverse ecosocial contexts: middle-class families from Berlin, Germany (n = 32) and rural farming families from small villages around Kumbo, Cameroon (n = 31). The analysis of drawings with two classical attachment procedures, the Checklist of Drawing Signs (Kaplan & Main, 1986) and the Global Rating Scales (Fury, 1996), revealed substantial cultural differences. The results thus substantiated children's drawings as important cultural documents. Implications of the findings, however, are discussed in consideration of culture-specific conceptions of attachment relationships as indicated by cultural variations in mother's socialization goals. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  14. Characterizing the Google Books Corpus: Strong Limits to Inferences of Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Evolution

    PubMed Central

    Pechenick, Eitan Adam; Danforth, Christopher M.; Dodds, Peter Sheridan

    2015-01-01

    It is tempting to treat frequency trends from the Google Books data sets as indicators of the “true” popularity of various words and phrases. Doing so allows us to draw quantitatively strong conclusions about the evolution of cultural perception of a given topic, such as time or gender. However, the Google Books corpus suffers from a number of limitations which make it an obscure mask of cultural popularity. A primary issue is that the corpus is in effect a library, containing one of each book. A single, prolific author is thereby able to noticeably insert new phrases into the Google Books lexicon, whether the author is widely read or not. With this understood, the Google Books corpus remains an important data set to be considered more lexicon-like than text-like. Here, we show that a distinct problematic feature arises from the inclusion of scientific texts, which have become an increasingly substantive portion of the corpus throughout the 1900s. The result is a surge of phrases typical to academic articles but less common in general, such as references to time in the form of citations. We use information theoretic methods to highlight these dynamics by examining and comparing major contributions via a divergence measure of English data sets between decades in the period 1800–2000. We find that only the English Fiction data set from the second version of the corpus is not heavily affected by professional texts. Overall, our findings call into question the vast majority of existing claims drawn from the Google Books corpus, and point to the need to fully characterize the dynamics of the corpus before using these data sets to draw broad conclusions about cultural and linguistic evolution. PMID:26445406

  15. Characterizing the Google Books Corpus: Strong Limits to Inferences of Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Evolution.

    PubMed

    Pechenick, Eitan Adam; Danforth, Christopher M; Dodds, Peter Sheridan

    2015-01-01

    It is tempting to treat frequency trends from the Google Books data sets as indicators of the "true" popularity of various words and phrases. Doing so allows us to draw quantitatively strong conclusions about the evolution of cultural perception of a given topic, such as time or gender. However, the Google Books corpus suffers from a number of limitations which make it an obscure mask of cultural popularity. A primary issue is that the corpus is in effect a library, containing one of each book. A single, prolific author is thereby able to noticeably insert new phrases into the Google Books lexicon, whether the author is widely read or not. With this understood, the Google Books corpus remains an important data set to be considered more lexicon-like than text-like. Here, we show that a distinct problematic feature arises from the inclusion of scientific texts, which have become an increasingly substantive portion of the corpus throughout the 1900 s. The result is a surge of phrases typical to academic articles but less common in general, such as references to time in the form of citations. We use information theoretic methods to highlight these dynamics by examining and comparing major contributions via a divergence measure of English data sets between decades in the period 1800-2000. We find that only the English Fiction data set from the second version of the corpus is not heavily affected by professional texts. Overall, our findings call into question the vast majority of existing claims drawn from the Google Books corpus, and point to the need to fully characterize the dynamics of the corpus before using these data sets to draw broad conclusions about cultural and linguistic evolution.

  16. The 1988 Jansson memorial lecture. The performance of the 'idiot-savant': implicit and explicit.

    PubMed

    O'Connor, N

    1989-04-01

    'Idiots-savants' are people of low intelligence who have one or two outstanding talents such as calendrical calculation, drawing or musical performance. Such people are mostly male and occur with high frequency among the autistic population. Do they perform their amazing feats because of an outstanding memory or do they draw on some faculty of reasoning to help them? Although they cannot easily make clear how they carry out their tasks by using speech, experiments reveal that they follow simple rules which they use to aid them in recalling correct dates and sequences in classical music. It has been said that they cannot abstract but this turns out not to be true: all can abstract to some degree and some are more at home with abstract than with concrete material. Whatever else is true of these handicapped but gifted people their gift becomes apparent at an early age and is apparently not improved by practice. Perhaps the most important conclusion from work with these groups is that their gifts force us to think again about the concept of general intelligence. How far is it possible to have low intelligence and yet be an outstanding musician or artist? Speculation on this idea may force us to revise our concepts of intelligence, neuropsychology and handicap.

  17. A Bayesian Approach to the Paleomagnetic Conglomerate Test

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heslop, David; Roberts, Andrew P.

    2018-02-01

    The conglomerate test has served the paleomagnetic community for over 60 years as a means to detect remagnetizations. The test states that if a suite of clasts within a bed have uniformly random paleomagnetic directions, then the conglomerate cannot have experienced a pervasive event that remagnetized the clasts in the same direction. The current form of the conglomerate test is based on null hypothesis testing, which results in a binary "pass" (uniformly random directions) or "fail" (nonrandom directions) outcome. We have recast the conglomerate test in a Bayesian framework with the aim of providing more information concerning the level of support a given data set provides for a hypothesis of uniformly random paleomagnetic directions. Using this approach, we place the conglomerate test in a fully probabilistic framework that allows for inconclusive results when insufficient information is available to draw firm conclusions concerning the randomness or nonrandomness of directions. With our method, sample sets larger than those typically employed in paleomagnetism may be required to achieve strong support for a hypothesis of random directions. Given the potentially detrimental effect of unrecognized remagnetizations on paleomagnetic reconstructions, it is important to provide a means to draw statistically robust data-driven inferences. Our Bayesian analysis provides a means to do this for the conglomerate test.

  18. Assessment for apraxia in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's dise

    PubMed Central

    Ward, Mirela; Cecato, Juliana F.; Aprahamian, Ivan; Martinelli, José Eduardo

    2015-01-01

    Objective To evaluate apraxia in healthy elderly and in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods We evaluated 136 subjects with an average age of 75.74 years (minimum 60 years old, maximum 92 years old) and average schooling of 9 years (minimum of 7 and a maximum of 12 years), using the Mini-Mental State examination (MMSE), Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG) and the Clock Drawing Test. For the analysis of the presence of apraxia, eight subitems from the CAMCOG were selected: the drawings of the pentagon, spiral, house, clock; and the tasks of putting a piece of paper in an envelope; the correct one hand waiving "Goodbye" movements; paper cutting using scissors; and brushing teeth. Results Elder controls had an average score of 11.51, compared to MCI (11.13), and AD patients, whose average apraxia test scores were the lowest (10.23). Apraxia scores proved able to differentiate the three groups studied (p=0.001). In addition, a negative correlation was observed between apraxia and MMSE scores. Conclusion We conclude that testing for the presence of apraxia is important in the evaluation of patients with cognitive impairments and may help to differentiate elderly controls, MCI and AD. PMID:29213944

  19. Reconciling Scientists and Journalists

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rosner, H.

    2006-12-01

    The very nature of scientists' and journalists' jobs can put them at cross-purposes. Scientists work for years on one research project, slowly accumulating data, and are hesitant to draw sweeping conclusions without multiple rounds of hypothesis-testing. Journalists, meanwhile, are often looking for "news"—a discovery that was just made ("scientists have just discovered that...") or that defies conventional wisdom and is therefore about to turn society's thinking on its head. The very criteria that the mediamakers often use to determine newsworthiness can automatically preclude some scientific progress from making the news. There are other built-in problems in the relationship between journalists and scientists, some of which we can try to change and others of which we can learn to work around. Drawing on my personal experience as a journalist who has written for a wide variety of magazines, newspapers, and web sites, this talk will illustrate some of the inherent difficulties and offer some suggestions for how to move beyond them. It will provide a background on the way news decisions are made and how the journalist does her job, with an eye toward finding common ground and demonstrating how scientists can enjoy better relationships with journalists—relationships that can help educate the public on important scientific topics and avoid misrepresentation of scientific knowledge in the media.

  20. The effect of abdominal drawing-in exercise and myofascial release on pain, flexibility, and balance of elderly females.

    PubMed

    Yu, Seong Hun; Sim, Yong Hyeon; Kim, Myung Hoon; Bang, Ju Hee; Son, Kyung Hyun; Kim, Jae Woong; Kim, Hyun Jin

    2016-10-01

    [Purpose] This study is designed to compare the effects of abdominal drawing-in exercise and myofascial release on pain, flexibility, and balance of elderly females. [Subjects and Methods] Forty elderly females aged 65 or older who had complained of low back pain for three months or longer were selected as the subjects. They were randomly and equally assigned to either an abdominal drawing-in group or a myofascial release group. The subjects conducted exercise three times per week, 40 minutes each time, for eight weeks. As evaluation tools, visual analogue scale for pain, remodified schober test for flexibility, and upright posture with eye opening on hard platform, upright posture with eye closing on hard platform, upright posture with eye opening on soft platform, upright posture with eye closing on soft platform using tetrax for balance were used. [Results] The abdominal drawing-in exercise group saw significant difference in pain and balance after the exercise compared to before the exercise. The myofascial release group saw significant difference in pain and flexibility after exercise compared to before the exercise. [Conclusion] The above study showed that abdominal drawing-in exercise affected elderly females regarding pain and balance and myofascial release influenced their pain and flexibility.

  1. Improved Necker Cube Drawing-Based Assessment Battery for Constructional Apraxia: The Mie Constructional Apraxia Scale (MCAS)

    PubMed Central

    Satoh, Masayuki; Mori, Chika; Matsuda, Kana; Ueda, Yukito; Tabei, Ken-ichi; Kida, Hirotaka; Tomimoto, Hidekazu

    2016-01-01

    Background/Aims Constructional apraxia (CA) is usually diagnosed by having patients draw figures; however, the reported assessments only evaluate the drawn figure. We designed a new assessment battery for CA (the Mie Constructional Apraxia Scale, MCAS) which includes both the shape and drawing process, and investigated its utility against other assessment methods. Methods We designed the MCAS, and evaluated inter- and intrarater reliability. We also investigated the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values in dementia patients, and compared MCAS assessment with other reported batteries in the same subjects. Results Moderate interrater reliability was shown for speech therapists with limited experience. Moderate to substantial intrarater reliability was shown several weeks after initial assessment. When cutoff scores and times were set at 2/3 points and 39/40 s, sensitivity and specificity were 77.1 and 70.4%, respectively, with positive and negative predictive values of 80.0 and 66.7%, respectively. Dementia patients had significantly worse scores and times for Necker cube drawing than an elderly control group on the MCAS, and on other assessments. Conclusions We conclude that the MCAS, which includes both the assessment of the drawn Necker cube shape and the drawing process, is useful for detecting even mild CA. PMID:27790241

  2. Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty seismic monitoring: 2012 USNAS report and recent explosions, earthquakes, and other seismic sources

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

    Richards, Paul G.

    A comprehensive ban on nuclear explosive testing is briefly characterized as an arms control initiative related to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The work of monitoring for nuclear explosions uses several technologies of which the most important is seismology-a physics discipline that draws upon extensive and ever-growing assets to monitor for earthquakes and other ground-motion phenomena as well as for explosions. This paper outlines the basic methods of seismic monitoring within that wider context, and lists web-based and other resources for learning details. It also summarizes the main conclusions, concerning capability to monitor for test-ban treaty compliance, contained in a major studymore » published in March 2012 by the US National Academy of Sciences.« less

  3. The Influence of Informal Science Education Experiences on the Development of Two Beginning Teachers' Science Classroom Teaching Identity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Katz, Phyllis; Randy McGinnis, J.; Riedinger, Kelly; Marbach-Ad, Gili; Dai, Amy

    2013-12-01

    In case studies of two first-year elementary classroom teachers, we explored the influence of informal science education (ISE) they experienced in their teacher education program. Our theoretical lens was identity development, delimited to classroom science teaching. We used complementary data collection methods and analysis, including interviews, electronic communications, and drawing prompts. We found that our two participants referenced as important the ISE experiences in their development of classroom science identities that included resilience, excitement and engagement in science teaching and learning-qualities that are emphasized in ISE contexts. The data support our conclusion that the ISE experiences proved especially memorable to teacher education interns during the implementation of the No Child Left Behind policy which concentrated on school-tested subjects other than science.

  4. Research integrity and everyday practice of science.

    PubMed

    Grinnell, Frederick

    2013-09-01

    Science traditionally is taught as a linear process based on logic and carried out by objective researchers following the scientific method. Practice of science is a far more nuanced enterprise, one in which intuition and passion become just as important as objectivity and logic. Whether the activity is committing to study a particular research problem, drawing conclusions about a hypothesis under investigation, choosing whether to count results as data or experimental noise, or deciding what information to present in a research paper, ethical challenges inevitably will arise because of the ambiguities inherent in practice. Unless these ambiguities are acknowledged and their sources understood explicitly, responsible conduct of science education will not adequately prepare the individuals receiving the training for the kinds of decisions essential to research integrity that they will have to make as scientists.

  5. Chemical Data Reporting Fact Sheet: Chemicals Snapshot

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This fact sheet provides a brief overview of the chemical manufacturing, processing, and use information collected for the 2012 Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule. Users do not have access to the complete CDR data set and should draw conclusions with care.

  6. USE OF SCALE INVARIANCE IN EVALUATING JUDGEMENT INDICATORS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Indicators are used to draw conclusions about ecological endpoints when these endpoints cannot be measured directly. In many cases, inference about an endpoint are only possible because assumptions have been made about the relationship between indicator and endpoint; we refer to ...

  7. The effect of drawing on children's experiences of investigations following alleged child abuse.

    PubMed

    Katz, Carmit; Barnetz, Zion; Hershkowitz, Irit

    2014-05-01

    The primary aim of the study was to evaluate investigative interviews from the perspectives of the children, comparing children who drew with children who did not. One hundred twenty-five children, alleged victims of sexual abuse, were asked about their investigative experience. The uniqueness of the study is that all of the interviews were conducted according to the NICHD Protocol and that children were randomly assigned into one of the two research conditions (drawing vs. non-drawing). The results clearly demonstrate the advantage that drawing has on the children's experience of the investigation, with children in the drawing group more often reporting feelings of hope and success. This study provides practical guidelines for practitioners by emphasizing the beneficial effects that drawing can have. The study stresses the importance of integrating into forensic investigations interventions that enhance children's testimonies and ensure that the investigation is an empowering experience that generates feelings of trust, self-worth, and justice. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Job Satisfaction among Care Aides in Residential Long-Term Care: A Systematic Review of Contributing Factors, Both Individual and Organizational

    PubMed Central

    Squires, Janet E.; Hoben, Matthias; Linklater, Stefanie; Carleton, Heather L.; Graham, Nicole; Estabrooks, Carole A.

    2015-01-01

    Despite an increasing literature on professional nurses' job satisfaction, job satisfaction by nonprofessional nursing care providers and, in particular, in residential long-term care facilities, is sparsely described. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the evidence on which factors (individual and organizational) are associated with job satisfaction among care aides, nurse aides, and nursing assistants, who provide the majority of direct resident care, in residential long-term care facilities. Nine online databases were searched. Two authors independently screened, and extracted data and assessed the included publications for methodological quality. Decision rules were developed a priori to draw conclusions on which factors are important to care aide job satisfaction. Forty-two publications were included. Individual factors found to be important were empowerment and autonomy. Six additional individual factors were found to be not important: age, ethnicity, gender, education level, attending specialized training, and years of experience. Organizational factors found to be important were facility resources and workload. Two additional factors were found to be not important: satisfaction with salary/benefits and job performance. Factors important to care aide job satisfaction differ from those reported among hospital nurses, supporting the need for different strategies to improve care aide job satisfaction in residential long-term care. PMID:26345545

  9. Sodium Peroxide Dihydrate or Sodium Superoxide: The Importance of the Cell Configuration for Sodium-Oxygen Batteries

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

    Bi, Xuanxuan; Wang, Rongyue; Ma, Lu

    In sodium–oxygen (Na–O2) batteries, multiple discharge products have been observed by different research groups. Given the fact that different materials, gas supplies, and cell configurations are used by different groups, it is a great challenge to draw a clear conclusion on the formation of the different products. Here, two different cell setups are used to investigate the cell chemistries of Na–O2 batteries. With the same materials and gas supplies, a peroxide-based product is observed in a glass chamber cell and a superoxide-based product is observed in a stainless-steel cell. Ex situ high-energy X-ray diffraction (HEXRD) and Raman spectroscopy are performedmore » to investigate the structure and composition of the product. In addition, in situ XRD is used to investigate the structure evolution of the peroxide-based product. The findings highlight the importance of the cell design and emphasize the critical environment of the formation of the discharge products of Na–O2 batteries.« less

  10. Measurement Invariance and Child Temperament: An Evaluation of Sex and Informant Differences on the Child Behavior Questionnaire

    PubMed Central

    Clark, D. Angus; Listro, Caitlin J.; Lo, Sharon L.; Durbin, C. Emily; Donnellan, M. Brent; Neppl, Tricia K.

    2016-01-01

    Parent reports of temperament are used to study many important topics in child development, such as whether boys and girls differ in their levels of emotional reactivity and self-regulation. However, questions regarding measurement equivalence in parental reports of temperament are largely unexplored, despite the fact that this issue is critical for drawing the correct conclusions from mean-level comparisons. In the current study, measurement invariance across boys and girls (as targets), and mothers and fathers (as informants), was investigated in the Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Rothbart et al., 2001) using a sample of children ranging in age from 3 to 7 years (N = 605). Several instances of non-invariance were identified across both girls and boys, and mothers and fathers. An evaluation of effect size indices suggests that the practical impact of this non-invariance ranges from negligible to moderate. All told, this study illustrates the importance of taking a psychometrically informed approach to the use of parent reports of child temperament. PMID:26914022

  11. Skepticism and Denial: Drawing a line

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Byrne, J. M.; Brown, M. B.; Peacock, K.

    2016-12-01

    Climate denialism is distinct from a merely skeptical attitude towards generally accepted views in climate science. But drawing the line between them takes care—there are similarities between skepticism and denial, including a shared reluctance to accept conclusions that nearly all qualified scientists take to be well-justified. Here we will explore both how to draw the line, and how to effectively communicate the differences between denial and skepticism. Identifying which of these two terms best describes someone's attitude turns on whether they reject a generally accepted view based on a `high threshold' for acceptance of conclusions in general, or from a preference that the conclusion in question be false. In most cases, denialism manifests in disregard and mistreatment of evidence, including selective quotation, credulous endorsement of bad sources and incredulous rejection of good sources. Historically, current accepted views became dominant as alternatives were excluded and arguments supporting current views accumulated. The accumulated record of evidence and successful application of those views sets a high bar for proposed alternatives to them. Pure skeptics may refuse to endorse generally accepted views without rejecting or distorting the strong evidence for those views, and typically support policy responses based on the implications of that evidence. But deniers who reject scientific conclusions reject the evidence for those views while endorsing views that a true skeptic would regard as less plausible and well-supported than the accepted views. Thus motivated cognition is the key to defining denial. Pascal's famous argument for belief in God illustrates the problem: even assuming God's existence to be extremely improbable, the expected value of believing is far higher than the expected value of disbelieving. But Pascal's argument undermines its own methodology: without reasons to rely on beliefs as reliable guides to successful action, cost-benefit calculations cannot be justified at all. The contribution of this work to the proposed course will aim to ensure students learn how the basic principles needed to understand anthropogenic warming emerged, and why those principles are solidly grounded.

  12. [Physical activity and reproductive health].

    PubMed

    Sundgot-Borgen, J

    2000-11-20

    The purpose of this article is to review the present knowledge about physical activity and reproductive health. Medline and manual search for articles related to exercise and menstrual function, and exercise and pregnancy were performed. Repetitive intensive exercise with increased stress hormone utilisation seems to partly explain the disturbances in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The prevalence of menstrual irregularities is higher among athletes who participate in sports in which leanness is considered important for performance. Most of the studies concerning exercise-induced amenorrhoea have focused on low body weight and low fat ratio of body weight. However, energy drain and nutrient deficiency have been found to be important variables explaining menstrual irregularity in athletes. Loss of bone mass is related to menstrual irregularities hence it is important that menstrual irregularity not is considered a "normal" aspect of being an athlete. There are a number of positive effects and a few hypothetical risks related to exercise during pregnancy. There are no clinically controlled studies allowing us to draw conclusions about the effect of intensive training during pregnancy. Physically active women should be aware of the importance of sufficient energy intake to keep their regular menstrual cycle. Moderate exercise during pregnancy is recommended.

  13. Botallo's error, or the quandaries of the universality assumption.

    PubMed

    Bartolomeo, Paolo; Seidel Malkinson, Tal; de Vito, Stefania

    2017-01-01

    One of the founding principles of human cognitive neuroscience is the so-called universality assumption, the postulate that neurocognitive mechanisms do not show major differences among individuals. Without negating the importance of the universality assumption for the development of cognitive neuroscience, or the importance of single-case studies, here we aim at stressing the potential dangers of interpreting the pattern of performance of single patients as conclusive evidence concerning the architecture of the intact neurocognitive system. We take example from the case of Leonardo Botallo, an Italian surgeon of the Renaissance period, who claimed to have discovered a new anatomical structure of the adult human heart. Unfortunately, Botallo's discovery was erroneous, because what he saw in the few samples he examined was in fact the anomalous persistence of a fetal structure. Botallo's error is a reminder of the necessity to always strive for replication, despite the major hindrance of a publication system heavily biased towards novelty. In the present paper, we briefly discuss variations and anomalies in human brain anatomy and introduce the issue of variability in cognitive neuroscience. We then review some examples of the impact on cognition of individual variations in (1) brain structure, (2) brain functional organization and (3) brain damage. We finally discuss the importance and limits of single case studies in the neuroimaging era, outline potential ways to deal with individual variability, and draw some general conclusions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Critical Thinking Disposition: The Effects of Infusion Approach in Engineering Drawing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Darby, Norazlinda Mohd; Rashid, Abdullah Mat

    2017-01-01

    Critical Thinking Disposition is known as an important factor that drives a student to use Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in order to solve engineering drawing problems. Infusing them while teaching the subject may enhance students' disposition and higher order thinking skills. However, no research has been done in critical thinking…

  15. Creativity and Drawing Abilities of Chinese Students in Hong Kong: Is There a Connection?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chan, David W.; Chan, Lai-kwan

    2007-01-01

    Background: Recognizing that arts education is important in facilitating learning and in enhancing creativity in students, recent education reform in Hong Kong has sought to promote arts education and efforts to encourage creative expression through different art forms. Among different modes of creative arts expression, drawing has been suggested…

  16. Draw-a-Scientist/Mystery Box Redux

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cavallo, Ann

    2007-01-01

    It is important that students have the opportunity to experience the nature and processes of science for themselves. The sequence of activities presented in this paper--Draw-a-Scientist and the Mystery Box Redux--were designed to help students better understand the nature of science (NOS) and engage them in the process of scientific inquiry. These…

  17. Perception and Production of the Human Figure in Drawings by Children.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Itskowitz, Rivka

    This research deals with the development and relative importance of both the conceptual-cognitive and the aesthetic-affective aspect of the perceptual process at various age levels of children. Three tasks were chosen: (1) sorting drawings of human figures--a task that represents a more conceptual function; (2) expressing preferences for those…

  18. Drawing as Social Play: Shared Meaning-Making in Young Children's Collective Drawing Activities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kukkonen, Tiina; Chang-Kredl, Sandra

    2018-01-01

    The ability to construct shared meaning with peers is important for young children's social and linguistic development. Previous studies have mainly focused on shared meaning-making within cooperative pretend play with little mention of other childhood activities that might promote intersubjectivity. This study investigated the group play that…

  19. Ice Age Art, Autism, and Vision: How We See/How We Draw.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kellman, Julia

    1998-01-01

    Explores the nature of images created by Paleolithic artists and autistic artists in regard to drawing techniques and image function. Explains the commonalities based on a discussion of the role of the early vision process and the construction of meaning. Notes the importance of this research for understanding autistic artists. (DSK)

  20. Listening to Children with Communication Impairment Talking through Their Drawings

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holliday, Erin L.; Harrison, Linda J.; McLeod, Sharynne

    2009-01-01

    Including children as research participants is an important new direction in early childhood research. However, it is rare for such studies to include the voices of children with significant communication impairment. This article suggests that drawing may be an appropriate non-verbal method for "listening" to these children's ideas and recording…

  1. Children draw more affiliative pictures following priming with third-party ostracism.

    PubMed

    Song, Ruiting; Over, Harriet; Carpenter, Malinda

    2015-06-01

    Humans have a strong need to belong. Thus, when signs of ostracism are detected, adults often feel motivated to affiliate with others in order to reestablish their social connections. This study investigated the importance of affiliation to young children following priming with ostracism. Four- and 5-year-old children were primed with either ostracism or control videos and their understanding of, and responses to, the videos were measured. Results showed that children were able to report that there was exclusion in the ostracism videos, and that they recognized that the ostracized individual felt sad. Most interestingly, when subsequently asked to draw a picture of themselves and their friend, children primed with ostracism depicted relationships that were significantly more affiliative. Children drew themselves and their friend standing significantly closer together and adults rated their drawings as more affiliative overall. These findings introduce drawing as a useful new method for measuring social motivations and processes following an experimental manipulation, and demonstrate that affiliation is particularly important to children following even a vicarious experience of social exclusion. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. An investigation of school violence through Turkish children's drawings.

    PubMed

    Yurtal, Filiz; Artut, Kazim

    2010-01-01

    This study investigates Turkish children's perception of violence in school as represented through drawings and narratives. In all, 66 students (12 to 13 years old) from the middle socioeconomic class participated. To elicit children's perception of violence, they were asked to draw a picture of a violent incident they had heard, experienced, or witnessed. Children mostly drew pictures of violent events among children (33 pictures). Also, there were pictures of violent incidents perpetrated by teachers and directors against children. It was observed that violence influenced children. Violence was mostly depicted in school gardens (38 pictures), but there were violent incidents everywhere, such as in classrooms, corridors, and school stores as well. Moreover, it was found that brute force was the most referred way of violence in the children's depictions (38 pictures). In conclusion, children clearly indicated that there was violence in schools and they were affected by it.

  3. Perceptions of eye health in schools in Pakistan

    PubMed Central

    Ahmad, Khabir; Khan, Mohammad Aman; Khan, Mohammad Daud; Qureshi, Mohammad Babar; Chaudhry, Tanveer Anjum; Gilbert, Clare

    2006-01-01

    Background Research exploring children's and their teachers' perceptions of eye health is lacking. This paper reports for the first time on perceptions of primary schoolchildren and their teachers of healthy and diseased eyes, things that keep eyes healthy and damage them, and what actions to be taken in case of an eye injury. Methods Using draw and write technique, 160 boys and girls (9–12 years old) attending four primary schools in Abbottabad district, northern Pakistan, were invited to draw pictures in response to a set of semi-structured questions and then label them. Sixteen teachers who were currently teaching the selected students were interviewed one-on-one. Results Analysis of text accompanying 800 drawings and of the interview scripts revealed that most children and teachers perceived healthy eyes to be those which could see well, and diseased eyes to be those which have redness, watering, dirty discharge, pain, and itching; or those which have "weak eyesight" and blindness. Among things that students and teachers thought damage the eyes included sun, television, and sharp pointed objects, particularly pencils. Teachers noted that children with eye problems "have difficulty seeing the blackboard well", "screw up their eyes", and "hold their books too close". Conclusion We conclude that schoolchildren and their teachers had a good knowledge of eye health, but many of them had serious misconceptions e.g., use of kohl, medicines and eye drops keeps eyes healthy. Kohl is an important source of lead and can reduce children's intelligence even at low blood levels. Health education in schools must take into account children's existing knowledge of and misconceptions about various aspects of eye health. Such steps if taken could improve the relevance of eye health education to schoolchildren. PMID:16512897

  4. Minimally inconsistent reasoning in Semantic Web.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Xiaowang

    2017-01-01

    Reasoning with inconsistencies is an important issue for Semantic Web as imperfect information is unavoidable in real applications. For this, different paraconsistent approaches, due to their capacity to draw as nontrivial conclusions by tolerating inconsistencies, have been proposed to reason with inconsistent description logic knowledge bases. However, existing paraconsistent approaches are often criticized for being too skeptical. To this end, this paper presents a non-monotonic paraconsistent version of description logic reasoning, called minimally inconsistent reasoning, where inconsistencies tolerated in the reasoning are minimized so that more reasonable conclusions can be inferred. Some desirable properties are studied, which shows that the new semantics inherits advantages of both non-monotonic reasoning and paraconsistent reasoning. A complete and sound tableau-based algorithm, called multi-valued tableaux, is developed to capture the minimally inconsistent reasoning. In fact, the tableaux algorithm is designed, as a framework for multi-valued DL, to allow for different underlying paraconsistent semantics, with the mere difference in the clash conditions. Finally, the complexity of minimally inconsistent description logic reasoning is shown on the same level as the (classical) description logic reasoning.

  5. Minimally inconsistent reasoning in Semantic Web

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Xiaowang

    2017-01-01

    Reasoning with inconsistencies is an important issue for Semantic Web as imperfect information is unavoidable in real applications. For this, different paraconsistent approaches, due to their capacity to draw as nontrivial conclusions by tolerating inconsistencies, have been proposed to reason with inconsistent description logic knowledge bases. However, existing paraconsistent approaches are often criticized for being too skeptical. To this end, this paper presents a non-monotonic paraconsistent version of description logic reasoning, called minimally inconsistent reasoning, where inconsistencies tolerated in the reasoning are minimized so that more reasonable conclusions can be inferred. Some desirable properties are studied, which shows that the new semantics inherits advantages of both non-monotonic reasoning and paraconsistent reasoning. A complete and sound tableau-based algorithm, called multi-valued tableaux, is developed to capture the minimally inconsistent reasoning. In fact, the tableaux algorithm is designed, as a framework for multi-valued DL, to allow for different underlying paraconsistent semantics, with the mere difference in the clash conditions. Finally, the complexity of minimally inconsistent description logic reasoning is shown on the same level as the (classical) description logic reasoning. PMID:28750030

  6. Math and the Mona Lisa

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

    Atalay, Bulent

    2004-05-03

    Bulent Atalay discusses content from his book entitled "Math and the Mona Lisa" which covers Leonardo Da Vinci and how he combined his love of science, math, and art to draw dramatic conclusions about the natural world. He also describes how mathematics influences art and architecture.

  7. Macro Learning on a Micro Scale. Link Biology and Chemistry.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Falk, Peter M.

    1990-01-01

    Described are several laboratory investigations that may be used to introduce biochemistry. Topics covered include carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and metabolism. Reactions, stock solution formulas, and procedures are listed. Emphasized are individualizing work, designing alternative investigations, solving problems, and drawing conclusions. (KR)

  8. The CTD Science Practical Survey.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bathory, Zoltan

    1985-01-01

    As part of Hungary's Curriculum Theory Department (CTD-80) assessment, 1,543 14-year-olds were tested in the performance of science experiments in physics and chemistry. Skills included observing, measuring, hypothesizing, and drawing conclusions. Results are presented, and implications for curriculum are suggested. (GDC)

  9. Attitudes towards Refugee Education and Its Link to Xenophobia in the United States

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Campbell, James Adam, III

    2017-01-01

    This paper attempts to deconstruct the resistance among a majority of Americans to admit Syrian refugees. Using a survey of secondary and post-secondary students and faculty in New Mexico, I attempt to draw conclusions regarding this resistance.

  10. What Do Differences Between Multi-voxel and Univariate Analysis Mean? How Subject-, Voxel-, and Trial-level Variance Impact fMRI Analysis

    PubMed Central

    Davis, Tyler; LaRocque, Karen F.; Mumford, Jeanette; Norman, Kenneth A.; Wagner, Anthony D.; Poldrack, Russell A.

    2014-01-01

    Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) has led to major changes in how fMRI data are analyzed and interpreted. Many studies now report both MVPA results and results from standard univariate voxel-wise analysis, often with the goal of drawing different conclusions from each. Because MVPA results can be sensitive to latent multidimensional representations and processes whereas univariate voxel-wise analysis cannot, one conclusion that is often drawn when MVPA and univariate results differ is that the activation patterns underlying MVPA results contain a multidimensional code. In the current study, we conducted simulations to formally test this assumption. Our findings reveal that MVPA tests are sensitive to the magnitude of voxel-level variability in the effect of a condition within subjects, even when the same linear relationship is coded in all voxels. We also find that MVPA is insensitive to subject-level variability in mean activation across an ROI, which is the primary variance component of interest in many standard univariate tests. Together, these results illustrate that differences between MVPA and univariate tests do not afford conclusions about the nature or dimensionality of the neural code. Instead, targeted tests of the informational content and/or dimensionality of activation patterns are critical for drawing strong conclusions about the representational codes that are indicated by significant MVPA results. PMID:24768930

  11. Teachers' Practices of Inquiry When Teaching Investigations: A Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dudu, Washington T.; Vhurumuku, Elaosi

    2012-01-01

    Teacher practices are essential for supporting learners in scientific inquiry practices of framing research questions, designing and conducting investigations, collecting data, and drawing conclusions. This study examines instructional practices of two Grade 11 Physical Science teachers engaged in teaching practical investigations. Data were…

  12. Body Data

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bombaugh, Ruth; Jefferys, Lynn

    2006-01-01

    In this article, the authors demonstrate how a simple math lab incorporating monthly height measurements can address multiple science and mathematics standards such as collecting, organizing, and describing data in context; drawing conclusions; and making hypotheses from these data. Although the yearlong math lab can be accomplished in either the…

  13. Continuing Professional Education Delivery Systems.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weeks, James P.

    This investigation of delivery systems for continuing professional education provides an overview of current operational delivery systems in continuing professional education, drawing on experience as found in the literature. Learning theories and conclusions are woven into the descriptive text. Delivery systems profiled in the paper include the…

  14. Development from Grades V through XI of Children's Ability to Make Correct Causal Inferences.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Benjamin; Tuddenham, Read D.

    1979-01-01

    Unless sensitized to avoid them, Ss (regardless of grade) tended to draw overly sweeping inferences, perhaps because of a need for closure. Older Ss, however, were more successful at suspending judgment when no definite conclusion was justified. (Author/DLS)

  15. The Importance of Identity in Policy: The Case for and of Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McDonald, Catherine

    2009-01-01

    This article draws out one of the core reasons why children should be conceived as active agents in research, particularly policy-related research. The main thesis is that policy inevitably projects and, to an extent, constitutes the subject identities of its intended objects--in this case, that of "children". Drawing on several bodies of…

  16. Saving Literacy: How Marks Change Minds. A Guide for Professional Caregivers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sheridan, Susan Rich

    2009-01-01

    An emphasis on scribbles and drawing as important brain-building behavior makes this book's Neuroconstructive theory of child development and Scribbling/Drawing/Writing practice unique. A child's brain builds itself in response to genetics, DNA codes, and the environment. One of the pre-determined ways a child's brain naturally builds itself is by…

  17. Digest of Key Science and Engineering Indicators, 2008. NSB-08-2

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    National Science Foundation, 2008

    2008-01-01

    This digest of key science and engineering indicators draws primarily from the National Science Board's two-volume "Science and Engineering Indicators, 2008" report. The digest serves two purposes: (1) to draw attention to important trends and data points from across the chapters and volumes of "Science and Engineering Indicators, 2008," and (2)…

  18. Diagnosis of the OCD Patients using Drawing Features of the Bender Gestalt Shapes

    PubMed Central

    Boostani, R.; Asadi, F.; Mohammadi, N.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Since psychological tests such as questionnaire or drawing tests are almost qualitative, their results carry a degree of uncertainty and sometimes subjectivity. The deficiency of all drawing tests is that the assessment is carried out after drawing the objects and lots of information such as pen angle, speed, curvature and pressure are missed through the test. In other words, the psychologists cannot assess their patients while running the tests. One of the famous drawing tests to measure the degree of Obsession Compulsion Disorder (OCD) is the Bender Gestalt, though its reliability is not promising. Objective: The main objective of this study is to make the Bender Gestalt test quantitative; therefore, an optical pen along with a digital tablet is utilized to preserve the key drawing features of OCD patients during the test. Materials and Methods: Among a large population of patients who referred to a special clinic of OCD, 50 under therapy subjects voluntarily took part in this study. In contrast, 50 subjects with no sign of OCD performed the test as a control group. This test contains 9 shapes and the participants were not constraint to draw the shapes in a certain interval of time; consequently, to classify the stream of feature vectors (samples through drawing) Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is employed and its flexibility increased by incorporating the fuzzy technique into its learning scheme. Results: Applying fuzzy HMM classifier to the data stream of subjects could classify two groups up to 95.2% accuracy, whereas the results by applying the standard HMM resulted in 94.5%. In addition, multi-layer perceptron (MLP), as a strong static classifier, is applied to the features and resulted in 86.6% accuracy. Conclusion: Applying the pair of T-test to the results implies a significant supremacy of the fuzzy HMM to the standard HMM and MLP classifiers. PMID:28462208

  19. Influence of asymmetrical drawing radius deviation in micro deep drawing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heinrich, L.; Kobayashi, H.; Shimizu, T.; Yang, M.; Vollertsen, F.

    2017-09-01

    Nowadays, an increasing demand for small metal parts in electronic and automotive industries can be observed. Deep drawing is a well-suited technology for the production of such parts due to its excellent qualities for mass production. However, the downscaling of the forming process leads to new challenges in tooling and process design, such as high relative deviation of tool geometry or blank displacement compared to the macro scale. FEM simulation has been a widely-used tool to investigate the influence of symmetrical process deviations as for instance a global variance of the drawing radius. This study shows a different approach that allows to determine the impact of asymmetrical process deviations on micro deep drawing. In this particular case the impact of an asymmetrical drawing radius deviation and blank displacement on cup geometry deviation was investigated for different drawing ratios by experiments and FEM simulation. It was found that both variations result in an increasing cup height deviation. Nevertheless, with increasing drawing ratio a constant drawing radius deviation has an increasing impact, while blank displacement results in a decreasing offset of the cups geometry. This is explained by different mechanisms that result in an uneven cup geometry. While blank displacement leads to material surplus on one side of the cup, an unsymmetrical radius deviation on the other hand generates uneven stretching of the cups wall. This is intensified for higher drawing ratios. It can be concluded that the effect of uneven radius geometry proves to be of major importance for the production of accurately shaped micro cups and cannot be compensated by intentional blank displacement.

  20. Assessment of US, Indian and Chinese Middle School Students' Outlook on the Greenhouse Effect

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Niyogi, D.; Ganesh, N.; Singh, D.; Liu, X.; Shepardson, D. P.; Roychoudhury, A.; Hirsch, A.; Halversen, C.

    2012-12-01

    When you think of the greenhouse effect and climate change what images and concepts come to mind? Answers to these questions are important to educators and policy makers as they wrestle with the issue of educating and conveying these concepts in class rooms and to the general public. The greenhouse effect (GHE) sustains life on the earth through regulating the temperatures on the planet. Well-mixed greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide absorb outgoing (long wave) radiation from the Earth's surface while allowing passage without absorption of the incoming solar (shortwave) radiation. Increasing the GHG concentration in the atmosphere increases the absorption of long wavelength radiation thereby increasing global temperatures that result in changes in the atmospheric states consistently over multiple decades.The concept of the greenhouse effect is critical to the discussions underway pertaining to climate change and the controls on greenhouse emissions being proposed in different forums. This study sought to (1) investigate students' conceptions about the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change; (2) determine if there are differences between perceptions for students in US, India and China (Asia)- where there are known differences in the political and scientific approaches; and (3) determine if there any differences, contextual or otherwise, in the way the greenhouse effect is taught in these countries. This study was conducted in select schools in the Midwest US, India and China that volunteered to work with this project. -For US, data from 51 secondary students from three different schools were analyzed, for India the number was 71 from 3 schools, while for China the number is over 100 (and being analyzed) from different classes within a school. Study Hypotheses: 1.Middle school students have a good scientific understanding of greenhouse gases. 2.The U.S and Asian students have the same outlook. Teachers were asked to administer a survey in which the students were asked to draw what the term "greenhouse effect" means to them. The drawings made by the US students were studied and analyzed by Shepardson et al. (2011). Illustrations by the sample of students from India and China were studied and analyzed in this study. Conclusions were drawn based on comparing and contrasting these two sets of drawings (from US, India, and China). Results from this analysis will be presented and discussed with examples of the different drawings that the students drew and the resulting conclusions. Overall, our study suggests there may be some common misconceptions for middle school students when dealing with this topic, and there may also be regional issues that need to be considered in developing effective curricula.

  1. STUDY ON SUPPORTING FOR DRAWING UP THE BCP FOR URBAN EXPRESSWAY NETWORK USING BY TRAFFIC SIMULATION SYSTEM

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamawaki, Masashi; Shiraki, Wataru; Inomo, Hitoshi; Yasuda, Keiichi

    The urban expressway network is an important infrastructure to execute a disaster restoration. Therefore, it is necessary to draw up the BCP (Business Continuity Plan) to enable securing of road user's safety and restoration of facilities, etc. It is important that each urban expressway manager execute decision and improvement of effective BCP countermeasures when disaster occurs by assuming various disaster situations. Then, in this study, we develop the traffic simulation system that can reproduce various disaster situations and traffic actions, and examine some methods supporting for drawing up the BCP for an urban expressway network. For disaster outside assumption such as tsunami generated by a huge earthquake, we examine some approaches securing safety of users and cars on the Hanshin Expressway Network as well as on general roads. And, we aim to propose a tsunami countermeasure not considered in the current urban expressway BCP.

  2. Performing Inferential Statistics Prior to Data Collection

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trafimow, David; MacDonald, Justin A.

    2017-01-01

    Typically, in education and psychology research, the investigator collects data and subsequently performs descriptive and inferential statistics. For example, a researcher might compute group means and use the null hypothesis significance testing procedure to draw conclusions about the populations from which the groups were drawn. We propose an…

  3. Mystery Boxes: Helping Children Improve Their Reasoning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rule, Audrey C.

    2007-01-01

    This guest editorial describes ways teachers can use guessing games about an unknown item in a "mystery box" to help children improve their abilities to listen to others, recall information, ask purposeful questions, classify items by class, make inferences, synthesize information, and draw conclusions. The author presents information…

  4. Conclusions, Reflections, and Prospects for Future Research, Policy, and Programming

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clark-Kazak, Christina

    2012-01-01

    This concluding chapter draws together some of the key themes from the contributions and proposes some recommended areas for future research, policy, and programming. It highlights the artificiality of categorization processes related to both migration and childhood that independent child migrants encounter, and problematizes the…

  5. Dahlbeck and Pure Ontology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mackenzie, Jim

    2016-01-01

    This article responds to Johan Dahlbeck's "Towards a pure ontology: Children's bodies and morality" ["Educational Philosophy and Theory," vol. 46 (1), 2014, pp. 8-23 (EJ1026561)]. His arguments from Nietzsche and Spinoza do not carry the weight he supposes, and the conclusions he draws from them about pedagogy would be…

  6. Brain Stretchers Book 4--Advanced.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anderson, Carolyn

    This book provides puzzles, games, and mathematical activities for students in elementary grades. Number concepts and arithmetic are common topics. These classic math, logic, and word-problem activities encourage students to become flexible, creative thinkers while teaching them to draw valid conclusions based on logic and evidence. Each activity…

  7. Thinking big

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Collins, Harry

    2008-02-01

    Physicists are often quick to discount social research based on qualitative techniques such as ethnography and "deep case studies" - where a researcher draws conclusions about a community based on immersion in the field - thinking that only quantitative research backed up by statistical analysis is sound. The balance is not so clear, however.

  8. The Impact of Data Fragmentation on High-Throughput Clinical Phenotyping

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wei, Weiqi

    2012-01-01

    Subject selection is essential and has become the rate-limiting step for harvesting knowledge to advance healthcare through clinical research. Present manual approaches inhibit researchers from conducting deep and broad studies and drawing confident conclusions. High-throughput clinical phenotyping (HTCP), a recently proposed approach, leverages…

  9. Effects of Scaffolds and Scientific Reasoning Ability on Web-Based Scientific Inquiry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wu, Hui-Ling; Weng, Hsiao-Lan; She, Hsiao-Ching

    2016-01-01

    This study examined how background knowledge, scientific reasoning ability, and various scaffolding forms influenced students' science knowledge and scientific inquiry achievements. The students participated in an online scientific inquiry program involving such activities as generating scientific questions and drawing evidence-based conclusions,…

  10. The Localized Corrosion of Aluminum Alloys - A Review.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-07-01

    will be typical rather than comprehensive . The purpose will be to draw from these reports certain well-founded, and well-accepted conclusions useful...established by Nilsen and Bardal (161) who measured the pitting potential, Ep, the protection potential, E4 and, Ecrit . , above which the sample

  11. Freshly Squeezed? I Prefer Concentrated!

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Strachan, Amy

    2015-01-01

    We cannot expect every child to leave primary school with the aspiration of becoming a scientist. It is, however, achievable for children to move through their education seeing the implications of science in everything we do. Questioning, predicting, interpreting data, drawing conclusions, communicating evidence and evaluating procedures are all…

  12. Personalized Multi-Student Improvement Based on Bayesian Cybernetics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kaburlasos, Vassilis G.; Marinagi, Catherine C.; Tsoukalas, Vassilis Th.

    2008-01-01

    This work presents innovative cybernetics (feedback) techniques based on Bayesian statistics for drawing questions from an Item Bank towards personalized multi-student improvement. A novel software tool, namely "Module for Adaptive Assessment of Students" (or, "MAAS" for short), implements the proposed (feedback) techniques. In conclusion, a pilot…

  13. Diagnosing Portuguese Students' Misconceptions about the Mineral Concept

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Monteiro, Antonio; Nobrega, Clevio; Abrantes, Isabel; Gomes, Celeste

    2012-01-01

    Educational researchers and teachers are well aware that misconceptions--erroneous ideas that differ from the scientifically accepted ones--are very common amongst students. Daily experiences, creative and perceptive thinking and science textbooks give rise to students' misconceptions which lead them to draw erroneous conclusions that become…

  14. Genie Inference Engine Rule Writer’s Guide.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-08-01

    33 APPENDIX D. Animal Bootstrap File.............................................................. 39...APPENDIX E. Sample Run of Animal Identification Expert System.......................... 43 APPENDIX F. Numeric Test Knowledge Base...and other data s.tructures stored in the knowledge base (KB), queries the user for input, and draws conclusions. Genie (GENeric Inference Engine) is

  15. Making Sense of Data: Context Matters

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lovett, Jennifer N.; Lee, Hollylynne S.

    2016-01-01

    To draw conclusions from data, we need to understand the context of the data and the measurement units. In 2007, Franklin and colleagues presented the "Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) Report" to provide teachers with a framework to assist in developing students' investigation of statistical…

  16. Effects of Cognitive Demand on Word Encoding in Adults Who Stutter

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tsai, Pei-Tzu

    2011-01-01

    The etiology of persistent stuttering is unknown, but stuttering has been attributed to multiple potential factors, including difficulty in processing language-related information, but findings remain inconclusive regarding any "specific" linguistic deficit potentially causing stuttering. One particular challenge in drawing conclusions is the…

  17. Visual Agnosia for Line Drawings and Silhouettes without Apparent Impairment of Real-Object Recognition: A Case Report

    PubMed Central

    Hiraoka, Kotaro; Suzuki, Kyoko; Hirayama, Kazumi; Mori, Etsuro

    2009-01-01

    We report on a patient with visual agnosia for line drawings and silhouette pictures following cerebral infarction in the region of the right posterior cerebral artery. The patient retained the ability to recognize real objects and their photographs, and could precisely copy line drawings of objects that she could not name. This case report highlights the importance of clinicians and researchers paying special attention to avoid overlooking agnosia in such cases. The factors that lead to problems in the identification of stimuli other than real objects in agnosic cases are discussed. PMID:19996516

  18. Visual agnosia for line drawings and silhouettes without apparent impairment of real-object recognition: a case report.

    PubMed

    Hiraoka, Kotaro; Suzuki, Kyoko; Hirayama, Kazumi; Mori, Etsuro

    2009-01-01

    We report on a patient with visual agnosia for line drawings and silhouette pictures following cerebral infarction in the region of the right posterior cerebral artery. The patient retained the ability to recognize real objects and their photographs, and could precisely copy line drawings of objects that she could not name. This case report highlights the importance of clinicians and researchers paying special attention to avoid overlooking agnosia in such cases. The factors that lead to problems in the identification of stimuli other than real objects in agnosic cases are discussed.

  19. Memorisation methods in science education: tactics to improve the teaching and learning practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pals, Frits F. B.; Tolboom, Jos L. J.; Suhre, Cor J. M.; van Geert, Paul L. C.

    2018-01-01

    How can science teachers support students in developing an appropriate declarative knowledge base for solving problems? This article focuses on the question whether the development of students' memory of scientific propositions is better served by writing propositions down on paper or by making drawings of propositions either by silent or muttering rehearsal. By means of a memorisation experiment with eighth- and ninth-grade students, we answer this question. In this experiment, students received instruction to memorise nine science propositions and to reproduce them afterwards. To support memorisation students were randomly assigned either to a group that received instruction to write each proposition on paper or to a group that received instruction to make a drawing about the content of the proposition. In addition, half of the students in both groups received instruction to mutter and the other half of them received instruction to write or draw in silence. The main conclusion from the experiment is that after four weeks students who had made a drawing remembered significantly more propositions than those who had memorised the propositions by writing them down. Our research further revealed that it did not matter whether students muttered or memorised silently.

  20. Grain engineering: How nanoscale inhomogeneities can control charge collection in solar cells

    DOE PAGES

    West, Bradley M.; Stuckelberger, Michael; Guthrey, Harvey; ...

    2016-12-16

    We present that statistical and correlative analysis are increasingly important in the design and study of new materials, from semiconductors to metals. Non-destructive measurement techniques, with high spatial resolution, capable of correlating composition and/or structure with device properties, are few and far between. For the case of polycrystalline and inhomogeneous materials, the added challenge is that nanoscale resolution is in general not compatible with the large sampling areas necessary to have a statistical representation of the specimen under study. For the study of grain cores and grain boundaries in polycrystalline solar absorbers this is of particular importance since their dissimilarmore » behavior and variability throughout the samples makes it difficult to draw conclusions and ultimately optimize the material. In this study, we present a nanoscale in-operando approach based on the multimodal utilization of synchrotron nano x-ray fluorescence and x-ray beam induced current collected for grain core and grain boundary areas and correlated pixel-by-pixel in fully operational Cu(In (1-x)Ga x)Se 2 solar cells. We observe that low gallium cells have grain boundaries that over perform compared to the grain cores and high gallium cells have boundaries that under perform. In conclusion, these results demonstrate how nanoscale correlative X-ray microscopy can guide research pathways towards grain engineering low cost, high efficiency solar cells.« less

  1. Analyzing and Interpreting Lime Burials from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939): A Case Study from La Carcavilla Cemetery.

    PubMed

    Schotsmans, Eline M J; García-Rubio, Almudena; Edwards, Howell G M; Munshi, Tasnim; Wilson, Andrew S; Ríos, Luis

    2017-03-01

    Over 500 victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) were buried in the cemetery of La Carcavilla (Palencia, Spain). White material, observed in several burials, was analyzed with Raman spectroscopy and powder XRD, and confirmed to be lime. Archaeological findings at La Carcavilla's cemetery show that the application of lime was used in an organized way, mostly associated with coffinless interments of victims of Francoist repression. In burials with a lime cast, observations made it possible to draw conclusions regarding the presence of soft tissue at the moment of deposition, the sequence of events, and the presence of clothing and other evidence. This study illustrates the importance of analyzing a burial within the depositional environment and taphonomic context. © 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  2. Climate change and malaria in Canada: a systems approach.

    PubMed

    Berrang-Ford, L; Maclean, J D; Gyorkos, Theresa W; Ford, J D; Ogden, N H

    2009-01-01

    This article examines the potential for changes in imported and autochthonous malaria incidence in Canada as a consequence of climate change. Drawing on a systems framework, we qualitatively characterize and assess the potential direct and indirect impact of climate change on malaria in Canada within the context of other concurrent ecological and social trends. Competent malaria vectors currently exist in southern Canada, including within this range several major urban centres, and conditions here have historically supported endemic malaria transmission. Climate change will increase the occurrence of temperature conditions suitable for malaria transmission in Canada, which, combined with trends in international travel, immigration, drug resistance, and inexperience in both clinical and laboratory diagnosis, may increase malaria incidence in Canada and permit sporadic autochthonous cases. This conclusion challenges the general assumption of negligible malaria risk in Canada with climate change.

  3. Anticipation: learning from the past. The Russian/Soviet contributions to the science of anticipation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bazac, Ana

    2018-05-01

    The focus on Russian/Soviet contributions is only an opportunity to understand the objective premises of anticipation. Since anticipation expresses a main concept characterizing human action, it is important to see whether and how it corresponds to the neuro-physiology of the human. The aim of this review is to show that anticipation is neuro-physiologically constitutive and is intertwined with all other reflective, cognitive, and coordinative functions that form an inseparable unity in the process of adaptation. The experiments described in the book draw attention to anticipation as the internal tendency of the living that cannot be ignored. The review highlights the dialectic of continuity and discontinuity in the living from the standpoint of anticipation, and the holistic conclusions of the scientific research regarding the living and the human being.

  4. Paradigms of forensic science and legal process: a critical diagnosis

    PubMed Central

    Roberts, Paul

    2015-01-01

    This article reconsiders the relationship between criminal adjudication and forensic expertise in the light of ‘new paradigms' of forensic practice and recent law reform. It briefly summarizes conventional wisdom on the typical shortcomings of forensic science and other expert evidence, as a springboard for a more searching critical diagnosis of longstanding maladies. The fundamentally jurisdictional nature of law is emphasized, and some implications for expert testimony noted. English law's traditionally adversarial model of criminal procedure is then reassessed, taking account of a proper understanding of its normative structure and modern development, and drawing on comparative legal research and theorizing to obtain a more rounded second opinion. In conclusion, some avenues for intelligent prescription are canvassed, highlighting the importance of promoting and facilitating effective communication between experts, lawyers and courts, and prioritizing modest practical remedies over radical surgery. PMID:26101282

  5. Where Gibrat meets Zipf: Scale and scope of French firms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bee, Marco; Riccaboni, Massimo; Schiavo, Stefano

    2017-09-01

    The proper characterization of the size distribution and growth of firms represents an important issue in economics and business. We use the Maximum Entropy approach to assess the plausibility of the assumption that firm size follows Lognormal or Pareto distributions, which underlies most recent works on the subject. A comprehensive dataset covering the universe of French firms allows us to draw two major conclusions. First, the Pareto hypothesis for the whole distribution should be rejected. Second, by discriminating across firms based on the number of products sold and markets served, we find that, within the class of multi-product companies active in multiple markets, the distribution converges to a Zipf's law. Conversely, Lognormal distribution is a good benchmark for small single-product firms. The size distribution of firms largely depends on firms' diversification patterns.

  6. Climate Change and Malaria in Canada: A Systems Approach

    PubMed Central

    Berrang-Ford, L.; MacLean, J. D.; Gyorkos, Theresa W.; Ford, J. D.; Ogden, N. H.

    2009-01-01

    This article examines the potential for changes in imported and autochthonous malaria incidence in Canada as a consequence of climate change. Drawing on a systems framework, we qualitatively characterize and assess the potential direct and indirect impact of climate change on malaria in Canada within the context of other concurrent ecological and social trends. Competent malaria vectors currently exist in southern Canada, including within this range several major urban centres, and conditions here have historically supported endemic malaria transmission. Climate change will increase the occurrence of temperature conditions suitable for malaria transmission in Canada, which, combined with trends in international travel, immigration, drug resistance, and inexperience in both clinical and laboratory diagnosis, may increase malaria incidence in Canada and permit sporadic autochthonous cases. This conclusion challenges the general assumption of negligible malaria risk in Canada with climate change. PMID:19277107

  7. Basic biostatistics for post-graduate students

    PubMed Central

    Dakhale, Ganesh N.; Hiware, Sachin K.; Shinde, Abhijit T.; Mahatme, Mohini S.

    2012-01-01

    Statistical methods are important to draw valid conclusions from the obtained data. This article provides background information related to fundamental methods and techniques in biostatistics for the use of postgraduate students. Main focus is given to types of data, measurement of central variations and basic tests, which are useful for analysis of different types of observations. Few parameters like normal distribution, calculation of sample size, level of significance, null hypothesis, indices of variability, and different test are explained in detail by giving suitable examples. Using these guidelines, we are confident enough that postgraduate students will be able to classify distribution of data along with application of proper test. Information is also given regarding various free software programs and websites useful for calculations of statistics. Thus, postgraduate students will be benefitted in both ways whether they opt for academics or for industry. PMID:23087501

  8. Biomedical studies by PIXE

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Afarideh, H.; Amirabadi, A.; Hadji-Saeid, S. M.; Mansourian, N.; Kaviani, K.; Zibafar, E.

    1996-04-01

    In the present biomedical research, PIXE a powerful technique for elemental analysis was employed to illustrate the importance of multi-elemental determination of serum trace elements in two cases of great medical interest. Those are evaluation of the desferroxamine drug (DPO), a widely used therapy for patient with β-thalassemia-Major (β-thal-M), and investigation of elemental variations in blood-serum in hyperbilirubinamia new-borns before and after blood transfusion (BT). The purpose of the work is to demonstrate the various aspects of PIXE analysis by some practical examples as well as to draw some general conclusions regarding the cure of those patients with the above mentioned disorders or diseases. To present in details each case, we divide the paper in two parts: part 1 and part 2 to consider the experimental procedure as well as the results individually.

  9. Endocrine disrupting effects of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA - E320)

    PubMed Central

    POP, ANCA; KISS, BELA; LOGHIN, FELICIA

    2013-01-01

    Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is extensively used as antioxidant in foods, food packaging, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. In the past years, it raised concerns regarding its possible endocrine disrupting effect. The existing in vitro studies indicate that BHA presents a weak estrogenic effect and also anti-androgenic properties while an in vivo study found it to have antiestrogenic properties. There is no sufficient data available at the moment to draw a conclusion regarding the safety of BHA when referring to its endocrine disrupting effect. Since a fraction of the population might be exposed to doses superior to the acceptable daily intake (ADI), it is important to gather more in vitro and in vivo data concerning the potential effects that BHA might have alone, but also in mixtures with natural hormones or other endocrine disrupting compounds. PMID:26527908

  10. Understanding Elementary Astronomy by Making Drawing-Based Models

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van Joolingen, W. R.; Aukes, Annika V.; Gijlers, H.; Bollen, L.

    2015-01-01

    Modeling is an important approach in the teaching and learning of science. In this study, we attempt to bring modeling within the reach of young children by creating the SimSketch modeling system, which is based on freehand drawings that can be turned into simulations. This system was used by 247 children (ages ranging from 7 to 15) to create a…

  11. An Evaluation on English Language Education Process in Turkey from the Viewpoints of University Preparatory School Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dincer, Ali; Takkac, Mehmet; Akahn, Suna

    2010-01-01

    Many studies on effective language teaching process draw attention to the importance of teacher roles in this process, and give advice teachers to have prior knowledge about what their students know before beginning the instruction. This study is intended to draw an effective English language teacher profile by taking into consideration first year…

  12. Drawing on Students' Evaluation to Draw a Strategy Canvas for a Business School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Khalifa, Azaddin Salem

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how to construct a strategy canvas for a business school based on students' perceptions of the importance of critical value dimensions of its undergraduate offering(s) and its comparable performance on each. This can be used in evaluating the school's extant strategy and in developing a new innovative…

  13. Children's Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions Through Photographs and Drawings.

    PubMed

    Brechet, Claire

    2017-01-01

    The author's purpose was to examine children's recognition of emotional facial expressions, by comparing two types of stimulus: photographs and drawings. The author aimed to investigate whether drawings could be considered as a more evocative material than photographs, as a function of age and emotion. Five- and 7-year-old children were presented with photographs and drawings displaying facial expressions of 4 basic emotions (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear) and were asked to perform a matching task by pointing to the face corresponding to the target emotion labeled by the experimenter. The photographs we used were selected from the Radboud Faces Database and the drawings were designed on the basis of both the facial components involved in the expression of these emotions and the graphic cues children tend to use when asked to depict these emotions in their own drawings. Our results show that drawings are better recognized than photographs, for sadness, anger, and fear (with no difference for happiness, due to a ceiling effect). And that the difference between the 2 types of stimuli tends to be more important for 5-year-olds compared to 7-year-olds. These results are discussed in view of their implications, both for future research and for practical application.

  14. Art, the visual imagination and neuroscience: The Chauvet Cave, Mona Lisa's smile and Michelangelo's terribilitá.

    PubMed

    Onians, John

    2017-10-23

    This paper considers several types of imagination relevant to art historical enquiry. These are exemplified in artistic expressions ranging from palaeolithic paintings in the Chauvet Cave, to drawings, sculptures and buildings designed by Michelangelo and drawings and paintings by Leonardo, and are related to recent neuroscientific discoveries. From this it emerges that important types of imagination cannot be understood without an appreciation of the neural processes that underlie them and especially without an acknowledgement of the importance of neurochemistry. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Creative Soil Conservation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Martha

    2010-01-01

    Take plant lessons outdoors with this engaging and inquiry-based activity in which third-grade students learn how to apply soil conservation methods to growing plants. They also collect data and draw conclusions about the effectiveness of their method of soil conservation. An added benefit to this activity is that the third-grade students played…

  16. A Systematic Review of Depression Treatments in Primary Care for Latino Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cabassa, Leopoldo J.; Hansen, Marissa C.

    2007-01-01

    Objective: A systematic literature review of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) assessing depression treatments in primary care for Latinos is conducted. The authors rate the methodological quality of studies, examine cultural and linguistic adaptations, summarize clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness findings, and draw conclusions for improving…

  17. Secrets of a Mass Grave

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ament, Caitlin Marie; Graham, Theodore J.

    2017-01-01

    This article presents a unit of study in which students examine skeletons and draw conclusions from the evidence they find in a simulated mass grave. The activity involves the foundation of forensic anthropology--interpreting the structure of skeletal remains to determine sex, age, height, and possible cause of death. Working through a series of…

  18. Seat Belts in School Buses: A Technical Analysis of the Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Splaine, Pam; Frankel, Steven M.

    This report, prepared for the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools superintendent and board members, identifies the questions concerning seat belt use in school buses, examines relevant literature, and draws some conclusions. According to the literature, seat belts are one of many alternative and interdependent safety devices built into…

  19. The Law School as a Base for Interdisciplinary Studies in a University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Willrich, Mason

    1974-01-01

    Discusses the objectives of the Center for the Study of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the School of Law of the University of Virginia, summarizes the center's activities, and draws conclusions concerning the future role of a problem-oriented, interdisciplinary study in legal education. (Author/PG)

  20. Brief Report: Immune Factors in Autism: A Critical Review.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Krause, Ilan; He, Ziao-Song; Gershwin, M. Eric; Shoenfeld, Yehuda

    2002-01-01

    This article reviews studies linking autistic disorder with various immune factors. It concludes that although various immune system abnormalities have been reported in children with autism, previous studies are largely association based and it remains difficult to draw conclusions regarding the role of immune factors in the etiopathogenesis of…

  1. Iconic Memory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sakitt, Barbara

    1976-01-01

    Describes a series of experiments showing that in normal subjects (a) iconic storage occurs primarily in the retina in the photoreceptors and (b) under conditions of dark pre- and postexposure fields, the icon is mainly a rod phenomenon. Draws conclusions based on these experiments, discusses previous work done by others, and attempts to reconcile…

  2. ETV Programmes: Review of Research.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chaudhary, Sohanvir; Panda, Santosh

    1997-01-01

    Reviews research on educational television (ETV), focusing on teacher and student attitudes; impact on children and teachers and in-service education in media; and utilization. Also reviews a few studies on the impact and utilization of educational radio broadcasts. Draws broad conclusions about the use, design, and learning process of ETV. (PEN)

  3. Connectivity and Resilience: A Multidimensional Analysis of Infrastructure Impacts in the Southwestern Amazon

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perz, Stephen G.; Shenkin, Alexander; Barnes, Grenville; Cabrera, Liliana; Carvalho, Lucas A.; Castillo, Jorge

    2012-01-01

    Infrastructure is a worldwide policy priority for national development via regional integration into the global economy. However, economic, ecological and social research draws contrasting conclusions about the consequences of infrastructure. We present a synthetic approach to the study of infrastructure, focusing on a multidimensional treatment…

  4. (Ig)Noble Lies: Personal Historicism and Richard Mulcaster's "Positions Concerning the Bringing up of Children" (1581)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    De Barros, Eric

    2013-01-01

    Attempting to push early modern presentism to the radical, logical conclusion of a more personal historicism, this essay draws on a number of interpretive practices and theoretical insights--Stephen Greenblatt's self-reflectivity, Toni Morrison's "rememory," Marianne Hirsch's "postmemory," bell hooks's "passion of…

  5. Identifying Country-Specific Cultures of Physics Education: A Differential Item Functioning Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mesic, Vanes

    2012-01-01

    In international large-scale assessments of educational outcomes, student achievement is often represented by unidimensional constructs. This approach allows for drawing general conclusions about country rankings with respect to the given achievement measure, but it typically does not provide specific diagnostic information which is necessary for…

  6. To House the Migrant.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Paul F.

    Commissioned by the New York State Center for Migrant Studies to develop a report on improvement in the living environment of migrant workers during their sojourn within New York State, the author draws his conclusions from such information sources as interviews with migrants, growers, and state and national officials; personal labor camp visits;…

  7. Data Interpretation: Using Probability

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Drummond, Gordon B.; Vowler, Sarah L.

    2011-01-01

    Experimental data are analysed statistically to allow researchers to draw conclusions from a limited set of measurements. The hard fact is that researchers can never be certain that measurements from a sample will exactly reflect the properties of the entire group of possible candidates available to be studied (although using a sample is often the…

  8. Out of the Stone Age

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kademan, Robyn

    2005-01-01

    One of the most beneficial uses for technology in the science classroom is data manipulation. During labs and other learning experiences, students can quickly put the data they collect into spreadsheets or databases. Then they can make comparisons, create graphs, draw conclusions, sort the data in new ways, and, ultimately, give their data…

  9. 75 FR 13745 - Office of Innovation and Improvement Overview Information; Ready To Teach Program-General...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-03-23

    ... on rigorous, scientifically based research methods to assess the effectiveness of a particular... and programs; and (B) Includes research that-- (i) Employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on... hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn; (iii) Relies on measurements or observational methods...

  10. Do State Examinations Measure Teacher Quality?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harrell, Pamela Esprivalo

    2009-01-01

    This study investigates teacher content knowledge of candidates enrolled in an online graduate teacher certification programme. Descriptive data and linear regression were used to draw conclusions about the content area knowledge of individuals in the sample and the significance of the predictors examined. Descriptive data show 1/3 of the 8-12…

  11. Extending Engineering Practice Research with Shared Qualitative Data

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trevelyan, James

    2016-01-01

    Research on engineering practice is scarce and sharing of qualitative research data can reduce the effort required for an aspiring researcher to obtain enough data from engineering workplaces to draw generalizable conclusions, both qualitative and quantitative. This paper describes how a large shareable qualitative data set on engineering…

  12. Supporting the M-Learning Based Knowledge Transfer in University Education and Corporate Sector

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Benedek, András; Molnár, György

    2014-01-01

    The evolution of today's connective forms of teaching and learning draws attention to expansion of "space" in which teaching and learning moments: engaging the attention, knowledge transfer, acquisition, demonstration, experience, experiment research and practice, conclusions are organized around a more free method. Due to these…

  13. Overview of hemlock health

    Treesearch

    Dennis R. Souto; Kathleen S. Shields

    2000-01-01

    Although many insects and diseases are associated with hemlock, we will, ironically, draw our first conclusion, that hemlocks are very sensitive to the stress of insect defoliation, from a tale of gypsy moth defoliation. The unprecedented gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) outbreak of 1981, when nearly 13 million acres were defoliated in the Northeast...

  14. Designing a Master Program in Educational Leadership: Trends, Reflections, and Conclusions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Aitken, Art; Bedard, George; Darroch, Amber

    This paper presents a dialogue about the current context for educational leadership preparation that draws upon worldwide thought and discussion on the issue. Topics considered include recognition by faculty at the University of Lethbridge that educational leadership has problems in content alignment, relevance, and pedagogy. Research shows that…

  15. Crashing the Language Barrier! The English Language: The Way It Is.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray, Dorothy S.

    Intended for adults in search of improved language skills and their leaders, this handbook provides opportunities to strengthen abilities to listen, observe, organize, solve problems, evaluate, and draw tentative conclusions about the English language. The handbook contains a proposition about the English language, suggests procedures to confirm…

  16. Design and Implementation Considerations for Alternative Teacher Compensation Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brodsky, Andrew; DeCesare, Dale; Kramer-Wine, Jennifer

    2010-01-01

    Over the past decade, educators and policymakers have used a variety of approaches to designing and implementing teacher compensation programs. These approaches include federal incentive funds, state-level programs, and district initiatives. This article reviews 6 such programs in order to identify themes and draw conclusions relevant to…

  17. The Emotional Life of the Toddler.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lieberman, Alicia F.

    Noting that parenting a toddler can be both exhilarating and frustrating, this book draws on lifelong research into children's emotional development to provide parents with a better understanding of toddlers' emotional range and how it affects toddler behavior. The 10 chapters and the conclusion cover the following areas: (1) the emotional…

  18. Online Learners and Their Learning Strategies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dewar, Tammy; Whittington, Dave

    2000-01-01

    Describes an experiment that looked at how adult learners made use of their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI[R]), a personality assessment tool, type to cope with the challenges of learning in an online environment. Presents results of the experiment, and draws tentative conclusions. Provides notes related to the four psychological dimensions of…

  19. An effective and efficient assessment process

    Treesearch

    Russell T. Graham; Theresa B. Jain

    1999-01-01

    Depending on the agency, discipline, or audience, assessments supply data and information to address relevant policy questions and to help make decisions. If properly executed, assessment processes can draw conclusions and make recommendations on how to manage natural resources. Assessments, especially large ones, can be easily influenced by internal and external...

  20. Perceptions of Undergraduate Graphic Design Students on the Educational Potential of Facebook

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Souleles, Nicos

    2012-01-01

    The popularity of Facebook among university students inevitably raises questions on the educational potential of this Social Networking Site for Higher Education. From the limited literature on the instructional uses of Facebook, one can draw conflicting conclusions. Benefits were identified through the communicative potential, student…

  1. World Wide Web Homepage Design.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tillman, Michael L.

    This paper examines hypermedia design and draws conclusions about how educational research and theory applies to various aspects of World Wide Web (WWW) homepage design. "Hypermedia" is defined as any collection of information which may be textual, graphical, visual, or auditory in nature and which may be accessed via a nonlinear route.…

  2. Affirmative Action: Opportunity or Obstacle.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Altman, Ellen; Promis, Patricia

    Data about managerial positions and applicants were collected in an attempt to draw conclusions about the extent to which gender and ethnicity relate to the outcomes of the search and screen process for middle and senior management positions in academic libraries, and to determine any effects of affirmative action on promotion from within.…

  3. Win, Lose, and Drawing Conclusions: Bellows, Boxing, and Progressivism.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adams, Peter A.

    1992-01-01

    Presents a lesson plan in which George Bellows's painting "Both Members of this Club" is analyzed as a historical document illustrating the Progressive movement. Suggests that the lesson can introduce students to a different form of historical communication. Includes background information and procedures for approaching the lesson.…

  4. Errors of Inference in Structural Equation Modeling

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCoach, D. Betsy; Black, Anne C.; O'Connell, Ann A.

    2007-01-01

    Although structural equation modeling (SEM) is one of the most comprehensive and flexible approaches to data analysis currently available, it is nonetheless prone to researcher misuse and misconceptions. This article offers a brief overview of the unique capabilities of SEM and discusses common sources of user error in drawing conclusions from…

  5. Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 1, January-February 2011

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Walser, Caroline T., Ed.

    2011-01-01

    "Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) The Greening of Environmental Ed: Teachers Focus on Complexity, Evidence, and Letting Students Draw Their Own Conclusions (Lucy Hood); (2) Like Teacher,…

  6. Sciencewise: Discovering Scientific Process through Problem Solving. Book 2.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holley, Dennis

    This book of activities uses problem solving to help students develop the basic science process skills of observing, predicting, designing/experimenting, eliminating, and drawing conclusions. The activities are divided into two sections: Dynamo Demos and Creative Challenges. The teacher-led Dynamo Demos help students to develop science process…

  7. Sciencewise: Discovering Scientific Process through Problem Solving. Book 1.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holley, Dennis

    This book of activities uses problem solving to help students develop the basic science process skills of observing, predicting, designing/experimenting, eliminating, and drawing conclusions. The activities are divided into two sections: Dynamo Demos and Creative Challenges. The teacher-led Dynamo Demos help students to develop science process…

  8. Basic Inferences of Scientific Reasoning, Argumentation, and Discovery

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lawson, Anton E.

    2010-01-01

    Helping students better understand how scientists reason and argue to draw scientific conclusions has long been viewed as a critical component of scientific literacy, thus remains a central goal of science instruction. However, differences of opinion persist regarding the nature of scientific reasoning, argumentation, and discovery. Accordingly,…

  9. Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards in the Educational Sector.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McKinney, Joseph R.; Place, A. William

    1993-01-01

    Reviews the grievance-arbitration process and examines the judiciary's approach to handling appeals of arbitrators' awards. Analyzes 213 court decisions made during a 10-year period involving appeals of arbitrators' awards. Draws some conclusions and further examines the relationship of the grievance-arbitration appeals process to public education…

  10. Effect of cold drawing ratio on γ′ precipitation in Inconel X-750

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

    Ha, Jeong Won; Research and Development Center, KOS Limited, Yangsan 626-230; Seong, Baek Seok

    2014-10-15

    Inconel X-750 is a Ni-based precipitation-hardened superalloy having large tensile and fracture strengths. In the study, X-750 wires were cold drawn to different extents. Small angle neutron scattering was employed to quantitatively measure the size and volume fraction of the γ′ phase as a function of the cold drawing ratio (DR) and aging temperature. The presence and size of γ′ precipitates were confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. The drawing ratio had an important effect on the volume fraction of the γ′ precipitates. However, the size of the precipitates was independent on the drawing ratio. The specimen with the minimum drawingmore » ratio (DR0) produced the largest volume fraction of γ′ as compared with large drawing ratio (DR) specimens such as DR17 and DR42. The small volume fraction of the γ′ phase for a sizeable drawing ratio was associated with the large amount of nucleation sites for secondary carbides, M{sub 23}C{sub 6}, and the fast diffusion path, i.e., dislocation, needed to form M{sub 23}C{sub 6}. A Cr depletion zone around the secondary carbides raised the solubility of γ′. Therefore, the significant drawing ratio contributing to the large volume fraction of the secondary carbides decreased the volume fraction of the γ′ precipitates in Inconel X-750. - Highlights: • The volume fraction of secondary carbides increased with the drawing ratio. • The volume fraction of γ′ decreased as the drawing ratio increased. • The drawing ratio affected the γ′ volume fraction with no variation of the γ' size. • The volume fraction of γ′ was affected by the secondary carbide volume fraction.« less

  11. A Multicriteria Approach to Find Predictive and Sparse Models with Stable Feature Selection for High-Dimensional Data.

    PubMed

    Bommert, Andrea; Rahnenführer, Jörg; Lang, Michel

    2017-01-01

    Finding a good predictive model for a high-dimensional data set can be challenging. For genetic data, it is not only important to find a model with high predictive accuracy, but it is also important that this model uses only few features and that the selection of these features is stable. This is because, in bioinformatics, the models are used not only for prediction but also for drawing biological conclusions which makes the interpretability and reliability of the model crucial. We suggest using three target criteria when fitting a predictive model to a high-dimensional data set: the classification accuracy, the stability of the feature selection, and the number of chosen features. As it is unclear which measure is best for evaluating the stability, we first compare a variety of stability measures. We conclude that the Pearson correlation has the best theoretical and empirical properties. Also, we find that for the stability assessment behaviour it is most important that a measure contains a correction for chance or large numbers of chosen features. Then, we analyse Pareto fronts and conclude that it is possible to find models with a stable selection of few features without losing much predictive accuracy.

  12. Generativity and imagination in autism spectrum disorder: evidence from individual differences in children's impossible entity drawings.

    PubMed

    Low, Jason; Goddard, Elizabeth; Melser, Joseph

    2009-06-01

    This study examined the cognitive underpinnings of spontaneous imagination in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by way of individual differences. Children with ASD (N = 27) and matched typically developing (TD) children were administered Karmiloff-Smith's (1990) imaginative drawing task, along with measures that tapped specific executive functions (generativity, visuospatial planning, and central coherence processing style) and false belief theory of mind (ToM) understanding. The ASD group drawings displayed deficits in imaginative content and a piecemeal pictorial style. ASD participants also showed group deficits in generativity, planning and ToM, and exhibited weak coherence. Individual differences in generativity were related to imaginative drawing content in the ASD group, and the association was mediated through planning ability. Variations in weak coherence were separately related to a piecemeal drawing style in the ASD group. Variations in generativity were also linked with imaginative drawing content in the TD group; the connection unfolded when it received pooled variance from receptive language ability, and thereupon mediated through false belief reasoning to cue imaginative content. Results are discussed in terms of how generativity plays a broad and important role for imagination in ASD and typical development, albeit in different ways.

  13. The comeback of hand drawing in modern life sciences.

    PubMed

    Chabrier, Renaud; Janke, Carsten

    2018-03-01

    Scientific manuscripts are full of images. Since the birth of the life sciences, these images were in a form of hand drawings, with great examples from da Vinci, Hooke, van Leeuwenhoek, Remak, Buffon, Bovery, Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel and Gray's Anatomy to name a few. However, in the course of the past century, photographs and simplified schematics have gradually taken over as a way of illustrating scientific data and concepts, assuming that these are 'accurate' representations of the truth. Here, we argue for the importance of reviving the art of scientific drawings as a way of effectively communicating complex scientific ideas to both specialists and the general public.

  14. Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation to the cerebellum improves handwriting and cyclic drawing kinematics in focal hand dystonia.

    PubMed

    Bradnam, Lynley V; Graetz, Lynton J; McDonnell, Michelle N; Ridding, Michael C

    2015-01-01

    There is increasing evidence that the cerebellum has a role in the pathophysiology of primary focal hand dystonia and might provide an intervention target for non-invasive brain stimulation to improve function of the affected hand. The primary objective of this study was to determine if cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improves handwriting and cyclic drawing kinematics in people with hand dystonia, by reducing cerebellar-brain inhibition (CBI) evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Eight people with dystonia (5 writer's dystonia, 3 musician's dystonia) and eight age-matched controls completed the study and underwent cerebellar anodal, cathodal and sham tDCS in separate sessions. Dystonia severity was assessed using the Writer's Cramp Rating Scale (WRCS) and the Arm Dystonia Disability Scale (ADDS). The kinematic measures that differentiated the groups were; mean stroke frequency during handwriting and fast cyclic drawing and average pen pressure during light cyclic drawing. TMS measures of cortical excitability were no different between people with FHD and controls. There was a moderate, negative relationship between TMS-evoked CBI at baseline and the WRCS in dystonia. Anodal cerebellar tDCS reduced handwriting mean stroke frequency and average pen pressure, and increased speed and reduced pen pressure during fast cyclic drawing. Kinematic measures were not associated with a decrease in CBI within an individual. In conclusion, cerebellar anodal tDCS appeared to improve kinematics of handwriting and circle drawing tasks; but the underlying neurophysiological mechanism remains uncertain. A study in a larger homogeneous population is needed to further investigate the possible therapeutic benefit of cerebellar tDCS in dystonia.

  15. Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation to the cerebellum improves handwriting and cyclic drawing kinematics in focal hand dystonia

    PubMed Central

    Bradnam, Lynley V.; Graetz, Lynton J.; McDonnell, Michelle N.; Ridding, Michael C.

    2015-01-01

    There is increasing evidence that the cerebellum has a role in the pathophysiology of primary focal hand dystonia and might provide an intervention target for non-invasive brain stimulation to improve function of the affected hand. The primary objective of this study was to determine if cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improves handwriting and cyclic drawing kinematics in people with hand dystonia, by reducing cerebellar-brain inhibition (CBI) evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Eight people with dystonia (5 writer’s dystonia, 3 musician’s dystonia) and eight age-matched controls completed the study and underwent cerebellar anodal, cathodal and sham tDCS in separate sessions. Dystonia severity was assessed using the Writer’s Cramp Rating Scale (WRCS) and the Arm Dystonia Disability Scale (ADDS). The kinematic measures that differentiated the groups were; mean stroke frequency during handwriting and fast cyclic drawing and average pen pressure during light cyclic drawing. TMS measures of cortical excitability were no different between people with FHD and controls. There was a moderate, negative relationship between TMS-evoked CBI at baseline and the WRCS in dystonia. Anodal cerebellar tDCS reduced handwriting mean stroke frequency and average pen pressure, and increased speed and reduced pen pressure during fast cyclic drawing. Kinematic measures were not associated with a decrease in CBI within an individual. In conclusion, cerebellar anodal tDCS appeared to improve kinematics of handwriting and circle drawing tasks; but the underlying neurophysiological mechanism remains uncertain. A study in a larger homogeneous population is needed to further investigate the possible therapeutic benefit of cerebellar tDCS in dystonia. PMID:26042019

  16. Why are children in the same family so different from one another?*

    PubMed Central

    Plomin, Robert; Daniels, Denise

    2011-01-01

    Summary One of the most important findings that has emerged from human behavioral genetics involves the environment rather than heredity, providing the best available evidence for the importance of environmental influences on personality, psychopathology, and cognition. The research also converges on the remarkable conclusion that these environmental influences make two children in the same family as different from one another as are pairs of children selected randomly from the population. The theme of the target article is that environmental differences between children in the same family (called “nonshared environment”) represent the major source of environmental variance for personality, psychopathology, and cognitive abilities. One example of the evidence that supports this conclusion involves correlations for pairs of adopted children reared in the same family from early in life. Because these children share family environment but not heredity, their correlation directly estimates the importance of shared family environment. For most psychological characteristics, correlations for adoptive “siblings” hover near zero, which implies that the relevant environmental influences are not shared by children in the same family. Although it has been thought that cognitive abilities represent an exception to this rule, recent data suggest that environmental variance that affects IQ is also of the nonshared variety after adolescence. The article has three goals: (1) To describe quantitative genetic methods and research that lead to the conclusion that nonshared environment is responsible for most environmental variation relevant to psychological development, (2) to discuss specific nonshared environmental influences that have been studied to date, and (3) to consider relationships between nonshared environmental influences and behavioral differences between children in the same family. The reason for presenting this article in BBS is to draw attention to the far-reaching implications of finding that psychologically relevant environmental influences make children in a family different from, not similar to, one another. PMID:21807642

  17. Why are children in the same family so different from one another?

    PubMed

    Plomin, Robert; Daniels, Denise

    2011-06-01

    One of the most important findings that has emerged from human behavioral genetics involves the environment rather than heredity, providing the best available evidence for the importance of environmental influences on personality, psychopathology, and cognition. The research also converges on the remarkable conclusion that these environmental influences make two children in the same family as different from one another as are pairs of children selected randomly from the population. The theme of the target article is that environmental differences between children in the same family (called "nonshared environment") represent the major source of environmental variance for personality, psychopathology, and cognitive abilities. One example of the evidence that supports this conclusion involves correlations for pairs of adopted children reared in the same family from early in life. Because these children share family environment but not heredity, their correlation directly estimates the importance of shared family environment. For most psychological characteristics, correlations for adoptive "siblings" hover near zero, which implies that the relevant environmental influences are not shared by children in the same family. Although it has been thought that cognitive abilities represent an exception to this rule, recent data suggest that environmental variance that affects IQ is also of the nonshared variety after adolescence. The article has three goals: (1) To describe quantitative genetic methods and research that lead to the conclusion that nonshared environment is responsible for most environmental variation relevant to psychological development, (2) to discuss specific nonshared environmental influences that have been studied to date, and (3) to consider relationships between nonshared environmental influences and behavioral differences between children in the same family. The reason for presenting this article in BBS is to draw attention to the far-reaching implications of finding that psychologically relevant environmental influences make children in a family different from, not similar to, one another.

  18. Up, not down: The age curve in happiness from early adulthood to midlife in two longitudinal studies.

    PubMed

    Galambos, Nancy L; Fang, Shichen; Krahn, Harvey J; Johnson, Matthew D; Lachman, Margie E

    2015-11-01

    Happiness is an important indicator of well-being, and little is known about how it changes in the early adult years. We examined trajectories of happiness from early adulthood to midlife in 2 Canadian longitudinal samples: high school seniors followed from ages 18-43 and university seniors followed from ages 23-37. Happiness increased into the 30s in both samples, with a slight downturn by age 43 in the high school sample. The rise in happiness after high school and university remained after controlling for important baseline covariates (gender, parents' education, grades, self-esteem), time-varying covariates known to be associated with happiness (marital status, unemployment, self-rated physical health), and number of waves of participation. The upward trend in happiness runs counter to some previous cross-sectional research claiming a high point in happiness in the late teens, decreasing into midlife. As cross-sectional designs do not assess within-person change, longitudinal studies are necessary for drawing accurate conclusions about patterns of change in happiness across the life span. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  19. Risk factors for age-related maculopathy.

    PubMed

    Connell, Paul P; Keane, Pearse A; O'Neill, Evelyn C; Altaie, Rasha W; Loane, Edward; Neelam, Kumari; Nolan, John M; Beatty, Stephen

    2009-01-01

    Age-related maculopathy (ARM) is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Although beneficial therapeutic strategies have recently begun to emerge, much remains unclear regarding the etiopathogenesis of this disorder. Epidemiologic studies have enhanced our understanding of ARM, but the data, often conflicting, has led to difficulties with drawing firm conclusions with respect to risk for this condition. As a consequence, we saw a need to assimilate the published findings with respect to risk factors for ARM, through a review of the literature appraising results from published cross-sectional studies, prospective cohort studies, case series, and case control studies investigating risk for this condition. Our review shows that, to date, and across a spectrum of epidemiologic study designs, only age, cigarette smoking, and family history of ARM have been consistently demonstrated to represent risk for this condition. In addition, genetic studies have recently implicated many genes in the pathogenesis of age-related maculopathy, including Complement Factor H, PLEKHA 1, and LOC387715/HTRA1, demonstrating that environmental and genetic factors are important for the development of ARM suggesting that gene-environment interaction plays an important role in the pathogenesis of this condition.

  20. Why undertake a pilot in a qualitative PhD study? Lessons learned to promote success.

    PubMed

    Wray, Jane; Archibong, Uduak; Walton, Sean

    2017-01-23

    Background Pilot studies can play an important role in qualitative studies. Methodological and practical issues can be shaped and refined by undertaking pilots. Personal development and researchers' competence are enhanced and lessons learned can inform the development and quality of the main study. However, pilot studies are rarely published, despite their potential to improve knowledge and understanding of the research. Aim To present the main lessons learned from undertaking a pilot in a qualitative PhD study. Discussion This paper draws together lessons learned when undertaking a pilot as part of a qualitative research project. Important methodological and practical issues identified during the pilot study are discussed including access, recruitment, data collection and the personal development of the researcher. The resulting changes to the final study are also highlighted. Conclusion Sharing experiences of and lessons learned in a pilot study enhances personal development, improves researchers' confidence and competence, and contributes to the understanding of research. Implications for practice Pilots can be used effectively in qualitative studies to refine the final design, and provide the researcher with practical experience to enhance confidence and competence.

  1. Environmental changes and violent conflict

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bernauer, Thomas; Böhmelt, Tobias; Koubi, Vally

    2012-03-01

    This letter reviews the scientific literature on whether and how environmental changes affect the risk of violent conflict. The available evidence from qualitative case studies indicates that environmental stress can contribute to violent conflict in some specific cases. Results from quantitative large-N studies, however, strongly suggest that we should be careful in drawing general conclusions. Those large-N studies that we regard as the most sophisticated ones obtain results that are not robust to alternative model specifications and, thus, have been debated. This suggests that environmental changes may, under specific circumstances, increase the risk of violent conflict, but not necessarily in a systematic way and unconditionally. Hence there is, to date, no scientific consensus on the impact of environmental changes on violent conflict. This letter also highlights the most important challenges for further research on the subject. One of the key issues is that the effects of environmental changes on violent conflict are likely to be contingent on a set of economic and political conditions that determine adaptation capacity. In the authors' view, the most important indirect effects are likely to lead from environmental changes via economic performance and migration to violent conflict.

  2. Changing our minds: a commentary on `Conceptual change: a discussion of theoretical, methodological and practical challenges for science education'

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mercer, Neil

    2008-07-01

    This paper begins with a consideration of some important themes dealt with in the paper by Treagust and Duit. These include the relationship between research on conceptual change and educational practice, the significance of emotion and identity in the process of conceptual change, and role of cognitive conflict in motivating change. I then argue that the authors implicitly assert the importance of spoken dialogue as a motor for conceptual change, but do not give it the proper, explicit recognition that it deserves. I first use their own data of transcribed talk to make this point, and then go on to elaborate my case by drawing on other research. Talk amongst students and teacher-student talk are both considered. My conclusion is that while more empirical research is needed to understand how dialogue is involved in conceptual change, available evidence shows very clearly that the role of talk and social interaction is so significant that it cannot be ignored. It is therefore necessary for theoretical accounts to deal with both social (i.e. communicative) and cognitive aspects of conceptual change.

  3. Kinematic and Pressure Features of Handwriting and Drawing: Preliminary Results Between Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer Disease and Healthy Controls

    PubMed Central

    Garre-Olmo, Josep; Faúndez-Zanuy, Marcos; López-de-Ipiña, Karmele; Calvó-Perxas, Laia; Turró-Garriga, Oriol

    2017-01-01

    Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative dementia of old age, and the leading chronic disease contributor to disability and dependence among older people worldwide. Clinically, AD is characterized by a progressive cognitive decline that interferes with the abil-ity to perform the activities of daily living. Handwriting and drawing are complex human activities that entail an intricate blend of cognitive, kinesthetic, and perceptual-motor features. Objective: To compare the kinematic characteristics of handwriting and drawing between patients with AD, patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and healthy controls. Methods: We used a cross-sectional and observational design to assess the kinematic and pressure fea-tures of handwriting and drawing using a computerized system. Participants were asked to copy one sen-tence, write a dictated sentence and an own sentence, copy two and-three dimensions drawings, and to execute the clock drawing test. By means of discriminant analyses, we explored the value of several kin-ematic features in order to classify participants depending on their degree of cognitive functioning. Results: The sample consisted of 52 participants (23 AD, 12 MCI, and 17 healthy controls) with a mean age of 69.7 years (SD=8.11). The degree of correct classification was largely dependent on the nature of the groups to be classified and the specific task, and ranged between 63.5% and 100%. Diagnostic accu-racy based on kinematic measures showed higher specificity values for distinguishing between normal and impaired cognition (MCI and AD), and higher sensitivity was obtained when distinguishing between impaired cognition levels (MCI vs. AD). Conclusion: The kinematic features of writing and drawing procedures, rather than the final product, may be a useful and objective complement to the clinical assessment of patients with cognitive impairment. PMID:28290244

  4. Substructures in Clusters of Galaxies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lehodey, Brigitte Tome

    2000-01-01

    This dissertation presents two methods for the detection of substructures in clusters of galaxies and the results of their application to a group of four clusters. In chapters 2 and 3, we remember the main properties of clusters of galaxies and give the definition of substructures. We also try to show why the study of substructures in clusters of galaxies is so important for Cosmology. Chapters 4 and 5 describe these two methods, the first one, the adaptive Kernel, is applied to the study of the spatial and kinematical distribution of the cluster galaxies. The second one, the MVM (Multiscale Vision Model), is applied to analyse the cluster diffuse X-ray emission, i.e., the intracluster gas distribution. At the end of these two chapters, we also present the results of the application of these methods to our sample of clusters. In chapter 6, we draw the conclusions from the comparison of the results we obtain with each method. In the last chapter, we present the main conclusions of this work trying to point out possible developments. We close with two appendices in which we detail some questions raised in this work not directly linked to the problem of substructures detection.

  5. The Well-Being of Siblings of Individuals with Autism

    PubMed Central

    Green, Laura

    2013-01-01

    Objective. The purpose of this review of the literature was to summarise studies regarding the psychosocial impact of growing up with a sibling with autism and to identify gaps in the related literature. Methods. Electronic databases were reviewed in order to critically appraise the 14 articles relevant to the topic. The search included a combination of the following key words: autism∗, quality of life, well-being, sibling∗, ASD, ASD sibling∗, family, adjust∗, psychological functioning. Results. The majority of studies involved mixed children and adolescent samples, leading to confounding results and an inability to draw accurate conclusions about these distinct life stages. Autism appears to contribute to unique environmental stressors for the typically developing sibling. When experienced in the context of additional demographic risk factors, these stressors can result in difficulties adjusting to the demands of a special-needs child. Despite some vulnerability to behavioural and emotional dysfunction in at-risk children, siblings have the potential to not only adjust but to thrive in the face of disability adversity. Conclusion. Growing up with a sibling with autism appears to manifest in both positive and negative outcomes for siblings, depending upon important demographical, family, and individual variables. PMID:23738144

  6. Genetic diversity of selected genes that are potentially economically important in feral sheep of New Zealand

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background Feral sheep are considered to be a source of genetic variation that has been lost from their domestic counterparts through selection. Methods This study investigates variation in the genes KRTAP1-1, KRT33, ADRB3 and DQA2 in Merino-like feral sheep populations from New Zealand and its offshore islands. These genes have previously been shown to influence wool, lamb survival and animal health. Results All the genes were polymorphic, but no new allele was identified in the feral populations. In some of these populations, allele frequencies differed from those observed in commercial Merino sheep and other breeds found in New Zealand. Heterozygosity levels were comparable to those observed in other studies on feral sheep. Our results suggest that some of the feral populations may have been either inbred or outbred over the duration of their apparent isolation. Conclusion The variation described here allows us to draw some conclusions about the likely genetic origin of the populations and selective pressures that may have acted upon them, but they do not appear to be a source of new genetic material, at least for these four genes. PMID:21176141

  7. A Virtual Dig--Joining Archaeology and Fiction to Promote Critical and Historical Thinking

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cooper, David

    2003-01-01

    In this article, the author describes "Dr. Gesundheit and the Mysteries of Snake Valley," a mini-unit that he designed so that his middle-level students could learn to interpret archaeological diagrams, work cooperatively to discover relationships among their observations, and draw well-founded conclusions. The unit requires approximately four…

  8. A Review and Perspective on Lean in Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Balzer, William K.; Francis, David E.; Krehbiel, Timothy C.; Shea, Nicholas

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the accumulated body of research on Lean in higher education, draw conclusions to help guide successful Lean implementations and propose future research directions to establish a rich base of knowledge that informs both practice and research. Design/methodology/approach This literature review…

  9. A Project-based Spiral Curriculum for Introductory Courses in ChE: Part 3. Evaluation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DiBiasio, David; Comparini, Lisa; Dixon, Anthony G.; Clark, William M.

    2001-01-01

    Presents the third part of a series on the development and implementation of project-based spiral curriculum in chemical engineering. Focuses on the details of the assessment design, describes the results of the assessment, and draws conclusions about the success of the program. (Contains 18 references.) (ASK)

  10. Treatment Integrity of Interventions with Children in the School Psychology Literature from 1995 to 2008

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanetti, Lisa M. Hagermoser; Gritter, Katie L.; Dobey, Lisa M.

    2011-01-01

    Increased accountability in education has resulted in a focus on implementing interventions with strong empirical support. Both student outcome and treatment integrity data are needed to draw valid conclusions about intervention effectiveness. Reviews of the literature in other fields (e.g., applied behavior analysis, prevention science) suggest…

  11. Cortical Bases of Elementary Deductive Reasoning: Inference, Memory, and Metadeduction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reverberi, Carlo; Shallice, Tim; D'Agostini, Serena; Skrap, Miran; Bonatti, Luca L.

    2009-01-01

    Elementary deduction is the ability of unreflectively drawing conclusions from explicit or implicit premises, on the basis of their logical forms. This ability is involved in many aspects of human cognition and interactions. To date, limited evidence exists on its cortical bases. We propose a model of elementary deduction in which logical…

  12. Are We Asking the Right Questions?: A Conceptual Review of the Educational Development Literature in Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Amundsen, Cheryl; Wilson, Mary

    2012-01-01

    This is a conceptual review of the literature variously referred to as faculty development, educational development, instructional development, and academic development in higher education. Previous empirical reviews covering more than 30 years of published literature could draw only tentative and weak conclusions about the effectiveness of…

  13. Third Culture Kids: Transition and Persistence When Repatriating to Attend University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jennison Smith, Virginia M

    2011-01-01

    Scope and Method of Study. This qualitative study used heuristic phenomenology and involved 20 interviews at 3 different sites, 2 focus groups, formal and informal observations, and the analysis of various artifacts including photos, drawings, and documents. Findings and Conclusions. Third culture kids are a diverse group of individuals who spent…

  14. Development and Evaluation of a Model-Supported Scientific Inquiry Training Program for Elementary Teachers in Indonesia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ertikanto, Chandra; Herpratiwi; Yunarti, Tina; Saputra, Andrian

    2017-01-01

    A teacher training program, named Model-Supported Scientific Inquiry Training Program (MSSITP) has been successfully developed to improve the inquiry skills of Indonesian elementary teachers. The skills enhanced by MSSITP are defining problems, formulating hypotheses, planning and doing investigations, drawing conclusions, and communicating the…

  15. Measuring Change in Social Interaction Skills of Young Children with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cunningham, Allison B.

    2012-01-01

    Designing effective treatments for improving early social behaviors in autism has been identified as a critical research need. One barrier to drawing conclusions about optimal treatments for children with autism is the use of highly varied dependent measures in the treatment literature. Contributing to this is the absence of "gold standard"…

  16. Conclusion: Women around the World Reshaping Leadership for Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grogan, Margaret

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: This short essay aims to reflect on the global experiences women in education have had in becoming leaders as noted in the articles in this special issue on women's leadership. Design/methodology/approach: The essay draws upon relevant historical and contemporary literature about women in the professions and in the workforce. Findings:…

  17. Forces of the Wild. Nature. Teacher's Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Jordan

    This curriculum guide was developed for use with public television's Nature series. The materials in the guide are designed to help students actively participate in the study and experience of nature. Students are encouraged to view the programs as a scientist would, observing natural phenomena and drawing conclusions. Each lesson in the Teacher's…

  18. Comparing Societies from the 1500s in the Sixth Grade

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Matson, Trista; Henning, Mary Beth

    2008-01-01

    Inquiry is the process by which teachers give students an open-ended question, and then students investigate the evidence and draw conclusions based upon their findings. This method promotes critical thinking, as students cite evidence to support their opinions. Inquiry is most effective when it builds upon students' prior knowledge. To promote…

  19. 6883 Maintenance Training Simulator Development Utilizing Imagery Techniques.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1980-05-01

    increased motivation (as by its game-like setting), etc. These questions are left for future inquiry. 26 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The imagery training...the output of power supply PS4 ." 46. 46 ; 20b. Read instructions (imagery group only). "To ready the board, take the one drawing that is titled

  20. Great Explorations in Mathematics: Grades 5-8. Teacher's Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dyches, Richard W.; And Others

    This volume is a teacher's edition in a series of books that contain open-ended exploration activities and experiments. These activities allow and encourage students to set their own goals, use their own creativity and ideas, investigate the wonders of nature, learn about the workings of real businesses, and draw conclusions from their…

  1. A Challenge to Vocational Educators. Patrick J. O'Connor Distinguished Scholars. 1994 Papers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Phillips, Maria; Burrell, Lewis

    This document contains two papers dealing with challenges facing vocational educators. "Producing a Competent Workforce for the Year 2000: Industry Expectations of Education" (Lewis Burrell) draws the following conclusions: (1) employers and educators need to form a close coalition to plan, design, and execute a system of education and training…

  2. Functional Grammar in the Context of Linguistic Applications in Turkish Language Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Epcacan, Cahit

    2013-01-01

    In the last century, language researches adopted the scientific method and linguistics became an autonomous discipline. Linguistics is a framework concept that analyzes all languages in the world in various contexts according to its own rules and draws conclusions using the systematic approach. Functional linguistics is a linguistic trend that…

  3. International Comparisons and Sensitivity to Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wiliam, Dylan

    2008-01-01

    While international comparisons such as those provided by PISA may be meaningful in terms of overall judgements about the performance of educational systems, caution is needed in terms of more fine-grained judgements. In particular it is argued that the results of PISA to draw conclusions about the quality of instruction in different systems is…

  4. How Broad Liberal Arts Training Produces Phd Economists: Carleton's Story

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bourne, Jenny; Grawe, Nathan D.

    2015-01-01

    Several recent studies point to strong performance in economics PhD programs of graduates from liberal arts colleges. While every undergraduate program is unique and the likelihood of selection bias combines with small sample sizes to caution against drawing strong conclusions, the authors reflect on their experience at Carleton College to…

  5. Review of Family Financial Decision Making: Suggestions for Future Research and Implications for Financial Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kim, Jinhee; Gutter, Michael S.; Spangler, Taylor

    2017-01-01

    This article reviews the theories and literature in intrahousehold financial decisions, spousal partners and financial decision making, family system and financial decision process, children, and financial decisions. The article draws conclusions from the literature review and discusses directions for future research and educational programs. Most…

  6. Exploring the Self-concept of Adults with Mild Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pestana, Claudio

    2015-01-01

    This qualitative study aimed to add to the research on the self-concept of adults with mild learning disabilities and to generate a deeper understanding of their self-perceptions rather than draw generalised quantitative conclusions. Eight adults diagnosed with mild learning disabilities receiving support from a supported living project were…

  7. Thick Descriptions: A Language for Articulating Ethnographic Media Technology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goldman-Segall, Ricki

    "Thick descriptions" are descriptions that are layered enough to draw conclusions and uncover the intentions of a given act, event, or process. In a video environment, thick descriptions are images, gestures, or sequences that convey meaning. Neither the quantity nor the resolution of the images makes the descriptions thick. Thickness is…

  8. Tracer Evolution at High Latitudes in Winter (SOLVE)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Plumb, R. Alan

    2001-01-01

    Prior to the SOLVE deployment, we modified and ran a chemical transport model (CTM) to set up a stratospheric climatology for 1 September 1999. During and immediately following the SOLVE deployments, we ran the model in near-real-time and used these results in conjunction with SOLVE observations to draw conclusions about stratospheric transport.

  9. Quantitative Data Analysis--In the Graduate Curriculum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Albers, Michael J.

    2017-01-01

    A quantitative research study collects numerical data that must be analyzed to help draw the study's conclusions. Teaching quantitative data analysis is not teaching number crunching, but teaching a way of critical thinking for how to analyze the data. The goal of data analysis is to reveal the underlying patterns, trends, and relationships of a…

  10. Dominant Personality Types in Public Accounting: Selection Bias or Indoctrinated?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burton, Hughlene; Daugherty, Brian; Dickins, Denise; Schisler, Dan

    2016-01-01

    Prior studies concerning the personality type and preferences of accountants generally draw conclusions based upon the reports of either practicing accountants, or accounting students, at a single point in time. So while much is known about the personality type of accountants in general, left unexplored is the question of whether public…

  11. Ancient India: The Asiatic Ethiopians.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scott, Carolyn McPherson

    This curriculum unit was developed by a participant in the 1993 Fulbright-Hays Program "India: Continuity and Change." The unit attempts to place India in the "picture frame" of the ancient world as a part of a whole, not as a separate entity. Reading materials enable students to draw broader general conclusions based on the…

  12. Professional Development for School Improvement: The Case of Indiana

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ruddy, Anne-Maree; Prusinski, Ellen

    2012-01-01

    Drawing on data collected during an evaluation of Indiana schools receiving Title I 1003(g) School Improvement Fund grants in the 2008-2009 school year, this article explores how professional development can be used to support school improvement efforts. This article upholds the conclusion that when activities support the development of a…

  13. Building bridges: marketing managed care to ethnically diverse populations.

    PubMed

    Rosen, M B

    1996-12-01

    America's population "stew" creates specific challenges to health plans attempting to reach ethnically differentiated enrollee groups. In this article, the author provides snapshots of four ethnic groups, suggests some marketing considerations when preparing communications to these groups, and helps draw some conclusions about marketing managed care products to a culturally diverse population.

  14. Making Sense of Undergraduate Students' Reflections as They Learn through Writing an Action Research Proposal

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maoto, S.

    2011-01-01

    This article explores learning opportunities offered by students' written reflections as they learn through writing an action research proposal. From tapping into students' reported struggles, I analysed data using three stages of qualitative data analysis: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing (Miles and Huberman 1994). It emerged…

  15. Inquiry-Based Learning Approach in Physical Education: Stimulating and Engaging Students in Physical and Cognitive Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Østergaard, Lars Domino

    2016-01-01

    Inquiry is an approach that promotes engagement, motivation and learning, and which involves use of cognitive knowledge, bodily experience and communicative skills. Usually the inquiry method with skills like observations, planning, investigations, experimenting and drawing conclusions is related to natural sciences, but this paper describes an…

  16. The Theory and Practice of Alternative Certification: Implications for the Improvement of Teaching.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hawley, Willis D.

    1990-01-01

    Identifies questions related to the processes and consequences of alternative teacher certification (AC), answers questions with research-based facts, proposes key elements of a model AC program, and draws conclusions about the directions AC may take and its probable effects on educational reform and on the professionalization of teaching. (SM)

  17. The Dark Side of the Tube

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wagler, Amy; Wagler, Ron

    2014-01-01

    Every high school graduate should be able to use data analysis and statistical reasoning to draw conclusions about the world. Two core statistical concepts for students to understand are the role of variability in measures and evaluating the effect of a variable. In the activity presented in this article, students investigate a scientific question…

  18. E-Beam Capture Aid Drawing Based Modelling on Cell Biology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hidayat, T.; Rahmat, A.; Redjeki, S.; Rahman, T.

    2017-09-01

    The objectives of this research are to find out how far Drawing-based Modeling assisted with E-Beam Capture could support student’s scientific reasoning skill using Drawing - based Modeling approach assisted with E-Beam Capture. The research design that is used for this research is the Pre-test and Post-test Design. The data collection of scientific reasoning skills is collected by giving multiple choice questions before and after the lesson. The data analysis of scientific reasoning skills is using scientific reasoning assessment rubric. The results show an improvement of student’s scientific reasoning in every indicator; an improvement in generativity which shows 2 students achieving high scores, 3 students in elaboration reasoning, 4 students in justification, 3 students in explanation, 3 students in logic coherency, 2 students in synthesis. The research result in student’s explanation reasoning has the highest number of students with high scores, which shows 20 students with high scores in the pre-test and 23 students in post-test and synthesis reasoning shows the lowest number, which shows 1 student in the pretest and 3 students in posttest. The research result gives the conclusion that Drawing-based Modeling approach assisted with E-Beam Capture could not yet support student’s scientific reasoning skills comprehensively.

  19. An exploratory study of the potential learning benefits for medical students in collaborative drawing: creativity, reflection and ‘critical looking’

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Building on a series of higher educational arts/medicine initiatives, an interdisciplinary drawing module themed on the human body was developed for both year 3 Craft students and year 3 Medicine degree students. This became the subject of a research project exploring how the collaborative approach to drawing adopted on this module impacted on the students’ learning. In this article, emphasis is given to issues thought to have most potential relevance to medical education. Methods Using an ethnographic research design, the methods adopted were: direct observation of all aspects of the module sessions, audio and video recordings and photographs of the sessions, the incorporation of a semi-structured discussion at the end of each session, and anonymous student questionnaires. Results A number of key themes emerged. The complex, phased and multi-sensory nature of the ‘critical looking’ skills developed through the drawing exercises was seen as of potential value in medical education, being proposed as analogous to processes involved in clinical examination and diagnosis. The experience of interdisciplinary collaborative drawing was significant to the students as a creative, participatory and responsive form of learning. The emphasis on the physical experience of drawing and the thematic use of the human body as drawing subject led to reflective discussions about bodily knowledge and understanding. There were indications that students had a meta-cognitive awareness of the learning shifts that had occurred and the sessions provoked constructive self-reflective explorations of pre-professional identity. Conclusions This preliminary study suggests, through the themes identified, that there may be potential learning outcomes for medical students in this model of interdisciplinary collaborative drawing of the human body. Further research is needed to explore their applicability and value to medical education. There is a need to explore in more depth the beliefs, motivations and learning styles of medical students opting for the module, the significance and weighting of different learning and teaching elements in the module and the impact of the learning on medical students in the immediate post-module phase. PMID:23773830

  20. DNA profiling of trace DNA recovered from bedding.

    PubMed

    Petricevic, Susan F; Bright, Jo-Anne; Cockerton, Sarah L

    2006-05-25

    Trace DNA is often detected on handled items and worn clothing examined in forensic laboratories. In this study, the potential transfer of trace DNA to bedding by normal contact, when an individual sleeps in a bed, is examined. Volunteers slept one night on a new, lower bed sheet in their own bed and one night in a bed foreign to them. Samples from the sheets were collected and analysed by DNA profiling. The results indicate that the DNA profile of an individual can be obtained from bedding after one night of sleeping in a bed. The DNA profile of the owner of the bed could also be detected in the foreign bed experiments. Since mixed DNA profiles can be obtained from trace DNA on bedding, caution should be exercised when drawing conclusions from DNA profiling results obtained from such samples. This transfer may have important repercussions in sexual assault investigations.

  1. Psychometrics Matter in Health Behavior: A Long-term Reliability Generalization Study.

    PubMed

    Pickett, Andrew C; Valdez, Danny; Barry, Adam E

    2017-09-01

    Despite numerous calls for increased understanding and reporting of reliability estimates, social science research, including the field of health behavior, has been slow to respond and adopt such practices. Therefore, we offer a brief overview of reliability and common reporting errors; we then perform analyses to examine and demonstrate the variability of reliability estimates by sample and over time. Using meta-analytic reliability generalization, we examined the variability of coefficient alpha scores for a well-designed, consistent, nationwide health study, covering a span of nearly 40 years. For each year and sample, reliability varied. Furthermore, reliability was predicted by a sample characteristic that differed among age groups within each administration. We demonstrated that reliability is influenced by the methods and individuals from which a given sample is drawn. Our work echoes previous calls that psychometric properties, particularly reliability of scores, are important and must be considered and reported before drawing statistical conclusions.

  2. System analysis in rotorcraft design: The past decade

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Galloway, Thomas L.

    1988-01-01

    Rapid advances in the technology of electronic digital computers and the need for an integrated synthesis approach in developing future rotorcraft programs has led to increased emphasis on system analysis techniques in rotorcraft design. The task in systems analysis is to deal with complex, interdependent, and conflicting requirements in a structured manner so rational and objective decisions can be made. Whether the results are wisdom or rubbish depends upon the validity and sometimes more importantly, the consistency of the inputs, the correctness of the analysis, and a sensible choice of measures of effectiveness to draw conclusions. In rotorcraft design this means combining design requirements, technology assessment, sensitivity analysis and reviews techniques currently in use by NASA and Army organizations in developing research programs and vehicle specifications for rotorcraft. These procedures span simple graphical approaches to comprehensive analysis on large mainframe computers. Examples of recent applications to military and civil missions are highlighted.

  3. A meta-analytic review of moral licensing.

    PubMed

    Blanken, Irene; van de Ven, Niels; Zeelenberg, Marcel

    2015-04-01

    Moral licensing refers to the effect that when people initially behave in a moral way, they are later more likely to display behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or otherwise problematic. We provide a state-of-the-art overview of moral licensing by conducting a meta-analysis of 91 studies (7,397 participants) that compare a licensing condition with a control condition. Based on this analysis, the magnitude of the moral licensing effect is estimated to be a Cohen's d of 0.31. We tested potential moderators and found that published studies tend to have larger moral licensing effects than unpublished studies. We found no empirical evidence for other moderators that were theorized to be of importance. The effect size estimate implies that studies require many more participants to draw solid conclusions about moral licensing and its possible moderators. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  4. The One or the Many: Quantified Subjectivity and Aggregated Uniqueness in Qualitative Rehabilitation Research.

    PubMed

    Juritzen, Truls I; Soberg, Helene L; Røe, Cecilie; Saebu, Martin; Engen, Grace; Bliksvaer, Trond; Engebretsen, Eivind

    2017-01-01

    This article aims to identify and critically assess qualitative intervention studies of rehabilitation processes that target young adults. By applying a meta-epistemological approach inspired by the works of Michel Foucault and Julia Kristeva, we examine how the included studies present qualitative knowledge and whether they adhere to their own stated principles of qualitative knowledge. Through their stated aims and theoretical framing, the articles draw attention to individual processes of meaning making. Nonetheless, we find that the articles to a great extent emphasize frequencies of the qualitative data they present. Individual processes and experiences are subject to subdivisions and categorization and transformed into manageable objects of knowledge. In conclusion, these studies, with one important exception, contribute to self-marginalization of the knowledge they themselves promote: They undermine the uniqueness of the qualitative knowledge they proclaim by focusing on frequency and the general patterns and categories encompassing the unique. © The Author(s) 2016.

  5. Toxicological benchmarks for potential contaminants of concern for effects on soil and litter invertebrates and heterotrophic process

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

    Will, M.E.; Suter, G.W. II

    1995-09-01

    An important step in ecological risk assessments is screening the chemicals occur-ring on a site for contaminants of potential concern. Screening may be accomplished by comparing reported ambient concentrations to a set of toxicological benchmarks. Multiple endpoints for assessing risks posed by soil-borne contaminants to organisms directly impacted by them have been established. This report presents benchmarks for soil invertebrates and microbial processes and addresses only chemicals found at United States Department of Energy (DOE) sites. No benchmarks for pesticides are presented. After discussing methods, this report presents the results of the literature review and benchmark derivation for toxicity tomore » earthworms (Sect. 3), heterotrophic microbes and their processes (Sect. 4), and other invertebrates (Sect. 5). The final sections compare the benchmarks to other criteria and background and draw conclusions concerning the utility of the benchmarks.« less

  6. Paradigms of forensic science and legal process: a critical diagnosis.

    PubMed

    Roberts, Paul

    2015-08-05

    This article reconsiders the relationship between criminal adjudication and forensic expertise in the light of 'new paradigms' of forensic practice and recent law reform. It briefly summarizes conventional wisdom on the typical shortcomings of forensic science and other expert evidence, as a springboard for a more searching critical diagnosis of longstanding maladies. The fundamentally jurisdictional nature of law is emphasized, and some implications for expert testimony noted. English law's traditionally adversarial model of criminal procedure is then reassessed, taking account of a proper understanding of its normative structure and modern development, and drawing on comparative legal research and theorizing to obtain a more rounded second opinion. In conclusion, some avenues for intelligent prescription are canvassed, highlighting the importance of promoting and facilitating effective communication between experts, lawyers and courts, and prioritizing modest practical remedies over radical surgery. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  7. Revisiting the Role of Neighbourhood Change in Social Exclusion and Inclusion of Older People

    PubMed Central

    Burns, Victoria F.; Lavoie, Jean-Pierre; Rose, Damaris

    2012-01-01

    Objective. To explore how older people who are “aging in place” are affected when the urban neighbourhoods in which they are aging are themselves undergoing socioeconomic and demographic change. Methods. A qualitative case study was conducted in two contrasting neighbourhoods in Montréal (Québec, Canada), the analysis drawing on concepts of social exclusion and attachment. Results. Participants express variable levels of attachment to neighbourhood. Gentrification triggered processes of social exclusion among older adults: loss of social spaces dedicated to older people led to social disconnectedness, invisibility, and loss of political influence on neighbourhood planning. Conversely, certain changes in a disadvantaged neighbourhood fostered their social inclusion. Conclusion. This study thus highlights the importance of examining the impacts of neighbourhood change when exploring the dynamics of aging in place and when considering interventions to maintain quality of life of those concerned. PMID:22013528

  8. Bayesian data analysis for newcomers.

    PubMed

    Kruschke, John K; Liddell, Torrin M

    2018-02-01

    This article explains the foundational concepts of Bayesian data analysis using virtually no mathematical notation. Bayesian ideas already match your intuitions from everyday reasoning and from traditional data analysis. Simple examples of Bayesian data analysis are presented that illustrate how the information delivered by a Bayesian analysis can be directly interpreted. Bayesian approaches to null-value assessment are discussed. The article clarifies misconceptions about Bayesian methods that newcomers might have acquired elsewhere. We discuss prior distributions and explain how they are not a liability but an important asset. We discuss the relation of Bayesian data analysis to Bayesian models of mind, and we briefly discuss what methodological problems Bayesian data analysis is not meant to solve. After you have read this article, you should have a clear sense of how Bayesian data analysis works and the sort of information it delivers, and why that information is so intuitive and useful for drawing conclusions from data.

  9. The common use of improper control diets in diet-induced metabolic disease research confounds data interpretation: the fiber factor.

    PubMed

    Pellizzon, Michael A; Ricci, Matthew R

    2018-01-01

    Diets used to induce metabolic disease are generally high in fat and refined carbohydrates and importantly, are usually made with refined, purified ingredients. However, researchers will often use a low fat grain-based (GB) diet containing unrefined ingredients as the control diet. Such a comparison between two completely different diet types makes it impossible to draw conclusions regarding the phenotypic differences driven by diet. While many compositional differences can account for this, one major difference that could have the greatest impact between GB and purified diets is the fiber content, both in terms of the level and composition. We will review recent data showing how fiber differences between GB diets and purified diets can significantly influence gut health and microbiota, which itself can affect metabolic disease development. Researchers need to consider the control diet carefully in order to make the best use of precious experimental resources.

  10. [Biologics - nomenclature and classification].

    PubMed

    Eichbaum, Christine; Haefeli, Walter E

    2011-11-01

    Biological medicines are a heterogeneous group of drugs that are produced by living organisms using genetic or biological technology. Unlike chemically derived small molecules biologics are structurally complex making characterization and manufacturing difficult. Moreover, biological medicines show a great variety concerning their clinical use. To appropriately consider these particularities, there are other standards and guidelines for approval of similar derivatives of biologics, the so-called biosimilars or follow-on biologics. In contrast to a generic medicinal product containing a chemically identical active ingredient, a biosimilar is only expected to be similar to the innovator drug. Nowadays, monoclonal antibodies, fragments of antibodies, and fusion proteins manufactured by recombinant procedures play an important role. They have been used in many specialties for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes and are subject to continuous further development and improvement. Their nomenclature is based on a classification by the WHO which allows drawing conclusions for class of substance, origin, and pharmacological target.

  11. Improving Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health: National Organizations Leading Community Research Initiatives

    PubMed Central

    Cook, Won Kim; Weir, Rosy Chang; Ro, Margeurite; Ko, Kathy Lim; Panapasa, Sela; Bautista, Roxanna; Asato, Lloyd; Chung, Corina; Cabllero, Jeffery; Islam, Nadia

    2012-01-01

    Background Functionally, many CBPR projects operate through a model of academic partners providing research expertise and community partners playing a supporting role. Objectives To demonstrate how national umbrella organizations deeply rooted in communities, cognizant of community needs, and drawing on the insights and assets of community partners, can lead efforts to address health disparities affecting their constituents through research. Methods Case studies of two Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander national organizations Results Strategically engaging a diverse range of partners and securing flexible funding mechanisms that support research were important facilitators. Main challenges included limited interest of local community organizations whose primary missions as service or health care providers may deprioritize research. Conclusions Efforts to make research relevant to the work of community partners and to instill the value of research in community partners, as well as flexible funding mechanisms, may help to promote community-driven research. PMID:22643786

  12. Revisiting the role of neighbourhood change in social exclusion and inclusion of older people.

    PubMed

    Burns, Victoria F; Lavoie, Jean-Pierre; Rose, Damaris

    2012-01-01

    Objective. To explore how older people who are "aging in place" are affected when the urban neighbourhoods in which they are aging are themselves undergoing socioeconomic and demographic change. Methods. A qualitative case study was conducted in two contrasting neighbourhoods in Montréal (Québec, Canada), the analysis drawing on concepts of social exclusion and attachment. Results. Participants express variable levels of attachment to neighbourhood. Gentrification triggered processes of social exclusion among older adults: loss of social spaces dedicated to older people led to social disconnectedness, invisibility, and loss of political influence on neighbourhood planning. Conversely, certain changes in a disadvantaged neighbourhood fostered their social inclusion. Conclusion. This study thus highlights the importance of examining the impacts of neighbourhood change when exploring the dynamics of aging in place and when considering interventions to maintain quality of life of those concerned.

  13. Determination of Process Parameters in Multi-Stage Hydro-Mechanical Deep Drawing by FE Simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, D. Ravi; Manohar, M.

    2017-09-01

    In this work, analysis has been carried to simulate manufacturing of a near hemispherical bottom part with large depth by hydro-mechanical deep drawing with an aim to reduce the number of forming steps and to reduce the extent of thinning in the dome region. Inconel 718 has been considered as the material due to its importance in aerospace industry. It is a Ni-based super alloy and it is one of the most widely used of all super alloys primarily due to large-scale applications in aircraft engines. Using Finite Element Method (FEM), numerical simulations have been carried out for multi-stage hydro-mechanical deep drawing by using the same draw ratios and design parameters as in the case of conventional deep drawing in four stages. The results showed that the minimum thickness in the final part can be increased significantly when compared to conventional deep drawing. It has been found that the part could be deep drawn to the desired height (after trimming at the final stage) without any severe wrinkling. Blank holding force (BHF) and peak counter pressure have been found to have a strong influence on thinning in the component. Decreasing the coefficient of friction has marginally increased the minimum thickness in the final component. By increasing the draw ratio and optimizing BHF, counter pressure and die corner radius in the simulations, it has been found that it is possible to draw the final part in three stages. It has been found that thinning can be further reduced by decreasing the initial blank size without any reduction in the final height. This reduced the draw ratio at every stage and optimum combination of BHF and counter pressure have been found for the 3-stage process also.

  14. Computer Aided Process Planning for Non-Axisymmetric Deep Drawing Products

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Park, Dong Hwan; Yarlagadda, Prasad K. D. V.

    2004-06-01

    In general, deep drawing products have various cross-section shapes such as cylindrical, rectangular and non-axisymmetric shapes. The application of the surface area calculation to non-axisymmetric deep drawing process has not been published yet. In this research, a surface area calculation for non-axisymmetric deep drawing products with elliptical shape was constructed for a design of blank shape of deep drawing products by using an AutoLISP function of AutoCAD software. A computer-aided process planning (CAPP) system for rotationally symmetric deep drawing products has been developed. However, the application of the system to non-axisymmetric components has not been reported yet. Thus, the CAPP system for non-axisymmetric deep drawing products with elliptical shape was constructed by using process sequence design. The system developed in this work consists of four modules. The first is recognition of shape module to recognize non-axisymmetric products. The second is a three-dimensional (3-D) modeling module to calculate the surface area for non-axisymmetric products. The third is a blank design module to create an oval-shaped blank with the identical surface area. The forth is a process planning module based on the production rules that play the best important role in an expert system for manufacturing. The production rules are generated and upgraded by interviewing field engineers. Especially, the drawing coefficient, the punch and die radii for elliptical shape products are considered as main design parameters. The suitability of this system was verified by applying to a real deep drawing product. This CAPP system constructed would be very useful to reduce lead-time for manufacturing and improve an accuracy of products.

  15. Beyond Narratives: "Free Drawings" as Visual Data in Addiction Research.

    PubMed

    Klingemann, Justyna; Klingemann, Harald

    2016-05-11

    The study presented here explores the usefulness of visual data when assessing addiction careers from various methodological perspectives. The database consists of 14 "free life-course drawings" produced by seven Swiss and seven Polish male alcohol ex-users, and their life history narratives collected in the context of earlier studies on self-change. The analysis follows the principles of the Barthian visual semiotics approach including the author and the viewer perspective. This is followed by the investigation of the interplay between drawings and narratives in Polish and German. Compared to the detailed narratives following few sub-storylines at the same time, the drawings provide a more coherent and differentiated overall picture especially of the emotional state over the life course: the relative subjective importance of highs and lows; and clearer visualisation of mixed positive and negative feelings; as well as identity concepts, such as the interplay between Mead's I & me.

  16. Exploratory procedures of tactile images in visually impaired and blindfolded sighted children: how they relate to their consequent performance in drawing.

    PubMed

    Vinter, Annie; Fernandes, Viviane; Orlandi, Oriana; Morgan, Pascal

    2012-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to compare the types of exploratory procedures employed by children when exploring bidimensional tactile patterns and correlate the use of these procedures with the children's shape drawing performance. 18 early blind children, 20 children with low vision and 24 age-matched blindfolded sighted children aged approximately 7 or 11 years were included in the study. The children with a visual handicap outperformed the sighted children in terms of haptic exploration and did not produce less recognizable drawings than their sighted counterparts. Close relationships were identified between the types of exploratory procedures employed by the children and their subsequent drawing performance, regardless of visual status. This close link between action and perception in the haptic modality indicates the importance of training blind children in exploratory procedures at an early age. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Increasing response rates to follow-up questionnaires in health intervention research: Randomized controlled trial of a gift card prize incentive.

    PubMed

    Morgan, Amy J; Rapee, Ronald M; Bayer, Jordana K

    2017-08-01

    Background/aims Achieving a high response rate to follow-up questionnaires in randomized controlled trials of interventions is important for study validity. Few studies have tested the value of incentives in increasing response rates to online questionnaires in clinical trials of health interventions. This study evaluated the effect of a gift card prize-draw incentive on response rates to follow-up questionnaires within a trial of an online health intervention. Method The study was embedded in a host randomized controlled trial of an online parenting program for child anxiety. A total of 433 participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups: (1) being informed that they would enter a gift card prize-draw if they completed the final study questionnaire (24-week follow-up) and (2) not informed about the prize-draw. All participants had a 1 in 20 chance of winning an AUD50 gift card after they completed the online questionnaire. Results The odds of the informed group completing the follow-up questionnaire were significantly higher than the uninformed group, (79.6% vs 68.5%, odds ratio = 1.79, 95% confidence interval = 1.15-2.79). This response rate increase of 11.1% (95% confidence interval = 2.8-19.1) occurred in both intervention and control groups in the host randomized controlled trial. The incentive was also effective in increasing questionnaire commencement (84.6% vs 75.9%, odds ratio = 1.74, 95% confidence interval = 1.07-2.84) and reducing the delay in completing the questionnaire (19.9 vs 22.6 days, hazard ratio = 1.34, 95% confidence interval = 1.07-1.67). Conclusion This study adds to evidence for the effectiveness of incentives to increase response rates to follow-up questionnaires in health intervention trials.

  18. SU-F-T-99: Data Visualization From a Treatment Planning Tracking System for Radiation Oncology

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

    Cline, K; Kabat, C; Li, Y

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: A treatment planning process tracker database with input forms and a TV-viewable display webpage was developed and implemented in our clinic to collect time data points throughout the process. Tracking plan times is important because it directly affects the patient quality of care. Simply, the longer a patient waits after their initial simulation CT for treatment to begin, the more time the cancer has to progress. The tracker helps to drive workflow through the clinic, while the data collected can be used to understand and manage the process to find and eliminate inefficiencies. Methods: The overall process steps trackedmore » are CT-simulation, mark patient, draw normal contours, draw target volumes, create plan, and review/approve plan. Time stamps for task completion were extracted and used to generate a set of clinic metrics, among which include average time for each step in the process split apart by type of treatment, average time to completion for plans started in a given week, and individual overall completion time per plan. Results: Trends have been tracked for fourteen weeks of clinical data (196 plans). On average, drawing normal contours and target volumes is taking 2–5 times as long as creating the plan itself. This is potentially an issue because it could mean the process is taking too long initially, and it could be forcing the planning step to be done in a short amount of time. We also saw from our graphs that there appears to be no clear trend on the average amount of time per plan week-to-week. Conclusion: A tracker of this type has the potential to provide insight into how time is utilized in our clinic. By equipping our dosimetrists, radiation oncologists, and physicists with individualized metric sets, the tracker can help provide visibility and drive workflow. Funded in part by CPRIT (RP140105).« less

  19. The Application of Orthophosphate to Reduce Elevated Copper Levels in a New Building with High DIC Water

    EPA Science Inventory

    Public water utilities in the United States are required to meet the 1991 Lead and Copper Rule action level of 1.3 mg/L for copper I drinking water. The effect of water chemistry on Cu(II) solubility has been studied, and drawing upon conclusions from this research , new copper ...

  20. New Hydrokinetic Turbine for Free Surface Gravitational Wave Transformation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berins, J.

    2017-12-01

    The present article deals with an alternative form of energy - the conversion of marine/ocean wave energy using an axial self-regulating blade (SB) hydrokinetic turbine (ASRBHK turbine). The article analyses the operation of the ASRBHK turbine and draws the resulting conclusions about the mechanism, in which the power transfer element is a self-regulating blade.

  1. Teachers' Self-Perceptions in England and Germany: Methodological Nationalism and Negative Points of Reference in Comparative Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    von Bargen, Imke

    2017-01-01

    The field of comparative education traditionally compares nations and cultures to gain a deeper understanding of educational phenomena. The nation-state often functions as the only unit of comparison, which increases methodological nationalism. It is dangerous to draw simplistic conclusions because they focus on national particularities alone and…

  2. Source and Message Factors in Persuasion: A Reply to Stiff's Critique of the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Petty, Richard E.; And Others

    1987-01-01

    Answers James Stiff's criticism of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion. Corrects certain misperceptions of the ELM and criticizes Stiff's meta-analysis that compares ELM predictions with those derived from Kahneman's elastic capacity model. Argues that Stiff's presentation of the ELM and the conclusions he draws based on the data…

  3. "Teach For"/"Teach First" Candidates: What Conclusions Do They Draw from Their Time in Teaching?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rice, Suzanne; Volkoff, Veronica; Dulfer, Nicky

    2015-01-01

    "Teach For" and "Teach First" programs now constitute a significant pathway into teaching in a number of countries. One criterion for selection into these programs is leadership capacity, and evidence indicates that many candidates do move into leadership roles in education, business, and policy in the years following their…

  4. Injury to plants from rapidly dropping temperature in Washington and northern Idaho

    Treesearch

    R. Daubenmire

    1957-01-01

    In nearly 70 years of recorded weather history, Washington and northern Idaho have on three occasions experienced exceptionally sharp freezes in late autumn or early winter that caused considerable damage to plants. A brief review of these events is warranted since the records are consistent enough to permit the drawing of significant conclusions.

  5. Iniciativa sobre Efectividad: Primeros frutos (Initiative about Effectiveness: First Fruits).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moreno Garcia, Teresa, Ed.

    2001-01-01

    This Spanish- and Portuguese-language bulletin is a follow-up to No. 15 (PS 030 558), which examined some Effectiveness Initiative (EI) projects. This issue presents some beginning efforts to reflect on what has been learned through EI and to draw conclusions. The articles cover the results of EI projects from such angles as their relations with…

  6. Effectiveness of e-Lab Use in Science Teaching at the Omani Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Al Musawi, A.; Ambusaidi, A.; Al-Balushi, S.; Al-Balushi, K.

    2015-01-01

    Computer and information technology can be used so that students can individually, in groups, or by electronic demonstration experiment and draw conclusion for the required activities in an electronic form in what is now called "e-lab". It enables students to conduct experiments more flexibly and in an interactive way using multimedia.…

  7. The Role of Social Networks in Physical and Relational Aggression among Young Adolescents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Low, Sabina; Polanin, Joshua R.; Espelage, Dorothy L.

    2013-01-01

    Despite the veritable influence of the peer context on the elaboration of adolescent aggression, few studies of relational aggression have directly identified and measured peer groups, limiting our ability to draw formal conclusions about the level and nature of peer influence. The current study used a developmental framework to examine peer group…

  8. Capacity Building through Integration and Transformational Leadership--A Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stöcklin, Sacha

    2011-01-01

    This article suggests that educational managers can have an influence through leadership by establishing certain moderators that integrate and shape the faculty into a solid team working towards a high performing organisation. The study looks at a case in China and draws suggestions that could be used in other similar settings. The conclusion is…

  9. The Psychologist's Troubled Background: Major Related Life Experiences of Psychology and Law Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Werz, Janina; Buechner, Vanessa L.

    2017-01-01

    This study explores major-related life experiences (MRLE) of psychology and law students to examine the stereotype of the wounded psychology student. Previous studies have shown that psychology students know people with mental disorders and are seeking treatment themselves. However, these studies do not allow drawing conclusions about the…

  10. The Benefits of Florida's Test-Based Promotion System. Civic Report. No. 68

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winters, Marcus A.

    2012-01-01

    State and municipal policymakers are increasingly addressing the practice of social promotion in schools--moving children along to the next grade whether or not they have mastered the curriculum--by mandating test-based grade promotion. This paper draws conclusions about the effects of a policy limiting social promotion. To do so, it employs a…

  11. An Analysis of Female Lecturers' Participation in Civil Engineering Research and Development Activities at One Polytechnic in Zimbabwe

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chikuvadze, Pinias; Matswetu, Vimbai Sharon; Mugijima, Samuel

    2015-01-01

    This study sought to explore female lecturers' participation in civil engineering research and development activities at one polytechnic in Zimbabwe. Case study design was chosen for this study to make predictions, narration of events, comparisons and drawing of conclusions. The female lecturers were purposively sampled to participate in the…

  12. A Cross Canada Inventory: Evidence of 21st Century Educational Reform in Canada

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burns, Amy

    2017-01-01

    This paper reports on an initial website review of Ministries of Education, provincial teacher associations and select school jurisdictions across Canada with respect to their publically available and visible policy commitments to 21st century educational reforms. This review was conducted for the purposes of drawing conclusions about the current…

  13. Mobilizing Ethnic Equality in Admissions to Schools: Litigation, Politics, and Educational Change

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perry-Hazan, Lotem; Perelstain, Oshrat

    2018-01-01

    This study explores the impact of litigation on the mobilization of ethnic equality in the admission to Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) schools in Israel, and examines the socio-political mechanisms that have shaped this impact. It uses a case-study approach and draws on an analysis of documents and interviews. The findings confirm the conclusions of…

  14. Taking Care with Attachment Disorders and Autistic-Like Traits: The Potential Significance of Cognitive Markers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Melling, Richard; Smethurst, Nicola

    2017-01-01

    The behaviours associated with the attachment disorders (ADs) appear to overlap substantially with those linked to the autism spectrum (AS). Given the similarities between the two conditions this article urges caution when drawing conclusions concerning the likely aetiology of presenting difficulties in any particular case. Attention is drawn to…

  15. From Petrodollars to Petroeuros: Are the Dollar’s Days as an International Reserve Currency Drawing to an End?

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-11-03

    price of oil less transparent, require continuous updating to minimize currency arbitrage , and could make the market less liquid as available capital...there are plenty of cheap ways for traders to hedge against currency risk if they are concerned about movements in the dollar. Conclusions

  16. Feasibility and Behavioral Effects of an At-Home Multi-Night Sleep Restriction Protocol for Adolescents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beebe, Dean W.; Fallone, Gahan; Godiwala, Neha; Flanigan, Matt; Martin, David; Schaffner, Laura; Amin, Raouf

    2008-01-01

    Background: Sleep deprivation is common among adolescents and has been associated with adverse behavioral and educational outcomes. However, it is difficult to draw strong causal conclusions because of a dearth of experimental sleep research. In part, this appears related to methodological challenges when working with this population. This study…

  17. We Need to Teach for Ethical Conduct

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sternberg, Robert J.

    2009-01-01

    Educators have a responsibility to teach students not only to be knowledgeable and intelligent, but also to use their knowledge and intelligence in ethical ways; that is, to be wise. In this essay, I first describe why we need to teach for ethical behavior. Then, I discuss how we can teach for ethical behavior. Finally, I draw some conclusions.

  18. Recreating Realities: An Ethnographic/Case Study Approach to the Historic Composition Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Claywell, Gina

    Traditional histories of American college composition instruction in the 19th and 20th centuries examine primarily the textbooks used in those courses, then draw conclusions based on the content of those textbooks about the activities and attitudes expressed in the classroom. The canon of composition historiography is lacking in several ways: the…

  19. Synthesis of Aryl-Substituted 2,4-Dinitrophenylamines: Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution as a Problem-Solving and Collaborative-Learning Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Santos, Elvira Santos; Garcia, Irma Cruz Gavilan; Gomez, Eva Florencia Lejarazo; Vilchis-Reyes, Miguel Angel

    2010-01-01

    A series of experiments based on problem-solving and collaborative-learning pedagogies are described that encourage students to interpret results and draw conclusions from data. Different approaches including parallel library synthesis, solvent variation, and leaving group variation are used to study a nucleophilic aromatic substitution of…

  20. 22 CFR 96.49 - Provision of medical and social information in incoming cases.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... on the known health risks in the specific region or country where the child resides. (e) If the... data and perceptions the individual used to draw his or her conclusions; (4) A review of...) Information about the full range of any tests performed on the child, including tests addressing known risk...

  1. Educating for the Future in Family Life. Information Series No. 228.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Simpson, Elizabeth J.

    This paper utilizes knowledge gained from work on future issues related to families, the work of futurists on social trends and technological development, and recent studies in home economics to draw conclusions regarding what people will need to know in the 1980s and beyond to be intelligent consumers and effective homemakers. The first of six…

  2. Putting Sociology First--Reconsidering the Role of the Social in "Nature of Science" Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zemplen, Gabor A.

    2009-01-01

    Contrasting two examples from 2005, a creationism-trial and a recent textbook, the article shows two different ways of employing social considerations to demarcate science from non-science. Drawing conclusions from the comparison, and citing some of the leading proponents of science studies, the paper argues for a novel perspective in teaching…

  3. The Impact of Adjacent-Dependencies and Staged-Input on the Learnability of Center-Embedded Hierarchical Structures

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lai, Jun; Poletiek, Fenna H.

    2011-01-01

    A theoretical debate in artificial grammar learning (AGL) regards the learnability of hierarchical structures. Recent studies using an A[superscript n]B[superscript n] grammar draw conflicting conclusions ([Bahlmann and Friederici, 2006] and [De Vries et al., 2008]). We argue that 2 conditions crucially affect learning A[superscript…

  4. Summary of Forest health monitoring: 2006 national technical report

    Treesearch

    Mark J. Ambrose

    2009-01-01

    Forest Health Monitoring (FHM), together with cooperating researchers both in and outside of the Forest Service, continues to investigate a variety of issues relating to forest health. This report provides some of the latest analyses and results. The broad range of indicators presented demonstrates one reason it can be difficult to draw general conclusions about the...

  5. Barriers to Implementing Treatment Integrity Procedures in School Psychology Research: Survey of Treatment Outcome Researchers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanetti, Lisa M. Hagermoser; DiGennaro Reed, Florence D.

    2012-01-01

    Treatment integrity data are essential to drawing valid conclusions in treatment outcome studies. Such data, however, are not always included in peer-reviewed research articles in school psychology or related fields. To gain a better understanding of why treatment integrity data are lacking in the school psychology research, we surveyed the…

  6. Hydrostatic collapse research in support of the Oman India gas pipeline

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

    Stark, P.R.; McKeehan, D.S.

    1995-12-01

    This paper provides a summary of the collapse test program conducted as part of the technical development for the Ultra Deep Oman to India Pipeline. The paper describes the motivation for conducting the collapse test program, outlines the test objectives and procedures, presents the results obtained, and draws conclusions on the factors affecting collapse resistance.

  7. Villain or Savior? The American Discourse on Homework, 1850-2003

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gill, Brian P.; Schlossman, Steven L.

    2004-01-01

    This article examines homework's place in American K-12 schooling over the last century and draws three main conclusions. First, homework has always aroused strong passions pro and con. Second, despite prominent press reports to the contrary in the early 20th century and again today, the best evidence suggests that most parents have consistently…

  8. Trends in public attitudes towards the use of wildland fire

    Treesearch

    Katie Knotek

    2006-01-01

    This paper summarizes a select set of research studies conducted over the past 40 years, drawing conclusions on trends in public attitudes about the use of wildland fire in federally-designated Wilderness. The research includes trend studies conducted with visitors to Wilderness areas in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana. Each research study used a...

  9. An Experiment-Oriented Approach to Teaching the Kinetic Molecular Theory.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wiseman, Frank L., Jr.

    1979-01-01

    This paper reports an experiment in the teaching of the kinetic molecular theory to nonscience majors by the inquiry method. It allows the student to develop an essentially correct view of gases, liquids, and solids on the atomic or molecular level, and illustrates how one can draw conclusions about the molecular level by simple visual…

  10. Digital clock drawing: Differentiating ‘thinking’ versus ‘doing’ in younger and older adults with depression

    PubMed Central

    Cohen, Jamie; Penney, Dana L.; Davis, Randall; Libon, David J.; Swenson, Rodney A.; Ajilore, Olusola; Kumar, Anand; Lamar, Melissa

    2015-01-01

    Objective Psychomotor slowing has been documented in depression. The digital Clock Drawing Test (dCDT) provides: i) a novel technique to assess both cognitive and motor aspects of psychomotor speed within the same task and ii) the potential to uncover subtleties of behavior not previously detected with non-digitized modes of data collection. Method Using digitized pen technology in 106 participants grouped by Age (younger/older) and Affect (euthymic/unmedicated depressed), we recorded cognitive and motor output by capturing how the clock is drawn rather than focusing on the final product. We divided time to completion (TTC) for Command and Copy conditions of the dCDT into metrics of percent of drawing (%Ink) versus non-drawing (%Think) time. We also obtained composite z-scores of cognition, including attention/ information processing (AIP), to explore associations of %Ink and %Think times to cognitive and motor performance. Results Despite equivalent TTC, %Ink and %Think Command times (Copy n.s.) were significant (AgeXAffect interaction:p=.03)—younger depressed spent a smaller proportion of time drawing relative to thinking compared to the older depressed group. Command %Think time negatively correlated with AIP in the older depressed group (r=−.46;p=.02). Copy %Think time negatively correlated with AIP in the younger depressed (r=−.47;p=.03) and older euthymic groups (r=−.51;p=.01). Conclusion The dCDT differentiated aspects of psychomotor slowing in depression regardless of age, while dCDT/cognitive associates for younger adults with depression mimicked patterns of older euthymics. PMID:25222513

  11. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Scheiner drawing sunspot areas and tilt angles (Arlt+, 2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arlt, R.; Senthamizh Pavai, V.; Schmiel, C.; Spada, F.

    2016-09-01

    Christoph Scheiner and his collaborators observed the sunspots from 1611-1631 at five different locations of Rome in Italy, Ingolstadt in Germany, Douai (Duacum in Latin) in France, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany and Vienna, Austria. However, most of his published drawings were made in Rome. These sunspot drawings are important because they can tell us how the solar activity declined to a very low-activity phase which lasted for nearly five decades. The three sources used for the sunspot data extraction are Scheiner (1630rour.book.....S, Rosa Ursina sive solis), Scheiner (1651ppsm.book.....S, Prodromus pro sole mobili et terra stabili contra Academicum Florentinum Galilaeum a Galilaeis), and Reeves & Van Helden (2010, On sunspots. Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner (University of Chicago Press)). The suspot drawings show the sunspot groups traversing the solar disk in a single full-disk drawing. The positions and areas of the sunspots were measured using 13 circular cursor shapes with different diameters. Umbral areas for 8167 sunspots and tilt angles for 697 manually selected, supposedly bipolar groups were obtained from Scheiner's sunspot drawings. The database does not contain spotless days. There is, of course, no polarity information in the sunspot drawings, so the tilt angles are actually pseudo-tilt angles. Both an updated sunspot database and a tilt angle database may be available at http://www.aip.de/Members/rarlt/sunspots for further study. (2 data files).

  12. Lifelong literacy: Some trends and issues in conceptualising and operationalising literacy from a lifelong learning perspective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hanemann, Ulrike

    2015-06-01

    In a fast-changing and highly inequitable world, lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important, not only as a key organising principle for all forms of education and learning but also as an absolute necessity for everyone. It is particularly important for disadvantaged individuals and groups who have been excluded from or failed to acquire basic competencies through formal schooling. Within a lifelong learning framework, literacy and numeracy are viewed as foundation skills which are the core of basic education and indispensable to full participation in society. This article discusses recent developments in conceptualising literacy as a foundation of lifelong learning. Starting from the evolving notions of adult literacy, the author identifies some current trends, the most important being that literacy is now perceived as a learning continuum of different proficiency levels. Dichotomous states of being either "literate" or "illiterate" no longer apply. She analyses (1) findings extracted from UNESCO Member States' national reports submitted to the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) for the 2nd Global Report on Adult Learning and Education; (2) a desk study of national literacy campaigns and programmes as well as (3) some recent developments in formal education. Her suggested three-dimensional analytical framework considers literacy as a lifelong and life-wide learning process and as part of lifelong learning systems. She draws a number of conclusions for policy and practice of literacy as a foundation of lifelong learning. These conclusions are a timely contribution to the ongoing post-2015 education debate, in particular to the challenge of how to mainstream youth and adult literacy into the implementation of the sustainable development agenda for 2015-2030.

  13. Differences in antiretroviral scale up in three South African provinces: the role of implementation management

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background South Africa’s antiretroviral programme is governed by defined national plans, establishing treatment targets and providing funding through ring-fenced conditional grants. However, in terms of the country’s quasi-federal constitution, provincial governments bear the main responsibility for provision of health care, and have a certain amount of autonomy and therefore choice in the way their HIV/AIDS programmes are implemented. Methods The paper is a comparative case study of the early management of ART scale up in three South African provincial governments – Western Cape, Gauteng and Free State – focusing on both operational and strategic dimensions. Drawing on surveys of models of ART care and analyses of the policy process conducted in the three provinces between 2005 and 2007, as well as a considerable body of grey and indexed literature on ART scale up in South Africa, it draws links between implementation processes and variations in provincial ART coverage (low, medium and high) achieved in the three provinces. Results While they adopted similar chronic disease care approaches, the provinces differed with respect to political and managerial leadership of the programme, programme design, the balance between central standardisation and local flexibility, the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation systems, and the nature and extent of external support and programme partnerships. Conclusions This case study points to the importance of sub-national programme processes and the influence of factors other than financing or human resource capacity, in understanding intervention scale up. PMID:20594370

  14. Public involvement in health priority setting: future challenges for policy, research and society.

    PubMed

    Hunter, David James; Kieslich, Katharina; Littlejohns, Peter; Staniszewska, Sophie; Tumilty, Emma; Weale, Albert; Williams, Iestyn

    2016-08-15

    Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the findings of this special issue and discusses the future challenges for policy, research and society. The findings suggest that challenges emerge as a result of legitimacy deficits of both consensus and contestatory modes of public involvement in health priority setting. Design/methodology/approach - The paper draws on the discussions and findings presented in this special issue. It seeks to bring the country experiences and case studies together to draw conclusions for policy, research and society. Findings - At least two recurring themes emerge. An underlying theme is the importance, but also the challenge, of establishing legitimacy in health priority setting. The country experiences suggest that we understand very little about the conditions under which representative, or authentic, participation generates legitimacy and under which it will be regarded as insufficient. A second observation is that public participation takes a variety of forms that depend on the opportunity structures in a given national context. Given this variety the conceptualization of public participation needs to be expanded to account for the many forms of public participation. Originality/value - The paper concludes that the challenges of public involvement are closely linked to the question of how legitimate processes and decisions can be generated in priority setting. This suggests that future research must focus more narrowly on conditions under which legitimacy are generated in order to expand the understanding of public involvement in health prioritization.

  15. Land Use Change Around Nature Reserves: Implications for Sustaining Biodiversity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hansen, A. J.; Defries, R.; Curran, L.; Liu, J.; Reid, R.; Turner, B.

    2004-12-01

    The effects of land use change outside of reserves on biodiversity within reserves is not well studied. This paper draws on research from Yellowstone, East Africa, Yucatan, Borneo, and Wolong, China to examine land use effects on nature reserves. Objectives are: quantify rates of change in land use around reserves; examine consequences for biodiversity within the context of specific ecological mechanisms; and draw implications for regional management. Within each of the study regions, semi-natural habitats around nature reserves have been converted to agricultural, rural residential, or urban land uses. Rates vary from 0.2-0.4 %/yr in Yucatan, to 9.5 %/yr in Borneo. Such land use changes may be important because nature reserves are often parts of larger ecosystems that are defined by flows in energy, materials, and organisms. Land use outside of reserves may disrupt these flows and alter biodiversity within reserves. Ecological mechanisms that connect biodiversity to these land use changes include habitat size, ecological flows, crucial habitats, and edge effects. For example, the effective size of the East African study area has been reduced by 45% by human activities. Based on the species area relationship, this reduction in habitat area will lead to a loss of 14% of bird and mammal species. A major conclusion is that the viability of nature reserves can best be ensured by managing them in the context of the surrounding region. Knowledge of the ecological mechanisms by which land use influences nature reserves provides design criteria for this regional management.

  16. Drawing in the blind and the sighted as a probe of cortical reorganization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Likova, Lora T.

    2010-02-01

    In contrast to other arts, such as music, there is a very little neuroimaging research on visual art and in particular - on drawing. Drawing - from artistic to technical - involves diverse aspects of spatial cognition, precise sensorimotor planning and control as well as a rich set of higher cognitive functions. A new method for learning the drawing skill in the blind that we have developed, and the technological advances of a multisensory MR-compatible drawing system, allowed us to run for the first time a comparative fMRI study on drawing in the blind and the sighted. In each population, we identified widely distributed cortical networks, extending from the occipital and temporal cortices, through the parietal to the frontal lobe. This is the first neuroimaging study of drawing in blind novices, as well as the first study on the learning to draw in either population. We sought to determine the cortical reorganization taking place as a result of learning to draw, despite the lack of visual input to the brains of the blind. Remarkably, we found massive recruitment of the visual cortex on learning to draw, although our subjects had no previous experience, but only a short training with our new drawing method. This finding implies a rapid, learning-based plasticity mechanism. We further proposed that the functional level of the brain reorganization in the blind may still differ from that in the sighted even in areas that overlap between the two populations, such as in the visual cortex. We tested this idea in the framework of saccadic suppression. A methodological innovation allowed us to estimate the retinotopic regions locations in the blind brain. Although the visual cortex of both groups was greatly recruited, only the sighted experienced dramatic suppression in hMT+ and V1, while there was no sign of an analogous process in the blind. This finding has important implications and suggests that the recruitment of the visual cortex in the blind does not assure a full functional parallel.

  17. Enhancing observation by drawing: Alveolinids models by Manfred Reichel (1896-1984)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leria, Maria

    2017-04-01

    Graphic representation is a fundamental tool in morphological studies, as paleontology. A paradigmatic example is the alveolinid drawings of Prof. Manfred Reichel (1896-1984). Thanks to these drawings his research on foraminifera, had an important impact on micropaleontology. Manfred Reichel studied Fine Arts, but later he began a scientific career on biological sciences and becoming a professor in micropaleontology, at the Geological and Paleontological Institute of the University of Basel, Switzerland. His background in art had a benefit in his scientific production, especially with the extremely complex foraminiferal structures. By means of illustrations, inspired by the French naturalists, he was able to solve the most complex internal architecture of forams. His drawings display foraminifera's internal 3D structure in such a comprehensible way that has not been improved using modern techniques. His work has been used by different generations of paleontologist to understand the internal architecture of forams and are still used today. The aim of this study is to analyze the process that Reichel followed to create some of his most representative drawings. This study is based on the examination of a selection of Reichel's drawings (n>40) held at the Natural History Museum in Basel. In addition, his family and students have been interviewed supplying useful information to understand how he applied his artistic skills to teach and research. This study illustrates the steps followed by Reichel in the creation of a drawing of alveolinid. The process represents the transformation of the morphological data from 2D images (polished rock sections) into a comprehensible 3D image. A description of the process of observation, comparison, sketches and studies, concluding with the final three-dimensional drawing is shown. The results show that that the classical convention in drawing is still and irreplaceable tool in natural sciences, because it allows to define aspects that cannot be equally appreciated shown by other means (text or photography). Drawing it can also be a scientific analytical tool with an artistic identity, we present an example where rigor is intrinsically linked to a high sensibility, and a deep knowledge of drawing that brings as a result a beautiful piece of art.

  18. Dissemination of health-related research among scientists in three countries: access to resources and current practices.

    PubMed

    Tabak, Rachel G; Reis, Rodrigo S; Wilson, Paul; Brownson, Ross C

    2015-01-01

    In public health and clinical settings insufficient dissemination of evidence-based practices limits the reach of new discoveries to broad populations. This study aimed to describe characteristics of the dissemination process by researchers across three countries (Brazil, United Kingdom, and United States), explore how designing for dissemination practices has been used, and analyze factors associated with dissemination. A similar online survey was used to query researchers across the three countries; data were pooled to draw cross-country conclusions. This study identified similarities and differences between countries. Importance of dissemination to nonresearcher audiences was widely recognized as important; however, traditional academic venues were the main dissemination method. Several factors were associated with self-rated dissemination effort in the pooled sample, but these predictive factors (e.g., support and resources for dissemination) had low prevalence. Less than one-third of researchers rated their level of effort for dissemination as excellent. Respondents reported limited support and resources to make it easier for researchers who might want to disseminate their findings. Though intentions show the importance of dissemination, researchers across countries lack supports to increase dissemination efforts. Additional resources and training in designing for dissemination along with improved partnerships could help bridge the research-practice gap.

  19. IS/IT the prescription to enable medical group practices attain their goals.

    PubMed

    Wickramasinghe, Nilmini; Silvers, J B

    2003-05-01

    The US spends significantly more money as a percentage of GDP on health care than any other OECD country and more importantly, this amount is anticipated to increase exponentially. In this high cost environment, two important trends have occurred: (1) the movement to managed care, and (2) large investments in Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT). Managed care has emerged as an attempt to provide good quality yet cost effective health care treatment. Its implications are not well discussed in the literature while, its impact on different types of medical group practices is even less well understood. The repercussions of the large investments in IS/IT on the health care sector in general and on the medical group practice in particular, although clearly of importance, are also largely ignored by the literature. This study attempts to address this significant void in the literature. By analyzing three different types of group practices; an Independent Practice Association (IPA), a Faculty Practice and a Multi Specialty Group Practice in a managed care environment during their implementation of practice management/billing systems, we are able to draw some conclusions regarding the impacts of these two central trends on health care in general as well as on the medical group practice in particular.

  20. A Rural Implementation of a 52 Node Mixed Wireless Mesh Network in Macha, Zambia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Backens, Jonathan; Mweemba, Gregory; van Stam, Gertjan

    In spite of increasing international and academic attention, there remains many challenges facing real world implementations of developing technologies. There has been considerable hype behind Wireless Mesh Networking as the ubiquitous solution for rural ICT in the developing world. In this paper, we present the real world rural mesh network implementation in the village of Macha, Zambia and draw both performance conclusions as well as overall experiential conclusions. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze our low cost solution and extrapolate future trends for rural ICT implementations in Zambia.

  1. MAGNETIC BEHAVIOR OF FUNCTIONALLY MODIFIED SPINEL Ni0.4Ca0.6Fe2O4 NANOFERRITE

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Prasad, Arun S.; Dhawan, M. S.; Dolia, S. N.; Samariya, Arvind; Reddy, V. R.; Singhal, R. K.; Predeep, P.

    2011-06-01

    The editorial board discovered that the data points in several sections of the Mossbauer spectra as given in Figs. 3(a) and 3(b) are exactly identical. This is impossible and nonphysical for the measurement of two different samples (or for that matter not even for the same sample!). The only conclusion we can draw from this figure is that some of the data is fabricated. As a result, the results and conclusions as described in the paper are unacceptable. This article is retracted from its publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys. B.

  2. Timeliness of Creative Subjects in Architecture Education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vargot, T.

    2017-11-01

    The following article is about the problem of insufficient number of drawing and painting lessons delivered in the process of architectural education. There is a comparison between the education of successful architects of the past and modern times. The author stands for the importance of creative subjects being the essential part of development and education of future architects. Skills achieved during the study of creative subjects will be used not only as a mean of self-expression but as an instrument in the toolkit of a professional. Sergei Tchoban was taken as an example of a successful architect for whom the knowledge of a man-made drawing is very important. He arranges the contests of architectural drawings for students promoting creative development in this way. Nowadays, students tend to use computer programs to make architectural projects losing their individual approach. The creative process becomes a matter of scissors and paste being just a copy of something that already exists. The solution of the problem is the reconsideration of the department’s curriculum and adding extra hours for creative subjects.

  3. In tribute to Luigi Castagnetta-drawings. A narrative approach for children with cancer.

    PubMed

    Massimo, Luisa M; Zarri, Daniela A

    2006-11-01

    In troublesome situations, each of us uses verbal communication carefully, at times diminishing our meaning with words of little significance. However, since the need to communicate remains a part of us, body language or other forms of expression are put into use. Inside a hospital a child is always a stranger with regards to the uneasiness that accompanies his/her experience. Because diagnostic and therapeutic ends are the primary concern of the health care professionals, there is often little sign of affection in their impersonal gestures, glances and body language. Graphic and pictorial communication, therefore, hold great importance for sick children since this is an area they have easier access to, and that they cultivate at school and through play. This activity fulfills their innate need to communicate with themselves and with others. Children express themselves through drawings, using them as a stage to dramatize their needs, wishes anxieties, and joys. When in hospital, children are afraid, and they feel embarrassed around strangers and even parents, especially when the parents are speaking with their caregivers. The children are afraid of making a poor impression and of being rejected by adults, of being considered inadequate and untruthful. Their need for truth and for communication unfolds through artistic expression, and this is the basis of art therapy. The opportunity to express themselves through drawings is what makes the ill child his/her won therapeutic agent through a self-healing mechanism. This may be further guided so as to lead to an increase in self-esteem, which in turn will lead to both enhancement of their full expressive possibilities and to positive feedback of their self-image. In addition to verbal language itself, art therapy is the preferred and ideal means to communicate following the rules of "narrative-based medicine", and to understand children. In this study spontaneous drawings of 50 Italian children affected by leukemia or cancer in different stages were evaluated during 2003 at the outpatient clinic of G. Gaslini Children's Hospital. Ages ranged from 4 to 14 years (median 8 years); 27 were males and 23 females. They drew in three situations: spontaneously when they were alone; with play workers; and with the psychologist. Pictures emerging from these settings have proven to be significant and denote the children's perception of the disease, and of their fears and hopes. The children's drawings allowed them to depict their present and future relationship with the disease, with the hospital, and with the environment in general. Their pictures reflected not only their current state of mind, but also past experiences and future prospects. Art therapy proved to be a vitally important means of "narrative" communication for severely sick children in hospital. Thus, collecting and evaluating drawings in an attempt to establish the intellectual, cultural, and emotional status of each child is of paramount importance. To this end, workers have been trained to carefully observe ech child while drawing. Such extremely important collaboration prevents the loss of relevant and vital details. This research confirms our theory that art therapy has to be included in the total care of a severely ill child while in hospital. Drawings accompanied by comments certainly provide a broader approach to better understanding the child's anxiety and feelings.

  4. Assessment of nerve involvement in the lumbar spine: agreement between magnetic resonance imaging, physical examination and pain drawing findings

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background Detection of nerve involvement originating in the spine is a primary concern in the assessment of spine symptoms. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become the diagnostic method of choice for this detection. However, the agreement between MRI and other diagnostic methods for detecting nerve involvement has not been fully evaluated. The aim of this diagnostic study was to evaluate the agreement between nerve involvement visible in MRI and findings of nerve involvement detected in a structured physical examination and a simplified pain drawing. Methods Sixty-one consecutive patients referred for MRI of the lumbar spine were - without knowledge of MRI findings - assessed for nerve involvement with a simplified pain drawing and a structured physical examination. Agreement between findings was calculated as overall agreement, the p value for McNemar's exact test, specificity, sensitivity, and positive and negative predictive values. Results MRI-visible nerve involvement was significantly less common than, and showed weak agreement with, physical examination and pain drawing findings of nerve involvement in corresponding body segments. In spine segment L4-5, where most findings of nerve involvement were detected, the mean sensitivity of MRI-visible nerve involvement to a positive neurological test in the physical examination ranged from 16-37%. The mean specificity of MRI-visible nerve involvement in the same segment ranged from 61-77%. Positive and negative predictive values of MRI-visible nerve involvement in segment L4-5 ranged from 22-78% and 28-56% respectively. Conclusion In patients with long-standing nerve root symptoms referred for lumbar MRI, MRI-visible nerve involvement significantly underestimates the presence of nerve involvement detected by a physical examination and a pain drawing. A structured physical examination and a simplified pain drawing may reveal that many patients with "MRI-invisible" lumbar symptoms need treatment aimed at nerve involvement. Factors other than present MRI-visible nerve involvement may be responsible for findings of nerve involvement in the physical examination and the pain drawing. PMID:20831785

  5. Effectiveness of Condition-Based Maintenance in Army Aviation

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-06-12

    for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data ...sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this...increase in efficiency in dollars spent per operational flight hour, the data set was too small to draw major conclusions. Recommendations for

  6. Integration of mental health into primary care in low- and middle-income countries: the PRIME mental healthcare plans.

    PubMed

    Lund, Crick; Tomlinson, Mark; Patel, Vikram

    2016-01-01

    This supplement outlines the development and piloting of district mental healthcare plans from five low- and middle-income countries, together with the methods for their design, evaluation and costing. In this editorial we consider the challenges that these programmes face, highlight their innovations and draw conclusions. © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016.

  7. [Research on the original plants of Xian Zhao Zi (Senshosi)].

    PubMed

    Kotaka, Shuji

    2008-01-01

    Since the Heian period, Xian Zhao Zi (Senshosi) has been used as part of the ceremony believed to help in a healthy pregnancy and safe birth. The purpose of this report is to consider which plants are original Xian Zhao Zi plants. Past research lists certain plants as Xian Zhao Zi, but it was difficult to draw any conclusions.

  8. The Scientific Method Ain't What It Used to Be

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Herreid, Clyde Freeman

    2010-01-01

    Remember the time when all you had to do was memorize these five steps: ask a question, formulate a hypothesis, perform experiment, collect data, and draw conclusions? And you received full credit for defining the scientific method. Well, those days are gone. This article discusses why the "scientific method ain't what it used to be." (Contains 2…

  9. Fostering Interdisciplinary Research in Universities: A Case Study of Leadership, Alignment and Support

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Townsend, Tony; Pisapia, John; Razzaq, Jamila

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to describe actions designed to foster interdisciplinary research efforts at a major university in the UK. The study employed a descriptive mixed method case study approach to collecting and analysing the data used to draw its conclusions. One hundred and twenty-seven academic staff responded to the survey. The results of…

  10. Civic Education Curriculum Reform in Hong Kong: What Should Be the Direction under Chinese Sovereignty?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fairbrother, Gregory P.; Kennedy, Kerry J.

    2011-01-01

    This article uses results from a cross-national analysis of the impact of varying approaches to civic education curriculum delivery on three learning outcomes, to draw conclusions about the value of a government-mandated compulsory, independent subject of civic education in the school curriculum. It starts from the context of Hong Kong, where…

  11. Discovery Lab in the Chemistry Lecture Room: Design and Evaluation of Audio-Visual Constructivist Methodology of Teaching Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Young, Barbara N.; Hoffman, Lyubov

    Demonstration of chemical reactions is a tool used in the teaching of inorganic descriptive chemistry to enable students to understand the fundamental concepts of chemistry through the use of concrete examples. For maximum benefit, students need to learn through discovery to observe, interpret, hypothesize, and draw conclusions; however, chemical…

  12. School Districts' Perspectives on the Economic Stimulus Package: School Improvement Grants Present Uncertainty and Opportunity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scott, Caitlin

    2010-01-01

    The information in this report is drawn from the responses of a nationally representative sample of school districts to a broader Center on Education Policy (CEP) survey on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) administered in the spring of 2010. Survey responses were weighted to draw conclusions for all districts in the 50 states…

  13. Response to Comment on "Water harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks powered by natural sunlight".

    PubMed

    Kim, Hyunho; Rao, Sameer R; Kapustin, Eugene A; Narayanan, Shankar; Yang, Sungwoo; Furukawa, Hiroyasu; Umans, Ari S; Yaghi, Omar M; Wang, Evelyn N

    2017-11-24

    The Comment by Meunier states that the process we described in our report cannot deliver the claimed amount of liquid water in an arid climate. This statement is not valid because the parameters presented in our study were inappropriately combined to draw misguided conclusions. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  14. Using Artifacts to Understand the Life of a Soldier in World War II

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anson, Staci

    2009-01-01

    For years, when the author taught about World War II, she used primary and secondary source readings, she presented Power Points, and had her students watch newsreels and other video clips. Today, her students interact with actual artifacts from history so that they can draw conclusions and gain understanding about what the soldiers' lives were…

  15. Hate Speech in Colleges and Universities--The Aftermath of "R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, Minnesota".

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Valerie L.

    1993-01-01

    The Supreme Court ruled, in "R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul Minnesota," that the city's Biased-Motivated Crime Ordinance is unconstitutional. Discusses the factual background of "R.A.V.," of "Doe v. University of Michigan," and leading cases in the area of student first amendment rights. Draws conclusions and assesses…

  16. A Systematic Review on Using Literature for the Young Learners in an EFL Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Al-hajji, Badria A.; Shuqair, Khaled M.

    2014-01-01

    This study has objectives that are exploratory and analytical in nature. It focuses on the use of relevant information with regard to the use of literature in EFL classrooms that is available for an analysis in order to draw conclusions and make useful recommendations. The study is, therefore, conducted as library research using the method of…

  17. Some Decks Are "Better" than Others: The Effect of Reinforcer Type and Task Instructions on Learning in the Iowa Gambling Task

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fernie, Gordon; Tunney, Richard J.

    2006-01-01

    The Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994) has become widely used as a laboratory test of "real-life" decision-making. However, aspects of its administration that have been varied by researchers may differentially affect performance and the conclusions researchers can draw. Some researchers have used facsimile money…

  18. The Public Self: Taking a New Look at Civic Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rettinger, Virginia S.

    This paper draws upon research and acquaints the reader with various aspects of the public self--the self interested in political and social issues. The document describes a study of how the public self was discovered. The data produced by this study resulted in the conclusion that to some degree all people have a public self. Most recognize there…

  19. Drawing Conclusions: Confusion between Data and Theory in the Traumatic Memory Debate

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Silberg, Joyanna

    2003-01-01

    This paper examines one of the chief problems in the ongoing debate about the nature and prevalence of the various memory mechanisms that may operate in determining whether a victim/survivor of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) will have delayed recall of the victimization. One of the key problems in the debate about delayed or suppressed memory of…

  20. Why Is a Flower Five-Petaled?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nishiyama, Yutaka

    2004-01-01

    This paper examines why many flowers are five-petaled through the use of a five-petaled model that draws insights from the location of cell clusters at a shoot apex, rather than by way of the Fibonacci sequence or the golden ratio as in the past. The conclusion drawn is that flowers are most likely to be five-petaled, followed by six-petaled;…

  1. Pay It Forward: Teacher Candidates' Use of Historical Artifacts to Invigorate K-12 History Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Waring, Scott M.; Torrez, Cheryl; Lipscomb, George

    2015-01-01

    As advocates of engaging students in historical inquiry and of the use of primary sources to aid in this inquiry, we support the claims of numerous student benefits, such as learning to detect bias, appreciating the interpretive nature of historical thinking, and the drawing of conclusions based on judgments about evidence (Fehn & Koeppen,…

  2. Analysis of habitat-selection rules using an individual-based model

    Treesearch

    Steven F. Railsback; Bret C. Harvey

    2002-01-01

    Abstract - Despite their promise for simulating natural complexity,individual-based models (IBMs) are rarely used for ecological research or resource management. Few IBMs have been shown to reproduce realistic patterns of behavior by individual organisms.To test our IBM of stream salmonids and draw conclusions about foraging theory,we analyzed the IBM ’s ability to...

  3. Preliminary ride-quality evaluation of the HM.2 Hoverferry

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mcclurken, E. W., Jr.; Jacobson, I. D.; Kuhlthau, A. R.

    1974-01-01

    The results of a forty-minute exposure of the HM.2 Hoverferry are presented. Quantitative evaluations were made from aft seats on the starboard side for a sea state considered calm and visually estimated at one-half to one foot. Since this type of craft is sensitive to sea state, the conclusions are based on ideal conditions. Some drawings are included.

  4. Coping with Dying: Lessons That We Should and Should Not Learn from the Work of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Corr, Charles A.

    1993-01-01

    Appraises work of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in area of coping with dying. Suggests lessons from that work. Draws broad conclusions about processes involved in coping with dying, argues on behalf of need to develop better theoretical models to explicate what is involved in coping with dying, and suggests requirements for model. (Author/NB)

  5. A Review of Twenty Years of Competency-Based Training in the Australian Vocational Education and Training System

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Erica

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, the author reflects, both as an academic researcher and as a senior practitioner, on the experience of competency-based training (CBT) in the Australian vocational education and training system. She seeks to draw conclusions about the Australian experience using a typology drawn from the academic literature which focuses on the…

  6. Let's Get beyond Community and Practice: The Many Meanings of Learning by Participating

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Edwards, Anne

    2005-01-01

    This article is an attempt to tease out what is so often termed learning through participation. Drawing on the analysis undertaken by the Learning Outcomes Thematic Group, the use of the participation metaphor in TLRP projects is discussed. The conclusion arrived at is that its use appears mainly to focus on behaviour and engagement in practices.…

  7. Teach Students to Dig for Understanding Using an Unexpected Technological Shovel

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lake, Susan E. L.

    2004-01-01

    Online genealogy tools is an unexpected resource as these tools not only serve valuable for genealogy research, but also can be used by students to learn about their country's past and learn to use primary materials to draw conclusions. Some of these Online sources like the 1880 census available at www.ancestry.com, www.thepastwhispers.com, which…

  8. Effect of toxic threat nerve agents on anesthetic requirements of representative pr-anesthetic medicants and inhalant and parenteral general anesthetic in the cat. Annual report, 15 July 1985-14 July 1986

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

    Webb, A.I.

    1986-07-30

    The effect of soman on anesthetic requirements of halothane and isoflurane was studied before and after administration of acepromazine maleate (0.2 mg/kg). Insufficient data has been obtained to date to draw conclusions on any possible drug interactions.

  9. A Statistical Summary of Selected Characteristics of the Student Population of Southwest Texas Junior College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Southwest Texas Junior Coll., Uvalde.

    This report presents statistical data on students at Southwest Texas Junior College in an attempt to provide insight into the characteristics of the student population. The data is presented in tabular form with no effort to draw conclusions or to suggest possible implications. Fall 1974-75 enrollment figures are broken down by class, full-time or…

  10. Can Academic Standards Boost Literacy and Close the Achievement Gap? Policy Brief, Fall 2012

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Haskins, Ron; Murnane, Richard; Sawhill, Isabel; Snow, Catherine

    2012-01-01

    Good jobs in the nation's twenty-first-century economy require advanced literacy skills such as categorizing, evaluating, and drawing conclusions from written texts. The adoption of the Common Core State Standards by nearly all the states, combined with tough literacy assessments that are now in the offing, will soon reveal that literacy skills of…

  11. 2012 Minnesota Internet Survey: Digital Divide 2.0 and Beyond

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Center for Rural Policy and Development, 2012

    2012-01-01

    After more than ten years of asking rural Minnesotans about their access to high-speed Internet service, it is possible to draw a few conclusions: (1) It is fairly well accepted now that broadband access has become a necessity for functioning at full capacity in today's world; (2) The digital divide isn't what it used to be; (3) Broadband no…

  12. TOTE Project. A Curriculum Source Book for Teaching Human Relations, Environmental Education, and Camping Skills in the Classroom and on the Trail.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maughan, Durrell A.; And Others

    Backpacking serves as the vehicle for teaching basic secondary school subjects in this curriculum guide which suggests various learning activities for teaching human relations, environmental education, and camping. The activities, some for the classroom and some for the trail, are designed to help students observe, draw conclusions, and develop…

  13. The Date That Lives in Infamy: Pearl Harbor Lesson Plans.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Department of the Navy, Washington, DC.

    This lesson plan can help teachers and students understand what happened on December 7, 1941, beginning with the first U.S. treaty with Japan in 1854 through the attacks in 1941. Students use primary sources to synthesize information and draw conclusions about the role of the U.S. Navy in foreign policy and to understand how people in 1941 reacted…

  14. Extending the psycho-historical framework to understand artistic production.

    PubMed

    Kozbelt, Aaron; Ostrofsky, Justin

    2013-04-01

    We discuss how the psycho-historical framework can be profitably applied to artistic production, facilitating a synthesis of perception-based and knowledge-based perspectives on realistic observational drawing. We note that artists' technical knowledge itself constitutes a major component of an artwork's historical context, and that links between artistic practice and psychological theory may yet yield conclusions in line with universalist perspectives.

  15. Understanding the physical attractiveness literature: Qualitative reviews versus meta-analysis.

    PubMed

    Feingold, Alan

    2017-01-01

    The target article is a qualitative review of selected findings in the physical attractiveness literature. This commentary explains why the meta-analytic approach, frequently used by other attractiveness reviewers, is preferable for drawing unbiased conclusions about the effects of attractiveness. The article's main contribution is affording a foundation for subsequent meta-analysis of the studies discussed in a subjective fashion.

  16. Design data brochure for CSI series V solar heating system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1978-01-01

    Generalized information on system configuration, system sizing, and mechanical layout is presented to assist the architect or designer in preparing construction drawings and specifications for the installation of the CSI integrated solar heating systems. Efficiency in space utilization of a full length collector and the importance of proper sizing of the collector array are among the topics discussed. Details of storage and transport subsystems are provided along with drawings and specifications of all components of the CSI system.

  17. Climate Solutions based on advanced scientific discoveries of Allatra physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vershigora, Valery

    2016-01-01

    Global climate change is one of the most important international problems of the 21st century. The overall rapid increase in the dynamics of cataclysms, which have been observed in recent decades, is particularly alarming. Howdo modern scientists predict the occurrence of certain events? In meteorology, unusually powerful cumulonimbus clouds are one of the main conditions for the emergence of a tornado. The former, in their turn, are formed during the invasion of cold air on the overheated land surface. The satellite captures the cloud front, and, based on these pictures, scientists make assumptions about the possibility of occurrence of the respective natural phenomena. In fact, mankind visually observes and draws conclusions about the consequences of the physical phenomena which have already taken place in the invisible world, so the conclusions of scientists are assumptions by their nature, rather than precise knowledge of the causes of theorigin of these phenomena in the physics of microcosm. The latest research in the field of the particle physics and neutrino astrophysics, which was conducted by a working team of scientists of ALLATRA International Public Movement (hereinafter ALLATRA SCIENCE group) allatra-science.org, last accessed 10 April 2016. offers increased opportunities for advanced fundamental and applied research in climatic engineering.

  18. Subtle Scientific Fallacies Undermine the Validity of Neuroendocrinological Research: Do Not Draw Premature Conclusions on the Role of Female Sex Hormones.

    PubMed

    Hengartner, Michael P

    2017-01-01

    Major scientific flaws such as reporting and publication biases are well documented, even though acknowledgment of their importance appears to be lacking in various psychological and medical fields. Subtle and less obvious biases including selective reviews of the literature and empirically unsupported conclusions and recommendations have received even less attention. Using the literature on the association between transition to menopause, hormones and the onset of depression as a guiding example, I outline how such scientific fallacies undermine the validity of neuroendocrinological research. It is shown that in contrast to prominent claims, first, most prospective studies do not support the notion that the menopausal transition relates to increased risk for depression, second, that associations between hormone levels and depression are largely inconsistent and irreproducible, and, third, that the evidence for the efficacy of hormone therapy for the treatment of depression is very weak and at best inconclusive. I conclude that a direct and uniform association between female sex hormones and depression is clearly not supported by the literature and that more attention should be paid to the manifold scientific biases that undermine the validity of findings in psychological and medical research, with a specific focus on the behavioral neurosciences.

  19. The Effect of Inappropriate Calibration: Three Case Studies in Molecular Ecology

    PubMed Central

    Ho, Simon Y. W.; Saarma, Urmas; Barnett, Ross; Haile, James; Shapiro, Beth

    2008-01-01

    Time-scales estimated from sequence data play an important role in molecular ecology. They can be used to draw correlations between evolutionary and palaeoclimatic events, to measure the tempo of speciation, and to study the demographic history of an endangered species. In all of these studies, it is paramount to have accurate estimates of time-scales and substitution rates. Molecular ecological studies typically focus on intraspecific data that have evolved on genealogical scales, but often these studies inappropriately employ deep fossil calibrations or canonical substitution rates (e.g., 1% per million years for birds and mammals) for calibrating estimates of divergence times. These approaches can yield misleading estimates of molecular time-scales, with significant impacts on subsequent evolutionary and ecological inferences. We illustrate this calibration problem using three case studies: avian speciation in the late Pleistocene, the demographic history of bowhead whales, and the Pleistocene biogeography of brown bears. For each data set, we compare the date estimates that are obtained using internal and external calibration points. In all three cases, the conclusions are significantly altered by the application of revised, internally-calibrated substitution rates. Collectively, the results emphasise the importance of judicious selection of calibrations for analyses of recent evolutionary events. PMID:18286172

  20. The influence of meteorological conditions on the progress and dynamics of pollen phenophases of selected species.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jatczak, K.; Linkowska, J.; Rapiejko, P.

    2010-09-01

    In Poland phenological data is used mainly as a natural indicator of the influence of climate changes on environment. In relation to the growing interest of phenology in scientific research, we substantially extended observation ranges, concentrating mainly on phenophases of selected species that are important for allergology. Phenological data application in complex analysis together with meteorological and aerobiological data, give an opportunity for drawing conclusions on variability of the starting date of pollen season and its dynamics in a meteorological aspect. Species have their regional phenological characteristics, however the characteristics depends on meteorological conditions in a particular year. Therefore, the calculation of pheno-meteorological parameters is important for pollen release prediction. Availability of phenological database can also be useful in the field of preventive health care, through phenological data application in different atmospheric models (NWP models, phenological models, pollen release models) for numerical forecasting of pollen concentration in the air. Genetic conditions, industrial development, increase of air pollution are regarded as the main determinants of allergic diseases. The results of pheno - aero- meteorological analysis enable the estimation of the influence of natural environmental changes on the increasing prevalence of allergic diseases in Poland.

  1. Cognitive, Behavioral, and Functional Consequences of Inadequate Sleep in Children and Adolescents

    PubMed Central

    Beebe, Dean W.

    2011-01-01

    Synopsis During the past few decades, studies using multiple research designs have examined whether sleep during childhood and adolescence is related to cognition, behavior, and other aspects of daytime functioning. This paper summarizes recent correlational, case-control, quasi-experimental, and experimental studies, highlighting how the strengths and limitations of each research design are complementary, thereby allowing one to more confidently draw conclusions when viewing the research literature as a whole. Viewed in this manner, published findings suggest that inadequate sleep quality and/or quantity can cause sleepiness, inattention and, very likely, other cognitive and behavioral deficits that significantly impact children and adolescents in important functional settings (e.g., school). This paper then integrates findings from longitudinal studies within a developmental psychopathology model. In this model, inadequate sleep is viewed as a noxious exposure that can, over time, fundamentally alter a child or adolescent's development, resulting in poorer long-term outcomes. Important research questions remain, but the available evidence supports the integration of sleep screening and interventions into routine clinical care and also supports advocacy for public policy changes to improve the sleep of children and adolescents. PMID:21600347

  2. The effect of inappropriate calibration: three case studies in molecular ecology.

    PubMed

    Ho, Simon Y W; Saarma, Urmas; Barnett, Ross; Haile, James; Shapiro, Beth

    2008-02-20

    Time-scales estimated from sequence data play an important role in molecular ecology. They can be used to draw correlations between evolutionary and palaeoclimatic events, to measure the tempo of speciation, and to study the demographic history of an endangered species. In all of these studies, it is paramount to have accurate estimates of time-scales and substitution rates. Molecular ecological studies typically focus on intraspecific data that have evolved on genealogical scales, but often these studies inappropriately employ deep fossil calibrations or canonical substitution rates (e.g., 1% per million years for birds and mammals) for calibrating estimates of divergence times. These approaches can yield misleading estimates of molecular time-scales, with significant impacts on subsequent evolutionary and ecological inferences. We illustrate this calibration problem using three case studies: avian speciation in the late Pleistocene, the demographic history of bowhead whales, and the Pleistocene biogeography of brown bears. For each data set, we compare the date estimates that are obtained using internal and external calibration points. In all three cases, the conclusions are significantly altered by the application of revised, internally-calibrated substitution rates. Collectively, the results emphasise the importance of judicious selection of calibrations for analyses of recent evolutionary events.

  3. Petrologic Characteristics of the Lunar Surface

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Xianmin; Pedrycz, Witold

    2015-11-01

    Petrologic analysis of the lunar surface is critical for determining lunar formation and evolution. Here, we report the first global petrologic map that includes the five most important lunar lithological units: the Ferroan Anorthositic (FAN) Unit, the Magnesian Suite (MS) Unit, the Alkali Suite (AS) Unit, the KREEP Basalt (KB) Unit and the Mare Basalt (MB) Unit. Based on the petrologic map and focusing on four long-debated and important issues related to lunar formation and evolution, we draw the following conclusions from the new insights into the global distribution of the five petrologic units: (1) there may be no petrogenetic relationship between MS rocks and KB; (2) there may be no petrogenetic link between MS and AS rocks; (3) the exposure of the KREEP component on the lunar surface is likely not a result of MB volcanism but is instead mainly associated with the combined action of plutonic intrusion, KREEP volcanism and celestial collision; (4) the impact size of the South Pole-Aitken basin is constrained, i.e., the basin has been excavated through the whole crust to exhume a vast majority of lower-crustal material and a very limited mantle components to the lunar surface.

  4. The role of social networks in physical and relational aggression among young adolescents.

    PubMed

    Low, Sabina; Polanin, Joshua R; Espelage, Dorothy L

    2013-07-01

    Despite the veritable influence of the peer context on the elaboration of adolescent aggression, few studies of relational aggression have directly identified and measured peer groups, limiting our ability to draw formal conclusions about the level and nature of peer influence. The current study used a developmental framework to examine peer group influence on individual levels of physical and relational aggression over a year with 6th and 7th grade students (n = 346, 51 % female). A multilevel network approach was used in which peer groups were identified via social network analysis, and peer group influence was evaluated with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). HLM analyses indicated that peer group aggression (physical and relational) at time 1 was predictive of individual aggression levels at time 2 after controlling for other peer group characteristics as well as other individual risk and protective factors. Although both forms of aggression were embedded in peer networks, findings suggest that physical aggression is relatively less endemic to peer networks, and is more likely to occur in smaller, predominantly male networks. The current study highlights the importance of understanding the influence of peer group membership on adolescent aggression and points to important implications for prevention.

  5. The importance of invertebrates when considering the impacts of anthropogenic noise

    PubMed Central

    Morley, Erica L.; Jones, Gareth; Radford, Andrew N.

    2014-01-01

    Anthropogenic noise is now recognized as a major global pollutant. Rapidly burgeoning research has identified impacts on individual behaviour and physiology through to community disruption. To date, however, there has been an almost exclusive focus on vertebrates. Not only does their central role in food webs and in fulfilling ecosystem services make imperative our understanding of how invertebrates are impacted by all aspects of environmental change, but also many of their inherent characteristics provide opportunities to overcome common issues with the current anthropogenic noise literature. Here, we begin by explaining why invertebrates are likely to be affected by anthropogenic noise, briefly reviewing their capacity for hearing and providing evidence that they are capable of evolutionary adaptation and behavioural plasticity in response to natural noise sources. We then discuss the importance of quantifying accurately and fully both auditory ability and noise content, emphasizing considerations of direct relevance to how invertebrates detect sounds. We showcase how studying invertebrates can help with the behavioural bias in the literature, the difficulties in drawing strong, ecologically valid conclusions and the need for studies on fitness impacts. Finally, we suggest avenues of future research using invertebrates that would advance our understanding of the impact of anthropogenic noise. PMID:24335986

  6. The importance of invertebrates when considering the impacts of anthropogenic noise.

    PubMed

    Morley, Erica L; Jones, Gareth; Radford, Andrew N

    2014-02-07

    Anthropogenic noise is now recognized as a major global pollutant. Rapidly burgeoning research has identified impacts on individual behaviour and physiology through to community disruption. To date, however, there has been an almost exclusive focus on vertebrates. Not only does their central role in food webs and in fulfilling ecosystem services make imperative our understanding of how invertebrates are impacted by all aspects of environmental change, but also many of their inherent characteristics provide opportunities to overcome common issues with the current anthropogenic noise literature. Here, we begin by explaining why invertebrates are likely to be affected by anthropogenic noise, briefly reviewing their capacity for hearing and providing evidence that they are capable of evolutionary adaptation and behavioural plasticity in response to natural noise sources. We then discuss the importance of quantifying accurately and fully both auditory ability and noise content, emphasizing considerations of direct relevance to how invertebrates detect sounds. We showcase how studying invertebrates can help with the behavioural bias in the literature, the difficulties in drawing strong, ecologically valid conclusions and the need for studies on fitness impacts. Finally, we suggest avenues of future research using invertebrates that would advance our understanding of the impact of anthropogenic noise.

  7. Petrologic Characteristics of the Lunar Surface

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Xianmin; Pedrycz, Witold

    2015-01-01

    Petrologic analysis of the lunar surface is critical for determining lunar formation and evolution. Here, we report the first global petrologic map that includes the five most important lunar lithological units: the Ferroan Anorthositic (FAN) Unit, the Magnesian Suite (MS) Unit, the Alkali Suite (AS) Unit, the KREEP Basalt (KB) Unit and the Mare Basalt (MB) Unit. Based on the petrologic map and focusing on four long-debated and important issues related to lunar formation and evolution, we draw the following conclusions from the new insights into the global distribution of the five petrologic units: (1) there may be no petrogenetic relationship between MS rocks and KB; (2) there may be no petrogenetic link between MS and AS rocks; (3) the exposure of the KREEP component on the lunar surface is likely not a result of MB volcanism but is instead mainly associated with the combined action of plutonic intrusion, KREEP volcanism and celestial collision; (4) the impact size of the South Pole-Aitken basin is constrained, i.e., the basin has been excavated through the whole crust to exhume a vast majority of lower-crustal material and a very limited mantle components to the lunar surface. PMID:26611148

  8. Petrologic Characteristics of the Lunar Surface.

    PubMed

    Wang, Xianmin; Pedrycz, Witold

    2015-11-27

    Petrologic analysis of the lunar surface is critical for determining lunar formation and evolution. Here, we report the first global petrologic map that includes the five most important lunar lithological units: the Ferroan Anorthositic (FAN) Unit, the Magnesian Suite (MS) Unit, the Alkali Suite (AS) Unit, the KREEP Basalt (KB) Unit and the Mare Basalt (MB) Unit. Based on the petrologic map and focusing on four long-debated and important issues related to lunar formation and evolution, we draw the following conclusions from the new insights into the global distribution of the five petrologic units: (1) there may be no petrogenetic relationship between MS rocks and KB; (2) there may be no petrogenetic link between MS and AS rocks; (3) the exposure of the KREEP component on the lunar surface is likely not a result of MB volcanism but is instead mainly associated with the combined action of plutonic intrusion, KREEP volcanism and celestial collision; (4) the impact size of the South Pole-Aitken basin is constrained, i.e., the basin has been excavated through the whole crust to exhume a vast majority of lower-crustal material and a very limited mantle components to the lunar surface.

  9. How to Create Shared Symbols.

    PubMed

    Fay, Nicolas; Walker, Bradley; Swoboda, Nik; Garrod, Simon

    2018-05-01

    Human cognition and behavior are dominated by symbol use. This paper examines the social learning strategies that give rise to symbolic communication. Experiment 1 contrasts an individual-level account, based on observational learning and cognitive bias, with an inter-individual account, based on social coordinative learning. Participants played a referential communication game in which they tried to communicate a range of recurring meanings to a partner by drawing, but without using their conventional language. Individual-level learning, via observation and cognitive bias, was sufficient to produce signs that became increasingly effective, efficient, and shared over games. However, breaking a referential precedent eliminated these benefits. The most effective, most efficient, and most shared signs arose when participants could directly interact with their partner, indicating that social coordinative learning is important to the creation of shared symbols. Experiment 2 investigated the contribution of two distinct aspects of social interaction: behavior alignment and concurrent partner feedback. Each played a complementary role in the creation of shared symbols: Behavior alignment primarily drove communication effectiveness, and partner feedback primarily drove the efficiency of the evolved signs. In conclusion, inter-individual social coordinative learning is important to the evolution of effective, efficient, and shared symbols. Copyright © 2018 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  10. Conditions for growth in one-person startups: a longitudinal study spanning eight years.

    PubMed

    Korunka, Christian; Kessler, Alexander; Frank, Hermann; Lueger, Manfred

    2011-08-01

    In the European Union, one-person businesses (OPBs) are increasingly regarded as an important alternative to dependent employment. From an economic policy standpoint, the growth potential of such businesses is especially attractive. This paper analyzes the growth potential of OPBs by postulating five key groups of enterprise growth predictors: personal traits, resources, strategy, industry, and organizational structures and systems. The framework model was adapted to suit the specific circumstances of OPBs. The model was tested using a longitudinal data set comprising 188 OPBs which were observed over a period of eight years. At the end of the observation period, the OPBs included in the study had an average of 1.33 employees. The gender of the founder, capital requirements at the time of establishment, and growth strategy proved to be the most important predictors of growth. In addition, human capital resources also tended to have a positive impact. The traits of the person founding the business were not found to affect growth. In summary, it is possible to draw empirically reliable conclusions about growth potential on the basis of the «seriousness» of an OPB startup project.

  11. Influence of the pressure dependent coefficient of friction on deep drawing springback predictions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gil, Imanol; Galdos, Lander; Mendiguren, Joseba; Mugarra, Endika; Sáenz de Argandoña, Eneko

    2016-10-01

    This research studies the effect of considering an advanced variable friction coefficient on the springback prediction of stamping processes. Traditional constant coefficient of friction considerations are being replaced by more advanced friction coefficient definitions. The aim of this work is to show the influence of defining a pressure dependent friction coefficient on numerical springback predictions of a DX54D mild steel, a HSLA380 and a DP780 high strength steel. The pressure dependent friction model of each material was fitted to the experimental data obtained by Strip Drawing tests. Then, these friction models were implemented in a numerical simulation of a drawing process of an industrial automotive part. The results showed important differences between defining a pressure dependent friction coefficient or a constant friction coefficient.

  12. The autistic child's appraisal of expressions of emotion: a further study.

    PubMed

    Hobson, R P

    1986-09-01

    Autistic and matched non-autistic retarded children were selected for their ability to recognize the correspondence between schematic drawings and videotaped scenes involving people. The subjects of both groups were able to choose schematic drawings of gestures for a person's gestures of emotion enacted on videotape. However, the autistic children were significantly impaired in choosing which of the drawings of gestures should 'go with' videotaped vocalizations and facial expressions characteristic of four emotional states. The results were found to be consistent with results from a previous, related study in which the same subjects had chosen drawn or photographed faces to indicate their judgements of the same videotapes of emotional expression. It is suggested that these findings reflect an important aspect of autistic children's social disability.

  13. The Role of Surrogate Endpoints in the Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of Therapeutic Interventions in Diabetes Mellitus

    PubMed Central

    Wieczorek, Aleksandra; Rys, Przemyslaw; Skrzekowska-Baran, Iwona; Malecki, Maciej

    2008-01-01

    In this paper, we examine the concept of surrogate endpoints (i.e. substitute outcome measures) and review their use in clinical trials involving therapies for diabetes mellitus using the example of metformin. Trials such as DCCT and UKPDS, in which patient-important endpoints were evaluated, are relatively rare in diabetology. Clinical decisions, therefore, are often based on evidence obtained using surrogate outcomes, usually fasting or postprandial glycemia or glycated hemoglobin level. In contrast to patient-important endpoints, surrogates do not describe direct clinical benefit to the patient. However, a proven association between a surrogate and patient-important endpoint is essential to draw appropriate therapeutic conclusions. In the process of new drug development, the duration of follow-up, sample size and methodology of the studies initially available are often inadequate to demonstrate the effect of the intervention on patient-important endpoints. Evidence concerning the effect of an intervention on surrogate outcomes usually comes first, followed only later by reports describing its influence on patient-important endpoints. Metformin may serve as an example in several ways. The first publications reported beneficial effects on glycemic control and body weight. Outcomes from the subsequent UKPDS study suggested the patient-important efficacy of metformin measured as a reduction in mortality and a decrease in the incidence of diabetic complications, including myocardial infarction. This reasoning process worked for some but not all strategies. It is particularly questionable whether a change in surrogate endpoint was associated with a potential deterioration in patient-important outcomes. Defining the general relationship between surrogates widely used as measures of metabolic control and patient-important endpoints remains an important challenge in contemporary diabetology. PMID:19099084

  14. The role of surrogate endpoints in the evaluation of efficacy and safety of therapeutic interventions in diabetes mellitus.

    PubMed

    Wieczorek, Aleksandra; Rys, Przemyslaw; Skrzekowska-Baran, Iwona; Malecki, Maciej

    2008-01-01

    In this paper, we examine the concept of surrogate endpoints (i.e. substitute outcome measures) and review their use in clinical trials involving therapies for diabetes mellitus using the example of metformin. Trials such as DCCT and UKPDS, in which patient-important endpoints were evaluated, are relatively rare in diabetology. Clinical decisions, therefore, are often based on evidence obtained using surrogate outcomes, usually fasting or postprandial glycemia or glycated hemoglobin level. In contrast to patient-important endpoints, surrogates do not describe direct clinical benefit to the patient. However, a proven association between a surrogate and patient-important endpoint is essential to draw appropriate therapeutic conclusions. In the process of new drug development, the duration of follow-up, sample size and methodology of the studies initially available are often inadequate to demonstrate the effect of the intervention on patient-important endpoints. Evidence concerning the effect of an intervention on surrogate outcomes usually comes first, followed only later by reports describing its influence on patient-important endpoints. Metformin may serve as an example in several ways. The first publications reported beneficial effects on glycemic control and body weight. Outcomes from the subsequent UKPDS study suggested the patient-important efficacy of metformin measured as a reduction in mortality and a decrease in the incidence of diabetic complications, including myocardial infarction. This reasoning process worked for some but not all strategies. It is particularly questionable whether a change in surrogate endpoint was associated with a potential deterioration in patient-important outcomes. Defining the general relationship between surrogates widely used as measures of metabolic control and patient-important endpoints remains an important challenge in contemporary diabetology.

  15. The Classroom Traffic Jam

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Edwards, Arthur W.

    1977-01-01

    The importance of energy conservation is developed in this simulation. Children draw an automobile and then are asked to drive it through the classroom roadways. When a traffic jam results, students offer ways to eliminate it. The importance of mass transportation and car pools is stressed by the teacher. (MA)

  16. Six Myths About Spatial Thinking

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Newcombe, Nora S.; Stieff, Mike

    2012-04-01

    Visualizations are an increasingly important part of scientific education and discovery. However, users often do not gain knowledge from them in a complete or efficient way. This article aims to direct research on visualizations in science education in productive directions by reviewing the evidence for widespread assumptions that learning styles, sex differences, developmental stages, and spatial language determine the impact of visualizations on science learning. First, we examine the assumption that people differ in their verbal versus visual learning style. Due to the lack of rigorous evaluation, there is no current support for this distinction. Future research should distinguish between two different kinds of visual learning style. Second, we consider the belief that there are large and intractable sex differences in spatial ability resultant from immutable biological reasons. Although there are some spatial sex differences (in some types of spatial tests although not all), there is actually only very mixed support for biological causation. Most important, there is conclusive evidence that spatial skills can be improved through training and education. Third, we explore educators' use of Piaget's ideas about spatial development to draw conclusions about 'developmental appropriateness'. However, recent research on spatial development has focused on identifying sequences that begin with early starting points of skill, and spatial education is possible in some form at all ages. Fourth, although spatial language does not determine spatial thought, it does frame attention in a way that can have impact on learning and understanding. We examine the empirical support for each assumption and its relevance to future research on visualizations in science education.

  17. About Cats and Dogs...Reconsidering the Relationship between Pet Ownership and Health Related Outcomes in Community-Dwelling Elderly

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rijken, Mieke; van Beek, Sandra

    2011-01-01

    Having a pet has been claimed to have beneficial health effects, but methodologically sound empirical studies are scarce. Small sample sizes and a lack of information about the specific type of pets involved make it difficult to draw unambiguous conclusions. We aimed to shed light on the relationship between pet ownership and several health…

  18. Characterization of 81P/Wild 2 Particles C2067,1,111,6.0 and C2067,1,111,8.0

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Smith, T.; Khodja, H.; Raepsaet, C.; Burchell, M. J.; Flynn, G. J.; Herzog, G. F.; Park, J.; Lindsay, F.; Nakamura-Messenger, K.; Keller, L. P.; hide

    2012-01-01

    The concentrations of C and N in cometary particles are of interest in characterizing the regions where comets formed. One aim of this work is to analyze enough Stardust particles to draw meaningful statistical conclusions about their inventories of C and N. Toward that end we report recent studies of Stardust particles and related materials.

  19. Pulmonary Stress Induced by Hyperthermia: Role of Airway Sensory Nerves

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-10-01

    ABSTRACT Based upon the results obtained from these studies, we can draw the following conclusions: 1) Airway hyperresponsiveness developed in Ova ...hyperthermia in Ova -sensitized rats. The manuscript reporting the results obtained frim this study has been accepted for publication by the Journal of...to increasing airway temperature. Our results showed: 1) In Brown-Norway rats actively sensitized by ovalbumin ( Ova ), isocapnic hyperventilation with

  20. Mechanisms of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-07-01

    area code) Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18 Mechanisms of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism Dr. John Shoffner...before we will be able to draw meaningful conclusions from this study. Autism , functional MRI, mitochondria, mitochondrial disease 15 Table of Contents...mitochondrial defects in autism are not known, it is hypothesized that significant numbers of individuals with autism and autistic spectrum disorders

  1. Comment on "Benefits of completing homework for students with different aptitudes in an introductory electricity and magnetism course"

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rieger, G. W.; Reinsberg, S. A.; Wieman, C. E.

    2016-12-01

    We present a comment on "Benefits of completing homework for students with different aptitudes in an introductory electricity and magnetism course", by F. J. Kontur, K. de La Harpe, and N. B. Terry PRST-PER 11, 010105 (2015). Our data show that the conclusions Kontur and coworkers draw from their data may not be generally applicable.

  2. Comment on "Benefits of Completing Homework for Students with Different Aptitudes in an Introductory Electricity and Magnetism Course"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rieger, G. W.; Reinsberg, S. A.; Wieman, C. E.

    2016-01-01

    We present a comment on "Benefits of completing homework for students with different aptitudes in an introductory electricity and magnetism course", by F. J. Kontur, K. de La Harpe, and N. B. Terry PRST-PER 11, 010105 (2015). Our data show that the conclusions Kontur and coworkers draw from their data may not be generally applicable.

  3. Ownership Patterns of Natural Resources in Rural America: Implications for Distribution of Wealth and Income. Rural Development, Poverty, and Natural Resources Workshop Paper Series, Part IV.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clawson, Marion

    Beginning with definitions of land ownership and natural resources, this paper traces United States resource ownership patterns and draws conclusions for rural areas. Following the definitions, a general history of resource ownership discusses disposition of land from government to private owner, noting that the cadastral survey system still in…

  4. Assessment of SEPS solar array technology for orbital service module application

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1978-01-01

    Work performed in the following assessment areas on the SEPS solar array is reported: (1) requirements definition, (2) electrical design evaluation, (3) mechanical design evaluation, and (4) design modification analysis. General overall assessment conclusions are summarized. There are no known serious design limitations involved in the implementation of the recommended design modifications. A section of orbiter and array engineering drawings is included.

  5. Blast and Fragment Protective Sandwich Panel Concepts for Stainless Steel Monohull Designs

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-10-21

    to draw broader conclusions. 8. Concluding remarks The resistance of metallic sandwich panels to localized spherical impulsive sources has been...hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources , gathering and maintaining the data needed, and...applications and ship hull blister attachments. Technical Approach The approach used in this research program exploited progress made in metallic

  6. US Army Organizational Culture’s Effect on Innovation and Creativity

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-05-25

    of high levels of hierarchical control, clearly defined roles, and centralized decision-making impede flexibility and creativity. When innovation is...of thinking people experience when they are deeply involved in a cohesive team. Members of cohesive decision...represent C.J. Jung’s basic theory on psychological types. In general, these preferences affect what people attend to and how they draw conclusions about

  7. Unanimous Constitutional Consent and the Immigration Problem

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-12-01

    Wolf, EU-Erweiterung: Anmerkungen zum Balassa - Samuelson -Effekt, Nr. 3/2002, erschienen in: Stefan Reitz (Hg.): Theoretische und wirtschafispolitische...the individualistic norm. Their main argument is that the contradiction between collective coercion and individual freedom cannot be dissolved at the... arguments against this way of reasoning for there usually will be holes in that veil, so that it may be possible to draw conclusions from the past with

  8. Methods and Strategies: Beyond the Textbook--But Not Just "Hands On". Using High-Quality Informational Texts to Meet the "Next Generation Science Standards"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vick, Matthew

    2016-01-01

    Science teaching continues to move away from teaching science as merely a body of facts and figures to be memorized to a process of exploring and drawing conclusions. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) emphasize eight science and engineering practices that ask students to apply scientific and engineering reasoning and explanation. This…

  9. The Relation between Child Maltreatment and Adolescent Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review and Critical Examination of the Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Adam B.; Esposito-Smythers, Christianne; Weismoore, Julie T.; Renshaw, Keith D.

    2013-01-01

    A large body of research suggests that child maltreatment (CM) is associated with adolescent suicidal ideation and attempts. These studies, however, have not been critically examined and summarized in a manner that allows us to draw firm conclusions and make recommendations for future research and clinical work in this area. In this review, we…

  10. Web 2.0 and the Impact of ICT Fuelled Participatory Culture in Rural and Remote Education: (SPERA Keynote 2009 Conference Address)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anderson, Neil

    2009-01-01

    This paper and presentation reviews the collective opinion of key Australian researchers concerning the emerging technologies most likely to have a significant impact on learning and teaching in regional, rural and remote areas. It then draws on the conclusions of the Horizon Report (2008) concerning key ICT drivers likely to influence…

  11. The Psychometric Properties of the Socio-Moral Reflection Measure-Short Form and the Moral Theme Inventory for Men with and without Intellectual Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Langdon, Peter E.; Murphy, Glynis H.; Clare, Isabel C. H.; Palmer, Emma J.

    2010-01-01

    Drawing conclusions from the literature regarding the moral development of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) is difficult because of the use of unstandardised and idiosyncratic measures. In order to address this short-coming, a moral reasoning production measure (the Socio-Moral Reflection Measure-Short Form; SRM-SF) and a recognition…

  12. A Study of the Organizational Culture at a Higher Education Institution [Case Study: Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (PRUE)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vasyakin, Bogdan S.; Ivleva, Marina I.; Pozharskaya, Yelena L.; Shcherbakova, Olga I.

    2016-01-01

    The article offers an analysis of the organizational culture at a higher education institution as in the case of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, conducted in order to study the students' involvement in this culture and to draw conclusions as to what organizational culture principles are internalized by the students. The study used…

  13. Geometric Comparisons of Selected Small Topographically Fresh Volcanoes in the Borealis and Elysium Planitia Volcanic Fields, Mars: Implications for Eruptive Styles

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Taylor, K.; Sakimoto, S. E. H.; Mitchell, D.

    2002-01-01

    MOLA (Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter) data from small, topographically fresh volcanoes from the Elysium and Borealis regions were gridded and analyzed using GMT (Generic Mapping Tools) programs. Results compare eruptive styles of the two regions, and draw conclusions about the different volcanic regions. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

  14. Application of the new Cross Recurrence Plots to multivariate data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thiel, M.; Romano, C.; Kurths, J.

    2003-04-01

    We extend and then apply the method of the new Cross Recurrence Plots (XRPs) to multivariate data. After introducing the new method we carry out an analysis of spatiotemporal ecological data. We compute not only the Rényi entropies and cross entropies by XRP, that allow to draw conclusions about the coupling of the systems, but also find a prediction horizon for intermediate time scales.

  15. Lessons Learned from FIPSE Projects: 15 Directors of Reform Projects in Postsecondary Education Draw Conclusions about What Worked, What Didn't, and Why.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marcus, Dora, Ed.

    This monograph describes what worked and what did not in 15 college and university programs sponsored by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education from 1984 to 1987. Each description includes information on the project's purpose, innovative features, evaluation, impact or changes from the grant activities, what worked unexpectedly,…

  16. Habitat Utilization Assessment - Building in Behaviors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Whitmore, Mihriban; Blume, Jennifer

    2004-01-01

    Habitability, and the associated architectural and design attributes of an environment, is a powerful performance shaping factor. By identifying how inhabitants use an area, we can draw conclusions about what design or architectural attributes cause what behaviors and systematically design in desired human performance. We are analyzing how a crew uses a long duration habitat and work environment during a four-day underwater mission and identifying certain architectural and design attributes that are related to, and potential enablers of, certain crew behaviors. By identifying how inhabitants use the habitat, we can draw conclusions about what habitability attributes cause what behaviors and systematically design in desired human performance (applicable to NASA's Bioastronautics Human Behavior and Performance Critical Path Roadmap question 6.12). This assessment replicates a methodology reported in a chapter titled "Sociokinetic Analysis as a Tool for Optimization of Environmental Design" by C. Adams.' That study collected video imagery of certain areas of a closed habitat during a 91 day test and from that data calculated time spent in different volumes during the mission, and characterized the behaviors occurring in certain habitat volumes thus concluding various rules for design of such habitats. This study assesses the utilization of the Aquarius Habitat, an underwater station, which will support six Aquanauts for a fourteen-day mission during which the crew will perform specific scientific and engineering studies. Video is recorded for long uninterrupted periods of time during the mission and from that data the time spent in each area is calculated. In addition, qualitative and descriptive analysis of the types of behaviors in each area is performed with the purpose of identifying any behaviors that are not typical of a certain area. If a participant uses an area in a way different from expected, a subsequent analysis of the features of that area may result in conclusions of performance shaping factors. With the addition of this study, we can make comparisons between the two different habitats and begin drawing correlation judgments about design features and behavior. Ideally, this methodology should be repeated in additional Aquarius missions and other analog environments because the real information will come from comparisons between habitats.

  17. Gender identity and autism spectrum disorders.

    PubMed

    van Schalkwyk, Gerrit I; Klingensmith, Katherine; Volkmar, Fred R

    2015-03-01

    In this review, we briefly summarize much of the existing literature on gender-related concerns and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), drawing attention to critical shortcomings in our current understanding and potential clinical implications. Some authors have concluded that gender identity disorder (GID), or gender dysphoria (GD), is more common in individuals with ASD, providing a range of potential explanations. However, existing literature is quantitatively limited, and our capacity to draw conclusions is further complicated by conceptual challenges regarding how gender identity is best understood. Discourses that emphasize gender as a component of identity formation are gaining prominence and seem particularly salient when applied to ASD. Individuals with ASD should enjoy equal rights with regard to treatment for gender dysphoria. Clinicians may be able to assist individuals in understanding this aspect of their identity by broadening the social frame and facilitating an exploration of gender roles.

  18. A bottom-up strategy for establishment of EER in three Nordic countries - the role of networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Edström, Kristina; Kolmos, Anette; Malmi, Lauri; Bernhard, Jonte; Andersson, Pernille

    2018-03-01

    This paper investigates the emergence of an engineering education research (EER) community in three Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland and Sweden. First, an overview of the current state of Nordic EER authorship is produced through statistics on international publication. Then, the history of EER and its precursor activities is described in three national narratives. These national storylines are tied together in a description of recent networking activities, aiming to strengthen the EER communities on the Nordic level. Taking these three perspectives together, and drawing on concepts from community of practice theory, network theory and learning network theory, we discuss factors behind the differences in the countries, and draw some conclusions about implications for networking activities in a heterogeneous community. Further, we discuss the role of networks for affording a joint identity.

  19. The Importance of Creativity in Family Therapy: A Preliminary Consideration.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carson, David K.

    1999-01-01

    Looks at the importance of creativity in the context of family therapy. Examines creative techniques such as family sculpturing, family art therapy, puppetry, family drawings, and psychodrama. Focuses on the concept of creativity in prominent theories of counseling (i.e., humanistic, Gestalt, cognitive psychology) and the relation of divergent…

  20. The Educational Importance of Self-Esteem

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ferkany, Matt

    2008-01-01

    Some philosophers of education have recently argued that educators can more or less ignore children's global self-esteem without failing them educationally in any important way. This paper draws on an attachment theoretic account of self-esteem to argue that this view is mistaken. I argue that understanding self-esteem's origins in attachment…

  1. Importance of Plein-Air Practice in Professional Art Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shokorova, Larisa Vladimirovna; Grechneva, Natalia Vladislavovna; Bochkovskay, Vera Igorevna

    2016-01-01

    The article discusses the role and importance of plein-air practice in vocational training of art specialties' students. It analyzes the historical aspect of plein-air drawing in nature origin. It identifies psychophysiological characteristics of visual perception in fine and decorative art. It characterizes methods of artistic perception of…

  2. A climate trend analysis of Ethiopia

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Funk, Christopher C.; Rowland, Jim; Eilerts, Gary; Kebebe, Emebet; Biru, Nigist; White, Libby; Galu, Gideon

    2012-01-01

    This brief report, drawing from a multi-year effort by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), examines recent trends in March-June, June-September, and March-September rainfall and temperature, identifying significant reductions in rainfall and increases in temperature over time in many areas of Ethiopia. Conclusions: * Spring and summer rains in parts of Ethiopia have declined by 15-20 percent since the mid-1970s. * Substantial warming across the entire country has exacerbated the dryness.* An important pattern of observed existing rainfall declines coincides with heavily populated areas of the Rift Valley in south-central Ethiopia, and is likely already adversely affecting crop yields and pasture conditions. * Rapid population growth and the expansion of farming and pastoralism under a drier, warmer climate regime could dramatically increase the number of at-risk people in Ethiopia during the next 20 years.* Many areas of Ethiopia will maintain moist climate conditions, and agricultural development in these areas could help offset rainfall declines and reduced production in other areas.

  3. Extracting forensic evidence from biometric devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Geradts, Zeno J.; Ruifrok, Arnout C.

    2003-08-01

    Over the past few years, both large multinationals and governments have begun to contribute to even larger projects on biometric devices. Terrorist attacks in America and in other countries have highlighted the need for better identification systems for people as well as improved systems for controlling access to buildings. Another reason for investment in Research and Development in Biometric Devices, is the massive growth in internet-based systems -- whether for e-commerce, e-government or internal processes within organizations. The interface between the system and the user is routinely abused, as people have to remember many complex passwords and handle tokens of various types. In this paper an overview is given of the information that is important to know before an examination of such is systems can be done in a forensic proper way. In forensic evidence with biometric devices the forensic examiner should consider the possibilities of tampering with the biometric systems or the possibilities of unauthorized access before drawing conclusions.

  4. Measured extent of agricultural expansion depends on analysis technique

    DOE PAGES

    Dunn, Jennifer B.; Merz, Dylan; Copenhaver, Ken L.; ...

    2017-01-31

    Concern is rising that ecologically important, carbon-rich natural lands in the United States are losing ground to agriculture. We investigate how quantitative assessments of historical land use change to address this concern differ in their conclusions depending on the data set used. We examined land use change between 2006 and 2014 in 20 counties in the Prairie Pothole Region using the Cropland Data Layer, a modified Cropland Data Layer, data from the National Agricultural Imagery Program, and in-person ground-truthing. The Cropland Data Layer analyses overwhelmingly returned the largest amount of land use change with associated error that limits drawing conclusionsmore » from it. Analysis with visual imagery estimated a fraction of this land use change. Clearly, analysis technique drives understanding of the measured extent of land use change; different techniques produce vastly different results that would inform land management policy in strikingly different ways. As a result, best practice guidelines are needed.« less

  5. Measured extent of agricultural expansion depends on analysis technique

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

    Dunn, Jennifer B.; Merz, Dylan; Copenhaver, Ken L.

    Concern is rising that ecologically important, carbon-rich natural lands in the United States are losing ground to agriculture. We investigate how quantitative assessments of historical land use change to address this concern differ in their conclusions depending on the data set used. We examined land use change between 2006 and 2014 in 20 counties in the Prairie Pothole Region using the Cropland Data Layer, a modified Cropland Data Layer, data from the National Agricultural Imagery Program, and in-person ground-truthing. The Cropland Data Layer analyses overwhelmingly returned the largest amount of land use change with associated error that limits drawing conclusionsmore » from it. Analysis with visual imagery estimated a fraction of this land use change. Clearly, analysis technique drives understanding of the measured extent of land use change; different techniques produce vastly different results that would inform land management policy in strikingly different ways. As a result, best practice guidelines are needed.« less

  6. [Quality management in a clinical research facility: Evaluation of changes in quality in-house figures and the appraisal of in-house quality indicators].

    PubMed

    Aden, Bile; Allekotte, Silke; Mösges, Ralph

    2016-12-01

    For long-term maintenance and improvement of quality within a clinical research institute, the implementation and certification of a quality management system is suitable. Due to the implemented quality management system according to the still valid DIN EN ISO 9001:2008 desired quality objectives are achieved effectively. The evaluation of quality scores and the appraisal of in-house quality indicators make an important contribution in this regard. In order to achieve this and draw quality assurance conclusions, quality indicators as sensible and sensitive as possible are developed. For this, own key objectives, the retrospective evaluation of quality scores, a prospective follow-up and also discussions establish the basis. In the in-house clinical research institute the measures introduced by the quality management led to higher efficiency in work processes, improved staff skills, higher customer satisfaction and overall to more successful outcomes in relation to the self-defined key objectives. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

  7. Synthesizing Econometric Evidence: The Case of Demand Elasticity Estimates.

    PubMed

    DeCicca, Philip; Kenkel, Don

    2015-06-01

    Econometric estimates of the responsiveness of health-related consumer demand to higher prices are often key ingredients for risk policy analysis. We review the potential advantages and challenges of synthesizing econometric evidence on the price-responsiveness of consumer demand. We draw on examples of research on consumer demand for health-related goods, especially cigarettes. We argue that the overarching goal of research synthesis in this context is to provide policy-relevant evidence for broad-brush conclusions. We propose three main criteria to select among research synthesis methods. We discuss how in principle and in current practice synthesis of research on the price-elasticity of smoking meets our proposed criteria. Our analysis of current practice also contributes to academic research on the specific policy question of the effectiveness of higher cigarette prices to reduce smoking. Although we point out challenges and limitations, we believe more work on research synthesis in this area will be productive and important. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

  8. Rising CO2, Climate Change, and Public Health: Exploring the Links to Plant Biology

    PubMed Central

    Ziska, Lewis H.; Epstein, Paul R.; Schlesinger, William H.

    2009-01-01

    Background Although the issue of anthropogenic climate forcing and public health is widely recognized, one fundamental aspect has remained underappreciated: the impact of climatic change on plant biology and the well-being of human systems. Objectives We aimed to critically evaluate the extant and probable links between plant function and human health, drawing on the pertinent literature. Discussion Here we provide a number of critical examples that range over various health concerns related to plant biology and climate change, including aerobiology, contact dermatitis, pharmacology, toxicology, and pesticide use. Conclusions There are a number of clear links among climate change, plant biology, and public health that remain underappreciated by both plant scientists and health care providers. We demonstrate the importance of such links in our understanding of climate change impacts and provide a list of key questions that will help to integrate plant biology into the current paradigm regarding climate change and human health. PMID:19270781

  9. Enlarging the bounds of moral philosophy: Why did Isaac Newton conclude the Opticks the way he did?

    PubMed Central

    Henry, John

    2017-01-01

    This paper draws attention to the remarkable closing words of Isaac Newton's Optice (1706) and subsequent editions of the Opticks (1718, 1721), and tries to suggest why Newton chose to conclude his book with a puzzling allusion to his own unpublished conclusions about the history of religion. Newton suggests in this concluding passage that the bounds of moral philosophy will be enlarged as natural philosophy is ‘perfected’. Asking what Newton might have had in mind, the paper first considers the idea that he was foreshadowing the ‘moral Newtonianism’ developed later in the eighteenth century; then it considers the idea that he was perhaps pointing to developments in natural theology. Finally, the paper suggests that Newton wanted to at least signal the importance of attempting to recover the true original religion, and perhaps was hinting at his intention to publish his own extensive research on the history of the Church.

  10. The dependence of the Tauc and Cody optical gaps associated with hydrogenated amorphous silicon on the film thickness: αl Experimental limitations and the impact of curvature in the Tauc and Cody plots

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mok, Tat M.; O'Leary, Stephen K.

    2007-12-01

    Using a model for the optical spectrum associated with hydrogenated amorphous silicon, explicitly taking into account fundamental experimental limitations encountered, we theoretically determine the dependence of the Tauc and Cody optical gaps associated with hydrogenated amorphous silicon on the thickness of the film. We compare these results with that obtained from experiment. We find that the curvature in the Tauc plot plays a significant role in influencing the determination of the Tauc optical gap associated with hydrogenated amorphous silicon, thus affirming an earlier hypothesis of Cody et al. We also find that the spectral dependence of the refractive index plays an important role in influencing the determination of the Cody optical gap. It is thus clear that care must be exercised when drawing conclusions from the dependence of the Tauc and Cody optical gaps associated with hydrogenated amorphous silicon on the thickness of the film.

  11. "The Human Condition" as social ontology: Hannah Arendt on society, action and knowledge.

    PubMed

    Walsh, Philip

    2011-01-01

    Hannah Arendt is widely regarded as a political theorist who sought to rescue politics from "society," and political theory from the social sciences. This conventional view has had the effect of distracting attention from many of Arendt's most important insights concerning the constitution of "society" and the significance of the social sciences. In this article, I argue that Hannah Arendt's distinctions between labor, work, and action, as these are discussed in "The Human Condition" and elsewhere, are best understood as a set of claims about the fundamental structures of human societies. Understanding Arendt in this way introduces interesting parallels between Arendt's work and both classical and contemporary sociology. From this I draw a number of conclusions concerning Arendt's conception of "society," and extend these insights into two contemporary debates within contemporary theoretical sociology: the need for a differentiated ontology of the social world, and the changing role that novel forms of knowledge play in contemporary society as major sources of social change and order.

  12. Necessary but Insufficient

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Cross-national data production in social science research has increased dramatically in recent decades. Assessing the comparability of data is necessary before drawing substantive conclusions that are based on cross-national data. Researchers assessing data comparability typically use either quantitative methods such as multigroup confirmatory factor analysis or qualitative methods such as online probing. Because both methods have complementary strengths and weaknesses, this study applies both multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and online probing in a mixed-methods approach to assess the comparability of constructive patriotism and nationalism, two important concepts in the study of national identity. Previous measurement invariance tests failed to achieve scalar measurement invariance, which prohibits a cross-national comparison of latent means (Davidov 2009). The arrival of the 2013 ISSP Module on National Identity has encouraged a reassessment of both constructs and a push to understand why scalar invariance cannot be achieved. Using the example of constructive patriotism and nationalism, this study demonstrates how the combination of multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and online probing can uncover and explain issues related to cross-national comparability. PMID:28579643

  13. An Integrated Device View on Photo-Electrochemical Solar-Hydrogen Generation.

    PubMed

    Modestino, Miguel A; Haussener, Sophia

    2015-01-01

    Devices that directly capture and store solar energy have the potential to significantly increase the share of energy from intermittent renewable sources. Photo-electrochemical solar-hydrogen generators could become an important contributor, as these devices can convert solar energy into fuels that can be used throughout all sectors of energy. Rather than focusing on scientific achievement on the component level, this article reviews aspects of overall component integration in photo-electrochemical water-splitting devices that ultimately can lead to deployable devices. Throughout the article, three generalized categories of devices are considered with different levels of integration and spanning the range of complete integration by one-material photo-electrochemical approaches to complete decoupling by photovoltaics and electrolyzer devices. By using this generalized framework, we describe the physical aspects, device requirements, and practical implications involved with developing practical photo-electrochemical water-splitting devices. Aspects reviewed include macroscopic coupled multiphysics device models, physical device demonstrations, and economic and life cycle assessments, providing the grounds to draw conclusions on the overall technological outlook.

  14. Manganese in Dwarf Galaxies as a Probe of Type Ia Supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    De Los Reyes, Mithi; Kirby, Evan N.

    2018-06-01

    Despite the importance of thermonuclear or Type Ia supernovae (SNe) as standard candles in astrophysics, the physical mechanisms behind Type Ia SNe are still poorly constrained. Theoretically, the nucleosynthetic yields from Type Ia SNe can distinguish among different models of Type Ia explosions. For example, neutron-rich elements such as manganese (Mn) are sensitive probes of the physics of Type Ia SNe because their abundances are correlated to the density of the progenitor white dwarf. Since dwarf galaxies' chemical evolution is dominated by Type Ia SNe at late times, Type Ia nucleosynthetic yields can be indirectly inferred from stellar abundances in dwarf galaxies. However, previous measurements of Mn in dwarf galaxies are too incomplete to draw definitive conclusions on the Type Ia explosion mechanism. In this work, we therefore use medium-resolution stellar spectroscopy from Keck/DEIMOS to measure Mn abundances in red giants in several Milky Way satellite galaxies. We report average Type Ia Mn yields computed from these abundances, and we discuss the implications for Type Ia supernova physics.

  15. Models of Temporal Discounting 1937-2000: An Interdisciplinary Exchange between Economics and Psychology.

    PubMed

    Grüne-Yanoff, Till

    2015-12-01

    Today's models of temporal discounting are the result of multiple interdisciplinary exchanges between psychology and economics. Although these exchanges did not result in an integrated discipline, they had important effects on all disciplines involved. The paper describes these exchanges from the 1930s onwards, focusing on two episodes in particular: an attempted synthesis by psychiatrist George Ainslie and others in the 1970s; and the attempted application of this new discounting model by a generation of economists and psychologists in the 1980s, which ultimately ended in the diversity of measurements disappointment. I draw four main conclusions. First, multiple notions of temporal discounting must be conceptually distinguished. Second, behavioral economics is not an integration or unification of psychology and economics. Third, the analysis identifies some central disciplinary markers that distinguish modeling strategies in economics and psychology. Finally, it offers a case of interdisciplinary success that does not fit the currently dominant account of interdisciplinarity as integration.

  16. Short papers in the geologic and hydrologic sciences, articles 147-292: Chapter C in Geological Survey research 1961

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    1961-01-01

    The scientific and economic results of work by the United States Geological Survey during the fiscal year 1961, the 12 months ending June 30, 1961, is being summarized in four volumes. This volume includes 146 short papers on subjects in the fields of geology, hydrology, and related sciences, prepared by members of the Geologic and Water Resources Divisions of the Survey. Some of these papers announce new discoveries or present observations on problems of limited scope; the others draw conclusions from more extensive or continuing investigations that in large part will be described in greater detail in reports to be published at a later date.Other volumes in the series are Professional Paper 424-A, which gives a synopsis of the more important new findings resulting from work during the fiscal year, and Professional Papers 424-B and 424-D, which contain additional short papers like those in the present volume.

  17. Influence of Tempo and Rhythmic Unit in Musical Emotion Regulation.

    PubMed

    Fernández-Sotos, Alicia; Fernández-Caballero, Antonio; Latorre, José M

    2016-01-01

    This article is based on the assumption of musical power to change the listener's mood. The paper studies the outcome of two experiments on the regulation of emotional states in a series of participants who listen to different auditions. The present research focuses on note value, an important musical cue related to rhythm. The influence of two concepts linked to note value is analyzed separately and discussed together. The two musical cues under investigation are tempo and rhythmic unit. The participants are asked to label music fragments by using opposite meaningful words belonging to four semantic scales, namely "Tension" (ranging from Relaxing to Stressing), "Expressiveness" (Expressionless to Expressive), "Amusement" (Boring to Amusing) and "Attractiveness" (Pleasant to Unpleasant). The participants also have to indicate how much they feel certain basic emotions while listening to each music excerpt. The rated emotions are "Happiness," "Surprise," and "Sadness." This study makes it possible to draw some interesting conclusions about the associations between note value and emotions.

  18. The Influence of Gene-Environment Interactions on Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Use Disorders: A Comprehensive Review

    PubMed Central

    Young-Wolff, Kelly C.; Enoch, Mary-Anne; Prescott, Carol A.

    2011-01-01

    Since 2005, a rapidly expanding literature has evaluated whether environmental factors such as socio-cultural context and environmental adversity interact with genetic influences on drinking behaviors. This article critically reviews empirical research on alcohol-related genotype-environment interactions (GxE) and provides a contextual framework for understanding how genetic factors combine with (or are shaped by) environmental influences to influence the development of drinking behaviors and alcohol use disorders. Collectively, evidence from twin, adoption, and molecular genetic studies indicates that the degree of importance of genetic influences on risk for drinking outcomes can vary in different populations and under different environmental circumstances. However, methodological limitations and lack of consistent replications in this literature make it difficult to draw firm conclusions regarding the nature and effect size of alcohol-related GxE. On the basis of this review, we describe several methodological challenges as they relate to current research on GxE in drinking behaviors and provide recommendations to aid future research. PMID:21530476

  19. Traumatic injury pattern analysis in a light rail transit death: a retrospective case study.

    PubMed

    Kendell, Ashley E; Fleischman, Julie M; Fulginiti, Laura C

    2015-05-01

    Within the context of medical examiner's offices, forensic anthropologists are increasingly being asked to assist with the interpretation of traumatic skeletal injury. This case study presents an example of trauma analysis performed by forensic anthropologists at the Maricopa County Forensic Science Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The primary goal of this study is to document an uncommon pattern of traumatic injury-severe grinding abrasions of the lower appendage that macroscopically resemble sharp force trauma, especially as observed in dismemberment cases-resulting from an individual being dragged beneath a Light Rail train for c. 1.7 miles. The abraded skeletal elements include a femoral shaft fragment, a femoral head portion, and the right foot. Second, this study aims to illustrate the efficacy of forensic anthropological analysis of patterned skeletal trauma. Finally, this study demonstrates the critical importance of analyzing scene information before drawing conclusions as to the etiology of a traumatic injury pattern. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  20. An introductory biology lab that uses enzyme histochemistry to teach students about skeletal muscle fiber types.

    PubMed

    Sweeney, Lauren J; Brodfuehrer, Peter D; Raughley, Beth L

    2004-12-01

    One important goal of introductory biology laboratory experiences is to engage students directly in all steps in the process of scientific discovery. Even when laboratory experiences are built on principles discussed in the classroom, students often do not adequately apply this background to interpretation of results they obtain in lab. This disconnect has been described at the level of medical education (4), so it should not be surprising that educators have struggled with this same phenomenon at the undergraduate level. We describe a new introductory biology lab that challenges students to make these connections. The lab utilizes enzyme histochemistry and morphological observations to draw conclusions about the composition of functionally different types of muscle fibers present in skeletal muscle. We report that students were not only successful at making these observations on a specific skeletal muscle, the gastrocnemius of the frog Rana pipiens, but that they were able to connect their results to the principles of fiber type differences that exist in skeletal muscles in all vertebrates.

  1. Student nurse absenteeism in higher education: An argument against enforced attendance.

    PubMed

    Lipscomb, Martin; Snelling, Paul C

    2010-08-01

    Unauthorised student nurse absenteeism in higher education troubles many university lecturers. Anecdotally, absenteeism is occasionally raised as an issue by attending students who resent others "getting away" with non-attendance and some policy documents appear to suggest that attendance should be mandated. This paper argues against enforced attendance in higher education and challenges those who would mandate attendance to explain and justify their position. Drawing on a range of nursing and non-nursing material we here discuss some of the literature on attendance, absenteeism, effort or time spent in study and grade attainment. Informed by this admittedly partial review we maintain that the evidence linking grade attainment with attendance and study effort is less conclusive than intuition might initially suggest. We note that enforcing attendance apparently runs counter to important pedagogic (humanistic and androgogic) principles. We propose that responses to absenteeism cannot be separated from questions of 'harm' and we suggest that lecturers should refrain from associating non-attendance with unprofessional behaviour and poor professionalization. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. First principles Peierls-Boltzmann phonon thermal transport: A topical review

    DOE PAGES

    Lindsay, Lucas

    2016-08-05

    The advent of coupled thermal transport calculations with interatomic forces derived from density functional theory has ushered in a new era of fundamental microscopic insight into lattice thermal conductivity. Subsequently, significant new understanding of phonon transport behavior has been developed with these methods, and because they are parameter free and successfully benchmarked against a variety of systems, they also provide reliable predictions of thermal transport in systems for which little is known. This topical review will describe the foundation from which first principles Peierls-Boltzmann transport equation methods have been developed, and briefly describe important necessary ingredients for accurate calculations. Samplemore » highlights of reported work will be presented to illustrate the capabilities and challenges of these techniques, and to demonstrate the suite of tools available, with an emphasis on thermal transport in micro- and nano-scale systems. In conclusion, future challenges and opportunities will be discussed, drawing attention to prospects for methods development and applications.« less

  3. A review of clinical trials of oxytocin in Prader-Willi syndrome.

    PubMed

    Rice, Lauren J; Einfeld, Stewart L; Hu, Nan; Carter, C Sue

    2018-03-01

    PWS is a severe developmental disability for which there is no known treatment. The oxytocin system is currently a primary target for intervention. The aim of this article is to review the evidence for the efficacy of intranasal oxytocin in PWS. To date, there have been five clinical trials of oxytocin in PWS. Four of these studies reported that oxytocin improved behaviors. However, each of these studies suffered important limitations that likely influenced the findings. For example, one study did not include a control group. Another study did not statistically analyze the effects of oxytocin on behavior. The final two studies used study-specific measures for which psychometric properties have not been assessed. Because of these limitations, the most appropriate conclusion to draw from the existing studies is that there is currently no convincing evidence that intranasal oxytocin improves symptoms of PWS. However, this does not mean that oxytocin is not involved in PWS. Rather, it suggests that further work is needed to understand the nature of the PWS oxytocin abnormality.

  4. Extension and refinement of the predictive value of different classes of markers in ADNI: Four year follow-up data

    PubMed Central

    Gomar, Jesus J; Conejero-Goldberg, Concepcion; Davies, Peter; Goldberg, Terry E

    2014-01-01

    Background This study examined the predictive value of different classes of markers in the progression from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) over an extended 4 year follow-up in ADNI. Methods MCI patients assessed on clinical, cognitive, MRI, PET-FDG, and CSF markers at baseline, and followed on a yearly basis for four years to ascertain progression to AD. Logistic regression models were fitted in clusters including demographics, APOE genotype, cognitive markers, and biomarkers (morphometric, PET-FDG, CSF Abeta and tau). Results The predictive model at four years revealed that two cognitive measures, an episodic memory measure and a clock drawing screening test, were the best predictors of conversion (AUC= 0.78). Conclusions This model of prediction is consistent to the previous model at two years, thus highlighting the importance of cognitive measures in progression from MCI to AD. Cognitive markers were more robust predictors than biomarkers. PMID:24613706

  5. Critical ionization velocity experiments in space

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lai, Shu T.; Murad, Edmond

    1989-07-01

    Space experiments to test the critical ionization velocity (CIV) theory have, on the whole, yielded negative results, with two notable exceptions. The results of all the experiments are analyzed with a view towards either optimizing or drawing conclusions about the conditions which lead to the propagation of CIV. In particular, four aspects of the conditions are considered: (1) beam injection angle with the ambient magnetic field in the ionosphere; (2) length of a CIV discharge region in a conical beam; (3) collisional ionization of the neutrals; and (4) chemiionization processes. The analysis leads to the conclusion that using the exhaust of the Shuttle engines may be the best way for testing CIV.

  6. The role of color information on object recognition: a review and meta-analysis.

    PubMed

    Bramão, Inês; Reis, Alexandra; Petersson, Karl Magnus; Faísca, Luís

    2011-09-01

    In this study, we systematically review the scientific literature on the effect of color on object recognition. Thirty-five independent experiments, comprising 1535 participants, were included in a meta-analysis. We found a moderate effect of color on object recognition (d=0.28). Specific effects of moderator variables were analyzed and we found that color diagnosticity is the factor with the greatest moderator effect on the influence of color in object recognition; studies using color diagnostic objects showed a significant color effect (d=0.43), whereas a marginal color effect was found in studies that used non-color diagnostic objects (d=0.18). The present study did not permit the drawing of specific conclusions about the moderator effect of the object recognition task; while the meta-analytic review showed that color information improves object recognition mainly in studies using naming tasks (d=0.36), the literature review revealed a large body of evidence showing positive effects of color information on object recognition in studies using a large variety of visual recognition tasks. We also found that color is important for the ability to recognize artifacts and natural objects, to recognize objects presented as types (line-drawings) or as tokens (photographs), and to recognize objects that are presented without surface details, such as texture or shadow. Taken together, the results of the meta-analysis strongly support the contention that color plays a role in object recognition. This suggests that the role of color should be taken into account in models of visual object recognition. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Computerized Spiral Analysis Using the iPad

    PubMed Central

    Sisti, Jonathan A.; Christophe, Brandon; Seville, Audrey Rakovich; Garton, Andrew L.A.; Gupta, Vivek P.; Bandin, Alexander J.; Yu, Qiping; Pullman, Seth L.

    2017-01-01

    Background Digital analysis of writing and drawing has become a valuable research and clinical tool for the study of upper limb motor dysfunction in patients with essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, and related disorders. We developed a validated method of computerized spiral analysis of hand-drawn Archimedean spirals that provides insight into movement dynamics beyond subjective visual assessment using a Wacom graphics tablet. While the Wacom tablet method provides robust data, more widely available mobile technology platforms exist. New Method We introduce a novel adaptation of the Wacom-based method for the collection of hand-drawn kinematic data using an Apple iPad. This iPad-based system is stand-alone, easy-to-use, can capture drawing data with either a finger or capacitive stylus, is precise, and potentially ubiquitous. Results The iPad-based system acquires position and time data that is fully compatible with our original spiral analysis program. All of the important indices including degree of severity, speed, presence of tremor, tremor amplitude, tremor frequency, variability of pressure, and tightness are calculated from the digital spiral data, which the application is able to transmit. Comparison with Existing Method While the iPad method is limited by current touch screen technology, it does collect data with acceptable congruence compared to the current Wacom-based method while providing the advantages of accessibility and ease of use. Conclusions The iPad is capable of capturing precise digital spiral data for analysis of motor dysfunction while also providing a convenient, easy-to-use modality in clinics and potentially at home. PMID:27840146

  8. Toxicological characterization of a novel wastewater treatment process using EDTA-Na2Zn as draw solution (DS) for the efficient treatment of MBR-treated landfill leachate.

    PubMed

    Niu, Aping; Ren, Yi-Wei; Yang, Li; Xie, Shao-Lin; Jia, Pan-Pan; Zhang, Jing-Hui; Wang, Xiao; Li, Jing; Pei, De-Sheng

    2016-07-01

    Landfill leachate has become an important source of environmental pollution in past decades, due to the increase of waste volume. Acute toxic and genotoxic hazards to organisms can be caused by landfill leachate. Thus, how to efficiently recover water from landfill leachate and effectively eliminate combined toxicity of landfill leachate are the most pressing issues in waste management. In this study, EDTA-Na2Zn as draw solution (DS) was used to remove the toxicity of membrane bioreactor-treated landfill leachate (MBR-treated landfill leachate) in forward osmosis (FO) process, and nanofiltration (NF) was designed for recovering the diluted DS. Zebrafish and human cells were used for toxicity assay after the novel wastewater treatment process using EDTA-Na2Zn as DS. Results showed that the water recovery rate of MBR-treated landfill leachate (M-LL) in FO membrane system could achieve 66.5% and 71.2% in the PRO and FO mode respectively, and the diluted DS could be efficiently recovered by NF. Toxicity tests performed by using zebrafish and human cells showed that M-LL treated by EDTA-Na2Zn had no toxicity effect on zebrafish larvae and human cells, but it had very slight effect on zebrafish embryos. In conclusion, all results indicated that EDTA-Na2Zn as DS can effectively eliminate toxicity of landfill leachate and this method is economical and eco-friendly for treatment of different types of landfill leachate. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. [Development of Hospital Equipment Maintenance Information System].

    PubMed

    Zhou, Zhixin

    2015-11-01

    Hospital equipment maintenance information system plays an important role in improving medical treatment quality and efficiency. By requirement analysis of hospital equipment maintenance, the system function diagram is drawed. According to analysis of input and output data, tables and reports in connection with equipment maintenance process, relationships between entity and attribute is found out, and E-R diagram is drawed and relational database table is established. Software development should meet actual process requirement of maintenance and have a friendly user interface and flexible operation. The software can analyze failure cause by statistical analysis.

  10. Clinical review: Breast development in trans women receiving cross-sex hormones.

    PubMed

    Wierckx, Katrien; Gooren, Louis; T'Sjoen, Guy

    2014-05-01

    In trans women (male-to-female transsexual persons), cross-sex hormone therapy is administered to induce feminization. Breast development is an important part of feminization for most trans women. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of cross-sex hormone therapy on breast development in adult trans women. Additionally, we aimed to investigate the benefit or harm of administration of progestogens on breast development. A review of the literature in Embase, Medline, The Cochrane Library, PsycINFO databases, PubMed, and Web of Knowledge until January 2014. Effects of cross-sex hormone therapy and progestogens on breast development in trans women. Only few studies with low quality of evidence addressed these topics. The available evidence suggests that breast development is insufficient for the majority of trans women and that type and dosage of hormonal therapy seem not to have an important role on final breast size. Our knowledge concerning the natural history and effects of different cross-sex hormone therapies on breast development in trans women is extremely sparse and based on low quality of evidence. Current evidence does not provide evidence that progestogens enhance breast development in trans women. Neither do they prove the absence of such an effect. This prevents us from drawing any firm conclusion at this moment and demonstrates the need for further research to clarify these important clinical questions. © 2014 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

  11. Biomarkers of Exposure to Toxic Substances. Volume 3: Proteomics, Biomarkers to Kidney and Organ Damage

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-05-01

    not reveal any interesting proteins (Data is not shown). All of the spots turned out to be keratins. 3.1.2.2 Conclusions on puromycin toxicity...hamster) Odorant-binding protein precursor - Rattus norvegicus (Rat) 0.543 2.105 Oleandomycin polyketide synthase , modules 5...Using Government drawings, specifications, or other data included in this document for any purpose other than Government procurement does not

  12. The role of social media in reducing stigma and discrimination.

    PubMed

    Betton, Victoria; Borschmann, Rohan; Docherty, Mary; Coleman, Stephen; Brown, Mark; Henderson, Claire

    2015-06-01

    This editorial explores the implications of social media practices whereby people with mental health problems share their experiences in online public spaces and challenge mental health stigma. Social media enable individuals to bring personal experience into the public domain with the potential to affect public attitudes and mainstream media. We draw tentative conclusions regarding the use of social media by campaigning organisations. © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015.

  13. The Role of Work Experiences in College Student Leadership Development: Evidence from a National Dataset and a Text Mining Approach to Examining Beliefs about Leadership

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lewis, Jonathan S.

    2017-01-01

    Paid employment is one of the most common extracurricular activities among full-time undergraduates, and an array of studies has attempted to measure its impact. Methodological concerns with the extant literature, however, make it difficult to draw reliable conclusions. Furthermore, the research on working college students has little to say about…

  14. Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-12-01

    Chemica / Agents (Aberdee~ MD: Edgewood Arsenal Special Tectical Repom 1969). 20 Alan R. Pittaway, “The Difficulty of Converting Pesticide Plants...completion. Libyan government officials adamantly insisted that the Rabta facility was a pharmaceutical plant, designated Pharma -150. Yet the factory was...the control unit, burn-off unit, corrosion-proof Iining on pipes, and escape routes) make it possible to draw the conclusion that ‘ Pharma 150’ is a

  15. Assaying Benefits of Poly[styrene-4-(trimethylammonium)methyl Triiodide] in Respiratory Protection Devices

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-12-01

    common laboratory mouse, Mus musculus , and treated and mechanically equivalent untreated filter media to measure infection rates as a function of...to determine viable counts. Data noise in the control experiment prevented drawing a firm conclusion but loss of viability in the aerosol phase ...protection, Triosyn U U U UU 35 Joseph Wander Reset iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Page 1.0 Overview

  16. Translations on Eastern Europe Political, Sociological, and Military Affairs, Number 1470

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1977-11-08

    8217 freedom. Comrade Enver Hoxha draws attention to the fact that the Khrushchevite revisionists tried to impose this attitude toward imperialism and...are being repeated by the new opportunists, it is impossible for one’s attention not to be drawn by the Marxist-Leninist conclusion, based on...applause, congratulations and praise. Attentively following and analyzing the activity of the modern revisionists, Comrade Enver Hoxha, in addition to

  17. Revisiting the Benefits of Higher Education. A Report by the Bedford Group for Lifecourse and Statistical Studies, Institute of Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bynner, John; Dolton, Peter; Feinstein, Leon; Makepeace, Gerry; Malmberg, Lars; Woods, Laura

    An earlier report presented preliminary findings on the wider benefits of higher education in England, drawing on data collected at age 33 from the National Child Development Study, based on a cohort born in 1958 and a sample of more than 16,000. This report updates the earlier conclusions through new findings from a more extensive analysis…

  18. EPA releases progress report on hydraulic fracturing study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Showstack, Randy

    2013-01-01

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided a 21 December progress report on its ongoing national study about the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources. The agency said that a draft of the congressionally requested study will be released in 2014 for public and peer review and that its progress report does not draw conclusions about the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing, often referred to as fracking.

  19. Assessment of the Principal Needs of the Spanish Speaking in Chicago. Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations. Volume I of a Two-Volume Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vasquez Associates Ltd., Milwaukee, WI.

    The main portion of this study is devoted to the determination of needs for health, education and social welfare services of the Spanish speaking in Chicago, and to draw inferences about the degree to which Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) funds and services in Chicago are reaching this specific minority and the extent to which…

  20. Induced Insecurity: Understanding the Potential Pitfalls in Developing Theater Campaign Plans

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-06-11

    effective partnerships that meet outlined in higher- level strategic guidance . 15. SUBJECT TERMS 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. UMITATION OF... effective partnerships that meet the desired end states outlined in higher-level strategic guidance. DEDICATION To the millions of men and women who...and draw conclusions, it does not always prove to be an effective means of predicting the outcome of current or future events. In addition, the

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